Last month, GameStop let slip that current gen remasters of Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City were on their way, and a month later Warner Bros. Interactive has confirmed it.
Batman: Return to Arkham will contain prettied-up versions of the first two games in the acclaimed series. Return to Arkham will go further than most remasters, as Warner Bros. is promising a full upgrade to Unreal Engine 4, which will include improved models, environments, textures and lighting. Based on the new trailer, the old games now look nearly up to par with Batman: Arkham Knight.
One cause for concern – this remaster wasn’t developed by Rocksteady Studios, and as we know, the Arkham series doesn’t fare well when touched by anybody but its original creators. Batman: Arkham Origins was mediocre and the PC port of Arkham Knight was a downright disaster. This remaster is being handled by Virtuos, an experienced Chinese developer that specializes in porting games to new platforms (they recently handled the PS4 ports of Final Fantasy X and Heavy Rain), so hopefully we don’t need to be too alarmed.
Batman: Return to Arkham will sell for $50, and so far there’s no word on if you’ll be able to buy Asylum and City separately. Hopefully the option will become available eventually – having played through Arkham City recently, I’m personally more interested in playing Arkham Asylum again.
Batman: Return to Arkham swoops onto the Xbox One and PS4, July 26.
(Via Kotaku)