Is the Next Arkham City Sequel Already Doomed?

We know barely anything about the third installment in the Arkham series of Batman games. But so far, the press has been worrying. We know that a major creative force and critical cast member won't be returning -- is there even a chance for a successful game to come as a result?

[WeskerChildReborned]

Hopefully they can still make a great Batman game cause arguably, they make the best Batman games.

[jlugo]

Agreed. Those games made me love gaming all over again. I hope all this worrying will be for nothing in the end.

[knowyourstuff]

Yeah hopefully they still have enough people with enough vision to make something really great. When you have personnel changes you can see certain changes, just look at all 5 God of War games, all with different directors, and you can see how the vision changes through each title, sometimes the changes are more subtle than others, but the next Batman game will have a mountain to climb, similarly with the 3 movies by Chris Nolan, the third definitely has Mount Everest to top.

I'd suggest holding off on judgement till you get the next game in your hands, I wouldn't exactly count on the press being completely objective, as per usual their is fishing for hits.

[CommonSense]

I thought AA was okay. Loved AC! But part of me thinks they should just stop there. since they aren't, i'll hope for the best.

[HeavenlySnipes]

Aruguably?
lol

[Moby-Royale]

Good you didn't waste your one bubble.

What's that guys?

Oh.

This is awkward.

[Kurt Russell]

I will leave my bubble on the floor here.

[gintoki777]

lets keep making speculative "video game title" is doomed or possibly canceled articles

[Leviathan]

Right...because every Batman game HAS to have the joker and this one staff member or fail...right. lolz..plz

[CommonSense]

that's how you get to the top on n4g.

[SilentNegotiator]

The lost writer aside...The loss of Joker doesn't bother me one bit. Story-wise, he is unquestionably the best Batman villain. He defines Batman. Their relationship is the pinnacle of the Batman universe.

But think gameplay.....what makes Joker important to gameplay? Not much. When it came to gameplay, the thugs and other villains in the Arkham series were a hundred times more important to setting up the gameplay than Joker.

[Whitefeather]

Lol Doom and gloom again!

[cchum]

Your bubbles are doomed!
Snake is doomed!
AdChoices on the side of the website is doomed!
This reply is doomed!

/games journalism

[Lord_Sloth]

Joker isn't the only Batman villain, ya know.. He's just the most popular. A high quality Batman is very possible without him.

[NBT91]

Agreed, there are tons of great villains, but its not just Joker they lost, also one of the creative writers who apparently had a lot of input into the direction of the first two games.

[Captain Qwark 9]

bane
two face
mr freeze
hugo strange
clayface ( i particularly like the version in "the batman" )

are among my favs and the list of great villains for batman is still much longer. as much as i love the joker, i agree that people seem to focus too much on him. he has some truly great stories without joker or with joker as merely a supporting character. the media needs to get off joker for a bit and let his other villains shine

[Lord_Sloth]

You labeled my 2 faves right there. Clayface and Mr. Freeze. XXXD

[HammadTheOne]

Penguin, Ivy, Harley Quinn maybe.

[BALLARD32]

*spoiler*
Hugo Strange died in Arkham City. There are still tons of great villains though. Riddler could easily be the biggest threat in the sequel.

[takashima_bitch]

@BALLARD
Next game is a prequel tho. Silver Age too, I think.

[extermin8or]

See I saw the title and thought wtf, then I read the article and actually now I see their point; I'm really confused why they are going silver age with this I mean arkham city was great and left so many plot strands open for a sequel. Even several of the side missions were left open :( The only real reason I can see this being because of is if Warner Bros are pushing for the inclusion of Justice League elements to try and build up more hype for their film (which currently I believe will be shit purely because half the characters are meh in my opinion and most people a) don't know who they are and b) don't care- justt rying to cash in on the avengers success.)If this is the case it would also explain why the writer isn't returning when he'd set the plot up to continue. I can only hope if this does go the way I suspect it could go that it therefore flops and they return to Arkham as a sequel and convince the old writing team back on board and Warner Bros take a step back and leave them to it. I know it's an assumption I'm making but is it really such a large step to make, to assume the management has taken too much of an interest and gotten the money people involved witht he creative people? If so I can't think of an occasion it's ended well especially in gaming. Also is it possible that the next batman game is what is Game informer's secret cover? That they can't reveal til after it's been revealed at gamescom? Just a thought.

