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"Rocksteady marketing manager Dax Ginn has said that the studio is confident Batman: Arkham City&amp;#039;s shift to an open-world structure will prove a success. Surprise hit Batman: Arkham Asylum, released in 2009, told the story of a hellish night for Batman, as he had to tackle the Joker and survive an onslaught of supervillains. The gameplay was mostly a linear experience focused within the walls of the famous prison for the criminally insane, but its follow-up Arkham City switches to an open-world setting, leading to fears that some of the atmosphere and clarity of the first game could be lost.  In an interview with Digital Spy, Ginn said that the team &amp;quot;wanted to take the lessons that we learned from Arkham Asylum and write them large on the canvas of Gotham&amp;quot;. This led Rocksteady to pick an open-world structure in which the player will be free to move through the main story, or instead explore the city to tackle the many side missions and quests.  Discussing the choice of an open-world, Ginn said: &amp;quot;Our objective wasn&amp;#039;t to make the biggest open-world game, it was to make the most detailed open-world game. So when you are gliding across the skyline you have freedom of choice, but when you hit the streets the aesthetic is amazing... we wanted to explore that ground and still really tell a tight story.&amp;quot; Watch a 12-minute preview of Batman: Arkham City below:  One of the most impressive things about Arkham Asylum was the sense that Batman was trapped in the prison with the inmates and had to fight for his life, but Ginn is confident that Arkham City will create the same sense of oppressive atmosphere.  &amp;quot;The way we told the tight story in Arkham Asylum was very simple because it was a very focused experience. We knew where the player was going to be at any point in time. In Arkham City we don&amp;#039;t know where the player is going to be so we have developed narrative systems that bombard the player with directions,&amp;quot; he said.  &amp;quot;One of those is an expansion of Batman&amp;#039;s detective mode which enables him to listen in on surveillance conversations that are happening all around Arkham City... there is this rumour mill going on and even when you have done something in the game you will hear talk about it, and maybe an hour later it has been mutated into something else.  &amp;quot;That narrative component is coming at you even when you are not in a narrative cinematic. But the main way we keep the player focused is the Bat Signal and so if you need to know where the next mission is, just look in the sky. If you spend 15 hours tackling the Riddler challenges or teaming up with Bane, or doing side missions, actively ignoring the core narrative path, all you have got to do is look for the signal and you will pick up the path from there.&amp;quot; Asked whether the open-world setting could lead to a dilution of the experience, Ginn said that the team has been &amp;quot;acutely aware&amp;quot; of this danger from the start and taken action accordingly.  &amp;quot;We don&amp;#039;t want to create a diluted experience. We want to create the same intense atmosphere as Arkham Asylum,&amp;quot; he said.  &amp;quot;Having played the game so many times I can make that guarantee to you even though you have this incredible sense of freedom.&amp;quot; He added: &amp;quot;The feeling I get [playing the game] is that every single villain wants a piece of me and I have got to keep them all under control at the same time. And that is what I assume it must feel like to be Batman. Everyone is doing their own thing and I am the only one standing between us and chaos. And that is an incredible feeling.&amp;quot;  Batman: Arkham City will be released on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on October 18 in North America and October 21 in Europe. More Batman: Arkham City coverage: &amp;gt; Batman: Arkham City: New cover art revealed &amp;gt; Batman: Arkham City: Preview - E3 2011 &amp;gt; First Batman: Arkham City screens &amp;gt; Batman: Arkham City&amp;#039;s Robin: First look "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/news/a334331/batman-arkham-city-studio-rocksteady-confident-over-open-world-shift/>