If you're creating an open-world game, there are a couple of things you've got to focus on. How the player gets around in the world is HUGE. If you screw that up, your game will suck. Luckily Batman has a couple of neat tricks up his sleeve. If you haven't seen the latest trailer, you should probably check out the dark knight's dive-bombing, gliding, and grappling abilities above.
Now that you've seen that in action, it's time to start getting concerned about the second major factor open-world games have to nail to be playable. How populated is the Arkham-slice of Gotham going to be?
Interiors are locked to specific missions but 80% of the game takes place on the streets. This means you can begin the game and just start exploring. Plort is really important to us. Our objective was not to make a bigger game world just for the sake of it. We want to fill it with content, and there's no better world than Batman's universe to take inspiration from. We have 97 people on the team, compared to 65 on the first game. Because we've decided to make such a large world we had to bring in more artists, animators and so on. It's been a pretty huge technical and creative undertaking for the team.
When we saw Batman: Arkham City in action at GDC, we got the impression that collectibles, riddles, enemies, and random events would be littered across the city's landscape and rooftops. While developer Dax Ginn told PSM3 that 80% of the game"takes place on the streets" I think the skyline is included in that statement.
Batman: Arkham City is scheduled to release on October 18th.
