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Batman: Arkham Knight and the Importance of Audio Variety

by undeadpool

Something I haven't seen/heard brought up at ALL in the varied and interesting discussion about this game is something very, very subtle: there is a metric TON of audio/dialog clips that can be WILDLY different depending on when you hear them. Just the ambient dialog around the police station can change depending on where you are in the game, but also Riddler's taunts and Batman's comments base...

Something I haven't seen/heard brought up at ALL in the varied and interesting discussion about this game is something very, very subtle: there is a metric TON of audio/dialog clips that can be WILDLY different depending on when you hear them.

Just the ambient dialog around the police station can change depending on where you are in the game, but also Riddler's taunts and Batman's comments based on what you've found so far (in his first racetrack, for instance, if you haven't seen that he's taken Catwoman hostage, Batman will comment "I'm disabling the safeties on the Batmobile's boost. I've got to go as fast as possible," but if Catwoman HAS been revealed, he'll say "I'm disabling the safeties on the Batmobile's boost. Selina's life is on the line."

It's a small thing, but it actually makes me excited to go back for the New Game + and complete things (especially the final Scarecrow mission) in different orders. Apparently Two-Face and Penguin have WILDLY different dialog depending on when you bust them. This is a relatively small thing, but I can't understate how important I find it to the overall "feel" of the game and I think it's one of the reasons I had/have so much trouble putting it down. I'm playing it like I haven't any of the predecessors, and I think how much dialog there is is a HUGE part of that.