How to make a Batman game!

Disclaimer first: I am not an expert. This is my first post on Gamespot forums and this is something I wanted to discuss with other gamers (and Batman fans!) for a long time.

I'm playing Batman Begins these days and even though it's a lot of fun to play, one of the reviews on Gamespot is bang-on: It's not quite there. By trying to introduce Fear Mechanics into the game, they took a step towards capturing what Batman is all about in this Game, but I'm not a huge fan of the excessive platforming present in the Game... even though we all know Batman is a skilled acrobat, there are other aspects to his personality that need more meat in the Batman games to come in the future. So what would be a step towards a good Batman game?

Here's the deal... with so many games over the years, I do not believe it requires huge never-seen-before Innovation to make a kick-ass Batman game. But combining the right aspects from what has been brought to the table over the years would, in my opinion, holds a lot of promise. So here we go....

1. Movie Plot tie-in v/s Original Plot

The next Batman Game should definitely be based on an independant story created especially for the Game, rather than following the next Batman Movie. I think it restricts the freedom a great deal for the developers. That said, making references to older storylines of the comic book series and even the movies would make the Game a huge hit with the seasoned fans of Batman. Imagine a small early subplot mission involving investigating a disturbance at a chemical plan and encountering the "Red Hood" there... and then watching the Red Hood fall in a vat of chemicals (The fans of Batman will know what I'm talking about)

2. Free Roam Map v/s Linear Levels

This is more fundamental. Batman is the protector of Gotham, waging war on crime, from low life thugs to the insanely notorious. So assuming that the developers want to give the player a feel of being Batman, let him run free in Gotham and fight crime as he sees fit. Can you imagine the possibilities this opens up? If we include the origin of Batman in the game, his relationship (from hostile to cooperative) and reputation with the Police can develop with his performance in his Crime fighting expeditions.

3. Batman???

Ra's Al Ghul calls Batman "The Detective". Every Batman fan knows how important that is. So far in Batman games, I have seen Batman the fighter, Batman the acrobat, Batman the racer etc etc etc... but where is the detective??? That is my biggest complaint with Batman games... The Batman investigates the crime scene, deduces and then jumps in his Bat Mobile. He uses his brain for a lot more than figuring the right way out a room. The question is... how do we bring this thought alive?

One game comes to my mind at this point.... Indigo Prophecy. For those unaware of the game, check out the review on Gamespot and you'll know what I'm talking about. The crux of the game is that the actions that you perform in a given scenario shape up how the game goes forward. I found Indigo Prophecy a bit boring since this was all I seemed to do, but this combined with all the action of Batman should be a very exciting combo.

4. Batman vs Batman Universe

Batman is not the only character in the DC Universe. Any Batman game true the hero would give definitive roles to his allys like James Gordon, Oracle, Robin, Nightwing etc. How about throwing in a few subplots where we get to play as one of these? And while we're at it, how about giving Batman an inventory management system so he can choose what to carry on his trusty utility belt and use what we feel is needed rather than telling us (Ahem.. Batman Begins)... here's a footnote.. people don't mind making a few mistakes in Games before getting it right!)

Maybe all this is asking a lot? But I'm sure its very possible... especially with the current advancement of the Gaming industry.

If you like these ideas, why not add to them and hope that one of the developers takes notice? :)

Oh man, I've been thinking how to get his detective work into a game, but you summed it up perfectly with Indigo Prophecy and everything that should be in a Batman game. I'm a huge fan of him, and it's sad to see injustice with him in games. Batman Begins was close, mostly because it had you scaring punks and thugs, but there's so much more to Batman than just that.

An open world Gotham game would be perfect, kinda like the Spidey games, and having detective work like Indigo would be awesome. The detective work would be the stealth kind of levels like in Splinter Cell: Double Agent where you have to infiltrate files and computers in a set amount of time and not get caught. Then you escape all Batman-like from a window, without a trace ;). There's so much promise and exciting gameplay that should be done to make a Batman game finally more immersive than just a beat-em-up. Batman's not just a fighter, you know ;). Great ideas! :D

Ra's Al Ghul calls Batman "The Detective". Every Batman fan knows how important that is.

theamitgoyal

Batman's tough to make a good game because of two things, A) Batman doesn't use guns. B) Batman doesn't kill. And for action games in this day and age such as successful comic-to-game translations like the Darkness, Batman is a tough premise to develop a game out of.

But I will say that Batman has ALL the trimmings and foundations for a great video game. He's the best detective in the world, he hunts at night, he has a double identity, he has tons of gadgets, and the villains he fights are more colorful, and much more interesting, than Kojima's villains put together.

Batman can be a good game, but poor game design and controls always kill it. Will next-gen graphics help? Should developers make a killer sandbox Batman game where you can be billionaire Bruce Wayne during the day and the Dark Knight during the night? How difficult would it be for a Batman game to be succesful?

It's tough, but it can be done...even without guns or killing, Batman can still kick some arse, like in the movies and comics.But it depends on how it's done.

