It’s probably one of the worst-kept secrets in gaming this year, numerous leaks later, but finally, Warner Bros. has come clean with the existence of remaster bundle, Batman: Return to Arkham. Unveiling the game with an official trailer today, which also showcases the box art, Warner Bros. has also announced that we won’t have long to wait for the remaster collection, which will release both digitally and at retail on July 26th of this year, likely to time it with Warner Bros.’ DVD and Blu-Ray release of the animated adaptation of acclaimed Batman graphic novel, Batman: The Killing Joke. Even better is that the package will be sold for the discounted price of $49.99 USD, and $64.99 CDN.
As the leaks suggested, Batman: Return to Arkham compiles Warner Bros’ and DC’s last-gen mega-hit games, Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City, in one remastered package for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Sadly, a PC version doesn’t appear to be being made. As expected, the package will include every bit of DLC released for both games, meaning all of the bonus Challenge Mode maps and sequences, and the additional story campaign, Harley Quinn’s Revenge for Batman: Arkham City. The Joker Challenge Maps from Batman: Arkham Asylum will likely also be included, despite formerly only being part of the original release’s PlayStation 3 port.
The remasters will be more than just a current-gen touch-up though. The remasters’ developing studio, Virtuous, who most recently worked on the PlayStation 4 remaster of Heavy Rain, is moving the entirety of both games onto the improved Unreal Engine 4 development engine, despite even the series’ latest entry, Batman: Arkham Knight being developed on Unreal Engine 3. This should noticeably boost visual fidelity and performance, and the trailer already seems to show off a handful of noticeably visually improved scenes in the games’ new PlayStation 4 and Xbox One builds. It’s been confirmed that character models, environments, lighting and shading, and other graphical effects are all being re-done on Unreal Engine 4 in the remasters.
Keep swooping to Eggplante for all major news and updates on the Batman: Arkham games.