2000 word report- Arkham

Arkham Series

The Arkham Series was developed by multiple developers: Rocksteady, Feral Interactive, Virtuos, WB Games Montreal and Splash damage. Publishers include Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment and Eidos entertainment, however, Eidos were only involved with Batman Arkham Asylum  and after that, the successors of Arkham Asylum were only published by WB Interactive entertainment. The series follows protagonist batman on his journies, each game relating to Arkham which is the name of the Asylum that is in Gotham for the criminally insane and is also the name of the super prison implemented into Gotham in Arkham City. New horrors encounter Batman in each game which will challenge the character and the player in each game.

The Arkham series includes the following games; Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, Arkham Origins and Arkham Knight. The series started in 2009 and ended in 2015 and was a massive success with fans of Batman and new fans due to its iconic play style and gameplay. Each Arkham game is a sandbox game and after completing (as well as during the game) allows the player to free roam the area given to them. As the games progressed, more of the map was allowed to explore due to the increase in technology in our consoles and PC's/ But the Arkham series made more money than what was made from the games, comics were designed after the games. these reeled in money from the comic fans that played the game due to the fact that the comics were either based on events before or in between games so it made fans more interested in the comics. the comics, as well as the games, were praised by everybody. Furthermore, Arkham VR was released recently following batman as you use Vr and was set between the events of Arkham City and Arkham Knight. Also, TellTales games have made their own series of batman, in an episodic format you follow batman/Bruce Wayne in a new adventure, this has recently concluded and not yet confirmed a second series.

Batman Arkham Asylum was the first game in the franchise and was praised highly. it sold 4.3 million units in its entire release which is a lot for the first game of a franchise; it also was a risk to make the game due to the Batman comics/films being popular. IGN rate the game a 9.2 saying "Batman: Arkham Asylum exposes players to a unique, dark and atmospheric adventure." The community also rated it a 9.3 which is an astounding response to the game after initial release.  Metacritic rated the game 91/100 which is highly rated for a Metacritic review. The gameplay for Arkham Asylum was mediocre, it had times where it was smooth and would run perfectly but other times the combat felt clunky and unresponsive. Overall, the gameplay was responsive and was enjoyable, the stealth aspect of the game was fantastic it offered multiple playstyles for the game. Arkham Asylum also introduced an upgrade system for Batman which would improve his armour, combat capabilities, and equipment upgrades.  these upgrades were earned when you completed missions and gained upgrade points, why is this so good? it was a new feature for a game of this style, most RPGs offered a skill tree to upgrade your character but it had rarely been done before in an action game. It also gave the player a way to improve on what they lacked skill on if you kept having difficulty with enemies that had weapons then you could upgrade your armour's durability to bullets. This made the game fun and less likely for people to get annoyed when they have the ability to upgrade themselves. Arkham Asylum included excessive features and mechanics which separated this game from others, one feature which stood out was the detective vision. Allowing the player
to see enemies and items that are important to your mission, this was an absolutely brilliant feature and completely original for the franchise, this feature was carried through the series due to its popularity with the players. You do notice that when you play the games more you tend to use this feature less because you learn how to take down enemies and how the enemies act in the game. This feature has been copied multiple times by many games, one specifically was The Last Of Us who enabled you to enhance your listening capabilities to see through walls at the enemies. Arkham Asylum story was highly praised by IGN, saying that it was unique due to the dark and gritty style it is presented in. The plot was that Joker had escaped captivity in the asylum and released the other inmates, it is up to Batman to capture him. It is a typical Batman storyline which can be seen in both comics and films, even IGN have stated this but using the words of IGN "it is a fairly adult title" which for kids could be too complex to understand and overwhelming. Many other reviewers also credited Rocksteady on their storyline for the game. Rocksteady received awards for the game and their company, awards from VGX for best game of the year and best studio, IGN gave it an award for the best newcomer game, and another award for best gameplay by VGX. Showing us 9the audience) that the game, for a first game in the franchise, was fantastic amongst everyone and it deserved the praise it got. DLC also gave money to the developers/publishers to fund more games, these were in the form of challenge maps where you could play as batman competing against the world to get the quickest time eliminating enemies from rooms. Also, you have the chance to play as the clown prince of crime himself, the joker, in a DLC (which was free to PlayStation) where you could play as him in challenge maps which had the same concept as the Batman ones. But why would free DLC help Playstation? this would help boost sales of the console as it was sold in bundles with the game, during  the second half 2009 (the year of the game's release) 4,334,600 Ps3 units were sold, there is a high possibility that this boost in sales was from the release of this game. Compared to the 1.120,000 sold in the first half of 2009. Personally, I really enjoyed this game, even though it wasn't my favourite of the series due to the sometimes clunky gameplay and lack of side quests and free roam after the game. Even though if it wasn't for this game, my love for the Arkham series wouldn't have started.