While reading the opening post, I thought,"How about utilizing what we've seen to be Assassin's Creed's battle mechanics, only with Batman's arsenal of techniques..."

-Instead of what we've seen as the "slow" surrounding combat, there be higher diffficulties offering higher-speed combat.

It may seem petty to capitalize on a yet-to-be-released game's mechanics, but they look great. :P

While reading the opening post, I thought,"How about utilizing what we've seen to be Assassin's Creed's battle mechanics, only with Batman's arsenal of techniques..."

-Instead of what we've seen as the "slow" surrounding combat, there be higher diffficulties offering higher-speed combat.

It may seem petty to capitalize on a yet-to-be-released game's mechanics, but they look great. :P

BranKetra

Gotham City built on the model of the cities in Assassin's Creed would be awesome... In terms of character design, Altair's younger brother... none other than the Prince of Persia :D serves as a decent example of how to create a fluidly controlled character. In fact this is one point I missed out in my first post...

There is a striking resemblence between the Prince (of the Two thrones) and Batman (and I'm not just talking about the duality of the character):

1. The prince uses the environment around him to be more lethal. I loved the wall run/wall push attack combos because it added the extra level of thought to the combat situations. This is right up Batman's alley. I'm quite sure replacing swords with fists will still add up to a challenging gameplay.

2. Speed Kills! I thought they were executed quite well in Batman Begins. In fact, the combat in Batman Begins would have been very exciting if Batman wasn;t a bit clunky and limited in moves. The developers tend to forget that he is a trained martial artist.

I think Ubisoft can do a pretty good job on Batman given their track record with fluid characters.

So how do we get someone to notice? :D

And while we're at it... how about some more suggestions?

Throwing batarangs should be made the coolest thing ever, rather than just throwing a random projectile across the screen that has no impact. When you throw it, the camera should go 3rd person, just like Dark Sector

, and there should be great collision detection and some "oomph" to the impact. It should be like what chainsawing did to Gears of War, a big trademark. You can aim at different body parts, to disarm people or maybe trip them over :D.

You are a genius. I have been dreaming about this type of thing for years and years. I own many of the batman games and as you mentioned above, I have been disapointed by some element of it.

I talked with by brother ( who is also a huge Batman fan) we discussed the syle that the game could be done in. My brother, thinks that the game would need to be as realistic as they could make it. When this is combined with next gen graphics, this game would be downright dank. However, I am a GIGANTIC fan of "The Batman" animated series. They could also take the game in a cell shaded, sandbox direction, like Ultimate Spiderman. The art and speed of "The Batman" is unbeleivable and I think they could really run with it. d I will do anything to get this to designers!

My question is: How in the world do we get this to game designers? I just know that once we get them to see the potential of this, they will certainly get to work. I will do anything!!!!

Batman's tough to make a good game because of two things, A) Batman doesn't use guns. B) Batman doesn't kill. And for action games in this day and age such as successful comic-to-game translations like the Darkness, Batman is a tough premise to develop a game out of. ASK_Story

That actually makes things more interesting than something like a Spiderman game or a Hulk game where your character is so over-powered that your missions would involve fighting fodders instead of having quality encounters or traversal to accomplish goals.

But I will say that Batman has ALL the trimmings and foundations for a great video game. He's the best detective in the world, he hunts at night, he has a double identity, he has tons of gadgets, and the villains he fights are more colorful, and much more interesting, than Kojima's villains put together.

Batman can be a good game, but poor game design and controls always kill it. Will next-gen graphics help? Should developers make a killer sandbox Batman game where you can be billionaire Bruce Wayne during the day and the Dark Knight during the night? How difficult would it be for a Batman game to be succesful?

It's tough, but it can be done...even without guns or killing, Batman can still kick some arse, like in the movies and comics.But it depends on how it's done.

I'm almost opposed to a sandbox Batman because you end up having a ton of lame-ass missions instead of really focusing on the quality of gameplay scenarios, it's like what's happening with a game like Prototype, you can go anywhere, you can wall-run and do all kinds of stuff, and you're over-powered, it makes the world you're playing in less interesting in comparison and creating meaningful story-driven missions become extremely difficult. Make the levels big but you don't have to do sandbox where you're spending so much time running from one end of the city to another that you're too busy traveling than involved in actual quality gameplay.

I give this thread an A+++. Seriously, the potential greatness of such a Batman game would be ridiculous. I've got all of the Batman the Animated Series epidodes, and every time I watch them I daydream about how great a free roaming, crime solving Batman adventure game would be. I want to explore Gotham City.rragnaar

Yes, in a perfect world, we would get that Batman game.

Since we are just pretending now anyway, I would really like it more if they used cel-shading to make it look like a comic book. I really like the style used in the cartoon and Batman: Year One with the solid colors and huge chins and all that. THAT would be amazing.

http://hol.abime.net/58

This is the game that got the investigation thing right, given the technical constraints of the time.