The yr was 2015. Batman: Arkham Knight was launched for Xbox One, PC and PS4, serving because the finale to the acclaimed Arkham trilogy. It stays a reasonably good title, whether or not you’re a fan of open-world video games, superhero titles or beat ’em ups with glorious fight, however launching after 4 years of growth, that too after Arkham Metropolis? In some gamers’ eyes, it wasn’t sufficient to be “fairly good.”
There have been reliable causes for not liking it, from the Batmobile sections and tank battles to some underwhelming boss fights. The much less stated concerning the PC port, which led to an unprecedented suspension of gross sales and widespread refunds, or the shockingly brief Pink Hood and Harley Quinn DLC packs, offered individually, in the event you didn’t pre-order, the higher.
Nonetheless, it’s all of the extra attention-grabbing to look again on in hindsight, particularly after the launch of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. The latter has acquired combined opinions for its boring mission targets, a brief story that falls off closely previous the few hours, underwhelming boss fights, and many others. The truth that it’s a live-service title, which can slowly drip-feed content material over seasons whereas pushing microtransactions (cosmetic-only, however nonetheless), is all of the extra disappointing.
What occurred to Rocksteady? How did it go from delivering a trio of fantastic superhero titles, setting the bar for the style and arguably online game trilogies, to floundering so badly?
Suppose again to Batman: Arkham Asylum’s launch in 2009. Rocksteady wasn’t well-known again then, but it surely knew what it wished to do. It took inspiration from Grant Morrison’s Arkham Asylum: A Severe Home on Severe Earth, crafting a darker model of the jail than most have recognized whereas presenting an authentic story.
Batman wasn’t handled as tacked on – the sport revolved round his ethics, emphasizing hand-to-hand fight when needed and stealth when doable. Every little thing, from the Metroid-like exploration and devices to the rhythmic fight and route, is pitch-perfect. It’s nearly troublesome to imagine that it was developed in 21 months with a small growth crew and seemed as unimaginable because it does.
Inside three weeks, Batman: Arkham Asylum offered nearly two million items. A sequel was already deliberate earlier than its launch, with a secret for Arkham Metropolis cleverly hidden away. In 2011, Batman: Arkham Metropolis launched and went even larger. This time, the objective was to include Batman in Gotham or a cityscape shut sufficient to permit encountering acquainted villains. Rocksteady additionally wished to give attention to grappling and gliding for traversal whereas guaranteeing the Darkish Knight had his devices from the earlier sport able to go.
Arkham Metropolis additionally allowed for a state of affairs the place Batman was successfully remoted from the Batcave and thus needed to depend on his wits (and a few provide drops) to outlive whereas uncovering the thriller of Protocol 10. With the situation serving as a city-wide jail, it made sense for acquainted villains like Two-Face, Clayface, Mr Freeze and naturally, The Joker to seem. Investigations into completely different circumstances, stopping random crimes, accumulating Ridder Trophies and way more all match seamlessly throughout the setting’s context.
Couple this with the addition of recent strikes, additional refinements to the fight, even better-looking visuals and tons of issues to do, and Batman: Arkham Metropolis achieved even better heights than the unique. Certain, among the boss fights might have been higher, however when every little thing else was this nice, it was a small blemish (which is ironic, now that you concentrate on it).
The gross sales mirrored followers’ enthusiasm in direction of the title, with two million offered inside every week. It was the tenth best-selling sport of 2011, which is value noting when the competitors consists of blockbusters like Gears of Warfare 3 and The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. Over 12.5 million copies have been reportedly offered by 2020, which is insane.
From that perspective, it’s simple to grasp the frustration some had with Arkham Knight. This time, Batman was in Gotham Metropolis, which allowed for the Batmobile. There was no quick journey like in Batman: Arkham Origins, and the story targeted extra on Batman’s psyche, particularly after being confronted by the resurgent Scarecrow and the (laughably) mysterious Arkham Knight. Criticism apart, many nonetheless agreed that the fight and general gameplay remained unimaginable.
