Batman Beyond: Death of the Dark Knight

Batman Beyond: Death of the Dark Knight is an upcoming video game devoloped by Rocksteady. It takes place in the Batman Beyond Universe, where Terry McGinnis is the Future Batman. It is set to be released in 2013 and is said to have many new and old characteristics from the the Batman: Arkham Series.

Plot
The plot starts with an very old, crippled, scientist, named Robert Sionis, traveling to the half demolished ,Ra's Al Ghul's temple for research on the Lazarus Pit, and with small hopes that he will find himself some Lazarus. He was being rushed, if he did not hurry with the project with successful results, he would be shut down, he would lose his apartment, his job, and lab. He was determined to be able to find even the smallest bit of Lazarus.He comes back with no Lazarus, and had two days to improvise or it would be over. The next day after hours and hours of research and studying, he was able to make a small dose of artificial Lazarus, he then tested on an old pet mouse he had since he got his job. At first the mouse was fine, it was more energetic, it was faster, stronger, and Robert was saved, until he watched the mouse carefully a few minutes later. It was going mad, it broke open the glass cage it was in and started to attack him. He managed to get it under control, but he knew it wouldn't work. He had no time left, it was over. He had the conclusion that he would not show it to his bosses, he knew that they would use it on soliders in war to help them recooperate faster, but the end product would not be good. Though something made him think. The original Lazarus would make you insane for awhile, then you would be back to your original state at a younger age. This decreased your age, though it did make you insane, it also increased your strength. He planned to wait if the mouse would ever calm down. It did. So he was willing to take a chance. The next day, he presented it to his bosses. Pleased, they were to begin on human testing, after a few week no one had accepted to take it, saying to was too dangerous. They were forced to test it on their own men, but no would accept either. Because of this, Robert would be shut down. He went to his lab to take his stuff out, when he said he would test it on himself, not noticing that the mouse was crazy again, and even more so than before. He injected into his wrist. He felt the energy flow through his body, he was younger, he could walk, he was stronger than ever before. He called his boss with the great results, also stating that he was also stronger. The boss came, but the Robert forgot about the insanity. When his boss came he uninstinctivly killed him. He took the last dose of Lazarus left and went to Gotham City.

On his way to Gotham, he became sane, but for only a few minutes, after that he was insane for weeks. He made it to Gotham. On his entire trip, he repeatedly fed himself the artificial Lazarus each time he felt even slightly weaker. Till a point were the Lazarus made up at least 1% of his blood, which was enough to boost his strength, speed, durability, and equilibrum to superhuman. He wrote this in his journal:

''I could feel it. The power surging through me, I felt better than ever before, and certainly better than a 93 year old man ever should feel. I could run at speeds of about 80 mph. I could lift roughly 75 tons. I could sustain a large buidling falling on me like it was nothing, (and I have to say, it happened many times). It was incredible, and unfortunatly, the more I took, which I need to I... I need to! Sorry, the more I took the less often I became sane again. After awhile, it was impossible to even remember when I became sane. My memory was broken, but I loved it. Every second of it.''

When he came to Gotham City, it was extremly rare for him to become sane, he was almost always insane. He lived underground. One day, he was searching for food, and Batman saw him. He was torn up, and Terry came up to him to help him. He knocked him aside. Terry then saw what was in his hands, and scanned it. He found it was very similar to Lazarus. Bruce then told Terry to destroy it. He managed to get it from his hands and destroy it, but then Robert, crazy, and thinking that he had no more (and since it was addictive, he needed to have some) went even more crazy and attacked Batman. Batman managed to escape.

He ran away, to lab just off of Metropolis' shore. He then discovered, from a blood sample, that the Lazarus in his cells were reproducing. He would never run out. Still, when he was insane, he blamed Batman for destroying his Lazarus (though when he is sane, he knows that he has it in his blood, and he doesn't care). For years he held a grudge on Batman. He was able to create a knew Lazarus, but this one was more like the former one, only granting youth.

