DC characters often have difficulty translating to playable protagonists in games due to how overpowered they can be. This is especially true of why a Superman game has not been attempted in a while, coupled with the fact that previous attempts have been deeply frowned upon. Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is set to turn this superhero formula on its head by having its antiheroes hunt the superpowered ensemble, but it is still great to see Monolith’s Wonder Woman taking a stab at a standalone game featuring the Themysciran Amazon.
Batman is an adaptable character due to the fact that he is not superpowered, instead relying on gadgetry, hand-to-hand combat, and intellect to overcome challenges. Rather, in a game that features the Flash, Superman, or Green Lantern, the design would become much more difficult to approach. Superman’s overwhelming power presents unique issues in itself, but a standalone Green Lantern game would need even more imagination and creativity in order to make the experience true to the character and satisfying for the player.
Green Lantern’s Imaginative Powers Would Be Limited by Game Design
The Green Lanterns’ green construct manifestations are only limited by the ring-bearer’s imagination, meaning that they could create constructs of anything imaginable to use in combat. Green Lanterns can construct transparent miniguns, brick walls, giant fists, and any other telekinetic instrument they wish.
Of course, the issue here would be that while Green Lanterns can think of anything to manifest, the game’s design would simply not allow players to make whatever they wanted unless there was a remarkably all-encompassing catalog of constructs to choose from. This could sidetrack the game away from being an action-adventure title, becoming more of a slogged construct-builder instead while players sift through an infinite number of available construct blueprints.
Constructs would also be incredible for use in puzzles, where players would need to choose the correct constructs to manifest. However, game design would have a tough challenge finding scenarios where a Green Lantern could be involved in puzzles for a feature-length amount of time between combat.
It would also be difficult to choose a particular setting for the game where combat and puzzles could be offered, since Green Lanterns operate on more of a ubiquitous and intergalactic scale, and therefore a Green Lantern game could take place anywhere, while Superman could be right at home in an iconic, open-world Metropolis.
Green Lantern’s Alter-Egos Don’t Lend Themselves to Interesting Gameplay
Superman’s abilities are enormously powerful, but standard and familiar at the same time. Superman and Green Lantern both share the issue where particular enemies would need to be chosen so that they could wallop them without having to downgrade their respective abilities. Moreover, some iconic superhero characters simply do not lend themselves well to an interesting alter-ego.
Because a character like Superman spends as much time as Clark Kent as he does Superman, there are at least some allusions to what gameplay as Kal-El’s mild-mannered journalist alter-ego could look like. Green Lanterns are chiefly their superpowered selves with a lot less emphasis on who they are when they are not wearing the ring, which could dampen the experience and expose them for being more one-dimensional in terms of their character development.
To be fair, Bruce Wayne is rarely playable out of costume in the Batman games he appears in. However, Bruce is an incredibly well-known alter-ego, while many DC fans likely have little knowledge of who Hal Jordan, Alan Scott, John Stewart, Guy Gardner, Kyle Rayner, or any of the other characters heralded as a Green Lantern are.
In any case, whatever their alter-egos could offer would not be nearly as entertaining as playing them with their rings equipped. Therefore, a Green Lantern game would need to be fully comprehensive and also introduce fans to these characters in a way that would help them learn about the Corps and its individual affiliates.