Video games based on superheroes are often doomed to fail. However once in a blue moon, a saving grace appears to show everyone how it’s done. In 2009, that was Batman: Arkham Asylum, a single-player Metroidvania starring everyone’s favourite caped crusader, who’s trapped on an island with some of his most twisted villains to endure the longest night of his career.
This was brilliantly followed up by Batman: Arkham City, a prequel called Batman: Arkham Origins and finally Batman: Arkham Knight.
Batman: Arkham Asylum, City and Knight are all available on Nintendo Switch now as part of a new collection, check it out here
Fans found them amusing for a while, but the one thing people love to see more is a hero fail, fall or die trying, and that’s when Insomniac Games pulled up with Marvel’s Spider-Man for the PlayStation 4. An emotional rollercoaster that did what Spider-Man stories do best, break Peter Parker physically and emotionally for our amusement.
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It’s safe to say Rocksteady’s Batman games and Insomniac’s Spider-Man games are the best superhero titles ever created, but how exactly could they fail? Batman and Spider-Man are the poster boys of DC and Marvel respectively, the real measure of success is taking a more obscure hero and giving them a shot at stardom, and I don’t think any hero deserves that chance more than Daredevil.
Matt Murdock, AKA Daredevil, often gets a lot of comparisons to DC’s Dark Knight, and it’s easy to see why. Both wear costumes designed to strike fear into the hearts of criminals, tend not to work well with others, and spend many nights sulking on rooftops in the darkness. They’re also two heroes who treat their superhero status as their regular personality, with billionaire Bruce Wayne and blind lawyer Matt Murdock as their real mask for society, hiding the vigilante within their hearts.
While I agree with them being the same in more than one continuity, I think there’s a fundamental difference between the two that makes Daredevil slightly more compelling as a character, and worthy of a video game adaptation. Matt states in the second season of the critically acclaimed Daredevil Netflix show, "Vengeance Is Not Justice." For all his vigilantism, one of his main driving factors is upholding the law. In that same season, he allows the police to arrest an incapacitated Punisher, so the public can see “the system works,” and dissuade people from taking matters into their own hands like Daredevil does.
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This is where I think a video game of Daredevil could work, if done right it could provide a truly unique experience within the superhero genre that’s more than just “go to Point A, beat up the bad guys, go to Point B,” and I’ll try to explain that further.
Instead of making New York into a setting like Marvel’s Spider-Man, a Daredevil game should treat it more like a character that drives the story and how the player interacts with it.
The story could follow Matt’s war on crime in Hell’s Kitchen and the wider city, taking on one gang or villain at a time and linking it all together at the end with Kingpin pulling all the strings as usual. To make things unique, players should be able to choose how they handle certain scenarios, either on the right side of the law as Matt Murdock or through vigilantism as Daredevil.
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As Matt Murdock, the game would take an L.A Noire approach of investigating the criminals, finding witnesses, and putting together a case like Phoneix Wright. This could take advantage of Matt’s ability to blend in as a blind man during investigations, and you could even link it to nighttime missions as Daredevil to get to areas and people Matt would be unable to reach as a civilian.
Daredevil missions would be more cut and dry. Dismantling whatever criminal organisation is running amuck while stopping crimes in progress as he traverses the city. Combat could stay true to Marvel’s Spider-Man system of simple button commands for punches and kicks, mixed in with some combos using his billy clubs. The clubs should also be throwable and could be upgraded to unlock special moves. Traversal would be slightly tricky, but using a mixture of swinging and parkour gameplay should do the trick, just on a smaller scale than Spider-Man as Daredevil doesn’t have the luxury of web shooters. Stealth should be an option given he doesn’t have the same agility or strength other heroes have when it comes to tanking attacks and gunfire.
Which stance against crime you choose would have an impact on the city around you, both from a story and gameplay perspective. Solving the problems as Murdock would make the city believe more in the justice system, as it’s seeing proof the law can take criminals off the streets. On the flip side, making Daredevil have a greater impact on crime would change public opinion to favour vigilantes, making them more likely to follow in his footsteps like copycats. You’d see these vigilantes on the streets fighting criminals, meaning you’d have to dispatch two groups of enemies as despite their “good intentions” they’re still causing unnecessary danger and harm to the general public.
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Crimes in progress could work similarly to Marvel’s Spider-Man, with the aforementioned vigilantes intervening in crimes for added difficulty. Another twist would be a police response timer, that would count down to whenever the police arrive to deal with the problem themselves. The longer the timer, the more likely the criminals will have a chance to escape, hurt somebody, or finish whatever job they're doing, meaning you’d have to decide quickly if you want to intervene, knowing the impact it could have on public opinion.
The rest of the game should be easy to picture, Matt/Daredevil in emotional turmoil, Kingpin doing whatever he can to keep his empire from toppling over, and plenty of show-don’t-tell game mechanics. I think the odd reference or cameo of other Marvel heroes could be a welcome addition, but restricting it to street-level heroes with their problems to not leave any room for plotholes or negative impacts on the story.
Whether there are any plans for a Daredevil game is unlikely, but given the popularity of Insomniac’s PlayStation games there’s definitely a place for more superhero game adaptations. The difficulty is providing a unique experience that isn’t shrugged off as a Marvel’s Spider-Man clone, while still retaining some of the gameplay that makes it enjoyable to play.
Featured Image Credit: DaredevilTopics: Marvel, Marvels Spider Man, Insomniac Games, PlayStation, Xbox, PC