Batman: Arkham Knight details confirmed

Batman: Arkham Knight was announced yesterday, and following that reveal a multitude of gameplay details have been revealed by returning developers Rocksteady.

Aside from a fairly thin-on-detail statement (you can read here), there wasn't much to tell yesterday, but a subsequent reveal in the latest issue of Game Informer has confirmed a huge amount of information regarding Arkham Knight.

"The Arkham games have always been about providing that power fantasy, about being and feeling like Batman," Rocksteady's Sefton Hill said, "we're going to take it further with the addition of the Batmobile and the bigger city."

Hill then added: "We've known it's what people want. When you're Batman you do think Batmobile, It's the one key thing we felt we really always wanted to do. And also that refreshes the whole experience, which I really think it does. What we're always trying to do is [make] every game feel like a new game rather than another episode of the last one".

Previously described as an "explosive finale," Hill elaborated a little. "We kind of feel this is the natural end to the story. We really want to go out in style."

Hill also commented on working with the new-gen consoles. "We're excited to be developing the game for next-gen platforms, which has allowed us to bring to life the design elements that we envisioned from the beginning such as the Batmobile and how it augments Batman's abilities, to the fully detailed and realized Gotham City."

In the GI feature it was also revealed that the game was being built with a custom version of the Unreal Engine to better take advantage of the new-gen consoles, and the absence of Xbox 360 and PS3 versions has allowed Rocksteady to really push the new tech. The studio doesn't feel like it needs multiplayer, and is concentrating efforts to make "the best single-player experience" possible.

Series fans will be pleased to hear the Kevin Conroy is going to be voicing Batman, and Nolan North will be playing Penguin. Tara Strong is back as Harley Quinn, Troy Baker is to play Two-Face, and Wally Wingert will be performing the role of Riddler. A new character, the titular Arkham Knight, is a new rival for Batman that will "really challenge" him, and was created from scratch by DC's Geoff Johns.

Events in Arkham Knight are to take place one year after Arkham City, and Batman will begin with the suit from the last game before getting a darker, plated suit later in the game. He also has the Batmobile, which Rocksteady are hoping will be "the best car in any game ever". Batman will be able to do burnouts, jumps, boosts, shoot missiles and fire immobilisers at enemy vehicles. Interestingly, the car takes up about 160mb of memory and would just about fit on an Xbox 360 (just the Batmobile - but not the rest of the game).

The open-world setting of Gotham City will be a staggering five times bigger than Arkham City, with more space between the buildings for improved gliding. The story that plays out in Gotham City includes a variety of different characters, but Joker is dead (and for a time crime has gone down). But of course things will soon kick off, with riots (of up to fifty people), Two-Face and Penguin killing cops, and more thugs than we've seen before.

Batman has several new moves according to the feature. Well-timed backflips can cause an instant KO, Batarangs and such can be fired in mid-air, an enhanced version of the classic counter system is making a return, and Batman can launch enemies into the air with throw counters that cause double damage.

Rocksteady didn't tell Game Informer what they'll be doing after Arkham Knight, but whatever it is "it's most definitely not Batman related." Does that mean that Warner Bros. Montreal will continue where they left off with Arkham Origins? I think we'll have a while to wait before we get any clarification on that one.