Rocksteady Talks About Villains and Boss Fights in Batman: Arkham City
Rocksteady Studios' game director, Sefton Hill, has talked about the big number of villains and the boss fights in Batman: Arkham City, just as the game is being released all over the world this week.
The Dark Knight is getting ready for a new set of adventures made by Rocksteady, with the UK-based studio bringing a follow-up to the critically acclaimed Batman: Arkham Asylum.
The game's director, Sefton Hill, already detailed the upgrade system and the new gadgets that will be used by the Caped Crusader in Arkham City, and has now explored the villains that will appear in the game, as well as the boss fights.
According to Hill, the many villains, including The Joker, Dr. Hugo Strange, Two-Face, The Penguin, Deadshot, or Mr. Freeze, weren't included just to beef up the enemy count.
"From our point of view, though, we wanted to make the best story we possibly could," Hill told the PlayStation blog "There was never an attempt to squeeze in extra characters for the sake of doing so; we just wanted a really strong Batman story. The story is about this relationship between Batman and the supervillains. Some of the villains are part of the main story, others are part of the side missions. We�ve spent as much time crafting the side missions as we�ve spent on the main story. They are in no way filler, they�re really great entertainment."
Hill also talked about the boss fights and how they'll be a bit more different and more dynamic than the regular titans from Arkham Asylum. He offers a fight against Mr. Freeze as an example, with the character trying to outsmart Batman in his battle by closing off weak points.
"Take Mr. Freeze. He�s very powerful with his suit, so Batman can�t take him head-on. But Freeze is also super intelligent, so that fight is all about trying to outsmart Freeze. When you find a way past his defenses, when you manage to sneak up and hurt him, he�ll study your behavior and shut down the techniques you�re using. It�s dynamic. If he sees that you�re using the glide kick, he�ll reduce the temperature of the air in the room to freeze up Batman�s cape and stop you from gliding. If you use the floor grates, he�ll freeze them up so you can�t use them. As the fight goes on, the environment dynamically evolves."
Batman: Arkham City is out today in North America for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and on October 21, in Europe, while the PC version is expected at the beginning of November.
