I got the inspiration for a cool Batman game from this dream I had; I realize I'll never be able to fund it, but I'd like to polish the concept a bit anyway.
The situation is Bruce Wayne has lost it, even by Bruce Wayne standards, and has landed himself in Arkham. Maybe it's lingering effects from one of Scarecrow's neuro toxins, that wasn't explicit stated in the dream though. One would expect the inmates to immediately jump all over him, but Arkham is overcrowded, underfunded, and run by incompetent officers, so serious abuse is pretty commonplace. Guards have gone as far as 'disposing' of inmates to maintain control; in short, the inmates have bigger fish to fry. The inevitable happens and some of the inmates revolt. Wayne finds himself paired up with another inmate, even less stable than he is, and although he doesn't like or trust the other man, he realizes that as a mentally ill fugitive he needs an ally. The other man is a sociopath. He is sometimes, but not always able to suppress hostility toward his partner (in the dream he tried to hand the blade side of a hatchet to Wayne), as well as the more destructive and psychotic personality living inside him: Joker. In moments of weakness he will try to physically fight off the illusionary Joker, in order to keep him from possessing their body (Wayne doesn't necessarily realize why he's wildly swinging his weapon and blurting out threats when this happens).
So in the game you would play as both characters, controlling a certain one in any given level (2P or AI gets the other character). You have two meters in addition to the standard health gauge: one is the trust level between the two characters, the other is your character's paranoia (the former tending to be low, the latter at times high). If the trust meter gets low enough the two of you actually turn on each other for a while, with AI potentially taking partial control of characters; assuming neither of you knocks the other out, and you're able to get some separation they would attempt to talk it out, returning it to acceptable levels a bit quicker (provided you don't botch). The meter would naturally decay over time, and take larger hits when you get too overbearing, hit the other character, let your paranoia get too high and start fighting something that's not actually there, and possibly for other actions as well. You might also raise or lower the trust meter by breaking your partner out of holds, or ignoring their pleas for help when being choked or restrained. Defeating mutual enemies raises both characters' trust level. The paranoia bar I alluded to would work somewhat similar to the sanity meter in Eternal Darkness. If it gets too high, the Joker starts appearing and trying to take over, or imaginary criminals and bat swarms start attacking; either one would need to be attacked and defeated, dealing matrix style damage to your health that can be healed by lowering the paranoia enough that the character realizes they've hallucinated (the dream included a brief section where Wayne's partner uses his hatchet against the imaginary Joker in a dark, narrow hallway, much to his Wayne's alarm). It goes up gradually over time, when one partner goes rogue, and potentially through QTE's (eg: some shadowy movement startles Wayne, who isn't quick enough to hit it with a thrown weapon; "Joker" brushes it off as 'a cat or something,' but Wayne can't get it out of his head), or at certain points in missions (eg: this particular spot is part of "Joker's" bad memory, but he presses on toward the heart of the event despite being shaken up). The two characters would have different ways of lowering the paranoia gauge: Wayne's would go down in dark, enclosed areas (good hiding spots) and "Joker's" in well lit rooms, where he feels safer from the other persona. Terrain based bonuses would be limited to a certain percentage, but would still prevent the gradual increases if you were below that level, and some locales would allow you to lower both characters meters (eg: you've just ransacked a criminal safe house; Wayne could calm down in the attic or closet while "Joker" pokes around in the better lit living area and store room). It could also be lowered by undertaking character specific actions; with maybe Wayne benefiting from exploring new territory (staying mobile, and making progress) and "Joker" from messing with defeated enemies indulging his urges a bit so he has more restraint left to keep the other personality in check.
The ultimate goal of both characters is to cure what ails them. You spend most of the game going on missions where you're searching for clues, defeating old enemies, or reliving events from the characters' pasts, eventually unlocking a pair of missions which will purge or neutralize the neuro toxins, or give "Joker" the closure and mental strength to take back full control of his mind. While working toward unlocking these missions you would have to strike a balance between Wayne and "Joker's" agendas (doing just one character's missions will start blocking off the high end of the other character's trust meter). Some would be time sensitive: eg, doing 4 other missions will disable this mission. You can do the two ultimate missions in either order, and can even do one before you've unlocked the other, so no two play throughs are likely to be identical. After one has been completed that character's paranoia bar is disabled, and you have the option of doing a mission where you turn on your still crazed partner, giving the game three possible endings.
