Spider-Man PS4: 10 Things It Must Learn From Batman Arkham
7. Make The World Feel Lived In
At times, it often felt as though the Arkham games never needed to have open worlds. Asylum seemed to get the balance right by incorporating open world elements into a largely linear title, but by the time Arkham City, Origins and Knight came around, they just seemed to be doing more harm than good.
All of these worlds were immaculately detailed, but (certainly in the case of Origins and Knight) the environments themselves just felt empty. The aesthetic was there, as was the scale, but nothing about Rocksteady's Gotham felt 'lived in'. Contrived explanations for a lack of any civilian populace abounded as the series winded down, and the worlds themselves never seemed to be taken advantage of fully.
Fortunately for Insomniac Spider-Man was the character who wrote the book on open world superhero experiences. Spider-Man 2 and Ultimate Spider-Man are fondly remembered for allowing players to fulfil their fantasies as the wall-crawler by swinging around and stopping crimes whenever they wanted to, and for Spider-Man PS4, the same approach is clearly being brought to the table.
Spidey will take selfies with New York citizens, interiors will feature heavily and no one building will look the same. It's those little details that help most - something that the Arkham series seemingly failed to note.