Batman: Return To Arkham - 8 Ways It Proves Remasters Are Totally Ridiculous
6. It Actually Looks Worse Than The Originals
Just how does a studio make a remaster look worse than an old-gen title?
Well, look no further than Return to Arkham, folks, as the gritty and gothic veneer of Arkham Asylum and City is no more. Though the idea to homogenise the visuals of Rocksteady’s original creations to bring them more in line with Arkham Knight may have made sense in development, the reality has robbed Asylum and City of their unique qualities. Gone is the greenish lens of Asylum, substituted for a brighter pallet that makes Joker look less like a maniacal serial murderer, and more like a cheap imitation of Cesar Romero’s wonderfully zany yet ill-fitting Clown Prince.
Batman too looks derivative of a plastic PoundLand action figure, and he’s shining for all the wrong reasons. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t any redeeming visual qualities to be seen here (at least in promo shots). Some screengrabs do genuinely make it look like Virtuos have offered a stark improvement over the two title’s original visuals, and I’m sure some environments will have retained the magic that made them so captivating to begin with. It’s just a shame that the characters just look so completely wrong.
By all means look towards the many graphic comparison videos currently floating around the web to judge for yourself, but so far I must say community frustrations with this release don’t seem at all misplaced by any stretch of the imagination.