Batman Arkham City was the second game in the Arkham franchise, it was an improvement its predecessor for both the fans and the critics. Batman Arkham city sold 4.6 million copies within the first week, over double the amount of copies that Arkham Asylum sold in its entirety. It was released on October 18th, 2011 and was the highest rated game of 2011 on ps3 and Xbox 360 by the critics. IGN rated it an astounding 9.5/10 saying that the more times they played the game the more they thought of it as a "brilliant game" despite their initial thoughts of it which were slightly negative. overall by IGN, it received a fantastic amount of praise for presentation, sound, graphics, gameplay and lasting appeal of the game itself. The lowest it was scored was 8.5 on the graphics term but some modern games can barely scrape an 8.5 overall. IGn finished their review by saying this summary of the game "Batman Arkham City isn't just better than Batman: Arkham Asylum, it's better than most games on the market." Which is a perfect summary of the game. Metacritic gave Arkham City 96/100 which is one of the highest review scores they have given and only select games get this amazing score. I thought Arkham City was an absolutely fantastic game, which is represented in the copies that were sold, it felt smoother than Arkham Asylum in the sense of combat, however, it did still feel clunky during simple movements such as walking. The plot was fantastic, it was full of twists and the general game introduced a lot of the villains which weren't seen in the previous game. The game sent Batman on a hunt through Arkham City, the super prison, to find Hugo Strange and get him to answer for his tests and his plans for Arkham City. The story did receive mixed reviews from critics, some enjoyed the fast paced action and some wanted fewer villains as they felt it was too much for a single game. The ending to this game,as well as some well placed easter eggs, made players speculate whether the Joker had actually died or not. Furthermore, this game was packed with DLC, this included 7 challenge maps, the opportunity to play as 3 new characters and Harley Quinn's revenge which took the player back to Arkham City for one final time. Another great thing about Arkham City was the soundtrack, it was amazing to listen to separate from the game and received 4.5/5 stars on Itunes alone. I know plenty of people who play Arkham City and say that they bought the soundtrack separately to listen to it due to its amazing composure. Arkham City also introduced a massive free roam the area for players to explore after you complete the game, this free roam area makes Arkham City seem minuscule and it offers side quests for you to play which each have their own individual story to them.

