After recent news from Rocksteady Studios about a Justice League video game, set to be a prequel to Arkham Asylum, in the early days of Batman and the Justice League, I have started to think about a shared gamming universe with the Arkham games used as a solid foundation. My first take was on an open world Superman game set in Metropolis(http://www.comicbookmovie.com/video_games/news/?a=65140), and now I want to expand on that with new characters.
After two very succesful Batman games and my take on Superman, the obvious choice would be to continue with a core member(Wonder Woman, Green Lantern or Flash), but I want this new game not only to be awesome, but also show the huge potential in other(lesser known) DC characters, who knows? maybe this is a solution for WB to give us something else other than Batman and Superman, so here is what I came up with
Please! No hate from Xbox owners, this will be multiplatform.
As before mentioned, I want these games to be inspired by Arkham City and Arkham Asylum when it comes to mechanics, well written story, graphics, voice acting and the most responsive controls a gamer could hope for. I will combine elements from some of the best games out there like: Assassin's Creed, Max Payne 3, Red Dead Redemption, Uncharted, Skyrim and of course Batman: Arkham City.
Prologue
The game starts of with a panoramic look of Star City trough a glass window somwhere very high, it's in Oliver Queen's penthouse, he starts narating(Max Payne 3 style) , reflecting on his recent crime fighting days and going back to his early years when he was a spoilled rich kid.
We see quick flashbacks of Oliver at parties, driving expensive sports cars, getting drunk and getting into trouble, but still very intrested in collectible bows and Robin Hood stories. He is talking to his wife Dinah Lance who is a therapist, but also helps him fight crime as Black Canary.
He reflects on his first days as Green Arrow, reffering to the events of Year One, when his stupidity could have cost him his life, but instead it was the start of what made him what it is today: The Emerald Archer.
We get a flashback of a young Oliver Queen leaving a charity where he made a fool of himself, making fun of children who did drugs. His friend Hackett was leaving for Fiji the next morning to make a deal on behalf of Queen Industries,so he jumped on a boat with him. On the way to Fiji, Oliver finds out that the deal is a scam, and Hacket tries to kill him, he gets pushed into the ocean and winds up on a deserted island. Here we take control of the character, we're on a beach and Ollie is low on health, the player can explore the environment: there is an abandoned shack where you find a green hood for sun protection and some supllies, you make a bow out of a piece of metal and a string, and build arrows from wood and give them a finishing touch using green parrot feathers on their tale. Players will be able to use the bow in 3rd person view(or even 1st person like Skyrim) to hunt for animals so that you can regain your health. After exploring the island more, you learn how to climb(Uncharted) and even parkour(Assassin's Creed). As the story unfolds you find out that the island's people are forced into slavery by China White: she is working with Hackett to grow huge amounts of opium for worldwide distribution. The player gets to infiltrate the drug-dealers base to free the prisoners, using his (for now) weak fighting skills and your trusty bow and arrows(limited for the beggining of the game). You get some one on one with China White and her armed henchmen near the port side when you are down to your last arrow. In order to complete the prologue you have to make a perfect shot to cut the rope that is holding a large container and drop it on the pier where your enemies are located, incapacitating them and giving you enough time to steal a boat and leave for home.
From this moment on the Green Arrow universe will be well established, Oliver Queen will have been fighting crimes for many years now, you will ocasionally get help from Black Canary during the game(without her being a playable character). As Arkham City has more playable characters (Robin, Catwoman, Nightwing) Green Arrow has the potential to introduce us to new playable characters , switching between them at various points of the open world star-city:
Roy Harper - Red Arrow, has given up his identity of Speedy and wants to prove himself to Oliver Queen that he can be his equal. This could make for some tense chemistry between the two and add to the depth of the story.
Diane Danger - Artemis, is new to crime-fighting. She's the daughter of the villain Sportmaster and sister of Jade (Cheshire). I liked their dinamic in Young Justice so the game-story of Artemis will be centered around the conflict between the two.
Trick-Arrows
In Arkham Asylum and Arkham City we had loads of gadgets to choose from in battle, in The NEW 52s Justice League #8, Green Arrow mentiones he has over 30 types of trick-arrows. That would be too much for a single game so I will only add those that resemble Batman's gadgets, the game will feature two weapons:
Small Crossbow - shoots hard-tipped arrows that stun enemies like the Batarang and can be used as a grapple gun.
The bow can be used to shoot several types of arrows:
Explosive gel arrows that can be used to stun large groups of enemies if shot between them or blow up weak walls to gain acces to new locations
Electrical Blast arrows - same result as the REC gun in Arkham City
Freeze-cluster arrows(like Mr Freeze's grenades) - instantly freezes an enemy or if shot on the ground in a group it keeps several opponets still for a few seconds.
thight-rope arrow - can help you cross a gap between buildings, and because Green Arrow is hero who is all about precision I think it would be a lot of fun to ad the bullet-time(or arrow-time if you will like in Max Payne) or Dead-eye(Red Dead Redemption), using one ore several classic sharp-tipped arrows:
just picture this scenario: parkouring on rooftops after a bad guys, and just as they are about to split up and get away, you jump over the side of a tall building, hit the bullet-time, pick them all-out with one arrow for each, shoot them, and then grapple to another building!
Villains:
virtually any villain from Green Arrow's universe will fit right in,
China White can be main villain, wanting to get revenge on Oliver for ruining her plans in the game's prologue,
Count Vertigo,Big Game, Prometheus, Deathstroke, even Deadshot(from Arkham City) Clock King, Star City Slayer can make appearances.
I want the game to be based more on open-world exploring, the fighting should stay more on rooftops than in the streets and even have some accesible buildings like the Q.I. building, mob wearhouses and also Ollie's penthouse should be open for exploring, get intel, increase health, add more types of arrows.
The game could add easier missions for fun, like random crimes that you have to stop, or people having trouble with construction vechicles, garage doors, etc that can be resolved with a well place arrow without Ollie being seen by civilians.
As the open-world games always offer really annoying collectibles to make 100% game completion(like flags or shooting seaguls in GTA) comicbook pages cand be scattered around the city so that after you collect them all you can read some of Green Arrow's best issues for free.
I hope you guys like my ideas, it was harder to make a game around a lesser known character that Batman or Superman, but I think there is great potential in comic heroes to make, not only games, but movies and TV Shows as well(can't wait for Arrow to air this fall). I have a few more ideas for some games based on characters from DC comics and after that I will give a stab to Marvel as well(they really need a good game). Who should I do next, do you agree with my next choice below or do you want something different?