RS:We have been very fortunate to have great access to the film crew and their production.   This has gone a huge way to make the game more closely resemble the film.   Even before a single frame of film was shot, we had concept art, a script, and we’re talking to the film’s production staff.  During their production we made several visits to their set in both the UK and Chicago to see first hand what they were creating, and at the same time show them our progress.  It was a really great collaboration overall.

Q: Throughout video game history, movie adaptations haven’t been very strong, why is this and how are you trying to fix this?

RS: I think this is due to the publisher/developer overly relying on the license and not pushing themselves to make compelling game content. The game production staff at EA and Eurocom are highly critical of our own work and are not content to do something average.    Our goal is to really push the limits with this game, and make the Batman experience that players have been asking for.

Q: Batman Begins the Video Game will have a fear mechanics system; can you talk about this and describe a situation when this is used?

RS: Definitely, this is what sets the game apart from all other Batman games, and any other game on the market today.  In the film Batman uses fear against his enemies to weaken them before going in for the takedown.  We have recreated this idea in the game where the player will need to scare his enemies first, then fight second.  Scaring enemies causes them to drop their weapons, run away, back away, or even become paralyzed with fear.  An example of this takes place in Narrows where Batman is able to trigger an explosion which destroys the environment thus scaring enemies.  The fear created then “feeds on itself” where as one enemy gets scared, others begin to frighten as well.  We call this AI witnessing and fear inheritance.

Q: What types of weapons are available to players? How will players be able to use some of the high-tech gear like optical cables, lock picks, batgrapple, and the batarang?

RS: The player will have access to Camera Hacking Equipment, Electronic Hack equipment, Lock-picks, Batarangs, Flash Bang Grenades, Smoke Grenades, and more.  All the gadgets he has in the game are grounded in realism.  This is a central theme of the film which we have carried over into the game.

Q: Other than Batman’s gadgets and the Batmobile, what other special abilities will Batman have?

RS: In the game, Batman will need to rely heavily on his puzzle solving and detective skills and martial arts abilities.  In the film they are using a style of fighting called Key-Sei which emphasizes short, quick, powerful strikes.  We have recreated a lot of this in the game.   The animation team has added their own creativity for longer range attack moves that are needed for the gameplay experience.

Q: Can you talk about the different scene locations will gamers play in? What adversaries (enemies, bosses, etc) will players face?

RS: The players will get to see the classic locations of the Batman universe including Gotham City, Gotham City Tenemants, Arkham Asylum, and Wayne Manor.   The characters they encounter in the game will also be the classic characters from the Batman universe including Scarecrow, Ra’s Al Ghul, Alfred, and Ducard.We have a lot more locations and characters that we can’t reveal yet. In the game we made sure to keep the environments consistently different and interesting.  We never want the player to experience the “been-there, done-that” feeling.   The team at Eurocom deserves a huge amount of credit for nailing this.

Q: Anything you want to say to Batman fans about the game?

RS: We’re very excited to finish the game and release it.  We believe we are finally going to give players the seminal Batman experience and really hope they like it.

We hear at the IESB would like to thank Reid Schneider and Electronic Arts for giving us this opportunity.

Coming this summer for Xbox, Playstation 2, Gamecube, and Game Boy Advance.

Stay tuned for more Batman Begins Video Game news and coverage of E3!

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