14 DAY TRIAL // David Hego, the art director of Batman: Arkham Asylum and its sequel, recently expressed his dismay about players going through the whole game using detective vision. This happened during a talk at the Developer conference going on now in the United Kingdom. Hego promised that the detective mode would be tweaked in the sequel to allow gamers to see what the title has to offer in terms of visuals.
Hego talked about how he wanted to cry a little bit whenever he heard someone had played though the entirety of Batman: Arkham Asylum with detective vision on because of its inherent usefulness in tackling the game's challenges. This meant that many of those who enjoyed Rocksteady's stellar effort failed to witness the hard work done by Hego and his team in art direction department of the title, missing out the beautiful and dark visuals of the Arkham Asylum.
This all will change in the sequel, as Hego said that, “It was a gameplay decision to make detective vision so strong...we're going to try not to do that mistake again.” Gamespot reports that next time around detective vision will return in a more augmented reality form that should combine utility with the ability to really showcase what the sequel to Batman: Arkham Asylum will have to offer in terms of visual aesthetics.
Talking about the artistic style of the original, Hego said that his team used light and shadow and warm and cool lighting to easily divert the player's attention where it was need. Furthermore, he added that his department tried to avoid the pitfall of uncanny valley by using a stylized realism when approaching character design. “One of the big advantages of the stylized realism was we were jumping across the uncanny valley… By making [the characters] so stylized, you can forget about uncanny valley because you accept that it's not real,” he told the audience.