1 00:00:02,570 --> 00:00:07,950 Hi, this is Mark Brown with Game Maker's Toolkit, a series on video game design. 2 00:00:08,950 --> 00:00:14,970 If you ask me, Rocksteady's Batman games are a good example of why bigger isn't always better. 3 00:00:15,419 --> 00:00:19,779 The first game in the trilogy, Arkham Asylum, was a pleasant surprise. Not only was it a 4 00:00:19,779 --> 00:00:24,369 great game, and a great licensed game, but it was a killer Batman game. The developer 5 00:00:24,369 --> 00:00:28,630 figured out what made this dude interesting - how he was more than just a rich guy who 6 00:00:28,630 --> 00:00:31,409 punches hooligans while his underpants are showing. 7 00:00:31,419 --> 00:00:36,530 For starters, Arkham Asylum had truly loony villains who got inside the dark knight's 8 00:00:36,530 --> 00:00:41,430 head. And it also had free-flowing combat that mimics the martial arts of the animated 9 00:00:41,430 --> 00:00:47,079 films, and when Batman fought goons with guns he'd hide in the shadows and use fear to trip 10 00:00:47,079 --> 00:00:52,710 up his opponents. Like a reverse horror game, as if you're playing as the Xenomorph in Alien: Isolation 11 00:00:54,010 --> 00:00:58,470 Those two main mechanics simply didn't require the massive open city that had, at the time, 12 00:00:58,470 --> 00:01:00,800 become synonymous with super hero games. 13 00:01:00,800 --> 00:01:03,360 (Nowadays, they're all endless runners for iPhone). 14 00:01:03,360 --> 00:01:09,100 So, instead, we got the smaller, more intimate environment of the Arkham Asylum mental hospital. 15 00:01:09,100 --> 00:01:14,840 But then we got sequels. And things, inevitably, got bigger. Arkham City gave us a few urban 16 00:01:14,840 --> 00:01:19,950 blocks, and switched the structure from Metroidvania to full open world. And in Arkham Knight, 17 00:01:19,950 --> 00:01:22,290 we get a mini Grand Theft Auto. 18 00:01:22,290 --> 00:01:27,790 But does Batman really benefit from the extra square footage? I'm not convinced. 19 00:01:27,790 --> 00:01:32,790 For one, the main gameplay systems in Asylum didn't actually gain anything from going open 20 00:01:32,790 --> 00:01:37,310 world. In actual fact, they kind of suffered. The predator mode got lots of new gadgets 21 00:01:37,310 --> 00:01:41,479 and wrinkles in the sequels, but it always worked best in the purpose built rooms of 22 00:01:41,479 --> 00:01:46,290 Asylum, that encouraged you to play smart to isolate your foes, rather than the random 23 00:01:46,290 --> 00:01:48,340 rooftops of City and Knight. 24 00:01:48,340 --> 00:01:52,030 And the combat got plenty of new features, but it quickly becomes tiresome when you have 25 00:01:52,030 --> 00:01:56,229 to fight dozens of random goons who are littered about the open world. 26 00:01:56,229 --> 00:02:00,909 Sandbox games should ideally contain mechanics that need a sandbox. Like attacking bases 27 00:02:00,909 --> 00:02:06,299 in any way you wish in Far Cry, or the elaborate cop chases in Grand Theft Auto. Otherwise, 28 00:02:06,299 --> 00:02:11,570 you've just built an incredibly elaborate menu system to jump between gameplay moments. 29 00:02:11,570 --> 00:02:16,140 To its credit, Rocksteady did add more mechanics that made better use of the larger play space. 30 00:02:16,140 --> 00:02:21,530 But was anyone really asking for Batmobile tank warfare, or Assassin's Creed-style tailing 31 00:02:21,530 --> 00:02:26,070 missions, or - that old favourite - liberating towers? 32 00:02:28,220 --> 00:02:33,680 One of the biggest victims of an open world is story. A strong narrative can quickly lose 33 00:02:33,680 --> 00:02:38,260 its structure and focus when players are given so many distractions. In Arkham Knight, the 34 00:02:38,270 --> 00:02:43,110 urgency of stopping Scarecrow is undermined by the huge wheel of side missions which see 35 00:02:43,110 --> 00:02:47,680 you stopping bank robberies and blowing up gun caches and training Azriel and tracking 36 00:02:47,680 --> 00:02:48,860 down a man bat. 37 00:02:49,340 --> 00:02:54,400 JIM GORDON: Look, I know you're busy. But anything you can do to help is going to save lives. 38 00:02:54,460 --> 00:02:58,780 In a way, it emulates the feeling of Batman being overstretched and having to put out 39 00:02:58,780 --> 00:03:03,420 fires - sometimes literally - but the simulation is revealed as being quite hollow when you 40 00:03:03,420 --> 00:03:06,950 realise that there's no need to prioritise missions or act quickly. 