[aiBreeze]

Personally I'd like them to take a break from the Arkham series and instead make something different. The Arkham games are great and easily the best Batman games ever made and arguably the best action game this generation but I can't help but feel such talented developers are almost being wasted by being limited to just the Batman universe. Imagine what they could do if they had complete freedom to do what they wanted.

[Buljo]

They'd still want to do a Batman game because Batman is awesome.

[aiBreeze]

Want to see a new Batman game myself next gen but would love for these guys to start a new IP or work with something a little less restrictive.

[ChunkyLover53]

The problem that the series will have is that they have already had almost every Batman villain known to man in the game. They made all the villains aside from Joker to be kind of weak.

The Arkham City story wasn't the greatest anyway though, I am sure they could come up with a better story and center it around a single villain.

I just hope they open up the story and let you play as Robin a bit more, the Harley's Revenge DLC was actually the most fun I had with AC.

[WitWolfy]

Yeah I just started the HQ revenge DLC as well and its refreshing to play as a new protagonist , not that Im tired of Batman.. But it awesome to see how less appreciated super heroes of Gotham look up to him.

[asmith2306]

A lot of downvotes expected here but I thought the combat system in Arkham City was too button bashy. I didn't find it too bad in Arkham Asylum strangely enough. The fact that you have to beat a grunt up for so long before they drop really annoyed me as well, your Batman for crying out loud! I would like to see something else from them. They reignited Batman, they should turn there attention to something as risky.

[schlanz]

There's that word AGAIN.

[tehpees3]

DDDDDDOOOOOOMMMMMEEEEEDDDDDD

The Mayans must be right.

[cchum]

The mayans were Doomed!

[Bowzabub]

Yes it's doomed... it has become popular.

[lorcraven]

With Rocksteady putting so much care and effort into their last two games I'm not going to just jump to the conclusion that Dini's departure means failure.

Yes there's a chance the new writers may do an inferior job, there's also a chance they may do a better job.

So for now I'm gonna place my faith in Rocksteady.

[Leviathan]

The best prediction of future performance is past results. Agreed.

[oldfriend86]

I'm not opposed to prequels or sequels. If done right, they end up very well done...and sometimes they can be really really bad.

Freelancing has forced me to become a casual gamer. Therefore, I have no yet unwrapped Arkham City from its package. Arkham City looked like a lot of time commitment is needed. From what I heard from friends, it's the pinnacle of amazing. I can't see the third game being as successful, taking that experience from Uncharted and GoW. If it surprisingly becomes better than AC, great, then I'll put it up on my shelf, along with the unplayed Arkham City and Red Dead.

[Ben_Grimm]

I always thought Riddler should be the next main villain of the game. He's just as twisted and some of his rants in the games were hilarious.

[LtSkittles]

Yeah, I wished they expanded on him.

[Tsukuyomi]

Scarecrow please. Jonathan Crane is my favorite villain. He needs his return.

[HaVoK308]

Oh look, another DOOMED article. The kiddos sure love these things.

[SageHonor]

Stupid article

[Zha1tan]

Expand on the gameplay brahs

i.e give me an open world gotham city

drive able vehicles like the batwing and batmobile that I see so tantalisingly parked but cannot use with the of course great writing + story telling and characters.

[Deadpool101]

Personally I think this game is could be a sequel & a prequel. SPOILER ALERT (is there anyone left who doesnt know the what happens at the end of Arkham City?) Starting with present day batman still struggling with the death of the joker, the game then goes back to the early years recounting Batman's first encounter with the joker. Throwing in some classic story arcs from The Killing Joke & Death in the Family. Then the games comes back to the present with a story based on the return of Red Hood (Jason Todd) and going into the whole Jokers not dead conspiracy. I'm sure we could throw in some Scarecrow stuff in there too. Afterall the were so many clues leading to his return A.C.

[Omnislash]

*spoiler****

Okay so Batman has some pretty crazy twists and great villains but I refuse to believe that joker is dead... Its all probably part of his scheme...