Idea for Rocksteady game, "The Arkham Alliance"

So as we all know, Arkham Knight will be the epic conclusion to the Arkham game series. Rocksteady will not be making any Batman: Arkham games after the release of AK, but it got me thinking of what their next move could be. While the most likely thing they will do is just move on from the franchise, but I thought of a game that would be a nice addition to the Arkham series, but would be quite different from the Batman games.

So without any further ado, my idea for...

The Arkham Alliance

So I'm assuming that by the end of AK, Rocksteady will kill off Batman (or at least seemingly kill him off). It's possible that they will leave him alive, in which case I have a different story line in mind. However, the one I will be talking about here is based off the assumption that Batman has been presumably dead by the conclusion of Arkham Knight.

The story

It is one year after the events of Arkham Knight. Batman has been gone from Gotham for exactly one year, and it's protection has fallen into the hands of the remaining bat family, with Oracle and Nightwing doing most of the protection. They've filled into Batman's shoes pretty comfortably. The game opens with a cinematic of Grayson following a van in Bruce's old Batmobile. We see Two-Face lean out the window of the van and begin to fire a submachine gun at Nightwing in the Batmobile.

Cinematic cuts to inside of the Batmobile. Nightwing is talking with Oracle as he chases the van. Oracle starts to say something about this being the one year anniversary of Bruce's death, but at exactly that moment the Batmobile catches up to Two-Face's van. He exits the van and we start gameplay. It's a pretty basic fight against just a couple goons as Two-Face runs off. Essentially just the opening tutorial for new players (X to hit etc.) After the fight wraps up, Nightwing calls Oracle back and says he's calling it a night, he hops back in the Batmobile and heads off.

At this point it goes to a brief cinematic of Oracle at her computer and she comes across a mysterious encoded message. She quickly decrypts it and we see a video pop up on her screen. In it she somehow finds out that Bruce might still be alive. (I don't know how they should do this yet. Either a clip of Bruce himself or maybe some kind of words on the screen.) She contacts Nightwing, but he dismisses it, thinking its some sort of a trap or a prank. Oracle, determined to help Bruce if there's even the sliver of a chance that he's alive, decides to call in backup.

Now they do a mission exploring Green Arrow's fighting style. (His arrows would be selected in the same way as Batman's batarangs are. He could have a couple trick arrows, but no boxing glove because that would just contrast the dark feel of the Arkham games too much.)

I won't go too much into the story because that would take forever, but essentially it turns out the League of Assassins have stolen Bruce's body and used Ra's al Ghul's pit to revive him. For those of you wondering about al Ghul's death in Arkham City, his body disappeared and he was presumably revived. Oracle ends up creating a team including Nightwing, Green Arrow, Catwoman, and Black Canary. They each go on separate missions, facing off against various villains (maybe Bane, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang...I really like the idea of a Nightwing vs Captain Boomerang fight) to try and find Batman and it's all connected through Oracle, who provides each of the characters with information in a similar manner to her role in the previous Arkham games with Batman.

In the end they find Batman and we get to play as him for a while, but not until after we get to see an awesome scene as we play as Green Arrow fighting a brainwashed Batman. It comes to a climax with the whole team, plus Bruce now, infiltrating the base of the League of Assassins and facing off against the main baddies, Ra's, Deathstroke, and Merlyn.

Gameplay

As I mentioned in the story part, the characters will be pretty much kept separate throughout the gameplay and will only really interact via coms and during the cinematics. Think how Arkham City worked with the Robin dlc. I say this because I think that just keeps it simpler. The only time the characters will fight along side in gameplay would be in the end, and it'll work similarly to the fight along side Bane in Arkham City. This would also be the only part of the game where you get to play as Batman, and it would be awesome. Imagine playing as Batman and fighting alongside Nightwing, Green Arrow, Catwoman, and Black Canary while facing off against like 50 ninjas.

Also as I mentioned, fighting mechanics would work almost exactly the same as in the previous game. Batman and Catwoman already have their mechanics designed, Nightwing would fight just like Robin did in the previous games, Black Canary would fight like Catwoman (and yes one of the tools in her wheel would be her scream), and Green Arrow would fight basically like Batman, just he'd use the bow and trick arrows instead of the tools Batman uses.

Extra Stuff

There was some other stuff I thought about having but wasn't sure about so here's that.

