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How Batman: Arkham City hopes to avoid villain clutter
Arkham Asylum's expansion into a city has given the Dark Knight a much larger gothic playground, and enough room for an elaborate roster of power-tripping psychopaths. But is Batman: Arkham City's expanded lineup of rogues bordering on bloat? Rocksteady's Lead Narrative Designer, Paul Crocker, confidently shot down my concern over villain clutter in a recent interview. "We're not worried about clutter at all," he said. "The main difference between us and film is that we're 25 hours long [laughs], and everything is in there to give the player more to do, more reason for every action, and to make their actions feel meaningful." In a way, Crocker considers the peril faced by Batman as an elegant, appropriate embellishment of what's really at the heart of Arkham City: a series of objectives that prod you into different areas and challenges. "We want you to feel like everything you do as Batman is meaningful." And when you're Batman, that meaning is found not in advancing to the next stage, but in foiling Joker's schemes or planting a fist in Edward Nigma's face.
Rocksteady and Paul Dini on the storytelling in Batman: Arkham City
Batman: Arkham City's creators and voice actors steadfastly refused to give out any new information about the game at last weekend's Comic-Con panel, instead just showing a new Penguin trailer. But both Paul Crocker, the lead narrative designer at Rocksteady Studios, and the legendary Paul Dini, Batman writer extraordinaire, kindly sat down to speak with Joystiq beforehand about the story of both Batman: Arkham Asylum and the upcoming sequel. Arkham Asylum's story was mainly about the Joker's takeover of Arkham and how Batman dealt with it, but those who explored the sidequests and secrets of the game got a look at the overarching plot of the series, that of Warden Quincy Sharp and his mysterious ties to Arkham itself. That story is what drives the sequel forward, and Crocker says that it actually appeared right in the middle of the two games' development: The secrets in the first game were "a late addition," put in while development on the sequel was alrady underway. "The biggest challenge for us was taking the game out of Arkham Island and into Arkham City," he says. "As people have seen in the secret room in the last game, we had it planned. I guess it was a rough road back, to a degree, because that meant we had to do it. But the idea of the city has grown into bigger and bigger detail, and really that was the biggest challenge."%Gallery-116887%
Batman: Arkham Asylum contains hidden clues about Arkham City
It turns out the new Batman: Arkham City game recently announced by Rocksteady in Game Informer has been in the planning stages for a while -- there are hints in Batman: Arkham Asylum that the cape and cowl adventure would expand its borders. A secret room hidden in the back of Warden Quincy Sharp's office has actually held concept art and a map of the upcoming sequel this whole time. Players who finished the Spirit of Arkham quest to 100 percent the game will also know that Sharp has some extra agendas goin -- and don't forget that one of the domains registered by Warner Bros. for the sequel is "StopMayorSharp.com." So it appears that Rocksteady has already built story ties between the two titles. Lead narrative designer Paul Crocker also tells GI that the second game will "shed new light on the events you saw in Arkham Asylum," too. Hopefully that means we'll (spoiler!) finally find out what's up with that little surprise scene after the credits.
Interview: Paul Crocker of Rocksteady on Batman: Arkham Asylum
Not pictured: Paul Crocker Paul Crocker is the lead narrative designer at Rocksteady Studios, where he's been hard at work on Batman: Arkham Asylum for the past two years. Thankfully, he hasn't taken on any of the Dark Knight's unfriendly tendencies in that time and gladly opened up to us about the game, explaining key omissions like Robin and Batmobile driving, and offering up his (not-so-creative) pick for the DC character he'd most like to create a game around. Continue past the break for the full interview.%Gallery-64370%
