The much anticipated sequel to the smash hit “Batman: Arkham Asylum” looks set to be quite different from its predecessor, at least if an early trailer and comments from senior game developer Paul Denning are anything to go by.
The debut teaser trailer for “Batman: Arkham Asylum 2” indicates that the game will at least partially be set outside the titular setting, and in an interview with PC Zone, Denning all but confirmed the news, replying to the interviewer’s query with “I think you’re right in that it’s (the Arkham setting) almost run its course… We did pick a selection of buildings that we thought would fit the (first) game well. You could quite easily point out that there are various things that you wouldn’t usually find in an asylum especially on an island that’s supposedly self-contained. So you could always expand that out and there are games in the past that have gone down that route. But I think you’re right. Gotham is a fantastically realised fictional city and there are so many places that it would probably be ideal for game play and great to explore.”
That being said, Denning hastens to add that fans should not expect “Batman: Arkham Asylum 2” to be a fully “open world” exploration of the whole of Gotham City. “I think that sandbox games that do that well are so hard to realise,” he notes. “There are so many that get it wrong and I think you have to be so careful if you take that route. I think if “Arkham Asylum” had been that kind of game, I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t have been as good.”
