Batman: Arkham 2017: 10 Ways To Make The Perfect Damian Wayne Game
Less tanks, more Bat-bikes...
Who would've thought that Warner Bros. would be brave enough to make a Batman game without Batman?
Well, in the technical sense at least. If recent rumours are to be believed, Warner Bros. Montreal - the developers behind the much-maligned yet critically underrated Batman: Arkham Origins - are in fact working on a totally different Batman game than what we were originally expecting - one with none other than Bruce Wayne's son, Damian, underneath the cowl.
This means no Bruce, no Bat-Tank, no Joker. Nada.
To those dismayed by the lukewarm reaction to Arkham Knight, news of an apparent narrative redirection is bound to illicit some sense of anticipation. Rocksteady's finale illustrated that the franchise was fatiguing and running low on narrative steam. In attempting to put their own stamp on the Batman mythos, they created a game that, in the plainest sense, failed to offer a definitive conclusion to the series they jumpstarted way back in 2009.
Shoehorned romances and an abject lack of mystery ensured that the third entry lacked the quality that we'd come to expect from the series and, in doing so, placed it at a precipice that threatened to tank it then and there. A welcome prospect for some, I'd imagine, but even I have to admit that my own reservations regarding Bat-Fatigue can't put off excitement for another instalment in the Arkham franchise; be it a prequel, sequel, or whatever.
And let's face it, I'm not the only one who would struggle to pass up on a potential rendezvous with Arkham. In spite of Knight's naff epilogue, it's clear that the series has a whole lot left to give before it eventually calls it quits.
Could Damian Wayne be its saviour?