Does anyone have any thoughts or guesses on where Rocksteady will go from here in the inevitable third game?

Most importantly, what location will they use? Will they keep up the "Arkham" theme?

Who will be the primary villain(s)? Will Joker return in some form?

I'd love a more colorful reboot. Think classic animated series. Use the classic Catwoman outfit in her Challenges and imagine the game that goes along with that. So sexy.

Then again, my favorite rendition of Batman is when he's Top Dog at the Justice League and has a tonne of friends hanging out in Orbit and he gets to do Wonderwoman. He has so much fun!

I don't know. It's kind of tough to make a Batman game with no Joker. It'll be interesting to see what they do from here.

Batman Beyond could be possible considering Harley is preggers.

A Bludhaven game might be interesting.

Still wish the next game was a Batman/Superman hybrid.

@punkxblaze said:

This would be pretty great. The gameplay style in Arkham City could lend itself pretty well to a new rendition of Batman Beyond, and future Gotham's increased verticality combined with the fact that Batman has rocket boots could create opportunities for some pretty awesome flight sequences. And revisiting all those characters would be pretty great, even if it means having dialogue that includes such ridiculous future-slang as "shway."

They'd need to get Will Friedle back, though.

I'm actually a little disappointed by the Batman Beyond skin in Arkham City; the eyes on the model are too far apart and the way they're shaded makes it look like each eye is angled outward, so the face looks a bit dopey, which is kind of sad. That said, they gave him the retractable glider wings and the costume otherwise looks rather slick, so that, at least, is really cool.

Something to do with Scarecrow because of the easter egg.

They were totally setting up Hush and Azreal for a sequel. I think Jason Todd would be a great villain to.

@ahgunsillyo said:

@punkxblaze said:

This would be pretty great. The gameplay style in Arkham City could lend itself pretty well to a new rendition of Batman Beyond, and future Gotham's increased verticality combined with the fact that Batman has rocket boots could create opportunities for some pretty awesome flight sequences. And revisiting all those characters would be pretty great, even if it means having dialogue that includes such ridiculous future-slang as "shway."

They'd need to get Will Friedle back, though.

I'm actually a little disappointed by the Batman Beyond skin in Arkham City; the eyes on the model are too far apart and the way they're shaded makes it look like each eye is angled outward, so the face looks a bit dopey, which is kind of sad. That said, they gave him the retractable glider wings and the costume otherwise looks rather slick, so that, at least, is really cool.

Pretty much. There's enough cool new shit in the Beyond era to make some really neat mechanics. Gliding and rocketing around Neo Gotham would probably be just about as fun as swinging around NYC in the better Spiderman games. And yeah, they'd need Will back, I couldn't listen to anyone else as Terry. He's certainly a viable character for new stories, the Batman Beyond miniseries and ongoing series DC ran this year and last is certainly testament to that, especially when you remove the limitations of being a kid's show.

Arkham Nation... Arkham State...Arkham City... etc lol

I rather they do Gotham, if its a third and last.

I totally see Joker being brought back...but Batman has an extensive Rogue's gallery, there's a lot of great villains that haven't even been touched on. I wouldn't either if Bruce stepped down and the next game concentrate on Dick's Batman and his rogue's gallery.

Yeah, Batman: Gotham Knight might be a cool title. It does seem that the series is veering that way, taking place in Gotham proper. Though I don't know how they'd differentiate it from Arkham City as far as gameplay is concerned. Maybe they go truly open world? That could be interesting.

As far as the Joker being brought back; I'm wondering if they killed him off because Mark Hamill said this would be he last time voicing the Joker?

@blake_brown said:

Does anyone have any thoughts or guesses on where Rocksteady will go from here in the inevitable third game?

Most importantly, what location will they use? Will they keep up the "Arkham" theme?

Who will be the primary villain(s)? Will Joker return in some form?

Also, I'm not saying they should do this, but they introduced Ra's al Ghul and the Lazarus Pit, so they could easily negate the deaths of any and every major character in Arkham City by simply throwing them all in a Lazarus Pit. Have Ra's al Ghul team up with The Joker (or Hush or whomever) with global-scale plans that start in Gotham, and you have a third game that takes place in larger Gotham with opportunities to go to other locations around the globe.

well they got a start on the 'free roam' feel for batman. So im thinking like normal batman. As in you work from your bat cave, can drive your car, your jet, your bike, around gotham and take on various missions. Cant think of a new main crime boss for bats but im sure there is someone im overlooking.

they can take alot from the movies too as far as cool gaming sequences go. maybe a sort of 'remake' of the movies would be really cool.

@lusence: That's what I love about the open game after main game. I still have several side-quests to complete (plus the riddler stuff), and it feels like being regular Batman now (except that he doesn't go back to the cave).

United States of Arkham.

@lusence said:

well they got a start on the 'free roam' feel for batman. So im thinking like normal batman. As in you work from your bat cave, can drive your car, your jet, your bike, around gotham and take on various missions. Cant think of a new main crime boss for bats but im sure there is someone im overlooking.

they can take alot from the movies too as far as cool gaming sequences go. maybe a sort of 'remake' of the movies would be really cool.

I like this idea. Take the L.A. Noire approach of making missions like "episodes". So you have self contained stories with Batman villains but also a story thread that ties them all together that the game builds up to. I think that would be a great way to expand the game...

@blake_brown said:

As far as the Joker being brought back; I'm wondering if they killed him off because Mark Hamill said this would be he last time voicing the Joker?

Yeah that's exactly what I thought.

Before playing the game, I thought a story involving Ra's al Ghul as the main antagonist would make a pretty good last game. He's probably the only villain, besides Joker, that can carry a game. However, with him being such a presence here, I doubt they'll bring him back as the primary antagonist for the third game, and there is some setup for other villains.

I think a game where the larger DC universe played a part, even if it was a small part, would be cool. Having some of the other heroes show up to help out, or having some of the villains associated with other characters (Lex Luthor wouldn't be a bad pick, or even just a LexCorp logo), just to show that Batman is part of a larger universe. Of course, this would lead to a lot of speculation as to what Rocksteady would do after Batman...