The wait for a strong return in the Batman video game series' rock-steady performance has been pushed back yet again, with Batman: Arkham Knight's release now moving to June 2, 2015.
After Warner Bros. Montreal delivered what many gamers deemed a lifeless entry into the series, developer Rocksteady Studios is apparently working to ensure Arkham Knight isn't plagued by the infestation of bugs that left many gamers requesting refunds early on.
While Arkham City was overrun with Gotham's worst and offered the Caped Crusader the opportunity to dispatch a gang of criminals on every street corner, Arkham Origin's street thugs weren't concentrated behind the walls of a shanty. But in Arkham Knight, the Batmobile appears to eliminate the long voids between opportunities to unleash a free-flow combo on overconfident opponents.
Each entry in the Batman series and all of their downloadable content offers more than enough variety to quench a thirst for the combat system that became the benchmark for third-person fisticuffs. Arkham Origins fell slightly short of expectation because it offered nothing new beyond story, but Rocksteady's return to the series and its introduction of the driveable Batmobile means Arkham Knight will be much more than a copy and paste job.
"Basically ... nothing stops the Batmobile -- it's pretty much an unstoppable force," said Sefton Hill, a founder of Rocksteady. "When you think Batman, you do think Batmobile. It's the one key thing that we've really felt that we always wanted to do."
The integration of the Batmobile, new-gen graphics, a follow-up to Arkham City's story and an expansion of the free-flow combat system are all cause for excitementin the single-player game But they're also likely the cause of the game's delays.
While fans of the series, or those blown away by video shown at game conferences, wait for the next Batman game, Rocksteady has announced collector's editions of Arkham Knight.
The Limited Edition of Arkham Knight will feature an artbook, comic book, a skin pack for the game's model and a Batman figurine. The Batmobile Edition offers just about the same content as does the Limited Edition, though it offers a Batmobile model instead of a Batman figurine.
As teased by GameStop, the video game retailer will reward preorders with downloadable content packs consisting of the Red Hood and Harley Quinn stories. Of course, gamers with a huge backlog can wait for the game-of-the-year edition of Arkham City to get all of the game's DLC in one package.