41 00:03:06,950 --> 00:03:11,660 Take two events that happen early in Arkham Knight. Two of Batman's allies are kidnapped, 42 00:03:11,660 --> 00:03:15,950 almost simultaneously, but unlike in the Dark Knight where Batman has to make a choice of 43 00:03:15,950 --> 00:03:20,550 who lives and who dies, there are no such stakes here. The Riddler will patiently wait 44 00:03:20,550 --> 00:03:25,020 for you to come back to his bonkers underground race ways, and all his posturing about killing 45 00:03:25,020 --> 00:03:29,360 his detainee are hot air. Take your time, detective. It's just a side quest. 46 00:03:29,760 --> 00:03:35,640 Open worlds can harm the pacing of gameplay, too. Ultra linear games like Uncharted 2 47 00:03:35,640 --> 00:03:40,950 can smartly dole out moments of shooting and climbing and story and puzzle solving at just 48 00:03:40,950 --> 00:03:45,690 right time to stop you getting bored and to ramp up challenge and slowly teach you mechanics. 49 00:03:45,690 --> 00:03:49,880 Sandbox games aren't so good at this, and you can find yourself doing repetitive tasks 50 00:03:49,880 --> 00:03:52,440 or facing a weird, wobbly difficulty curve. 51 00:03:53,360 --> 00:03:57,400 I can see the case for open world games, of course. Players get more freedom, they can tackle 52 00:03:57,400 --> 00:04:01,620 missions in any order they want, and they get a lot more content for their cash. And 53 00:04:01,620 --> 00:04:06,880 games like Fallout and Skyrim make terrific use of massive great worlds to faff about in. 54 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:12,100 But these days, I'm finding the promises of bigger and wider worlds a bit of a turn off. 55 00:04:12,100 --> 00:04:17,980 TRAILER V/O: Just Cause 3 is a huge open world game with over 400 square miles of complete freedom. 56 00:04:18,530 --> 00:04:22,340 You either end up with Assassin's Creed which has so much stuff to do that your map looks 57 00:04:22,340 --> 00:04:26,760 like someone spilled a tub of glitter on it. Or Codemaster's Fuel which holds a Guinness 58 00:04:26,760 --> 00:04:31,510 World Record for largest game world, but hasn't got a single interesting thing in it. 59 00:04:31,510 --> 00:04:37,370 So maybe Arkham Asylum proves that open world doesn't necessarily need to mean open "world". 60 00:04:37,370 --> 00:04:41,190 And that game environments should be measured by how much meaningful content is inside, 61 00:04:41,190 --> 00:04:43,130 rather than in square metres. 62 00:04:43,130 --> 00:04:47,530 Arkham Asylum was tiny, but it had better pacing than Arkham Knight and a more focused 63 00:04:47,530 --> 00:04:52,820 story than Arkham City. It was claustrophobic, but the game's mechanics suited that. Spider-Man 64 00:04:52,820 --> 00:04:57,040 needs a big open world to swing about in, but Batman is at his best when he's locked 65 00:04:57,040 --> 00:04:58,660 in with his opponents. 66 00:04:58,660 --> 00:05:03,660 So for every monstrously massive open world, we need a few sandbox games that are tiny 67 00:05:03,660 --> 00:05:08,780 and intimate. More games like Resident Evil with its cramped Spencer mansion or Gone Home 68 00:05:08,780 --> 00:05:10,600 with its Portland town house. 69 00:05:10,600 --> 00:05:15,370 Game worlds that are packed with details but free from padding. Worlds where you learn 70 00:05:15,370 --> 00:05:20,220 all the nooks and crannies and shortcuts as you retread familiar ground, instead of whizzing 71 00:05:20,220 --> 00:05:25,260 past it all in a sports car. Game worlds that are memorable, not just cold, dull environments 72 00:05:25,260 --> 00:05:27,260 filled with content and features. 73 00:05:27,260 --> 00:05:31,900 Because, as Arkham trilogy director Sefton Hill said, back at the release of Arkham Aslyum, 74 00:05:31,900 --> 00:05:37,200 "It's easy to see how people fall into the trap of having so many features. It's natural 75 00:05:37,200 --> 00:05:38,940 to equate features with quality." 76 00:05:38,940 --> 00:05:42,020 DAN STAPLETON: This has got to be number one for me, followed by Asylum 77 00:05:42,020 --> 00:05:45,160 DAN STAPLETON: Purely because of the amount of content there is. 78 00:05:45,180 --> 00:05:50,080 "You want to do less, but do it amazingly well, rather than do more and have a load 79 00:05:50,080 --> 00:05:55,940 of average stuff. There are too many games out there that deliver lots of average content." 80 00:05:57,180 --> 00:06:01,740 Thanks for watching. Agree or disagree with my take on the Arkham trilogy? Let me know 81 00:06:01,750 --> 00:06:06,410 your thoughts in the comments. Plus, please give the episode a like, share it online, 82 00:06:06,410 --> 00:06:10,590 and consider pitching in via Patreon. Your support means everything.