• Having Black Tiger as one of the playable characters on the team. He showed up in the Arkham Origins Blackgate app, so it could be conceivable that he'd show up. In the end though, I think the team is already big enough.
• References to Superman/a possible cameo. This would open the doors for a full on Justice League game somewhere down the road, but I don't know how I feel about having such a powerful superhuman in a street level game.
• Including the Joker in the villains roster. The Arkham games obviously love letting Joker steal the show, and we all know it was Clayface in Arkham City. However, I think it would be nice to take a break from him, as much as I love Hamill.
• Having an online multiplayer option for the game. I don't really know about that one though...

Anyway that was my idea, thanks for reading! Here's a gif of Batman brooding.

Cool idea broski.

Jmarshmallow

Thanks man

GA should get his own game first, with pretty much the exact same mechanics as Batman, only changing for various special abilities except for stealth mode, which is more focused on setting traps for the criminals and disabling their weapons.

What would be more interesting actually would be all of the heroes that spring up once Batman was outed.

Arkham: Atonement

Set at least one year after Arkham Knight, at max 18 months.

Story

Part 1 :

The whole Bat-Clan is in shambles because of Bruce Wayne's disappearance, and there's a Battle for the Cowl like scenario going on in Gotham. Because of Bruce Wayne getting outed as Batman, everyone realizes Batman was seriously just a guy in a batsuit. Unfortunately, not everyone realizes how much training Bruce Wayne put into becoming Batman. So there are a bunch of second rate vigilantes going around and "dispensing Justice", similar to The Dark Knight's "I'm not wearing hockey pads" part of the movie. One of the biggest storylines would be hunting down people who were becoming vigilantes, and stopping the villains that are about to kill them/take advantage of the chaos. Nightwing, Catwoman, Azreal, and Red Robin are barely able to keep the peace as it is when they get word that there is a doomsday device in Gotham. The League of Assassins needed to beta-test an earthquake generator, and they wanted to avenge their leaders they lost in Gotham. Gotham happened to be parallel to a fault line, not close enough for any real danger to be perceived. However the despite the Bats trying to stop them, the LOA deployed it, and the weapon worked better than expected, and the resulting mega-quake nearly completely levels Gotham. The LOA then isolates Gotham by threatening the US gvt with another attack on an even more endangered city (San Francisco, LA, Starling). Then the LOA pretty much just lets the place go wild. Gang wars erupt, and Gotham turns into a lawless wasteland the Bats need to get back in line. (This is heavily influenced by the No Man's Land arc of comics and The Dark Knight Rises)

Part 2 :

Half of Gotham is wrecked and the Villains are divvying up territories. The Bats are operating out of Wayne Tower which was standing because Bruce Wayne had the creepy foresight to make every Wayne Enterprises building reinforced against earthquakes. Basically, it's a search and rescue/supply run/take down gangs thing. This part ends when most of the villains are captured, and the Bats begin to track a weird signal to the edge of Gotham where they discover a man named The Insider appears and reveals himself to be Bruce Wayne. Together everyone helps save the city.

Big Ideas

Multiple stories: You can play as one of the several character's stories in the game, Nightwing, Robin, Catwoman, Batgirl, and the Red Hood all have extensive campaigns that detail what they're doing to curtail the disasters. (Red Hood and Nightwing are the focus though, because NW is in charge and RH is the main character)

We are Robin: Mysterious people with Robin insignias keep helping them by giving them information, there is a secret person known as "Nest" who has been helping them (though he has two arms unlike the comics)

Barbara Gordon is missing: Barbara Gordon has been missing for months since the events of Arkham Knight, but she comes back with her back healed and with additional training. She is ready to take on the Batgirl mantle once more (she is a playable character)

No more Joker: Seriously, Mark Hamill is an amazing Joker, but he is not necessary to the story, and the gaming public does not need to OD on the clown

Gameplay

Downplay the Batmobile: The Batmobile is limited because Alfred is using them to primarily patrol the border of "Bat Territory", they are worried that someone will hack the Batmobile, and there is very little fuel in Gotham after the earthquake. (Plus the Batmobile was overused in Arkham Knight)

Bring on the alternative vehicles: Motorcycles (like the ones in Young Justice), they're agile and can be weaponized

Tumblers (Probably should be renamed as Batmobile prototypes)

What the vehicles are don't really matter as long as they are used primarily for transportation and not as a plot device like in Arkham Knight