Batman: Arkham Asylum Art Director Laments Detective Vision, Aims to Rectify It in Sequel

The “Detective Vision” in Rocksteady Games’ Batman: Arkham Asylum has proven itself useful to many an armchair Dark Knight… perhaps a little too useful. While it makes finding enemies and devising strategies a snap, it can make determining who you’re striking terror into or where you’re striking it a tad difficult to see.

This is the problem Art Director David Hego lamented at the Develop conference in Brighton, Great Britain, earlier today, as he spoke of people telling him that they would play the entire game with Detective Vision engaged. “[I would] want to cry a little bit,” he joked.

He admitted that the gimmick was “very powerful,” but that it made sense as a part of Batman’s formidable high-tech arsenal.

Hego noted that it was “a gameplay decision” to make Detective Vision so powerful. But with Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 on the way, are they going to strike a balance between this useful gadget and the ability for players to see the world around them?

“[W]e’re going to try not to do that mistake again,” he said, adding that next time, they would “make it more like augmented reality.”

Hego went on to describe the actual art direction of the game, including the use of light and shadow, and of warm and cool to help direct players’ attention throughout the numerous chambers of the asylum. He also spoke of the stylized, exaggerated features and realistic textures used in character models such as the Joker. This “hyper-realism” allowed them to circumvent the issue of the uncanny valley (when false human imagery appears unsettlingly realistic):

“One of the big advantages of the stylised realism was we were jumping across the uncanny valley… By making [the characters] so stylised, you can forget about uncanny valley because you accept that it’s not real.”

By the time you finished playing, how much of the game were you able to take in through “normal” vision? Did you make a conscious effort to turn it off now and then, or keep it on the whole time? And, if you did use it the whole way through, did you give the game another run without it?

[Source: GameSpot via GamesRadar]