Rocksteady’s said that the main story campaign in Batman: Arkham City will last around 25 hours – significantly longer than the eight hour time frame originally touted by the developer earlier this year.
Not only that, but the studio has also said that the superhero sequel’s play time can be further increased by tackling non-essential story missions, which add another 15 hours worth of gameplay. So that’s about 40 hours of content in total — not too shabby.
"It takes over 25 hours to complete the main stories in Batman: Arkham City. To keep players engaged for this length of time, not only do the characters and the story need to progress, but the core mechanics of the game they are playing need to change and adapt as well", said Rocksteady’s Sefton Hill, during a chat with The Guardian.
"The side missions in Batman: Arkham City are a good example. We have around 15 hours of story that’s off the main path," he continued.
"It’s completely down to the player when and how they want to tackle this – there’s no right or wrong time. There’s no other medium that can offer this kind of flexible experience where the viewer gets to tailor the experience they want themselves."
Elsewhere, Hill said he feels videogames including Arkham City boast a narrative structure that’s comparable to that of TV shows rather than films.
"In terms of narrative structure, I think games are much more analogous to an episodic TV series than a film. You have, say, 15 hourly episodes to fill, each requiring its own narrative arc but each plugging into an overarching storyline", said Hill.
"It requires a lot of planning to make sure that every single hour is consistent with each other, is feeding and driving towards a compelling crescendo, while remaining implicitly self-explanatory so players can pick up and play at any time and know what they are doing."
Batman: Arkham City is due for release in October 2011.