Arkham Origins was the third game in the franchise and was a hit and miss for some people. IGN weren't very fond of it, and neither were many others. IGN rated it a 7.8, and describe it the best way possible: "Batman games are like pizza; even when they're not good, they're still pretty good." Which describes the game perfectly, it wasn't the best in the franchise in my opinion but it wasn't an entirely bad game due to the visuals looking better than Arkham City and it still having flawless stealth and normal combat. They actually improved upon the "clunky" feel of the movement, making the game smoother than the predecessors. Many  other review companies, such as Trusted Reviews, rated the game 7/10, making it an average game across the board. Arkham Origins had done one thing perfect though and that was build up the hype for the game, the trailer looked and was beautiful, to say the least, and no matter what if you are a fan of Batman, you are a fan of the trailer. It had been directed by an actual film director and the visuals made it look real as if you were watching a film, it was astounding. Even though the base game wasn't creative, it had really no ties to the Arkham series which critics from IGN recognised this, it was just a prequel to Arkham Asylum which was based on a typical but brilliant Batman story. The Joker has sent assassins after batman and you (playing batman) have to protect yourself and survive the night. This game is definitely gritty and allows you to encounter most of these villains in boss fights rather than side quests. these boss fights proved to be both difficult but enjoyable at the same time, but it also added more depth to the story where you would learn about each villain when you faced them. Also, the end plot twist is fantastic and is a typical Batman story (much like the rest of the games) but was a shocker for most people. Arkham Origins was the first and only batman game to introduce multiplayer. Personally, I enjoyed it due to its innovative design and gameplay but the critics didn't agree, they saw it as worthless and stated that the WiiU didn't miss out on anything. Batman Arkham Origins sold a similar amount of copies to Arkham Asylum but was the best selling game on its platforms for the release week and is the 11th best-selling PS3 game. It sold half the amount Arkham City did on release, reflecting the negative reviews on the game. However, aside from the flaws, it was the first batman game which made you a detective, a feature which allowed you to investigate crime scenes and rewind them with a VR aspect to look for clues. This idea carried on to Arkham Knight, which I and many others are thankful for. This was the first Arkham game that didn't win awards and the first to be solo developed by WB Montreal and we can tell why Rocksteady continued with the series by themselves. Arkham Origins was also released along with other Origin variants for various consoles, DS got the black gate version and IOS and Android got a Beat 'Em Up style of game, similar to Injustice. DLC for this game was big, much like Arkham City; you got to play as Deathstroke for a challenge map, and also another set of challenge maps were released as well as skins for Batman. These helped boost game sales along with a digital comic made on the game's release. A lot of marketing products were released with the game which is also a reflection on the game's sales, meaning that they needed more products to actually reach a goal for the developers. This game also brought the Batwing into action as a form of fast travel to zipping around Gotham and also hinted at the animation "Assault On Arkham" in the post-credits scene. Even though Arkham Origins wasn't an amazing game, and for this reason it wasn't remastered, it will still forever be a strong piece of the series.

Batman Arkham Knight was the fourth and final game in the franchise, and after a bad start it certainly lived up to expectations, it sold 5 million copies by October 2015! Beating any previous Batman game on sales, it received high praise from critics such as IGn who gave it a 9.2/10 and Trusted Reviews giving it a fantastic 9/10, their reasons for this are similar. IGN said that "Batman: Arkham Knight is an impressive game on almost every level, with non-stop variety and great action." This game was innovative and loved by everyone, apart from PC players who still don't have a decent port for the game. Trusted Reviews said that the game had "compelling story-line and open-world structure", both critics complimenting the game massively. However, both critics shared the same negatives about the game- the batmobile. Now the concept of the batmobile is beyond great, playing in it is also fantastic and smooth but a number of missions in the batmobile felt like it became "out of place" and "boring" to use, which I agree with. As well as this the Jokermobile that you get when you play as the joker at the end of the game isn't able to be unlocked in free roam which is beyond frustrating. Playing in the batmobile (it has been the first time since the Batman Begins game we have been able to play in it) was great at the start but then it became tedious, however, the riddler races and puzzles which involved the batmobile redeemed it and made me want more of them after finishing them. This is the biggest Arkham game as well, it allows you to explore across Gotham, including what was "Arkham City" in previous games which uncanny resemblance in the environment (which I love). As well as this you start with grabbling upgrades already equipped which allow you to travel across larger terrain with ease. Personally, this is my favourite Batman game of them all for many reasons, its emphasis more on Oracle by introducing scenes taken from The Killing Joke comic, (they were not comic accurate but went along the same line) and by allowing us to play as Robin, Nightwing and Catwoman in certain missions. This hasn't been done as part of the main campaign before. Another reason why critics love this game is because it felt as if we had closure to the series, IGN even stated that Arkham Asylum felt like the start of a franchise and Arkham Knight ended it perfectly. The plot followed Batman on one final journey in Gotham, the city had been evacuated due to scarecrow (the antagonist) counting down to the release of his fear toxin, leaving Gotham in peril and mass despair with only villains left in the city. It was more focused on the mysterious character of the Arkham Knight, he helped scarecrow in his mission along with his own personal vendetta against Batman. As the story progresses we encounter Joker, voiced by the marvellous Mark Hamill, who is now merely a figment of Batman's imagination after exposure to the fear toxin. The story itself was highly praised for how in depth it was by both the general audience and the critics, and the plot twist that changed the game was loved by fans across the world. This twist was finding out that the Arkham Knight is Jason Todd, one of the old Robin's who Joker supposedly killed. Another great reason for this game is the character development which was loved by the critics especially, how Jason Todd (when he was Arkham Knight) wanted to kill you but eventually changed sides and turned to Red Hood when he saved Batman's life. Everything about this game appealed to the critics, everything was executed perfectly and without a flaw. DLC for this game was much like the previous games, it included challenge maps and the chance to play as a villain along with custom packs. The Harley Quinn DLC was a prequel to the game set in Bloodhaven and wasn't particularly amazing, it was about 10 minutes long and wasn't worth playing. However, it did was free DLC for the PS4 and could have potentially boosted the sales of the PS4 in 2015 due to the fact it was sold as a bundle with the console, and it had its own console! Tech Times also reported that the Arkham Knight helped PS4 sell more consoles than Xbox in July 2015, so once again the Arkham Series helped the PlayStation sell more consoles.

