Batman: Arkham Knight, Sefton Hill Interview!

Batman: Arkham Knight Interview!

The darkest, most violent Supehero Game yet? Rocksteady's Sefton Hill talks! 

 Batman: Arkham Knight has been given an "M for Mature" rating stateside, while it's still a "16 plus" for us here in the UK it does indicate a change in tone for Rocksteady Studios final Batman game, as it's the first in the series to recieve such a high rating. Founder of Rocksteady, Sefton Hill has spoken about the news and what it means for the story and violent content in the game.

"From our point of view, we never wrote it or made it with a rating in mind. We never did that in the previous two games... We just felt that this is the story that we really wanted to tell. In terms of creating the story, with such strong characters, sometimes they lead you in interesting directions. They lead you because you know who they are and you build the world around that."

Could this be the last  time Bruce Wayne dons the Bat-Suit?

Hill also spoke about how the stakes are higher now than in the previous games, The Dark Knight will be pushed to absolute breaking point and while not mentioning anything specific that could be an indication to why the rating rose to a mature player.

"As the end of the trilogy, we have every villain in Gotham working together to destroy Batman," Hill said. "It's unavoidable that some bad stuff is going to happen. But that doesn't mean we changed our approach. We're not including gratuitous blood or swearing. We want to deliver a true end with no compromises, and it takes us to some dark places."

The game will feature the largest open world in the series

 He continued, 'Themes are more mature to some extent. At the same time it's balanced as it's always been. This isn't the case of stripped back Batman. In the case of Arkham Knight, Batman is at his peak and most powerful. That's why they also have to push him harder than before. You still get the power fantasy of being the Batman. But to counter that strength, the super villains are going to fight dirty and take him to dark places."

Batman's relationship with his allies will also be tested

WB did a ratings analysis on Arkham Knight early in the games development and sent an email alerting Hill to the fact that a few key scenes that would cause the rating to be higher.

"I was really freaked out because the solution was to lose the scenes," Hill said. "But they were key scenes! We couldn't lose them! I got the email. I'm freaked out. I thought this was going to destroy the game, everything I'm passionate about... I was building myself up for this big argument. I didn't get much sleep..."

"I got on the phone the next day with Ames Kirshen, the VP of Production at Warner Bros. Interactive," Hill continued. "The first thing he asked me was what I wanted to do." So Hill told him, and that was that.

The mysterious Arkham Knight will push Batman to his limits

With a higher rating and multi million dollar game being developed, suddenly a certain demographic is lost as they may not be able to purchase the game, Hill also elaborated on this.

 "I'm not blind to the fact that [the M rating] does mean some fans will miss out... I don't want to be oblivious to that fact. It would have been wrong to water down the game and deliver a story we didn't believe in to keep the game "mass market" or enable it for more people. We feel that's the wrong way to go about it. We said we love the story and we don't want to jepoardize that."

Batman: Arkham Knight comes to PS4, Xbox One, and PC on June 2 and I for one cannot wait!