Split-Screen :: The Game-Geek’s Daily Read

The Joker Videogame: A Killing Joke ®

The sanity of the world is at question, as we witness the utter sense of chaos and destruction that has pervaded into the otherwise mundane everyday. Has the time for revelation finally descended upon us, wherein humanity questions the entire pattern of rules that define the normalcy of a system and reiterates this so called language crafted out of the term” Justice”.

As we shift the cogs that enable us to traverse to alternate plains and forth, the question of a superhero defining the epitome of a flawless citizen comes under the scanner. Do characters in virtual worlds need to be finally transported outside the fixed boundaries of their flawlessness, and be placed in a world where the color grey occupies an insipid and rhetoric place.

Welcome to the world that The Joker has always envisioned, an institution where anarchy and chaos thrives, as the optimistic identity of mankind falters in such an insidious environment, insanity is the only exit to escape the premises of random injustice that society has inflicted.

The Plot

The timeline of the recently released Hollywood movie “The Dark knight” suits the emissary of dementia, as Gotham City is coming to grip with the multitude of criminal activities with the aid of the Bruce Wayne’s alter ego. Somewhere a desperate wannabe standup comedian loses his ability to communicate with humanity and divulges to a path where sarcasm and cynicism bring out the long road which leads to the labyrinth of insanity. The Joker is born out of hatred and is set out to change the basic rules on which society functions and operates. His goal is to unleash man’s baser instincts. The arsenal in accomplishing this arduous feat is feasting on the morals on which mankind is based on, by torturing them into insanity.

Welcome to an absolute world order, where a dash of anarchy rewrites all the social equations that makes society such a peaceful place to thrive in. No longer shall the demented be separated by regular and ordinary, they shall instead induce and entice the ordinary to the ultimate path of chaos and destruction.

Central characters in the game — Batman/Bruce Wayne, Gordon, Harvey Dent, The Mayor, Commissioner of Police and The Mob.

Gameplay

Gotham City needs to be set in a sandbox cage for the Joker (Player in a 3rd person perspective) to unleash his arsenal of terror and madness. Since Joker feeds on madness and fear, each NPC in the game comes equipped with a psyche meter which has two bars within them — The power of resistance and the level of submission.

These two meters are directly or indirectly affected by the player’s actions in the game. As the Joker, he has to be sufficiently devilish and fiendish to mess around with the psyche of his targets so that they eventually join him in his ultimate quest of bringing Gotham city to its knees. The central characters in the game are the ones around whom the plot narrates itself. Each of their psyche meters has a crucial role in the creating Joker’s little playground. Lets me elucidate by giving the readers an example of my own version of madness.

The rate of crime has a direct impact on 30 million people residing in Gotham, random acts of violence caused by The Joker (player) will significantly reduce the level of resistance and increase the level of submission, allowing the player to take control over parts of the city gradually which will be overrun by his minions whom he will recruit in a similar fashion. The level of submission will ultimately be reflected on the people who unobtrusively lead the city (The Mayor, Commissioner, Gordon, and Harvey) who will desperately be trying to keep the level of resistance sufficiently high. So the player must be wise to target an area where he can use his methods of violence to such an extent which will alter/push the psyche meter in his favor.

Robbing a bank for instance will have a huge impact on the citizens and will bring up the level of submission, but this task may prove to be quite a gruel challenge to master. The Joker (player) needs to pick people off the streets to pull such a move, for this he needs the right personnel whom the player has to petrify in order to get him on his side and make him see the grey future that the Joker holds in his jack in the box. The player then needs to clear out the area next to him which houses a precinct. If he has not successfully induced a significant amount of fear within the cops in the area, they will be powerful enough to strike the bank and the players’ mission shall fail pushing him back to Arkham Asylum if caught. Failure/escape shall raise the level of resistance of the inhabitants of Gotham, and the Joker (Player) will have to put in extra effort to bring the psyche meter down.

The Higher the level of resistance the more powerful will be the law’s persistence on apprehending the Joker and his bunch of insane hooligans. Lookouts/random blocks/police raids will be conducted to break into an infected area and bring sanity to Gotham.

The game will be divided into episodes (think MDK2) where each level is presented in a graphic novel format, each of these novels follow the central plot of the movie and trace the history of each of the central characters. Harvey for instance will have an episode dedicated to his campaigning procedures and the player’s efforts shall be aimed at disrupting these proceedings either by planting bombs during rallies or executing members who were central to Harvy’s campaign, thus lowering his morale (Level of resistance) and bringing him closer to the Gotham’s underbelly. Gordon’s psyche is affected by Joker’s uninterrupted man slaughter of cops in the city and top ranking detectives in addition to the acts of extreme violence that he propagates.

The Mob is on neither side, The Joker will have to humiliate and torture the mob sufficiently that they are left with no option but to hire the Joker to put an end to the cops, Lao and the Great Batman.

Now we talk about The Batman a.k.a Bruce Wayne, The Joker does not know the identity of Batman in the timeline, but he does know that he is someone who has a close relationship with Rachel. Now the Psyche meter for Batman will depend on the psychological condition Bruce is in, Joker has to target people close to Bruce Wayne, destroy some of his industries, slaughter a few of his executives, play tricks with Rachel, Gordon’s family, people who are basically related to Batman in some way.

A mentally strong Bruce implies a strong and steadfast Batman, who will take the player down almost without a fight, Bruce/Batman’s Psyche Meter is also affected during battle, Hostages captured during battle or fatal injuries sustained will lower his psyche meter. Each fight with Batman will have an impact on the A.I. in understanding the player’s strategies. A learning computer will make the game a little more challenging. The A.I. will start to predict the player’s moves accordingly to his path of destruction and provide ample support to prevent chaos and anarchy from consuming every low life in the city.

Studio

The only person I’ve in mind is American McGee, given his accolades on Alice, this guy truly perhaps understands dementia like no other developer.

Engine: — R.A.G.E, I.d. tech 5, Frostbite

We’ll that’s my vision of this insane game, further expansion or changes is the concept will be appreciated.