After Arkham Knight there has been the Return To Arkham, there isn't much to say about this as it is a remaster ofArkham Asylum and Arkham City. I have searched throughout the internet and can't find how many copies were sold. In all honesty market research is lacking on this one due to it being a new game. IGN rated it a 7/10, saying that "there is nothing to differentiate from the content in the Game Of The Year additions" and they recommend not to buy it if you already have a last gen console because of the poor graphical upgrade. Arkham Asylum within this copy does have some problems as well, frame rate drops during certain scenes where it can be noticeable. However, Virtuos upgraded these games from unreal engine 3 to unreal engine 4 and it is noticeable. Not in the gameplay. But in the appearance. Even though the graphical upgrade wasn't a huge difference, it looks crisper and a lot more high definition compared to the last-gen versions, however, a downfall is that the games are capped at 30 frames per second and won't reach the current generation's capabilities of 60 frames per second. Overall, this remaster would be great to get if you don't have a last gen console or if you didn't play the games on the last-gen but from a critic's point of view it isn't an amazing game and isn't highly praised.

Arkham VR is a small game, about 45 minutes long, that is for the PS4 designed for VR use. It puts you in the eyes (quite literally) of Batman. You play more as the detective in this game compared to the other games where you play as a brawler. The experience is supposed to be surreal and IGN rated it a 7.2 due to some of the problems that you encounter with a typical VR game such as your hand going through people. But the general experience is supposed to be amazing, but after the first playthrough, you will never be able to experience it like you did the first time due to you knowing what is going to happen. IGN said "the world around you is largely rigid and the characters are unresponsive on your actions" which is why it wasn't highly rated compared to the actual games. This is a typical problem with VR at the moment and as time progresses it should improve. Arkham Vr is only available for the PSVR currently, though. There is no "set in stone" amount of copies sold of Batman VR, but it was the best selling digital game in October for PlayStation. The PSVR itself has not got a "set in stone" amount of units sold either but it is estimated to sell more than 2 million units by the end of 2016.

In conclusion, the overall series was one of the best franchises created across both console generations. My reason for using the same sources is because I know that they are releiable and give good criticism on games where it is due. Also I didn't include the TellTales games aren't a part of the Arkham series. Below you will find links to the sites I used for my information, I hope that you now know how successful the Arkham series was.

Links:
http://www.techtimes.com/articles/69708/20150718/ps4-edges-xbox-one-in-june-sales-thanks-to-batman-arkham-knight.htm
http://uk.ign.com/games/batman-arkham-asylum/xbox-360-14273491
http://uk.ign.com/games/batman-arkham-city/ps3-55050
http://uk.ign.com/articles/2015/06/19/batman-arkham-knight-review
www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-3/batman-arkham-asylum
www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-3/batman-arkham-city
http://www.trustedreviews.com/batman-arkham-knight-review
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman:_Arkham_Knight
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman:_Arkham_Origins
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman:_Arkham_Asylum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman:_Arkham_City
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/batman-arkham-origins-opening-weekend-sales-half-of-arkham-city-in-the-uk/1100-6415803/
http://www.comingsoon.net/games/news/83509-game-news-4-6-million-copies-of-batman-arkham-city-sold
http://www.unigamesity.com/2-5-million-batman-arkham-asylum-copies-sold/batman-arkham-asylum-steady/
vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/NPD_2009_sales_figure