We nearly made Batman: Arkham Asylum’s art director weep

I don’t know a single person who played Batman: Arkham Asylum without using “detective vision” (aka “see through walls and become the goddamn Batman” mode) for the majority of their adventure. It was immensely useful, perhaps even stupidly so.

Some honest talk from Rocksteady Studios has come out of Develop in the form of art director David Hego basically admitting what we all know: “It was a gameplay decision to make detective vision so strong … we’re going to try not to do that mistake again.”

Arkham Asylum was a beautiful game, and I don’t just mean that because half of the characters were shirtless musclemen. But you never got to appreciate any of the, uh, scenery, thanks to detective mode. This widespread overuse made Hego “want to cry a little bit.”

He says the goal is to “make it more like augmented reality next time,” which seems like the absolute best way Rocksteady could go. Imagine the same critical information, except presented naturally, as an overlay. Samit and I couldn’t help but geek out over the possibilities.

Arkham Asylum art director talks mistakes [GameSpot]