According to report by Joystiq, developer Rocksteady Studios has delayed the release of their upcoming title, Batman: Arkham Knight to an undetermined point in 2015. The game will be the final entry in the Arkham series of Batman games, which began in 2009 with the immensely popular Arkham Asylum.
Rocksteady’s Arkham series has been noted for its dark, gritty approach to the classic DC Comics universe and has achieved a great deal of success with older fans of the franchise due to its atmosphere and character development. However, Paul Dini, story writer of the prior two Arkham games, will not be returning to work on Arkham Knight.leading, leading some fans of the series to be concerned that the signature style of the Arkham games will suffer. According to a report on an early preview of the game by IGN, classic Batman villain Scarecrow is “being lined up as one of the game’s chief antagonists.” Rocksteady’s official description of the game also claims that the fear-obsessed madman will also “unite an impressive roster of super villains, including Penguin, Two-Face and Harley Quinn, to destroy The Dark Knight forever.” Beyond this, next to nothing is known about the game’s plot, prompting speculation from fans and critics alike that is likely to intensify given the recent delay to its release.
Rocksteady developers and publisher Warner Bros. have been more forthcoming with details regarding Arkham Knight’s gameplay. The upcoming title plans to greatly expand on the size of the game world, creating a large, seamless Gotham City for players to explore as opposed to the smaller, segmented maps of prior Arkham games. In order to make exploring the new, expanded Gotham faster-paced and more action-oriented, Arkham Knight will be the first in the series to allow players to drive Batman’s iconic vehicle, the Batmobile. The combat system, according to IGN, is “reassuringly familiar” but has also been improved to feel more agile and fluid by allowing Batman to use gadgets like his grapple gun from the air and transition directly into combat after using them.
Batman: Arkham Knight has a big reputation to which it will have to live up in order to sate fans of the previous two entries in the trilogy. Rocksteady Studios will hopefully use the additional development time they’ve bought themselves to ensure the game can live up to expectations. A poor reception for Arkham Knight could spell doom for Rocksteady’s next project given that it won’t have a familiar name and popular franchise to support it.
Batman: Arkham Knight is planned to launch on the PS4, Xbox One, and PC some time in 2015. You can watch the trailer below or on YouTube.