He becomes sane and thinks of a master plan. He would try to give it to Batman's worst villians in the Arkham Asylum, but this time, he would spend sometime studying mind control formulas. After finally devoloping one, he mixed it into his Lazarus, and then made enough for everyone in the Asylum. He would have the Asylum at his control now, all of them against Batman, he knew his master plan would never fail. He headed for Gotham, but soon after he arrived he was confronted by Batman. He did not want to attack him now, but Batman did. He tried to flick him away but Batman was persistant. He then got very annoyed and smashed Batman through many cars, and then slam him into a wall. Batman barely got anesthesia into his blood, which would keep him gone for a few weeks, but Batman was now in a coma.

When Terry was in his coma, Bruce Wayne tries to get Lazarus from Robert, in the BatMech suit, so he could improve it and be Batman in the absence of Terry. Robert, thinking it was Terry, and that Batman was there trying to take it from him again, knocked Bruce out and trapped him underground, in a titanium cell. Which is unescapeable to even Batman. Air was supplied through a pipe with titanium grating, and food was sent through pipes that emerged from the ground at certain times (though it was still very appetizing). He took away all of Batman's gadgets and left him there, chained.

Terry McGinnis awakes from his coma FIVE YEARS LATER in the hospital. He feels for his mask, which is still there. Though the rest of the costume is hung on the wall next to him. He is not aware that it has been five years, thinking he was just knocked out for a few days. He turns the TV on and switches through the channels, but one channel catches his ear. "The billionaire philanthropist, Bruce Wayne has been missing for five years, and his search continues. He has last been seen near an abandoned science lab in northern Canda." Terry then thinks to himself, "Wait were have I been! I know the guy better than anyone! Wait, no! I haven't been here for just a few hours or days, or even months! I've been here for five years!" He get's out of his bed and runs to the window. He looks outside to see Gotham City's skies red with flame, and hundreds of buildings in ruin. "And without a Batman, Gotham's drove itself into to complete chaos. I have to get out of here! I have to go to the Batcave!" He get's his suit and runs out of the hospital, being chased by guards and nurses. He then calls for the batmobile and goes to the Batcave.

In the batcave does research on what has happened in the last five years. 'Five Years- A crazed Robert Sionis attacks Batman, Bruce Wayne goes missing. Batman is hospitalized and is in a coma. Four Years- the Gangs notice Batman is gone and start to go full force and attack Gotham. Three Years- Gang's take over Gotham's industries, taking weapons, ammo, fuel, transportation, practically everything else. Two Years- Gangs take over Gotham's trade taking everything that the Gotham dock imports, leaving the remaining people and stores, yearning for food. One Year- Gangs have taking over Gotham's police department, Black Mask found to be leader, though other accomplices are hinted by him. Gotham quickly falls into ruin. Most Recent- Robert travels back to the ruins of Ra's Al Ghuls temple for unkown reasons'. Terry then quickly quickly heads to the Batwing and flies himself to Ra's Al Ghul's castle, investigating on why Robert is there.

When he arrives he is quickly met by guards Robert has forced to work for him. Who take down the Batwing. He escapes into Ra's castle, and then loses the guards. From there on he investagates why Robert is there. He sneaks his way past Robert's guards to find out that Robert is planning to break a number of inmates out of the Asylum and giving them to restore their youth and mind control them. Batman is heard and he quickly escapes. He then calls another one of his Batwings to Ra's castle and escapes to the city. He then analyzes his problems. He has to find Bruce, restore Gotham to it's proper state, and stop Robert from breaking into the Asylum and giving the inmates Lazarus

He heads to the GCPD and forces them to increase the guards at the Asylum ten fold, to call the military, and S.W.A.T, and place everyone on the perimeter. He says that Robert plans to break them out, leaving out the part about the Lazarus Pit. Of course they listened and the military and S.W.A.T were on their way, Batman demanded for them to come quicker, but he said it wasn't possible. Batman, knowing that they wouldn't have enough forces in time went in his the suit Batman used to fight Bane, the BatMech suit. He then watches the Asylum waiting for Robert. When Robert comes, he ignores Batman. Batman tries to attack Robert. Before he is able to sustain Robert, Robert throws Batman to the top of a building where he lay, knocked out for two days.