Gotham Metropolis and the characters additionally seemed improbable, whereas the added energy of that console era allowed for extra enemies on display screen, and real-time cutscenes. You then had options like Twin Play for switching between Robin, Nightwing and Catwoman in some conditions. Lower than 4 months after its launch, it offered over 5 million copies – barely lower than Arkham Metropolis, little question as a result of problematic PC model, but it surely was nonetheless the fastest-selling sport within the franchise and the second-best-selling title of the yr.
Which brings us now to Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
It’s no secret that Rocksteady wasn’t meant to develop the title. WB Video games Montreal had that function, following the launch of Batman: Arkham Origins (and hinted at in a post-credits cutscene). Following a reportedly underwhelming reception to the title, it was allegedly cancelled in 2016. Rocksteady was tasked with growth and reportedly started engaged on it in 2017. The rumor that the developer pitched a Superman title was false, however at that time, it was unknown whether or not the Suicide Squad title even existed.
When 2020 rolled round, rumors out of the blue emerged of the title (with Gotham Knights additionally cropping up). Each titles have been formally introduced at DC FanDome 2020, and the remaining is historical past, however whereas little is understood concerning the growth of Gotham Knights, Suicide Squad is a considerably completely different story.
Across the time that the newest previews for the title dropped in January 2023, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier revealed that Rocksteady was engaged on an unannounced multiplayer title that was additionally an authentic franchise and a Batman VR title. After being assigned to Suicide Squad, it allegedly had “a number of false begins” and a number of delays as a result of the studio was transitioning into an unfamiliar style.
In 2022, Rocksteady’s co-founders, Sefton Hill and Jamie Walker, left the corporate. With Hill serving as a director on the title, his departure brought about some concern. Axel Rydby, who labored at Large Leisure from 2006 to 2016 and helped create groups for tasks like Tom Clancy’s The Division, would take over as sport director.
Two different administrators, Rasmus Hoejengaard and Adam Doherty, additionally labored on the mission, and contemplating the sheer size of time since Rocksteady’s final sport, some assumed that the event crew had modified fully. Clearly, Suicide Squad isn’t good, as a result of most of the individuals who made the Arkham sequence nice are gone. Proper?
A short comparability of workers between the releases considerably says in any other case. Martin Lancaster and Ian Ball, who labored as writers on Arkham Knight, are nonetheless round. So are designer Ian Ball, programmer Ben Wyatt and artist David Hego. Granted, these are a handful of names from a studio with 250 workers, however they’re those that had main roles on Rocksteady’s finest titles. Was the departure of Hill (who additionally contributed to the writing) actually sufficient to trigger such a drop in high quality?
Even when WB Video games determined to shift to a reside service strategy, inflicting Hill and Walker to depart in October 2022, the controversial gameplay reveal occurred in January 2023, confirming the existence of a battle go, retailer, microtransactions and whatnot. These components would have been in place for a very long time prior, together with the barebones endgame, lackluster writing and underwhelming mission varieties.
We could by no means know what occurred behind the scenes, however Rocksteady could have been out of its depth for this sort of sport. Going from a beat ’em up model sport with stealth to a looter shooter isn’t simple, particularly one which wants extra content material over time.
It’s not the primary time {that a} studio expert in single-player titles failed when engaged on co-op centric titles with live-service fashions or leanings – see Arkane Austin with Redfall and BioWare with Anthem. Even Bungie’s Future suffered many points at launch (and once more with Future 2) earlier than rebuilding into one thing profitable, and it nonetheless struggles to remain related.
Whereas it’s not solely correct to say that the Rocksteady of outdated is lifeless, it at present faces an uphill battle to help a title with intensive money and time sunk into it. Hopefully, at some point, it may possibly return to what it does finest with its soul intact.
Be aware: The views expressed on this article are these of the writer and don’t essentially symbolize the views of, and shouldn’t be attributed to, GamingBolt as a corporation.
