Ok so these are my ideas on game play elements to make a good (well IMO AMAZING) Superman game. I believe next gen consoles would be required to pull off most of this, or high-end gaming PC’s because of the sheer processing and rendering power required. NOTE: This is not about the story or specific people/things to fight – that’s another idea all together. These are the game play ideas to make the experience itself.

1. The Environment

standard game play:

So one of the biggest issues everyone seems to point to is that Superman’s “world” is pretty much exactly that – a world. Having a game set in Metropolis for example really limits your ability to experience “being” Superman. One of the things that I believe makes the Arkham games so amazing is the game play is designed with making you feel like you ARE Batman and the environment is a big part of that. The thing is, when you’re a super-powered alien who can fly anywhere in seconds or minutes, the standard sandbox environments of games are a problem – you shouldn’t have a boundary. Sandboxes work for games with characters who are relatively humanoid in abilities because let’s face it – walking or running everywhere means you’re not going to just pick a direction and run in that direction for hours on end doing absolutely nothing as a player – which means the environment can genuinely still be “limited” from the game engines perspective. It can have a constantly fading horizon and just continuously generate that horizon without too many issues. On the other side, Batman’s whole thing as a human is that you’re either in Arkham Asylum or Arkham City only, both of which are inherently enclosed environments and limit where you can and can’t go – can’t speak to Origins as I haven’t played it.

This doesn’t work for Superman. If I’m Superman I want to fly anywhere I want. I want to be able to fly and go from Metropolis to the Fortress in a matter of minutes at super-speed. It’s a part of who the character is. Flying in the games is always crap. You never feel fast enough and you don’t really get anywhere that quickly. They put boundaries in place to stop you from leaving the atmosphere or to keep you in Metropolis. I believe with next-gen consoles that can be changed. Put a map of the world into the game engine and have it generate scenery and buildings etc… based on where you geographically are. If I want to fly to China – I can literally fly to China and see China. I’m not saying this is easy – but it would be amazing. For the most part anywhere you go – there isn’t anything you can do, this limits the need to really put too much thought into it. With Google maps and things, I’m sure they can get it to generate buildings and sizes and everything fairly realistically, just not overly interactive.

Failing that (and much more feasible) – hitting a boundary automatically transports you to another playable location, or at least lets you choose another location. So anyone played games like the Assassin’s Creed games? They are set usually across multiple cities and when you hit say a boundary or gate to the next location, it cuts and then you’re there. Superman could use a similar premise. You fly up towards space – instead of it suddenly stopping you flying upwards it lets you go into space and you can see the Sun and moon and watchtower in the distance. If you fly towards the sun – suddenly you’re in front of the sun. You fly towards the moon – you go to the moon. You fly towards the Watchtower – you go to the Watchtower. Back in Metropolis, if you fly to a city boundary – you find yourself in the Arctic at the Fortress (which you can enter). See what I mean? Star Labs, Cadmus, etc… can all be locations within Metropolis anyway and are findable on a map if need be and entered and interacted with, no different to the Arkham games. If you’re going with choosing a location, a map tool comes up with say Metropolis, Smallville, The Fortress and maybe one or two other locations on it to choose from. Either way you can go to other locations.

Additional Gameplay:

Ok so this is where being “Superman” takes on an even bigger scale. Outside main game play and the story environments a “World” mode should exist where you can see different things happening all over the world, such as terrorist activities or natural disasters that you can respond to. Simply have a map with selectable items on it and you begin the “mission”. This can then allow you to generate other locations and cities and have additional hero achievements and things (which I’ll get to later).

These two things combined will then give the experience a truly global feel and allow the player to feel more immersed as the character, not feeling random limitations, or having pointless boundaries in place that stop you leaving a location when really, Superman shouldn’t be bound. You can still restrict the environments a character can access, but without it feeling like it’s limited.

2. Powers:

This is another area where it can get tricky. Superman has a pretty vast array of powers. Again – if I’m limited in my powers, I won’t feel like I’m Superman. Batman has gadgets and these get a pretty fair showing in the Arkham games. But not all of them are necessary at all times and some are only functional when they need to be really. I believe his powers should be applied in the same way. Speed, strength and flight are stock standard and always there. Vision powers, super hearing, freeze and super breath (to name a couple) on the other hand aren’t always needed. Have a “powers” wheel (like a gadgets wheel or weapons wheel) where you as the player can mount and switch out powers as you want to. This could even be relevant and vary depending on what “mode” you’re in. Let me explain.