The situation is Bruce Wayne has lost it, even by Bruce Wayne standards, and has landed himself in Arkham. Maybe it's lingering effects from one of Scarecrow's neuro toxins, that wasn't explicit stated in the dream though. One would expect the inmates to immediately jump all over him, but Arkham is overcrowded, underfunded, and run by incompetent officers, so serious abuse is pretty commonplace. Guards have gone as far as 'disposing' of inmates to maintain control; in short, the inmates have bigger fish to fry. The inevitable happens and some of the inmates revolt. Wayne finds himself paired up with another inmate, even less stable than he is, and although he doesn't like or trust the other man, he realizes that as a mentally ill fugitive he needs an ally. The other man is a sociopath. He is sometimes, but not always able to suppress hostility toward his partner (in the dream he tried to hand the blade side of a hatchet to Wayne), as well as the more destructive and psychotic personality living inside him: Joker. In moments of weakness he will try to physically fight off the illusionary Joker, in order to keep him from possessing their body (Wayne doesn't necessarily realize why he's wildly swinging his weapon and blurting out threats when this happens).
So in the game you would play as both characters, controlling a certain one in any given level (2P or AI gets the other character). You have two meters in addition to the standard health gauge: one is the trust level between the two characters, the other is your character's paranoia (the former tending to be low, the latter at times high). If the trust meter gets low enough the two of you actually turn on each other for a while, with AI potentially taking partial control of characters; assuming neither of you knocks the other out, and you're able to get some separation they would attempt to talk it out, returning it to acceptable levels a bit quicker (provided you don't botch). The meter would naturally decay over time, and take larger hits when you get too overbearing, hit the other character, let your paranoia get too high and start fighting something that's not actually there, and possibly for other actions as well. You might also raise or lower the trust meter by breaking your partner out of holds, or ignoring their pleas for help when being choked or restrained. Defeating mutual enemies raises both characters' trust level. The paranoia bar I alluded to would work somewhat similar to the sanity meter in Eternal Darkness. If it gets too high, the Joker starts appearing and trying to take over, or imaginary criminals and bat swarms start attacking; either one would need to be attacked and defeated, dealing matrix style damage to your health that can be healed by lowering the paranoia enough that the character realizes they've hallucinated (the dream included a brief section where Wayne's partner uses his hatchet against the imaginary Joker in a dark, narrow hallway, much to his Wayne's alarm). It goes up gradually over time, when one partner goes rogue, and potentially through QTE's (eg: some shadowy movement startles Wayne, who isn't quick enough to hit it with a thrown weapon; "Joker" brushes it off as 'a cat or something,' but Wayne can't get it out of his head), or at certain points in missions (eg: this particular spot is part of "Joker's" bad memory, but he presses on toward the heart of the event despite being shaken up). The two characters would have different ways of lowering the paranoia gauge: Wayne's would go down in dark, enclosed areas (good hiding spots) and "Joker's" in well lit rooms, where he feels safer from the other persona. Terrain based bonuses would be limited to a certain percentage, but would still prevent the gradual increases if you were below that level, and some locales would allow you to lower both characters meters (eg: you've just ransacked a criminal safe house; Wayne could calm down in the attic or closet while "Joker" pokes around in the better lit living area and store room). It could also be lowered by undertaking character specific actions; with maybe Wayne benefiting from exploring new territory (staying mobile, and making progress) and "Joker" from messing with defeated enemies indulging his urges a bit so he has more restraint left to keep the other personality in check.
The ultimate goal of both characters is to cure what ails them. You spend most of the game going on missions where you're searching for clues, defeating old enemies, or reliving events from the characters' pasts, eventually unlocking a pair of missions which will purge or neutralize the neuro toxins, or give "Joker" the closure and mental strength to take back full control of his mind. While working toward unlocking these missions you would have to strike a balance between Wayne and "Joker's" agendas (doing just one character's missions will start blocking off the high end of the other character's trust meter). Some would be time sensitive: eg, doing 4 other missions will disable this mission. You can do the two ultimate missions in either order, and can even do one before you've unlocked the other, so no two play throughs are likely to be identical. After one has been completed that character's paranoia bar is disabled, and you have the option of doing a mission where you turn on your still crazed partner, giving the game three possible endings.
