With Arkham Knight recently (officially) announced, the community is already ablaze with excitement. Rightly so, even Arkham Origins was fairly good and Knight brings the series back to Rocksteady's hands. One can only begin to imagine and hope how great a game Knight is going to be, especially with claims that it is the finale. With that in mind, I have come up with a list of things I can only hope would ever make it into Arkham Knight. Will I be disappointed in the game if they aren't there? Probably not, but I can dream and hope. So here are the 10 Things I Would Like To See In Arkham Knight.
1. Randomly Generated Crime.
It is my hope that, with a larger map of Gotham, Rocksteady borrow a concept from Arkham Origins. The random “Crime's in Progress” were a great way of keeping gameplay going once the game was completed in Origins. They do however, get a bit dull once you've done the same fight three or four times. Which is why I would hope Rocksteady would expand on the system. Randomly generated crime, that continues once the game is complete could be an excellent addition if you include more than just random fight encounters. Include predator rooms, tracking criminals, car chases (considering we'll have the Batmobile), and other variations. Gotham is meant to be a criminally sick dog that never gets better, it would be a shame if everything suddenly goes quiet like in Arkham City.
2. Randomly Generated CSIs.
Expanding on the idea above, it would be a lot of fun if Rocksteady could come up with a way to randomly generate crime scenes. I can't really say how I would expect this to work, for example it could be a large selection of pieces that are randomly sewn together by the game itself. X1+Y3+Z2 would be different to X3+Y2+Z1. Of course that means there would be a point where these crime scenes might/would repeat, but if you have 26x9 options per 'section' then it would be difficult to reach a point where a player could notice it repeat. Of course, I'm not a game designer so I don't know if that would be the best way to do it, but regardless it would be nice to be able to do some detective work long after all the main story and side story missions are done. Even if it's as simple as “Arrive at X, scan hand print, apprehend criminal.”
3. The Remote Grapple.
I am sure Rocksteady are going to develop some great new gadgets as well as carry over some of the old favourites. I've added the Remote Grapple to the list specifically though, because it comes from Origins, a game Rocksteady had nothing to do with. There is the possibility that Rocksteady don't have permission, or inclination, to use anything from Origins, which would be a shame. Not everything was great about Origins new gadgets, the Shock Gloves were particularly unbalanced in combat, but the Remote Grapple was a lot of fun. You can't deny the joy and hilarity of grappling a thug to a vantage point from across the room, or hitting them with a propane tank. The Remote Grapple is just too much fun to leave out, and I sincerely hope that Rocksteady agree.
4. The Most Wanted System.
Another thing I would like Rocksteady to bring over from Origins is the 'Most Wanted' system. I thought this was a great way of including other villains, crimes and side missions whilst keeping them organised and easy to track. It also presented a great way of including villains who are technically part of the main story, but giving the player the option of when to deal with them. Deadshot and Shiva were both assassins hired to deal with Batman, but you weren't arbitrarily told when to deal with them. You could go after them at your leisure. I think this could be a great addition to Arkham Knight, especially if it has several villains.
5. Lots of (Non-DLC) Costumes.
I don't have a problem with DLC generally, but I would like to see Arkham Knight start off with the most costume choices for Batman, before DLC comes into it. The easiest way to do this I would assume would to be to include all of the costumes that have been available over the three previous games. That would give us about 27 different costume choices from the start. That seems good to me. Then DLC can come in with even more. I know it seems like a silly thing to really hope for, but once you finish the game, or go into new Game Plus, being able to change the costume really adds a layer of variety. Especially for fans. For example, in Arkham Origins, for fans playing in the Noel costume gives a whole new vibe thanks to the Christmas aesthetic. This feeling is vastly different to the feeling of playing as the Red Son Batman or Blackest Night Batman. These non-DLC costumes could be unlocked by completing achievements or progression tracks. Perhaps even as collectibles (not related to the Riddler) in the game. I also do not want to see "exclusive" content floating around, especially platform exclusive. Timed exclusives are less irritating, but when you spend $60 ($80 if you include the DLC season pass) there shouldn't be two costumes you aren't getting because you play on a different machine to someone else. Of course DLC wouldn't be an issue after that, more costumes through DLC would be fine, but I feel that with that many costumes the DLC could focus on new maps and maybe even story content.
