Batman Stays Single Player for Arkham City
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In an interview about all things Arkham City, Rocksteady Studios Game Director Sefton Hill has revealed some intriguing insight into what players can expect when they don the black cape and mask of Batman once more and take to Arkham’s mean streets.
As one of the very few video games based on comic book heroes that is actually worth playing, the excellent Batman: Arkham Asylum has raised the bar exceptionally high for Rocksteady Studios’ follow up game, Batman: Arkham City. Sefton Hill seems confident though that fans of the first game will have plenty to get excited about in the sequel.
Not only will Arkham City herald the return of the most iconic Batman villain, the Joker (accompanied by the sublime skills of Mark Hamill who gives voice to Mister J), it will also introduce the sleekly sinister Catwoman and less well known but fascinating Hugo Strange. Hill reassured fans that they shouldn’t worry if they weren’t familiar with Hugo Strange, as the game will fill in the blanks by recapping the first encounter between the Dark Knight and this subtle criminal genius.
Perhaps one of the biggest reveals of the interview was the quashing of rumours that Batman: Arkham City will feature a multiplayer option. Sefton Hill unambiguously told IGN that there won’t be:
There have been a number of rumors circulating about a multiplayer mode in Batman: Arkham City so let me start by saying, once and for all, that Batman: Arkham City is a “single-player only” experience.
Our thought process behind this was fairly simple: when we investigated adding multiplayer we asked, “If we use all of the energy that is required to create multiplayer and instead focus this on the single player, would that deliver a better overall game?… I can honestly say it would not have been possible to deliver Arkham City the way we wanted to if we’d have added multiplayer.
As Mr Hill went on to say, this might not be the most fashionable of choices, since multiplayer options in traditionally single player experiences seem to be flavour of the month. However, hopefully fans will applaud Rocksteady Studios for focusing their efforts on expanding on the single player experience that made Arkham Asylum so thoroughly enjoyable.
Click for the full interview at IGN.
Should be interesting to see how that turns out.