After the recent failure of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, it’s no surprise that Warner Bros. and Rocksteady are working on a new Batman game. This is good news since the Arkham games are all excellent and have influenced a ton of action titles, but we think this entry should take some tips from one of its students: Marvel’s Spider-Man.
DC fans have been buzzing about this since Bloomberg reported on the new game featuring the Caped Crusader. Those same fans were also disappointed about the sad fate of Monolith's Wonder Woman game, but that's just how the cookie crumbles. While it's probably still many years away, a new Batman game is hope to many.
Fans who’ve played the Insomniac Spider-Man games know that this took aspects of the Arkham formula and made them feel uniquely, Spider-Man. The Amazing Spider-Man movie tie-in games were even more influenced by the Arkham games, with more similar combat and stealth sections. It’s clear that Spidey has learned a lot from DC’s icon but now it should be the other way around.
Granted, we’re not saying the next Batman game should add web-swinging or change the combat, but there are aspects of the Marvel title it can learn from. So, here are some things that the new Batman game can take from Insomniac’s Spidey titles.
Gotham City with Actual Citizens
If there’s one thing that Rocksteady’s next Batman game should take from Marvel’s Spider-Man, it’s an open world with some life. We’ve seen Arkham City, Origins, and Knight avoid putting Bruce in a proper Gotham City setting for story reasons. Although these levels were well-made and had character, they prevented us from having a proper Batman game set in Gotham City.
Fans could argue that Batman and Spider-Man are too tonally different to have similar open worlds but that’s a bad excuse. How cool would it be if Bruce interacted with the citizens of Gotham? Maybe they can even have him talk with informants who do petty crimes to learn more information. There’s a ton of story potential here, so Rocksteady should give it a chance.
Bring In the Sidekicks
Just to be clear, we’re not saying the next Batman game should have forced civilian stealth sections like in the Insomniac Spider-Man titles. While these are often harmless, they’re the worst parts of those games and often feel like padding. It’s sad that other symbiote boss fights in the sequel were removed but fans still had to play as Mary Jane sneaking around.
That being said, it would be pretty cool if this next game would let you switch between Robin or Nightwing more. Since Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 lets you switch between Peter and Miles, we think DC should absolutely steal this idea. Being able to roam around as Batgirl in specific parts of the game would be great.
Sure, Arkham City and Arkham Knight had DLC stories with these characters but they were usually linear or short. It’s time to let these sidekicks free and have them in the open world alongside their mentor.
Changing Costumes from the Pause Menu
A very simple change but one that would be really appreciated in the next Batman game. In Arkham City and Arkham Origins, fans had to beat those campaigns to use costumes in the open world. Meanwhile, Arkham Knight forced you to quit to the main menu and change outfits there, which can be a pace-breaker.
Marvel’s Spider-Man lets you change costumes in the pause menu, which is terrific. Once the costume is earned through the game’s various currencies (not with real money, thankfully) we can change into them at any time. This is a very good feature and one that the next Batman game should outright steal from the Marvel franchise.