6. More Riddles.
To be fair on Arkham Origins, the game was set before the Riddler, but I did sincerely miss the Riddles. I am not talking about the physical puzzles either, but the actual Riddles. They were probably best in Arkham Asylum where the majority were actually easter egg hunts, verses “find this specific spot to stand and look at question marks.” I would like Arkham Knight to have a high number of the former, lots of easter egg content which you can 'collect' via the Riddler content. It was always great fun when you would spot a reference, no matter how tiny, to a character like the Penguin and got rewarded for noticing it. I would like Arkham Knight to have more Riddles than the previous games, giving us a great deal to do.
7. Even More Collectibles.
Of course you can't have riddles with out the physical collectibles too. I think it's already been revealed that the Batmobile will be involved in some of these new puzzles, which is great. Just like the riddles I would like to see Knight have more collectibles than ever. Not just Riddler Trophies of course. Like in Origins and City, I include the Titan canisters or Penguin weapon containers as 'collectibles.' The reason I want Arkham Knight to have more riddles and collectibles than every before is multi fold. Mainly it is because the map is supposed to be more than four times larger than Arkham City. I want that map filled with things to do.
8. The Rogues Gallery.
This I feel would be pushing my luck the most, and is connected somewhat to the 'Most Wanted' system. Rocksteady keep insisting this is the finale, the last of the Arkham games. So in my opinion this is the time to have the most villains. Not all of them have to be part of the main story, especially with the Most Wanted system as seen in Origins. Some of them don't even have to be major problems, and many of them could be reoccurring. Minor or lesser known villains, such as Great White Shark or Victor Zsasz could show up time and again as part of the randomly generate crimes. For that matter, so could the major villains, though I think it'd be best if that was rarer, or only could occur after the main story. Could you imagine a randomly generated bank heist, where you arrive to discover the Riddler, Black Mask or Mister Freeze is leading the criminals?
Something else I'd like to include in this, is a visitable Arkham Asylum and Blackgate Prison. Instead of leaving the villains sitting around where you defeat them, they should be taken to the facilities more likely to hold them. You should then be able to go visit and view those villains you have defeated. This would basically turn the villains into collectibles, and that would be very cool. Essentially I would want Rocksteady to aim at having nearly every Batman villain in this game. Yes, a bit much to ask I'm sure, but if this is really the last Arkham then this is the last chance to include them.
9. More 'Out of the Ordinary' Scenes.
With Scarecrow being (apparently) the main villain of this game, this entry probably goes without saying. Despite that I want to add it to the list, as some of the best scenes across all three games come from the 'different' portions of the game. For Asylum, that would be the content versus Scarecrow. For City, the opening as Bruce Wayne. For Origins, the Copperhead and Joker sequences. For Knight I am sure there are going to be some excellent Scarecrow sequences again, but I would like something even more surprising or out of the ordinary. Perhaps open on a sequence where you play as child Bruce, in what eventually turns out to be a nightmare. Maybe a sequence playing as one of the villains? I am sure there will be another interesting sequence in Arkham Knight, and I look forward to it.
10. No Missable Content.
This is mostly a fault with Arkham Origins, so it may not really apply to the guys at Rocksteady. That being said, one of the biggest disappointments in any game is when you reach the end and find out that you missed something. The recent South Park game has done this, with the collectable Chinpokomon, some of which you can actually miss. Origins similarly has achievements which you can miss, for doing specific things during boss battles. Worse still Origins has an entire progression track which can be missed. If you don't complete it during the storyline you can't complete it afterwards. I would like the Dark Knight progression tracks like in Origins, I just don't want them to be missable again. There should be nothing in the game that is totally missable. If there are things you can miss, that will just be a disappointment. (And yes, platform exclusive content counts as missable content!
So that's the top ten things I would want to see in Arkham Knight. I'm sure it's going to be a good game, and I am really looking forward to it. Even if the things on this list don't make it in. Is there anything I've missed that you think would make Arkham Knight perfect? Anything you disagree with about my list? Feel free to leave a comment and let me know. Thanks for reading guys.