Batman: Return to Arkham is finally upon us. After a shock announcement that the remaster would be delayed indefinitely, we learned that the game would now be coming on 21 October, 2016.

In a new trailer released by Warner Bros. Games, we are treated to stunning new visuals straight out of Arkham Knight. Much like the announcement trailer, this one compares the original versions of the remastered titles. It cleans up the “foggy” scenes and gives Batman much sharper and more detailed suits. The colours are clearer, and his suit actually looks black and grey, compared to the blueish hue of the original versions.

This is the first time we get to see Return to Arkham’s new assets in action. From Joker’s sharpened grin to Dr Freeze’s updated suit, and even the city itself. The Arkham games used to be rife with very bad graphical “pop-in” in the past. As such, I am quite interested to see if that is still the case given how the game must render even higher textures and models. With that said, however, I have noticed that Bruce Wayne looks a tiny bit younger under the cowl. I am not sure if that is because of the new textures, or whether Rocksteady chose to give him a facelift while they were at it. I sincerely hope the latter is not the case since that would totally destroy the man crush I have on him.

Virtuous is responsible for bringing Return to Arkham to modern consoles, while Rocksteady provided the assets. Virtuous has ported games like XCOM: Enemy Unknown to iOS; and Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD to PlayStation Vita. As such, I have high hopes that the move from previous generation consoles to current will be smooth sailing. Return to Arkham has already been delayed once due to optimisation errors.

Batman: Return to Arkham will release on 21 October 2016 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It contains Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City, and all content released for each game. It seems like Warner Bros. Games are staying far away from Arkham: Origins, due to it being the “black sheep” in the franchise.

[Sources: Batman News, Coming Soon, PlayStation (trailer)]

View Author Profile

Junior Editor at Vamers. From Superman to Ironman; Bill Rizer to Sam Fisher and everything in-between, Edward loves it all. He is a Bachelor of Arts student and English Major specialising in Language and Literature. He is an avid writer and casual social networker with a flare for all things tech related.