UPDATE: While the video has been updated, none of the commentary below (from 2016) has! Please consider this a re-post!
In case you missed it, last week marked the Internet premiere of a very special project for me: a series of Let's Play videos chronicling the story mode of Batman: Arkham Knight! I know the game itself came out more than nine months ago (the same amount of time between the events of Arkham City and Arkham Knight), and it's taken me this long to post because this is no ordinary Let's Play. Rather than just hit start and accompany my gameplay footage with awkward, unrehearsed commentary, I played through the whole game (twice, in fact), and then structured the resulting footage into the form of a 15 episode TV miniseries. What you see below is the first episode of this endeavor:
As I explain in the video, I divide each episode (roughly) into the traditional three-act structure that you normally see in half-hour television programs, with the first act of this first episode almost entirely devoted to personally produced content, most of which is derived from the game itself. In a rare glimpse behind the TV curtain, I've posted the story grid for Episode 1: The Scarecrow, so you can see definitively how I divided up the individual scenes. My plan is for these blog posts to act as a sort of Director's (Producer's/Editor's?) Commentary, giving you some insight into the production process and the choices I made in crafting this, my proudest creative accomplishment yet.
The first scene, Joker's Cremation, is pretty self-explanatory, it's the opening cinematic sequence, presented exactly how you see when first starting the game, but if you haven't played the first two games in the series, you might be a little confused as to how Batman's greatest foe ended up dead in a furnace. For some backstory, here's an excerpt of an audio recording you unlock during the game:
BATMAN
Two years ago I uncovered Joker’s plot to unleash a genetically enhanced army on Gotham. The drug he used to modify his henchmen was called Titan.
Before I could stop him, Joker ingested a massive dose of the Titan formula and mutated into a gigantic abomination. I managed to defeat him, but his overdose had devastating side-effects.
Joker was dying and he needed a cure. To ensure my cooperation he infected my blood with his own, leaving me no choice but to help him.
To finish the story, Batman worked with Mr. Freeze to develop a cure, which saved Batman's life, but it was unfortunately too late for his arch-nemesis. That was nine months ago, according to Commissioner Gordon, whose dialogue starts the game. Fun fact: these shots of Gordon standing next to the Bat Signal are not part of the game; they come from a promotional trailer that I found online and spliced in, just so we know who's talking. I'll admit that when I first played through the game, I thought these opening lines were spoken by the random police officer you take control of later in the game.
But in between the opening cinematic and the first official start of the gameplay, I added several scenes worth of backstory into my Let's Play, all but one adapted from the Gotham City Stories that you unlock during the game. I wrote a bit about my proposed structure before I started editing this project, and while a lot of the scene order has changed, the main takeaway was that I suggested an ideal cast of actors to play the parts in a live-action version of this game, which I will re-post and expand upon here.
The first scene, Fallout (not the popular game series of the same name), features Commissioner Gordon as a witness in the parole hearing of the Riddler, aka Edward Nygma. I still think Bryan Cranston should reprise the role of Jim Gordon, which he voiced in the Batman: Year One animated film (even if he is a little young for the role as presented in the game), but I'd like to make one change from my previously-propsed casting. Not that David Tennant wouldn't make a great angry, brooding Riddler, but given how dark most of the subject matter is in this game, I think this role would be better utilized as more comic relief. Thus, I would like to revise my ideal casting choice to James Urbaniak, voice of Dr. Venture on "The Venture Bros." No one does a better emotionally troubled super-genius while still keeping things light.
The next scene is the only one in this series that I wrote and produced all by myself: it's a commercial for a Wayne Enterprises-backed charity called "Hire-A-Henchman." (I published a rough version of this segment as a sneak peek to these videos several months ago - so when you see Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne in those Batman v. Superman themed airline commercials, just know that I had the idea first!) Because I think it makes sense to introduce the gaudy, public persona of Bruce Wayne (ideally played by arguably the greatest living actor Daniel Day-Lewis) before we see him as Batman. Also, this concept makes sense in the story: what better way to deal with all the thugs left unemployed with the shuttering of Arkham City?
From here, we follow Bruce Wayne to a couple of scenes with his allies of the older generation: Lucius Fox (played by Reg E. Cathey) and Alfred (Sir Anthony Hopkins). Not only do both of these actors have the sonorous voices that any super hero would love to have pumping through his in-cowl communication system, but Cathey has the perfect blend of smarmy and sincere that he displayed in his role of a political advisor on The Wire, and for Sir Tony's qualifications, I submit this picture as evidence.
After these backstory scenes, we launch back into the gameplay cinematic, where we catch the first glimpse of the Jonathan Noble-voiced Scarecrow, a role I would like to see him reprise on the live action stage. I then quickly interrupt this cutscene with the "Father to Son" trailer, which I think this fits perfectly here, because if we're introduced to Bruce Wayne first, it only makes sense that we see his cinematic transformation into Batman. Plus, it's a great reveal of the Batmobile.
The in-game reveal of the Batmobile follows a brief homage to the music of Batman: The Animated Series, but since I previewed this sequence in my sneak peek of this project, I won't say anything more about it here, except that I'm still in awe of how perfectly the music and the action sync up. We then drive the Batmobile to Scarecrow's safehouse, in which he is holding captive Pamela Isley, aka Poison Ivy, the role of which I would love to see played by Lena Headey from Game of Thrones.
It's at this point in the narrative that I add another homemade cinematic sequence, showing the meeting between supervillains that set the events of this game in motion. You can unlock the audio for this meeting in the game, but I think I enhanced it a fair bit by adding shots of the 3D character models from the showcase, concept art stills, and promotional material, if I do say so myself.
I was able to provide such a compelling finale for the episode thanks to the New Story Plus option, which allowed me to start the game with several Batmobile upgrades that first-time players would have to earn throughout the game. But trust me, there will be plenty of Batmobile Battle Mode shenanigans in the episodes to come, so you'll see why I try to make these encounters as short as possible, whenever possible.
So there you have it, some verbose commentary to go with the first of 15 episodes of the Batman: Arkham Knight story mode. Tune in to the RyskMonger42 YouTube Channel for new episodes every week and more fun stuff!
After these backstory scenes, we launch back into the gameplay cinematic, where we catch the first glimpse of the Jonathan Noble-voiced Scarecrow, a role I would like to see him reprise on the live action stage. I then quickly interrupt this cutscene with the "Father to Son" trailer, which I think this fits perfectly here, because if we're introduced to Bruce Wayne first, it only makes sense that we see his cinematic transformation into Batman. Plus, it's a great reveal of the Batmobile.
The in-game reveal of the Batmobile follows a brief homage to the music of Batman: The Animated Series, but since I previewed this sequence in my sneak peek of this project, I won't say anything more about it here, except that I'm still in awe of how perfectly the music and the action sync up. We then drive the Batmobile to Scarecrow's safehouse, in which he is holding captive Pamela Isley, aka Poison Ivy, the role of which I would love to see played by Lena Headey from Game of Thrones.
It's at this point in the narrative that I add another homemade cinematic sequence, showing the meeting between supervillains that set the events of this game in motion. You can unlock the audio for this meeting in the game, but I think I enhanced it a fair bit by adding shots of the 3D character models from the showcase, concept art stills, and promotional material, if I do say so myself.
I was able to provide such a compelling finale for the episode thanks to the New Story Plus option, which allowed me to start the game with several Batmobile upgrades that first-time players would have to earn throughout the game. But trust me, there will be plenty of Batmobile Battle Mode shenanigans in the episodes to come, so you'll see why I try to make these encounters as short as possible, whenever possible.
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