More news about a Batman video game could be coming soon, thanks to a new tweet from developer WB Montreal that is teasing an update. The Batman Arkham series, the most popular iteration of the property, launched in 2009 with the release of Arkham Asylum which was developed by Rocksteady Studios. In total there were four main Arkham titles and the only one that was not produced by Rocksteady was Arkham Origins. The most recent game in the series, Arkham Knight, came out in 2015 and there has been little news about the series since other than spin-offs, DLC, and remastered versions.
The Arkham series was praised for revolutionizing superhero video games. Up to that point most video games based on superheroes tended to perform poorly with only a few exceptions. With Asylum though Rocksteady created a brand new combat system called ‘Freeflow’ that allowed players to fluidly move from one enemy to the next very quickly, chaining together attacks, and throwing different gadgets. This combat system and the game’s very tight narrative attracted critical acclaim that remained with the series throughout its run.
WB Montreal has been teasing parts of the logo recently, and the company has finally shown off a full version of the logo. Along with previous posts that have hinted at the existence of a new Batman game, WB Montreal has also posted the words “Capture the Knight” and “/redacted.” There is very little indication as to what all of this means, but several fans are theorizing that the Court of Owls, Amanda Waller, Ra’s Al Ghul, and even The Suicide Squad are involved.
The Arkham series inspired a lot of modern video games. The combat system alone has been adopted by quite a few games in the last several years. Insomniac’s Spiderman and Monolith Productions Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor series both incorporate combat mechanics that are very similar to the Freeflow system. The stealth system as well brought more forgiving stealth mechanics into the world, whereas before that stealth games were sometimes quite punishing. Probably most important though it helped the game community realize that not only are superhero games possible, but they can be some of the best games ever made.
There have been rumors for years that WB Montreal has been working on a followup to the Arkham series. This only makes sense as the series was very popular and made the studio quite a lot of money. Other than that though Batman became a very important figure in the gaming community and fans have been on the lookout for a new entry for years now. Rocksteady has stated that they will no longer be making Batman games, so hopefully WB Montreal can give fans a great followup to the Arkham series without them.
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Source: WB Games Montreal/Twitter
