Video Games Day 4: Batman

A
     When portraying Batman throughout the media, particularly in movies, comics and video games, there are always differences caused by the different media forms and different creative minds. Overall, I think comics are the best form to portray Batman in because they allow by far the most freedom. The stories that are written and the set-pieces possible are only limited by the ability of the artists for the comic, allowing the writers to take the character to places not possible for film and even video games. Video games provide a good amount more room to work with when portraying Batman, particularly his gadgets and brutal fighting style. The problem with video games is that, while they provide more freedom than films they take an extreme amount of time and effort to make and can't have the consistency in their release like comics. Films are by far the weakest as they have many restrictions on their storytelling. Films have to stay grounded in a certain amount of realism. They also take nearly as long to make as video games and can be effected by companies funding them and have to be watered down to appeal to a wider audience. This makes it a weak format to portray Batman in as it has very little freedom to portray Batman in an interesting and dynamic way.

B
     Music and atmosphere are rather important to Batman games because of the importance they place on the world. In Batman games, the world is key to the story and who Batman is a character. Gotham is a dark and sinister place and using music and a well crafted atmosphere to show this makes the world within the game all the more effective to the player. It really helps for scenes like The Scarecrow's nightmare scene where the atmosphere is what makes the sequence so effective.

In Conclusion

     Over the past few days it has become rather evident that, for the most part, music and atmosphere are essential to video games. This is quite noticeable when playing modern games as many of them focus on the story or at least the world in which the game takes place. For example, Fallout placed a great deal of emphasis on both it's story as well as the detail and immersion making the music and atmosphere key to the game. Zombie games like Left 4 Dead don't rely on music and atmosphere as much because their game focuses on slaughtering zombies, whereas games like The Last of Us focus on the characters and the world they live in, making them important. Blockbusters vary wildly depending on the type of game but many utilize atmosphere when showing off their new and cutting-edge graphics. Batman also makes hefty use of both in order to create the dark and sinister vibe that the city of Gotham radiates. Overall, music and atmosphere play an incredibly essential role in video games and their creation.