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| Bane and Batman have a nice dance at the winter ball. |
Warning: The following review contains mild spoilers. Read at your own risk.
Batman: Arkham Origins is the third installment in the franchise, following Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. Arkham Asylum, while a great game, suffered from linearity issues and lacked the extra "oomph" it needed to be an excellent game. Arkham City upped the ante, delivering a phenominal game, giving the player free reign to explore a large open world by their own, while solving seemingly endless puzzles, challenges, and side-missions. Arkham Origins, while still a good game in its own right, ultimately fails to surpass the second installment in every way.
So, right off the "bat" (HA!), why is the game called Arkham Origins, you may ask? At the beginning of the game, the player picks up the controller (or perhaps mouse/keyboard if that's your cup of tea) as Bruce Wayne, two years into being Batman. While the game does not necessarily show the "origins" promised by the title, it does delve into Batman's introduction with the Joker, shows Harley Quinn before she's...um...Harley Quinn, and shows a young Gordan, who has not quite reached the status of "Commissioner" yet. Also worth mentioning is the very strong supporting character to be found in Alfred, since his communication with Batman is an integral part of the game.
The main story, while interesting at points, can falter with overly long, repetitive missions, involving Batman using the same couple of gadgets to overcome light environmental puzzles, all while delivering beat downs to groups of thugs. Occasionally, segments exist where stealth is key, due to enemies carrying around weapons. During these points, the player needs to think outside the box, picking off enemies one by one silently, all while using Batman's somewhat impressive repertoire of gadgets (I say "somewhat" because besides a few new additions to his arsenal, a majority of the items are the same, or function identically to those found in the previous installments). These segments can become frustratingly difficult if you are trying to clear out the room without being seen, since it seems like the surrounding enemies always have a tendency of spotting you, no matter how isolated you are. To me, the stealth mechanics are one of the weakest elements of the game; whether this is due to poor game design, or plainly my stupidity is up for debate.
During the story missions, there will be boss encounters that are initially impressive. While fights with Deathstroke and Bane are some of the highlights, every single boss fight essentially devolves into repeating the same 2-3 moves over and over again, and countering attacks like mad. This can be frustrating, because after the "wow" factor wears off, these fights become incredibly repetitive. Cutscenes pop in from time to time to progress the fights, and it is usually during these boss fight moments when Batman's suit damage is sustained (a neat little visual treat found in the prior games as well; as the game progresses, Batman gets more and more bullet marks on his suit, scratches, and rips in his cape when the storyline is progressed).
The actual "story" itself is simply okay. Some moments border on greatness, while others leave the player wondering why it was implemented (there is a scene where you play as the Joker briefly, and while cool, it adds nothing noteworthy to the story due to how bizarre it is). The dynamic between Batman and the various villains is interesting as always, but due to Batman's self-righteous "I don't kill anyone" rule, you're left hanging with some moments that make you question "why did he establish this in the first place?" There are key points where villains could have been stopped multiple times...and for damn good reasons...but he simply does not want to kill them. Then they go on to do horrible things, severely endangering the lives of many. Yet, he can beat on a group of thugs, snap their legs/arms, and leave them in the snow.
Outside the story missions, there is quite a bit to do. "Most Wanted" missions pop up from time to time, which serve as this games side-missions. These range from finding a large amount of Riddler collectables, to tracking down villians and having boss encounters with them. Some of these prove to be very interesting, such as the Mad Hatter's mission, which changes up the feel of the game drastically, accommodating for more of a side-scrolling platformer feel. Besides these, there are a number of symbols to find, crime scenes to complete, challenges to take part in (which give you medals upon completion for reaching certain goals, such as a score or a particular objective), and a lackluster multiplayer mode that at best, exists as an okay distraction to break up the single player. Also, after the completion of the story mode, you get a New Game Plus mode, where you can retain all XP, items acquired, and collectables, while making the game harder with more difficult enemy variations and no "counter" notifications. After completion of New Game Plus is...a mode that is frustratingly difficult, where you have one life and no saves, to complete the entire game. This one is for the hardcore gamers out there.
The gameplay elements remain largely unchanged from the prior installment, save one thing, which is actually one of my favorite tasks to accomplish in this game: the crime scenes. When investigating these scenes using Batman's "Detective Mode," footage based on what he has pieced together can be rewound/fast-forwarded to watch the crime unfold in front of you. This element has to be used to find items such as the murder weapon, a point of impact, or even a splatter of blood. Batman is always referred to as a "master detective" and we didn't really get a huge feel for that in the prior games, but this new implementation is rather neat because it shows us just how intelligent of a person he is.
Although combat remains unchanged, it is still as fluid and fun as ever. Late in the game, you acquire "shock gloves" which make combat a breeze. Up until this point, however, the game ramps up in difficulty more and more, leaving the player to think on their feet about what types of moves they need to go against particular enemy types, such as body-armor enemies, shield-wielding enemies, enemies with knives/swords, and so on. The only issue I have with combat is sometimes, while Batman is performing a lengthy move (such as a jumping kick to the face), it leaves you entirely vulnerable and unable to counter any attacks, which is frustrating if you are racking up a high combo.
The biggest complaint I have with this game boils down to its technical difficulties. Over the course of gameplay (I invested at least 30 hours into the game), my game froze on three separate occassions. While this isn't a huge deal, it is incredibly frustrating, especially if on the way to an objective in the distance. There was an instance where I was climbing a ladder and a cutscene was supposed to initiate, but instead, Batman got stuck in the ceiling and I could not do anything, forcing me to restart from the last checkpoint and play the past 10 minutes all over again. There was a moment when a prisoner I needed for a Most Wanted mission did not appear for a very long time, and when he finally did, it was out of nowhere, right in front of my face, like he magically warped into existence. Finally, when gliding off of a rooftop, I landed atop a car; when this happened, Batman hung suspended in the air, in a gliding pose, unmovable, forcing me yet again, to restart from the prior checkpoint. While these are not game-breaking moments, they are very frustrating, especially when you are having an otherwise good time in the open world environment. This game lacks the amount of polish found in the last games, and I do not know whether or not this is due to the absence of Rocksteady's involvement with this particular installment.
Ultimately, this is not a bad game by any means. Some lackluster, repetitive missions and boss fights lack the variety that made the other games so special. The story, while decent, had too many weak moments that sort of pull one out of the experience entirely. The Most Wanted missions are fun to complete, the crime scenes are a blast, and its still incredibly satisfying to glide around as Batman in an open world interpretation of Gotham, aside from the numerous technical difficulties I encountered during this experience, which hampered my gameplay slightly. Combat is still satisfying, although the gadgets are not improved that much at all. Stealth sections seem to lack the "tightness" that they had in the previous installment, but that boils down to my own opinion, because I was not necessarily a huge fan of them to start off with. Multiplayer feels tacked on, and really did not even need to be included into the package. Arkham Origins is definitely worth a shot if you're a Batman fan, just don't go in expecting this to surpass Arkham City in any way, shape or form.
Rating:
7/10
(7 out of 10)
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