If you’re in normal mode – you can select heat vision, super breathe or freeze breath for arguments sake. But then you have a separate “mode” which is “super vision” mode. In this you can then see the world through x-ray vision, or select other aspects of the electromagnetic spectrum, such as infrared. I envisage this being like enabling eagle vision in Assassin’s creed, or detective mode in the Arkham games. So the “powers wheel” switches your options from being super-breath to a different vision type. To get even more full-on – you could also combine “modes” in certain situations when it’s relevant, by say combining x-ray (part of being in super-vision mode) and microscopic vision and heat vision (not part of super-vision mode itself) to perform a really precise bit of heat vision to something (like what he does to Manchester Black for example). Some power combinations will work – others won’t based on what they require and their relevance to each other. So while heat vision can be applied with microscopic precision, freeze breath can’t.

Also, while thinking about heat vision – have different “modes” or techniques in which it can be applied. Everything from a pinpoint beam to a widespread, all encompassing ray. This can be done a couple of different ways in my mind, either having pre-set types of heat vision that can be selected on the power-wheel and swapped out and around as wanted, or by using button combinations between the analogue sticks, triggers and the actual attack button – whatever is easiest during game-play.

Another power that needs to be done properly is the application of super-speed. Here I would have 3 (well technically 4) speed types. You can walk or run at a normal speed just by moving the analogue stick in any direction. When a “sprint” button is pressed at the same time – his speed increases to a super speed – which visually I envisage having an effect like in the Need For Speed Underground games when you used your nitro boost. Suddenly the world around you starts to look weird and stretched out to give that visual effect of moving fast. You then have an additional option of “light speed”, by pressing a trigger (for the time being). This one can’t be used excessively due to it draining power, BUT once in this mode everything around you basically freezes. The sprint mode can be used to move between locations quickly, the “light-speed” serves a different function – battles and rescues.

With Super-hearing this can be like sorting through frequencies ranges in the Arkham games with that hacking tool. Basically the camera position changes and you could say zoom into his ear or something and then fine-tune through massive amounts of sound to pick up specific things, such as someone crying out for help, gunshots, etc… which would add locations to your map, or if it’s necessary within mission will point you to the location of what you need to do next, or reveal details of a conversation you need to spy on. I also imagine at least one fighting scenario where someone is trying to use stealth and surprise attacks, whereby some indicator comes up on screen to warn you about enemy location or something.

3. Fighting:

Ok so while I’m not going to put any ideas about what type of enemies he should fight – when he is fighting one thing I think should be there is the ability to target and run combos on them. Think of Faora when she takes out like a bunch of military guys by speed blitzing between them and you’ll have an idea of what I mean here. You use a multiple target locking system and by pressing the buttons at the right timing he starts a chain linked attack from one to the next. You miss a button, it breaks the attack and leaves you open. You get it right you take down like 6 enemies one after the other. So the light speed movement thing sort of comes into play but combined with a reverse sprint too. Imagine this there’s 4 bad guys sort of arranged around the character – you get the target locks and press whatever button is necessary to begin the sequence – he blitzes immediately to the first target (like Faora does in MoS) then suddenly everything goes slow-mo so you can see the actual hit – in this time a button flashes on screen which you have to hit – if you hit the wrong button or miss the timing, his attack misses and the combo is broken and you’re open to a counter attack. However if you get it right – he hits the opponent with a bone-crunching hit (you could even get close-ups of it with the camera quickly zooming in, showing a partial x-ray vision of a bone snapping/shattering etc… then going back to normal) and then time speeds up and he quickly blitzes across to the next opponent, and it repeats this until the chain is complete or you stuff up.

I also think the fight engine should include some decent level of martial arts hits – not just basic “left hook, upper-cut” punches. I’m not saying have him fight like Batman – but something that at least looks good and interesting and cool. Depending on where the enemies are position wise, he might spin around and connect with a backward elbow to one guy, then follow up straight away by continuing around and a straight jab, grab him and throw him into another enemy and move onto a third enemy – I’m guessing you know what I mean. All I’m saying is – make it look interesting and more skillfull than they normally would.

Of course, just like Batarangs – you can also unleash heat vision or freeze breath or super-breath from the power-wheel against your opponents.