He wakes up and gets out of the suit. Knowing that he should be quick, and try to solve the gang war problem before the the villians recooperate from the Lazarus, which would be in a few days. He starts by heading to the gangs' leaders and interrogating them for information. He found out that they all had a large meeting in a building just off the Gotham Docks to discuss their plans. The building was heavily guarded. Batman quickly took all of them out but the Gang Bosses and then confronted them. He knew that he couldn't immediately stop the gangs, but he knew the perfect way to stat. After a quick fight with the gang bosses ending in them giving up, he hung them by their feet on the ceiling. He then told them to tell everyone they knew that Batman was back. He than cut the rope holding them to the ceiling and left, leaving them all knocked out.

The he then goes back to the city and searches for crimes. After he tells a few gang memebers to tell everyone that he is there he is approached with another problem. Some of the villans were already coming back. Though the biggest was Black Mask. He went around searching for known old Black Mask hideouts. The first few bases were filled with Black Mask gang members. He used this to his advantage and interrogated them for where Black Mask was, eventually leading to a building near the Old Gotham Railways.

Once he found Black Mask he was ambushed by his gang. Once he fought past them, he fights Black Mask and notices something. Black Mask fought weirdly, he wasn't like his profile on the Batcomputer said, something was wrong. He managed to punch his in the face, knocking his Mask to the side. "Wait!" he thought, "This isn't the original! This is an imposter, a different Black Mask!" He tried to take his mask off, but it was on to tight. He managed to knock him out and decided to go to the bat cave to safely take his mask off.

When he gets him to the Batcave, he managed to take his mask off, but then something weird happened, the person behind the mask had no match to anyone in the Batcomputer's data, which was almost everyone on Earth. Then he noticed something. He carefully pressed his finger it the mans skin and it sinked in. "Clayface! Wait, If this is Clayface where is the real Black Mask?" He checked the Batcomputer's Data on Jeremiah Arkham, who had died in the five year gap of which he was in his coma.

Suddenly, Clayface woke up. Before Batman was able to chase him, he ran up the steps and made into Wayne Manor. This is a conversastion between Clayface and Batman:

"Wait, this is Wayne Manor, Batman is Bruce Wayne, but, but, he's missing, he's old but, but, he couldn't be, how could he be, but, no, no,no, that doesn't make sense."

"If I was Bruce Wayne, how would I be this agile?"

"You know, Bruce Wayne was a billionaire, he could pretty much do anything he wanted with that money, and how do I know that he didn't get any Lazarus?!"

"Where is Bruce?" Terry thinks. "I'm sure Clayface knows, I'll just need to contain him somehow."

After a fight with Clayface, he grabs Mr. Freezes gun, and points at Clayface at full power, Clayface immdiately stops. Batman asks him where Bruce Wayne was, and Clayface said that he was him. He eventually gets Clayface to believe that he isn't Bruce Wayne. Clayface said all he knew was that Ra's had him and took for awhile, he put him into the Lazarus Pit and that's all Ra's told him.

Batman knew that the next place he would have to go to was Ra's Castle and find Batman from there, but there was one problem, if he went there he would be met by Batman's worst villians. He would leave the city open again also, or the villians were already on there where and Gotham would be destroyed by the time he got back. He had no choice but to wait in Gotham until they arrive, take them out then, and before they come, and take the gang problem out of the picture.

The next day, crime was down, his plan of telling the Gang bosses worked, and the Gangs were already retreating, but there were a few ones still there, reaking havoc. He decided, to go back to the Gang bosses, and discover which gang's were still in action. There were only two large gangs left. He managed to covince one of them to call their gangs off, but the other one was persistent.

After a street gang attacked him soon after, he discovered that the last gang was a newer one assembled by Robert to distract Batman. He knew he would have to go to Ra's castle to stop this.

At Ra's castle, he was expected and was ambushed by Scarecrow, Penguin, Poison Ivy, and Scarface. Who managed to shoot him in the heart and then, Penguin took a picture of him, and labled it "Batman is Dead" and sent it to every news station and newspaper. They then threw him in a river, to make sure that he would be dead. Batman slowly dying, called the Batboat and retreated to the Batcave, where he was stuck to recooperate for a few weeks.

