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Batman: Arkham Origins

by Zachary Miller - November 6, 2013, 7:47 pm EST
Total comments: 15

7

Chris Redfield dons the cape and cowl.

It’s easy to forget that it’s actually been two years since Rocksteady’s excellent Arkham City, the ambitious follow-up to its breakthrough bat-hit Arkham City. These guys understand Batman, his rogue’s gallery, and the mythology of the franchise to an incredible degree. They got Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill reprising the roles they cemented in the Batman Animated Series. In Arkham City, Batman flew across the dilapidated prison city by alternating between gliding and slingshoting into the air with his grapple. While Asylum was focused mostly on the Joker, City opened up to embrace more familiar friends and foes: Catwoman, Ra’s Al Gul, Clayface, Dr. Hugo Strange, and the Penguin. And the shocking ending of City left a lot of room for the sequel to go in brave new directions.

How are you going to top Arkham City?

Warner Bros. Montreal’s answer to that question is to not even try. Arkham Origins is a somewhat misnamed prequel. It takes place during Batman’s second year of crime-fighting, and Arkham Asylum doesn’t even enter into the picture. This time, Batman is soaring around a larger Gotham City in an effort to track down mob boss Black Mask, who has put a bounty on his head. Eight assassins answer the call, among them Deathstroke, Deadshot, Copperhead, and Bane. In addition to worrying about those baddies, though, Batman also gets his first encounter with the Clown Prince of Crime. The second the Joker turns up, the game’s plot pivots to focus on him, and everyone else becomes a sidequest.

To me, this is somewhat disheartening. All three Arkham games are now Joker-centric, with other villains appearing in supporting roles. I like the Joker as much as the next guy, but there are plenty of other compelling Batman villains who deserve a chance in the spotlight. Now, to be completely fair, WB Montreal’s treatment of the Joker is rock-solid and his fascination with the Dark Knight manifests in disturbing but interesting ways. Troy Baker, substituting for Mark Hamill, does a superb job in the role. If you didn’t already know that Hamill had retired, you’d think it was him. Can’t say quite the same for Batman, though. Maybe it’s because I’ve played way too much Resident Evil, but Roger Craig Smith (who plays Chris Redfield) in place of Kevin Conroy is distracting. He does an admirable job, however, in portraying a rawer, angrier Batman who’s still green in unexpected ways and maybe a little bit crazy.

The game plays essentially like Arkham City did two years ago, almost to a fault, although Gotham City is twice as big as it used to be, and that is WAY too big. Yes, there are fast-travel drop points now, but in order to access them, you have to have the right equipment, so they’re not all available from the get-go. As in City, there are a lot of ways to waste time: destroy security cameras, collect Riddler extortion files (instead of “?” tropies), interrogate suspects, stop crimes in progress, stop Anarky from blowing things up, find and neutralize weapons caches—the list goes on. These sidequests bring XP points (which you can use to upgrade your equipment), and sometimes you may end up with new gadgets.

One brand-new, rarely-used gameplay mechanic is the way Batman handles crime scenes. No more does he simply scan for DNA or follow footprints—our boy uses Detective Vision to reconstruct the crime scene, and you’ll often have to pay close attention to see critical details, like where a briefcase was dropped or where a bullet came from. Once the crime scene is complete, you can watch it unfold forwards and back until you find what you’re looking for. There’s even some GamePad interaction in that you hold up the GamePad and move it around like some kind of CSI scanner.

My biggest issue with the game is that WB Montreal placed enormous gangs of random dudes every ten feet (even on rooftops), so whenever I touch down to do something, I have to go through a two or three-minute fight sequence before I can do whatever I wanted to do. And it’s not like there are three or four thugs—we’re talking an entire gang. You’ll spend more time mashing the X button (counter) than the Y button (punch) because there’s always somebody swinging a crowbar at Batman’s face. The rhythm of these fights seems off compared to City as well.

You may have heard about the game’s menagerie of bugs and glitches. Thankfully, it’s the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions that seem to be having the most trouble. I’m not saying the Wii U version is without fault, but so far it’s the most stable. That said, while I’ve yet to experience something game-breaking, I’ve noticed a lot of random framerate issues and sudden, but short-lived, freezes. You can’t use the GamePad to select fast-travel locations—you have to press Select to bring up the map, then manually scroll to a fast-travel spot and press A. Some players are also reporting not being able to do crime-scene investigation when using Off-TV play, which is kind of a mystery, because it works for me. But it sounds like the developers are aware of the problems and are promising one or more patches.

Despite the fact that Arkham Origins sticks painfully close to the formula established by Arkham City, it’s still a wonderful game that Bat-fans will adore. And hey, when’s the last time you could say the Wii U version of a multiplatform game turned out to be the best one? It’s a point of pride, folks.

Summary

Pros
  • Basically like Arkham City
  • Good music and voicework
  • Interesting story, possibly the best of the three
  • Loads of sidequests
Cons
  • Gotham is now way too big
  • Not much new equipment or gameplay
  • Performance issues
  • You always end up fighting like eighty-seven guys

Talkback

chilenozoNovember 06, 2013

lol...I got the impression that the game was above that number from the last connectivity podcast...anyways, City for me was awesome and I will definitely try this one. But not liking the idea of making this a year franchise

gera-macNovember 07, 2013

:-[ I disagree with this and many others reviews, because they say that the worst part of the game is that is identicaly like Arkham city, then why New super mario bros DS /wii /U/2 always gets better scores? they are basically the same too! don't get me wrong I love mario, but it is silly to me that this game get a 7 because it is way better in gameplay than his predecessors so... It seems a unfair score to me, also we Wii U owners got the best version we should encourage sales so developers would  work on Wii U, and use its true power and inovation

MetalMario2November 07, 2013

I don't know what you're talking about when you say you can't tap the GamePad to fast-travel. You can TOTALLY tap the GamePad to fast-travel. I do it all the time. I scroll the map with my finger, tap a fast-travel location, and off I go.