4. Side Missions:

Ok so while you’re going around doing your thing, other things can pop up at different times. These may be due to you seeing something on screen, or hearing something – which you can then choose to complete as a side mission, probably something I’d call “Acts of Heroism”. These can be all sorts of things such as putting out a fire, stopping a robbery, catching a thief, etc… To add to the importance of these, I would also add in a Karma effect, whereby the more of these you accomplish, the more the Metropolis citizens accept you. If you ignore everyone in need of help however, they turn on you and don’t trust you anymore, and will actually get in your way at times, yelling at you, throwing things at you etc… These can be where light-speed gets useful as well, as you can basically freeze time to ensure you can swoop in and save that person from getting hit by a car or stopping a bullet mid-flight from hitting someone. As I said though the light-speed thing is a burst thing and can’t be used continuously. And the more you use it, the faster it drains your energy levels (in my way of doing this, you don’t have a health bar – you have an energy bar, which if depleted, causes you to lose consciousness – you can’t actually “die” though, at least not most of the time).

On top of these are the “world” missions I mentioned earlier. These would replace the typical “time trial” stuff these games tend to include (fly through the markers in the time-limit crap for example). Instead of doing useless things, you go to different locations and save people from natural disasters or other calamities different to what’s happening in the core locations like Metropolis. These can be used as a way of improving your skills with certain power types (as some abilities will be more useful in different situations) and the more you do them, the more powerful you become with the targeted ability or skill. These can initially even be how you unlock certain skills (such as combining vision types). So for example, in order to stop a hurricane, you need to first navigate your way into the eye of the storm and then create an opposing vortex or something. By doing this you save a coastal city in Japan. In doing so it tests your flying skills (making you as the player better at controlling him in flight so you don’t crash into stuff) and adds an ability to create a vortex, usable later in the game or can be added to the power wheel.

5. Interactions:

Basically you should be able to interact with all aspects of the environment. If it’s an object – you can pick it up, even if that means ripping it out of the ground. If it’s a big heavy thing like a car – you can throw it. If it’s something like a lamp post – you can hit things with it. If something is falling – you can catch it. You can pick up people or catch them when they’re falling. Also – if you fly INTO something – you don’t stop or get knocked about – IT gets broken or smashed or bent – you basically go through it. This includes smashing through building walls and roofs too. Now – this is dependent on the speed you’re moving to an extent. If you’re just normally walking, then no – but if you’re in a super-speed yeah – you fly into that building by accident – you literally fly INTO that building, making a mess as you do. This also has impacts on the karma aspect from earlier – if you basically just go around destroying everything regardless of anything – then there’s consequences for that. People won’t like you. Now in-story-main-mission fights (like boss battles basically) are more forgiving in this aspect, without Karma consequences. The basic premise is that the area you’re fighting in will be evacuated most of the time and so you can cut-loose when it’s called for. But just during standard gameplay or free roaming – no. You need to be careful and not just ruin the city. When it comes to people you can talk to anyone – although not always get any real discussion or information out of it (I used to be an adventurer like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee), but key characters will allow proper discussion. And here’s the thing – sometimes you’re NOT Superman. Sometimes you’re Clark Kent. Also – the world around you should be somewhat realistic in its interactions too. People don’t just randomly walk in and out of closed doors. If someone enters a building – they open a door and walk through and close it. Day and night happen, time is relative to what’s happening in game however. So for example if you’re free roaming it will transition from day to night. If you’re in a mission, especially one with a time limit – it won’t. And some things can only be accessed or missions occur during the day and some only at night.

6. Online/Multiplayer:

Yep – I envisage a multiplayer aspect to the game – but it’s NOT as Superman. Instead this would be titled “War of Krypton” and would see you and other players being soldieries in the Kryptonian military fighting for Krypton against some sort of enemy force. This then isn’t a super-powered based thing BUT instead is more combat based incorporating guns and hand-to-hand skills etc… in set map locations. You get mission objectives depending on the map (some have players against each other, some are working together as a team against AI) under the command of General Zod. You can add a story element to it but mostly it’s just so you and friends can join up and play together online doing something different. This increases the games longevity for obvious reasons. Think of something like a mini COD game basically (or any other online-multiplayer war type game).