The newspapers said that Batman was dead, and effectively, he was. The gun shot, would make it almost impossible for him to fight crime. Though, he knew he would have to go and fight, he had no choice. He got out of the Batcave, and noticed that crime returned. Though he knew one thing now that would save alot of time. Robert was in charge of most of the gangs. Though now everyone thought he was actually dead, not in a coma. Everyone would have lost all hope. They would think he was just an imposter, and he would look like one too with his arm.

He would have to try his best either way. He would go back to Ra's castle, but this time be careful, and now he would have an upper hand. This time they wouldn't know that he was alive. They wouldn't be prepared for it. He checked the new just to make sure he knew everything about what happened so that nothing surprised him. Luckily he did, because the new had said this- Robert Sionis, now crazed, left Ra's Al Ghul's castle and has moved to another larger castle located in Southern Ireland.

It was good thing he had read it, because if he didn't he would have gone to a completely wrong place. He headed for Southern Ireland, where he searched over the buildings, and eventually found Robert's new base, which was much larger.

Once he made it inside, the first room he entered was where a large screen was. Ra's appeared on the screen and told him that the building was filled with Batman's villians. He fought through, Penguin, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, Scarface, Two-Face, Bane, and finally the revived Joker. He jumped into the elevator, and before the doors closed, threw an anesthesia gas pellet into the room.

After that Robert reveals that he knew that he would be alive, as Batman has taken much more than just a shot to the shoulder. He then knocks him out and takes him to the same room as Bruce Wayne, but he wakes up before they are able to lock him up. Then, as a last resort, they release Bruce Wayne right after he was injected with a newer, experimental Lazarus, which made you crazy for about eight minutes, though made you as strong as you would be with four doses of the current one, and still made you young, but now with no in and out of insanity. Before they lock the door behind him Terry injects anesthesia gas in him, but then he has another problem, he had a crazy, young, fit, Bruce Wayne attacking him. After finally stalling Bruce for eight minutes, he throws all the villians under ground, removed as much as the Lazarus from Robert as possible, then they go back to Gotham. When they came back they tell everyone that Robert is now gone and locked up in Maximum security underground, and that Gotham is safe. For the next few days, gangs slowly retreated, knowing that their boss was gone, and Batman was back, and Gotham was restored to its former state.

Gameplay
The gameplay is mostly alike from that of Arkham City, with some new features. The combat was mostly the same having the free flow combat return. The navigation using the Grapnel Hook and Gliding returned as well. Though a new feature in navigation is the ability to use jet boots, which last for a short amount of time before having to be recharged through time, but alow you to fly.

The suit is upgraded with many new features which can be unlocked through the similar leveling system. Some of the biggest changes is regeneration, force fields, many new attacks due to the jet boosts, lightning bat claws, stealth, and many others.The game also introduces a new feature which is the suits power. The power is drained when doing certain things like activating stealth and using forcefields. This can be upgraded through leveling up.

Also through the story you can play as the Robert Sionis, who is stronger and faster. You also unlock during challange mode ( read on for more information) a Robert Sionis Challange where you fight through wave and waves of enemies through out the city, until you finnally die.

The challange mode from Rocksteady's previous Batman games have returned, but now they are unlocked in a different way, to fit with the new futuristic time period, the riddler is now dead, so instead of solving riddles from the riddler, a different strange gang leader is leaving graffiti through Gotham City, which leads to hints, which leads to buildings including his gang members. The more of these you do the more challanges you unlock.

Now instead of getting a different part of or sectioned of part of Gotham City, you get all of it, but now in a more futuristic form, this allows a new feature, the Batmobile and Batwing. The batmobile drives along the streets, which is fast, but not as fast as the Batwing, which can take you to Ra's castle, the second base of Robert, and through Gotham City, and to Arkham Island and the Batcave. This also creates two now types of challanges, races and dogfights. In dogfights, you fight against other criminals in the air, and in races you simply race other street racers through the streets of Gotham.

A new feature, unlocked after beating the game is the BatMech suit. It allows to fly for a short amount of time, and makes you stronger, and able to solve some new riddles, by breaking through walls. Though unfortunately, it is slower than the regular Batsuit, but can be called to you and dropped of in a matter of seconds to make using it less frustrating.