My Batman: Arkham Origins review Batman Arkham Origins is the third installment in the popular Arkham series. However, this installment was not under the development of the inventive Rocksteady games; instead its been taken under the wing of Warner Brothers Montreal... Oh boy. Arkam Origins is exactly what the title leads you to believe. Its a prequel to the past two Arkham games about Batmans first encounter with the Joker along with numerous other criminal master minds as well as the beginning of his uneasy alliance with captain Gordon of the Gotham City Police Department. Not only this but eight, count that, eight assassins have been hired to put the batman down in one night. While all of this is happening on Christmas eve!? Thats one hell of a present for Mr. Wayne! However, does this installment expand or hinder the hyped franchise? To begin I have to say that the story in Arkham Origins is another welcome installment to the franchise. The ripple effects between the Joker and batman have never been so developed in past installments. With the exclusion of Mark Hamill as the Joker, youd think that disappointment would be abound in the sinister trickster. However, Troy Baker, who has played iconic roles such as Booker Dewitt in Bioshock Infinite, Cole in the Last of Us, Kanji in Persona 4 nails the Joker persona. You will notice that the Joker isnt Hamill but Baker is so close that you wont be displeased. Arkham Origins does something that none of the other installments have had time to accomplish. Batmans mortality, physically and psychologically. Hes dealing with psychopaths hes never had to face before and that does a total on him. There are only two problems with the story. First, The amount of baddies the Batman fights in a single night is waaaaaaaaay to hard to believe. Are you going to tell me that Batman meets half of the core villains in the series all in one night? Thats a bit to far fetched for me. Also the whole six assassin thing becomes a little old after a while. Besides, why did they bring back Bane? He was in the past two games and he had his own movie. Why did they bring back such a overused, unpopular character. The only character that I enjoyed seeing in the game was Deathstroke. It was fun seeing a badass ninja take on the dark knight. Out of anything Deathstroke was the only one that seemed important. The second problem with the story is why the heck does Batman complete a fifteen hour game within a single night!? The same can be said about the other games but in this installment the side quests seem like they should be cannon since if they arent done something bad will happen Christmas day. Other then these two issues, the story is pretty strong. The gameplay mechanics are nothing but a glitchy copy and paste of the previous two. Combat hasn’t changed much other than a few extra counter abilities. Actually lets talk about counters. You beat bosses with them. In fact you beat almost every boss with them. In the previous two games, you used minimal quick time events to defeat bosses. You had to use your wit along with your gadgets to fight you powerful enemies. In Origins all you have to do is pay Dance Dance Revolution with your controller. Predator mode is still fairly satisfying. Swooping down from a statue head onto your prey is still a blast but leaves you with a feeling of wanting more. For gadgets, you are left with the ones from previous adventures leaving something to be desired. Unlike the other two games, glitches are found all around; glitches that can hinder you from continuing, like interrogation enemies stuck in walls, which force you to restart an entire free-flow combat or predator scenario. The level design of the game is fairly mediocre. The chunk of Gotham City you are given to explore is big but hollow at the same time. You are given big structures which you can look at but not scale (e.g. the uppermost part of the giant bridge). The level designs of sewers and numerous other locations are unintentionally confusing and are incredibly clunky. I dont usually like to judge a game based on its multiplayer and since I did not play the multiplayer myself I will not mark the game down nor will I talk about it. Jut know that the multiplayer has bee receiving bad reception for glitches and general dullness. Batman Arkham Origins is a game that tried to live too high next to its predecessor without accomplishing much itself. The story is top notch for a batman game especially for an origin story. Troy Baker kills it as the Joker and is only going to get better in the voice acting career. However, there were too many bad guys for a single night for the game to seem plausible. The gameplay wasnt revolutionized enough to have a fresh scent. The stealthy predator mode is still incredibly fun and still has a lot going for it. The inclusion of the exact same items from the previous two games is a bit dull and leaves with with the exact same mechanics. The boss fights are nothing to get excited about since theyre nothing but actions commands. If it didnt work in the first God Of War then it obviously wouldnt work for this. The level design is also clunky and crawling with bugs. As a whole Batman Arhkam Origins is definitely the weakest of the three and I hope that the mantle is given back to Rocksteady if it hasnt already. The game isnt worth full price; maybe its worth half price but the point is is that the game is excellent in the story department abut falters in almost everything else. Its not and bad game, its a fair one. I give Batman Arkham Origins a 6.5/10
Posted on: Tue, 12 Nov 2013 20:39:54 +0000
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