7. Challenge Mode:

So these are challenges such as survival challenges (fight increasing waves of enemies until you run out of energy), or locate challenges (find hidden objects/bombs in a certain time limit) and the like with a 1, 2, or 3 shield rating depending on how well you do. Relevant locations could include the Watchtower or Fortress and could take place in training simulators for example – all depending on what it is. They’re purely there for achievement purposes and just add another aspect of game-play and re-playability, and much like the ones in the Arkham games, the better you are in these, generally the better you are as an in-game player anyway.

8. Achievements & Unlockables:

Ok so with the scope of game I’m talking about, LOTS of achievements could be attainable. There’s the obvious things like completing certain amounts of Acts of Heroism and rescuing a certain number of citizens. You could chuck it ones like beating X amount of enemies or completing certain missions in a certain time-limit. The world wide side-missions as well would have relevant achievements and the challenge modes would provide certain achievements. In addition to these you could also have things hidden around the in-game environments that unlock things – like finding the Riddler symbols in Arkham. Instead of Riddler symbols – have them be pieces of some Kryptonian artefacts, which once fully collected unlock something like the ability to build a phantom zone projector, or to re-build your ship from when you were a baby, etc… Artefacts and things you collect are stored in a museum in the Fortress too – so at any time you can go to them and find out about them etc… building up the Fortress as you go and expanding knowledge of the character’s background and history. Also achievements unlock things like artwork, video clips and animations etc… These are also able to be posted online, shared over social networks and rankings can exist for various scores and achievements you’ve managed to complete between the main game modes, the challenge modes and the multiplayer stuff.

9. Controls, Camera & everything else:

I envisage this as a 3^rd person view, with the ability at times to jump to 1^st person, when it’s needed. The left analogue stick controls movement, the d-pad is the power wheel. Pressing start gives you the pause menu and select could do something too, not sure what yet (probably bring up a map). The right analogue stick controls the camera by default. The four buttons would do actions. 1 for attack, one for jump (long press to start/finish flying), one to interact (talk, open, push, pick-up) and the other to switch view modes (transition between normal vision and sup-vision). The triggers would then allow further functionality. Thinking in terms of a L1, L2, and R1, R2 set up: L1 – print/super-speed. L2- brings up the power wheel/s so you can move and swap out what’s available for quick-selection via the d-pad. R1 could be to do a power combine action, R2 could be the way to start a combo. L3 could be to do something and R3 could be something else. To be honest This is a really long post and I can’t think straight any more. Maybe one is the transition between camera angles and the other could be how to control the heat vision precision/modes if it’s not done via pre-sets in the power-wheel.

As I said I don’t think there should be a health bar – you should basically be invincible. However you do have an energy bar, which is depleted based on attacks (as it uses power to heal damage and to resist attacks) and how you’re using your powers (such as heat vision and super-speed). If you go too full-on with heat vision for example you’ll burn through your available energy faster. In times of doing nothing (such as just walking or running around normally, not getting hit by anything etc…) your energy bar replenishes itself, unless there’s a reason it can’t relevant to the story/mission (maybe you've been poisoned by green K or you’re fighting a magic user) and this happens much faster in sun-light. If you “lose” this basically comes off as you getting too weak to continue fighting and you shoot off immediately and re-charge in front of the sun – this obviously replenishes you immediately and gives you a slight over-boost when you resume game-play (kind of like sun-dipping). As you progress through the game your available energy increases, and the amount of energy depleted decreases as you improve your skills with your powers. Basic actions however such as running and jumping and punching don’t deplete energy. I can’t decide if flight should or not to be honest – I think it would be too annoying if it did, so I’d go with normal flight, no it doesn’t – but if you’re flying at super-speed or light-speed, it does as per their requirements when you’re on the ground too. Special attack movements do as well, such as let’s say grabbing someone and speed blitzing them up to space and then punching them back down (a la Injustice) would use energy. It’s a special attack. Basic fighting combos however won’t as that would make challenge modes and survival fights near impossible. I’d also say that some controls and buttons functions adjust depending on what is happening. For example in the middle of a fight you don’t want to randomly start flying and lose track of your opponents – so this would adjust its accessibility, similarly when you’re not fighting you don’t want to be randomly targeting things, so whatever button (let’s say R2) acts as a target lock during a fight, is instead how you enable super-hearing to locate things when not in a combat scenario. So the buttons I listed earlier would adjust depending on what is happening in game right then.

Other than story and villain ideas, and actual game design – I think that covers everything…. Damn it this is way longer than I thought it would be when I started typing.