Speaking to UK newspaper The Guardian, Arkham City developer Rocksteady said that the game would feature a combined total of 40 hours of story-related content.
"The Side Missions in Batman: Arkham City are a good example. We have around 15 hours of story that's off the main path," said the game's director Sefton Hill.
"It's completely down to the player when and how they want to tackle this—there's no right or wrong time. There's no other medium that can offer this kind of flexible experience where the viewer gets to tailor the experience they want themselves," he said.
Hill went on to compare the videogame's narrative structure to that of an episodic TV series with individual episodes plugging into an overarching season.
"In terms of narrative structure, I think games are much more analogous to an episodic TV series than a film. You have, say, 15 hourly episodes to fill, each requiring its own narrative arc but each plugging into an overarching storyline.
"It requires a lot of planning to make sure that every single hour is consistent with each other, is feeding and driving towards a compelling scenario, while remaining implicitly self-explanatory so players can pick up and play at any time and know what they are doing."
Hill provided a 25-hour completion timeframe for Arkham City's main story, and emphasized that the time it takes to finish the game would not include sidequests and other optional activities.
"It takes over 25 hours to complete the main stories in Batman: Arkham City. To keep players engaged for this length of time, not only do the characters and story need to progress, but the core mechanics of the game they are playing need to change and adapt as well."
via vg247
