So I've noticed that the enemies in Origin are way more angry towards Mr. Batman than in previous games. I guess it makes sense, because Batman is still a myth (despite punching people in their stupid faces for a combined 730 days, at least) and there's a bounty on his head, so everyone wants to murder the Bat. However, it just isn't as fun; in Asylum and City, I was the aggressor and I controlled the situations. In Origins, everyone is constantly pushing me, to the point where I will just stand in one place and not use any gadgets if there are more than 4 guys in a scenario. Hence, playing one-handed: I use one hand to eat or drink, and another hand to counter until I have my special move ready.

And speaking of aggressiveness, has anyone else noticed how prone enemies are to teleporting to you? It's almost as if they're in Free Flow mode as well. I noticed it in City more than Asylum, but it was never an issue there, but I've had several cases where guys would slide in from off-screen, already mid-animation, and thwap me in the face before I had a chance to react. The ground is icy, I know, but not that icy.

The game is still pretty solid, but I'm tempted to just boot up City again, since the combat there is so much more refined. Less issues with warping brawlers and the camera pulling too far away or my hits not targeting the right people. The 'big reveal' at the Merchant's Bank also turned me off a bit. If I had to give this game a score based on the six hours I've played of it so far, I'd say it it's a 3/5. It's an incredibly solid game, but the story is going in the wrong direction and there are enough issues with the mechanics that it's severely hampering my enjoyment of it.

I get your point, but I don't really agree with you thought. You're right on the fact that enemies are a lot more aggressive, and to me ( opinion ), this is a godsend. Batman games were too easy for me, and I barely even got hit like, ever. This may be due to the fact that I devoured Arkham Asylum and City and played them nearly five times over each of them, thus making me too good for the game.

So, I welcomed the challenge, and still, I don't ever really get hit. Enemies will be super aggressive if you stay at the same spot though. If you move around while free-flowing and vault over guys, you'll have no problems using all of your gadgets during fights.

Story-wise, I also disagree with you. While Asylum had a really good setup, City's story fell short of being good. The Ra's segment was particularly dull and felt forced. As for Origins, I felt like each element of the story belonged there in the first place. It's a more grounded, more casual Batman story, and that's totally fine with me. I found it somewhat believable, unlike the mess ( opinion ) that was City's story.

This comes from a guy who firmly believes that Batman AA was THE game of the generation. It brought everything to the table perfectly; stealth, combat, puzzle, platforming and set pieces. They just happened to forget about the bosses, which they kind-of corrected in Origins, even though there weren't enough. Deathstroke's fight in particular was very cool indeed, if easy.

@klei: I find this game too easy. I'm playing on Hard, and while I'm sort of whiffing on the combat and getting hit a lot because I don't like it as much, I've never come anywhere close to dying, despite being shot at, stabbed, shield-bashed, punched, kicked, hit with milk crates, etc.

The game also seems fond of throwing tons of guys at you in small arenas. Just recently, I responded to a crime in progress, and there were 2 Martial Artists, 1 shield guy, 2 Brutes, 2 knives laying around, and 10 other guys. The arena, however, with this little hole in the ground with two fountains on either side, and it made it difficult to properly select targets. The game kept thinking I wanted to punch shield guy, or instant takedown Martial Arts guy, or cape stun the guy that was in the middle of punching me, instead of targeting the enemy I wanted it to. The scenarios just feel sloppier to me, overall, as if they're throwing in more enemy types just for the sake of having them in the game.

Also, tangentially related, is it also very beatdown-heavy? I feel like there are more armoured guys in the first hour of this game than in all of the previous games combined. On a further tangent, did Asylum even have armoured guys?

I really liked how the game came up with different enemy types (martial artists) which makes managing fights more important. Game just doesn't feel refined enough when compared to the previous two games. What I'm referring to is the counter move, in the previous two I could always count on the game to breaks batman's fighting animation in order to counter a move. In this game it seems like there's a slight delay or that it punishes you if you are stuck in a combat animation. But the op is right, at times because of how the combat is it might just be easier to just to counter every move.

@i_stay_puft: I just booted up Arkham City to test that theory out. I was mid-way through it for a third time when I bought Origins, and I decided new punching is better than old punching. I wasn't right.

So, there's no cancelling out of an animation in Arkham City, but to make up for that, Batman is significantly faster. In origins, he seems to have plated armour on, which I guess explains the lack of speed, but it isn't as fun as in City or Asylum. In origins, like you said, there's a delay after each move where, for whatever reason, Batman decides that getting walloped in the jaw is way better than not, and he refuses to counter. The enemies also back off while you're fighting, and come forward one, two, or three at a time. In Origins, it feels like every enemy is right on top of Batman, and it makes it really difficult to discern who's attacking and who is just side-stepping or re-adjusting.

Also, slight spoilers here for both City and Origins, just some boss battle stuff:

I just fought Ra's al Ghul, and there are two points in his fight where he jumps up at you, and you have to press Counter faster and faster, and then start a Beatdown on him. After that, he takes his daughter hostage and you unlock a Reverse Batarang to throw at him. In Origins, Slade uses the exact same animations as Ra's, right down to the way he slashes you and the way that Batman grabs the blade of the sword. As well, there's a moment with the Hatter in Origins where he takes a young girl hostage, and you must throw a Reverse Batarang at him. That's just laziness, and it actually kind of offends me.

I think your complaints are validated by everyone mentioning the same thing. This game is more of the same stuff, take that as either a good or bad thing. People have mentioned that this wasn't rocksteady who worked on the game and that they are probably working on a next-gen batman game to hopefully evolve the series from Arkham City. I'm really hoping that this is Batman Beyond game and it takes place in Neo Gotham City.

path finding is still a problem with today's games.

@i_stay_puft: oh my god that would be amazing

This is sorta the problem with the game. While it's great for the fans, it caters to them a bit too much. I guess in some way you would assume that anyone that picks up Origins is a fan of the series already, but they forget that people can be fans of the series without having gone super-deep down the hole. Using myself as an example, I think the Arkham games is probably one of the top 5 (maybe 3) franchises we've seen this generation, but I never did any of the challenge stuff, or played through the games on hard/NG+.