14 DAY TRIAL // Batman: Arkham Knight, the next iteration in Rocksteady's Arkham franchise, will appeal to both fans of Arkham Asylum and those who favored Arkham City, according to the developer.
Batman: Arkham Knight was revealed earlier this month and has received quite a few new details this week thanks to different previews concerning the all-new Batmobile, the fresh villain called the Arkham Knight, and much more.
Now, while talking with Metro about the general feelings of Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, Rocksteady's Dax Ginn has admitted that there are some pretty big differences, making fans become split over which one they prefer.
"I recently played Arkham Asylum again, and the kind of pressure cooker atmosphere is something that’s so unique to that game and going open world with Arkham City you lose the opportunity to really crank up the claustrophobia. But what you gain is a sense of freedom and an opportunity for exploration that you just don’t get in a game that’s structured in the way that Arkham Asylum was," he said.
Arkham Knight brings forth an even bigger world and definitely seems like an evolution of City, meaning fans of that title will certainly enjoy the new one.
"So Arkham Knight is certainly progressing along that trajectory, you can see it’s massively open world in that respect, but for us it’s still very important to tell a very classic Batman story."
Even so, Ginn emphasizes that Asylum fans will find reasons to get excited about the upcoming title, as the Scarecrow, one of the villains from the first title, is making a comeback and looks better than ever.
"The atmosphere that we had developed in Arkham Asylum, a lot of it was informed by the role of the Scarecrow as well," he said. "And Scarecrow wasn’t in City at all, so there really wasn’t the opportunity to explore a lot of the psychological elements that he brings; that are a big part of who Batman is and what makes Batman awesome."
"So having Scarecrow back and as the centerpiece of the threat to Batman, I think fans of Arkham Asylum, they’re going to get an opportunity to sort of explore Scarecrow again – which they didn’t in Arkham City."
Batman: Arkham Knight is set to debut this fall for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One platforms. You can expect to hear much more about the new adventures of the Dark Knight until then, probably at major trade shows like E3 2014.