You should go back and try it again.

MetalMario2November 07, 2013

Maybe you didn't double-tap. You have to double-tap.

ShyGuyNovember 07, 2013

Honestly, I think the way to take the Batman games for the next iteration is to move away from Open world design. You eventually need to put people in the city, and it would seem dumb for Batman to fly down to main street and stroll around the pedestrians.

They should change to level based, or better yet set pieces scattered around the map. There is too much world to fill up and still remain in character for Batman.

Batman! Drive this taxi for extra cash! Batman, deliver this secret message across town! Batman, get 5 stars on your wanted meter!

TheXenocideNovember 07, 2013

You actually can use the touchscreen to activate fast travel points. You just double tap it. Might take a couple tries with that touch screen but it does work.

I'm mostly on the same page as Zach here. And for all that "it's the same so it should be okay!" talk, it's not.

Yes, Origins is similar to City, but it places more emphasis on the open world and traversal throughout it. That's not the direction I personally want the series to go in. Asylum was fantastic because it was a smaller, contained world filled with secrets. City and Origins are still good, but they put on some open world bloat. It's why I like Blackgate more than Arkham Origins; that game is a smaller, contained world with secrets; Arkham Origins has those secrets, but it's spread across monotonous side quests, a too-large city, and poor framerate/technical issues.

On the other hand, the subsequent NSMB games might be the same, but they all improve upon the past iteration without adding things that, at least to me, hamper the experience. 4-player? Awesome. Coin conceit? Pretty interesting. Challenges? Great. Stupidly big Gotham City? Meh.

gera-macNovember 07, 2013

you forget this game improves upon the past iteration, for starters the gameplay is much more fast/ fluid, the boss battles are epic a real innovation, the all-new crime scenes, new combos, attacks and predator moves, new gadgets, batwing, the secondary quests now have its own well done story (most of them) also the content is way much more than previous games, I don't say it deserves a 10 because it does not, not even arkham city deserves that score but this game does improve, like the transition between NSMB Wii and NSMB U

smallsharkbigbiteNovember 07, 2013

People have different opinions. Not every NSMB game scores better than the last. We just happen to be coming off of what most people believe is the best 2d mario since World on the SNES.

The reviewer and a few other commentors don't think this is a better game than city. They listed reasons - open world feels limited, too many gang battles, slow down/freezing, poor side quests. You listed some reasons you think the game is better. A 7 is a good score. It's good that you liked it more than city. It's perfectly valid to post that you liked it more and why. But to argue vehemently that your opinion that the game deserves a 9 is more valid than the reviewers opinion that the game deserves a 7 seems like a waste of time to me.

Quote from: smallsharkbigbite

People have different opinions. Not every NSMB game scores better than the last. We just happen to be coming off of what most people believe is the best 2d mario since World on the SNES.

Exactly. Personally? I really dug NSMB2 and U. I thought they took the formula of their respective progenitors and made it way better. I reviewed both for NWR and I think my reviews for them reflect that feelings.

Arkham Origins? Huge disappointment for me. I can see why people dig it (e.g. the reasons gera-mac gave), but it's not what I want in a Batman game. Asylum/Blackgate are what I want in a Batman game. I must have missed the new fluid gameplay in Arkham Origins because I was too busy getting irritated by the grapnel boost only have very specific attach points on buildings and fast travel being something that you need to unlock abilities and explore the city to unlock.

ShyGuyNovember 07, 2013

Asylum worked really well as a 3D Metroidvania.

gera-macNovember 07, 2013

I agree that we all have different opinions but I'll be honest, if you're not a batman fan is unlikely that you will like BAA or BAC, I liked AC but my friend would not dig it, its too dark and his style is truly unique but not something most gamers search for Or at least not nintendo gamers but there's something more in Origins that makes more a appeal for everyone, its more reminiscent of the Dark night movies and I like that, is a great game even if you're not a big fan and that's something really weird in super heroes games

I'd argue that a Batman game should be made for Batman fans. Just like the movies.

Case in point: Arkham Asylum/City/Origins and the Nolan Batman movies are some of the most well-regarded/profitable games/movies in recent memory. All of them were made to be great Batman products. All of them are made by folks who understand why the character works and what makes him tick. I don't see anything different that Origins does that makes it "less of a Batman game" than Asylum/City.

MagicCow64November 07, 2013

Yeah, I was somewhat turned off by City, and this looks like it's going further in the wrong direction. I want something more constrained, like Asylum, with the perfected gameplay mechanics of City.


Although, at this point, I think they've probably milked the franchise pretty dry. We've seen most of the villains (multiple times), we've had a full array of bat gadgets, we've gotten Gotham twice now. They've tackled Blackgate and Arkham, where else could a new game be set?

StratosNovember 09, 2013

These comparisons of Blackgate to 'Metroidvania' makes me want it more than the main game.

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Batman: Arkham Begins Box Art

Genre Action
Developer Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Players1

Worldwide Releases

na: Batman: Arkham Origins
Release Oct 25, 2013
PublisherWarner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
RatingTeen
jpn: Batman: Arkham Begins
Release Dec 05, 2013
PublisherWarner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Rating15+
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