It appears we may FINALLY get some news on the next Batman game in August (how many times has that been said, at this point? haha).
The DC fanboy in me will, probably, compel me to buy it but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have several concerns.
1. How woke is it?
It will be woke, no doubt. But will we be seeing race swapped Batman? Will Catwoman look like a junkie and scold Bats about the male gaze? Will Batman be a male gay? Will Jim Gordon be one of the primary villains? Hell, maybe the Court of Owls are in the right or The Joker is the biggest hero the universe has ever saw because he wants to dismantle society. At this point, I don’t feel any of this reaching. Some of it has already been done in other mediums.
Then again, Injustice 2 isn’t super woke so maybe there is a little hope. Although, they did alter many of the female costumes between the beta and full release so I guess I can count on Ivy getting a redesign.
2. The gameplay
I am a firm believer in not fixing something that’s not broken. The Arkham combat is near perfect but I feel they will change it, in some capacity. I hope it’s not to the game’s detriment
3. Will it be a live service?
The leaks and rumors suggesting there is a live service Suicide Squad game makes me not worry about this as much and the life service trend does seem to be phasing out but until I know for sure, I have the thought.
4. Monetization
People forget that Shadow of War was right in the lootbox conversation with Battlefront 2 because of how bullshit it was. Mortal Kombat is also no stranger to aggressive monetization (or wokeness). Batman being there biggest IP, I know they will pull something.
5. The Batmobile
Unpopular opinion, I loved the Batmobile in Arkham Knight. I could understand if they dialed it back a bit, given the general reception but I hope the don’t omit it completely.
6. Long Development Cycle
More times than not, a long development cycle isn’t a sign of quality the product is going to be, it’s a sign of how many issues they are having with the development cycle. I hope I don’t get, yet another, game with a 5+ year development that feels like it was made in 3 months.
In the end, unless they did something super annoying, like making Batman trans or start calling the fanbase bigots (WB seems to be wising up to how stupid that is), I’ll probably buy it but it is a shame that between Twitter and excessive greed, getting hype for a AAA game is no longer possible for me.
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