must play before Gotham Knights, featuring both Batman and Catwoman trying to survive the deadly prison and stop the villainous plans of Hugo Strange. While the first game, Arkham Asylum followed a more linear story path, Arkham City was the first game in the series to offer a more open-world adventuring style, which allowed for a wider number of side missions for the player to embark on.
One such mission occurs immediately after the player rescues reporter Vicki Vale from a squad of snipers dispatched by the Joker. Batman recieves an urgent comms message from Alfred, informing him that Luicius Fox had finished synthesizing a cure for the Titan disease that Joker injected him with, after himself being infected between the events of Asylum and City. Alfred urges Batman to get to the drop point in order to cure himself as the disease has been slowly killing him. Batman then proceeds to the drop point, as curing the Titan disease had been one of his and the player's main story objectives for the game.
When arriving at the drop point, the player has Batman retrieve the Titan disease cure from a drop pod and inject it into himself. However, upon injecting the cure, Batman suddenly stumbles and collapses. When he awakes he's restrained in a chair at a dinner table, with the Mad Hatter sitting across from him in a reversal far more impactful than Arkham City's forgotten Hugo Strange twist. The Hatter explains that he used a remote hypnotic suggestion to make Batman see what he wanted most; instead of the Titan cure Batman and the player thought, the compound was actually high dose of psychoactive drugs intended to bring Batman under the Hatter's control. This kicks off a battle wherein Batman must fight to break free of the Mad Hatter's hypnotic control, ultimately succeeding by punching out the Hatter and destroying his hat.
The Mad Hatter Tricks Both Batman And The Player
This mission is a fantastic troll by the game developers, as it not only tricks Batman but also tricks the player. By manipulating UI elements the player has become accustomed to and presenting a solution to a persistent plot thread in the game, the developers lure the player into the same trap that Batman falls for, just like it manipulates the player by hiding City's identity thief killer in plain sight. This misdirection on multiple levels means that the player is often as surprised and confused as Batman is when they suddenly collapse and wake up to the maniacal laughter of the Mad Hatter.
Rocksteady knew how to manipulate player expectations in the game to set a trap that worked on multiple levels. By using the character of the Mad Hatter to trick Batman, Rocksteady was able to subvert the player's expectations to trick them as well. Players were undoubtedly much more cautious with what they believed to be happening after this excellent side mission in Batman: Arkham City.