Those eagerly awaiting Batman: Arkaham City‘s release now have a date to circle on their calenders. A Warner Bros. press release has revealed that the sequel to Arkham Asylum will be hitting stores on October 18 in North America and October 21 in Europe for the Xbox 360, PC, and PlayStation 3.
In addition to this announcement, some new details on the game have emerged. Arkham City is about five times bigger than Arkham Asylum, with most of the new environment being free to explore from the start.
Dax Ginn, marketing game manager at Rocksteady Studios, explained the decision to open up the city so early in game.
"Anything that is open to the sky is open to player right from the off," he said. "Nobody tells Batman where to go so it was important for us to give that freedom right at the start. The interiors are gated and will open as a result of narrative progression."
Ginn described the resulting experience as "somewhere in-between" the linearity of Arkham Asylum and the freedom of a true sandbox game. He also revealed the amount of information one can pick up by exploring the city.
"If you’re just flying around the streets looking for a fight," he added, "you’ll pick up bits of information that have been designed to be communicated in an ambient fashion at that particular stage in the game. There is a vast amount of conversational dialogue that has been a serious job to write and record, but we finally finished it last Wednesday."
Lastly, Ginn addressed the slight criticisms regarding the detective mode from the first game, saying, "We hadn’t balanced it right so it felt more like an exploit than a tool, because it gave you so much information."
He assures fans that the team at Rocksteady has worked on balancing that.
Batman: Arkham Asylum received critical acclaim and numerous accolades when it was released back in 2009. From the details Rocksteady has revealed so far, it’s looking like Batman: Arkham City is shaping up to be an even better sequel.
