After an extended hiatus, Batman is returning to video games later this year with Gotham Knights, but it will be a different Gotham City than the one players left behind in 2015's Batman: Arkham Knight. Developed by WB Games Montréal, Gotham Knights will take place in a new corner of the DC Comics Multiverse and utilize a redesigned combat system. With all these new elements coming into focus, some fans have wondered if the developers of Arkham Origins will bring in the Nemesis System from Monolith's Middle-Earth duology in order to liven things up further.
In fact, fans of the Middle-Earth games have been waiting for another series to pick up the torch from Shadow of War's Nemesis System for a long while. The system, which pits a rotating lineup of named and voiced adversaries against the protagonist and weaves them into an ongoing narrative, is a huge step forward for open-world games.
Despite reports that several studios have tried to implement something like the system in their games, it has proven difficult. Part of this might be that publisher Warner Bros. has patented several key features of the mechanic, meaning that studios outside of WB have to work around tough restrictions to get close to what Monolith created. Thankfully, as one might be able to gather from the studio's name, WB Games Montréal is firmly a WB studio, so they'd likely be able to utilize the Nemesis System without any trouble. Whether they actually will or not is another question entirely, although it has been rumored.
Will Gotham Knights Borrow From Middle-Earth: Shadow of War?
The team behind Gotham Knights has not announced any plans to copy Middle-Earth at this time, focusing instead on the four playable characters and the co-op inherent to Gotham Knights' design. There is one aspect of the game that could lend itself well to implementing the Nemesis System, however.
The Gotham Knights reveal did note that the Court of Owls would be the main antagonist of the brawler, pitting Robin, Batgirl, Nightwing, and Red Hood against a secret society housing an untold army of masked foes. Those loyal to the Court could easily fill the place of Middle-Earth's Orcs, especially if the developer is willing to take creative liberties with the organization's signature mask design. If not, even the groups of common street toughs that roam Gotham City would fit quite well as enemies popping into unrelated battles to make things interesting. There's plenty of opportunity for Monolith's creation in the world of Batman, it's just up to whether WB Games Montréal wants to take advantage of it. It's worth nothing (although it must be taken with a grain of salt, as this is just a rumor) that some people like Twitter user @TheComixKid have noted that the Nemesis System will be included and include the Gotham City Police Department, but nothing official has been confirmed.
Whether or not Gotham Knights is the game that reintroduces the Nemesis System to gaming, it's almost inevitable that someone will utilize it in the future. The stories that came from the Middle-Earth games regarding bosses appearing from nowhere elevated an admittedly mediocre action game into something much more interesting. It's almost a shame that WB has locked the system behind patents, as this kind of spontaneous storytelling is another example of what games do better than movies, TV, or any other medium. It's simply too useful a tool to be trapped in licensed games about superheroes or spectral warriors.