Before WB Games’ Monolith Productions launched its first Middle-earth game in 2014, and even before Rocksteady’s iconic Batman: Arkham series returned for a second entry in 2011, another Batman game – codenamed Project Apollo – was in the works at the Shadow of Mordor/Shadow of War developer that was subsequently cancelled and presumably was never to be seen again.
That is until now, with the internet having recently discovered that a treasure trove of details, images and even videos of the game exist on web history museum, Internet Archive, and has existed since as far back as 2022.
The game was somewhat early in production when it was cancelled, but seemingly would’ve been an open-world experience with a mixture of stealth and combat, not unlike the Arkham games, although this one was based on director Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy version of the Batman universe. Vehicles, including the Tumbler, would have been useable in contrast to the earlier Arkham titles, and there also would’ve been an earlier iteration of the Nemesis system that later debuted in Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor.
The open world of Gotham could be traversed by either gliding and utilizing the grappling hook (as established in the Arkham games) or by operating the Tumbler/Batmobile. pic.twitter.com/VZKXJBFsgP
— SpideyRanger ?? (@Dageekydude) April 3, 2024
In the information provided, it’s said that the game’s stealth elements would’ve been comparable to something like Splinter Cell with the use of light and shadow, night vision and wall-hugging mechanics. The footage shows various upgrade trees covering combat, stealth and gadgets as well as prototypes of some gadget-based minigames and early looks at loadout customisation, open-world exploration and stealth.
Ultimately, the project was cancelled after it failed to get the green light from Nolan himself, and likely wasn’t helped by the fact that another very similar open-world Batman title was in the works at Rocksteady. You can see the rest of the released details as well as various bits of footage of the in-development game right here. Easily my favourite nugget of info is the reveal that Monolith recycled Batman’s model as a placeholder asset for Talion while it was developing Shadow of Mordor.
