The Batman’s broody and gritty detective-noir atmosphere presents a lot of unique themes that have not been examined before in a Batman movie. The Batman’s Bruce Wayne, who is only a couple of years into his efforts as an armored vigilante, is a nihilist with a clear disinterest in his public image. This is not the philanthropic playboy socialite that fans may remember from Christopher Nolan’s movies, and with Batman’s new interpretation comes a slew of interesting motifs and gadgets.
Bruce identifies himself as a “nocturnal animal” whose obsessive nights stalking Gotham City’s denizens blur together. Bruce scrawls his thoughts into a journal and requires helpful visual aids to discern what had happened most nights. One of the most prominent gadgets Bruce uses in his night-to-night vigilantism is only the size of his fingernail, though it is essential to solving crimes and logging details of the night before. The Batman's contact lenses, small as they are, could ultimately translate well into a Batman game.
Why The Batman's Contact Lenses Are So Influential
The Batman’s technological contact lenses are lined with microcircuitry and embed recorded data onto Bruce’s computer through an upload sensor. The lenses are imperceptible to others while worn, capture live feeds from the wearer’s perspective, and scan individuals’ faces to positively identify them. These contact lenses play a significant part in Bruce’s detective capabilities and The Batman’s plot overall. As Batman, Bruce records the crime scene in Mayor Mitchell’s study, which ultimately leads to him and Alfred decoding Riddler’s ciphers.
Moreover, Selina Kyle wears the contact lenses so that Bruce can get a glimpse inside club 44 Below within the Iceberg Lounge, where Bruce is able to identify Gotham District Attorney Gil Colson and notorious crime lord Carmine Falcone. Later, the lenses are used as a method for Kyle to contact Bruce. Batman's arsenal of gadgetry also includes a wrist-mounted grapple gun and a rudimentary, bat-shaped knife lodged in his chest. But the lenses themselves are tailored explicitly to Batman's detective exploits.
It may seem like a small addition in the scope of Riddler's elaborate schemes, but The Batman's lenses truly usher the movie away from the white-knuckle iteration of Batman that fans have already seen in live-action before. The Batman portrays the titular hero as a practiced street brawler in a bulletproof bodysuit, as well as the World's Greatest Detective. However, while that is fun to watch in a movie, the function that these contact lenses serve could also adapt well to gameplay mechanics.
How The Batman's Contact Lenses Could Translate to Game Mechanics
Batman: Arkham players will already be completely familiar with Batman’s Detective Mode gameplay, which is not only employed to deduce chemical residue or scan Riddler’s environmental riddles, but also to highlight gun-toting enemies and give a transparency filter to structures while in stealth-oriented Predator encounters. Further, Batman: Arkham Origins and Batman: Arkham Knight’s Detective Modes introduced augmented reality simulations that would produce possible re-enactments of different scenarios for the player to fast-forward and rewind in order to find clues.
Detective Mode activates this visual filter with a simple input, and while it is already made comprehensive throughout four different installments, it could potentially be improved with the addition of these lenses. The function behind The Batman’s contact lenses could offer interesting ideas for a Batman game with detective-intensive gameplay; for example, players could either purposely or subconsciously document footage from regular gameplay, or perhaps only while in Detective Mode, in order to record information for future assessment.
This would add a manual approach to Detective Mode for players to cleave different clues together in order to solve a crime or riddle, rather than simply scanning something in the environment for Batman to explain in subsequent narration. If the Batcave was used as a means for players to mull over information needed to solve a crime, the lenses could become quintessential to gameplay.
The argument has also been made that DC should take an extended hiatus from Batman games. Of course, the contact lenses would not need to be exclusive to Batman's inventory and could logically be used by any vigilante crime-fighter in the Bat-Family.
The Batman is currently in theaters.