Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 How Dark Will It Get?
April 26, 2010 - The story of Batman has rarely been an uplifting one – Bruce Wayne's alter ego is born from of witnessing his parents' murder. From there, he leads a life plagued my physical injuries, guilt, death, brooding and the inability to ever truly be happy. He's fighting a war on crime that will never end.
Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 is apparently going to reflect some of that.
The voice of the Dark Knight, Kevin Conroy, went on the record last week and said that the sequel will be "really, really dark" in the same vein as Batman Beyond: The Return of the Joker. If you missed that movie, it's a bit messed up – there's a whole lot of torture, attacks on loved ones, and so on. Plus, the Beyond reference gives new life to our argument of the story being set in the far-flung future.
The original Batman: Arkham Asylum was lauded by IGN and gamers in general for not being afraid to show the world of Batman through a gritty, dark filter. There were vicious attacks, people died and you never really knew what was around the next corner. Rather than wait here like dopes to see just what Rocksteady has up its sleeve, we've assembled themes and plot hooks we're expecting to see in this dark future.
If Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 uses these in its story, you're going to need to go to your happy place when the credits roll.
While awesome, Batman: Arkham Asylum was a pretty local experience. You got on the island known as Arkham and then ran around it for as long as it took you to beat the game. Sure, at the start, the Joker was threatening to attack Gotham, but you never really worried about the citizens onshore.
If Arkham Asylum 2 is going to get dark, it needs to make Batman vulnerable. If Robin's really in this game, he needs to be captured and tortured. Imagine having a conversation with Oracle only to hear her door get kicked down, a struggle ensue, and a gunshot ring out before the feed is cut. The next game needs to hit Batman hard where he's the weakest – hit him where he's not in control. Running through Arkham and seeing dead security guards is one thing but racing through the streets trying to get to Robin who is slowly bleeding out is another.
The most heart-wrenching moments of the original game were when Batman's worst fears came true thanks to the Scarecrow toxin – Gordon, his parents, etc. – and if this sequel is filled with stuff like that, good God.
Sure, the Joker was a bad dude, but he never really went CRAZY on anyone in Arkham Asylum. Bane was tough, but he never crushed anyone in the game. Zsasz threatened to kill people in the game, but he never knifed anyone in the story. If we're getting a darker sequel, let's have some villains establish why they belong in Gotham's home for the criminally insane. Talia al Ghul is a member of an assassination order. Let's have her take three cops out in her first appearance. Two Face is off the deep end crazy, let's have him flip his coin and shoot a nun or something. Rather than let the audio diaries and in-game bios tell players why these people are bad, show us so we know who we're up against.
The last Arkham Asylum showed us a Batman who is accepted and appreciated by the cops and the people of Gotham City. Want to make Arkham Asylum 2 dark? Get rid of that goodwill. Make the whole world go crazy and hate Batman. Pin a murder on him. Get Nightwing and Bruce's former allies to come after him. Have him have to fight the police and have to pull punches so that he doesn't hurt them. Framing Batman is an old story, but it's usually a good one and nothing's darker than being so hated that it seems like you'll never clear your name.
Batman: Arkham Asylum doesn't end with everything being grand – Batman's exhausted, Two Face is robbing a bank, and the Dark Knight is heading out to save the day – but the bad guys have been beaten and you're the big hero. However, that's not always how a Batman story ends. Look at the end of The Dark Knight: Batman's love is dead, Harvey Dent has been corrupted, and Gotham thinks that Bats is the villain. If we had to bet, look for Arkham Asylum 2 to end this way as well. Remember all the horrible stuff we listed in the "Everything to Lose" section above? Imagine if Batman didn't get to Robin's aid in time. Imagine Bats getting there just in time to hear Tim Drake's last words and face the fact that his friend is dead and the bad guy got away.
That would make for an angry, dangerous Batman.
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