14 DAY TRIAL // Batman: Arkham Knight might be a multiplatform launch, but one of the developers working on the title at Rocksteady says that the increased computing power of the PlayStation 4 from Sony was one of the main reasons that the team decided to add the Batmobile to the title.
In a new post on the PS Blog, the game creator explains that for a long time, his studio was interested in adding the vehicle to the series, in order to give players more options, but Sefton Hill, the leader of the team, was unable to do it because of the limited computing power of home consoles.
Guy Perkins states, “it’s the horsepower of PlayStation 4 which allowed us to finally do it justice. But it’s not a quick fix. Introducing the Batmobile was a massive challenge, because we want the game to feel like it’s always had it. We wanted the Batmobile to be the ultimate car and it has to be so much more than a vehicle - it has to be integral to the gameplay experience.”
The Batmobile is designed to increase the mobility of the protagonist as he moves around Gotham trying to find his targets and to take them out.
At the same time, Rocksteady wants to make it a very powerful element in the complex combat system of the series, with the player able to launch enemies in the air in order for the vehicle to finish them.
There are also puzzles that can be solved only by working together with the Batmobile and entire sequences designed around its two incarnations and their powerful abilities.
Perkins says that the look of the vehicle is not inspired by the Batman movie series, with the core inspiration drawn from the comic and the finishing touches based on the style of the previous two games.
The developer adds that one of the most surprising features is the ejection that can instantly put Batman in the Arkham Knight world.
He adds, “You can be fired out as high as one of the tallest building, so it totally transforms the way you can navigate around the city. It naturally feels like man and machine working together. We’ve been able to make lots of tweaks to the core systems. It feels like an evolution from Arkham City. We want to give players more of what they love.”
Batman: Arkham Knight will be launched in early 2015.