Batman: Arkham Origins

It's sad when a game series hits the point where you just know in your gut that it has nothing new to offer. What was once fun has become routine and the excitement of seeing the next major event has evolved into apathy. Unfortunately, while Batman: Arkham Origins is no where near being a bad game, the concept feels tired and uninspired.

In this prequel to Arkham Asylum and City, you play as Batman who has only been fighting crime for two years. Like in other media featuring the character he has riled up the local gangs leading to desperate measures. Major gang leader Black Mask has put a $50 million bounty on the Bat's head and eight major assassins have come to Gotham to collect.

The story could of held it's weight had it tried to do it's own thing of actually having Batman deal with these assassins throughout the main story. Yet, about a third of the way into the main story, the remaining assassins Batman hasn't defeated are pushed into the background and become secondary players (some only being used for side missions) as the story for the third time once again becomes Batman vs. The Joker.

I get that the Joker had to be there, after all he's the marquee villain of the series, but I just feel he could have been used better. Instead the story is just another entry in their long winded rivalry adding to the feeling that the series is tired and not really touching the potential other villains could bring as the main focus.

Once the story is over, there's a sense that the game was not made to tell a compelling Origins story, but to sell further DLC chapters which will bridge the gap between Origins and Asylum.

As for the rest of the game if I had to describe it in one word that word would be "off." Everything, much like the game itself, whilst being good for the most part have little details that throw away the game's strengths at a moments notice.

Graphically the game is as good, if not better, than its predecessors. The designs of characters are still great, Gotham looks great and the game uses it prequel setting to the up most. Everything looks just young enough to change the looks of previously seen characters while not making their designs alien to what we have already witnessed.

But for every good thing there is an agent that counter acts. Several times when gliding through Gotham I have noticed delayed texture pop ins. This is usually something that doesn't bother me but in this case the delay would usually lead to a ridiculous frame rate slow down that on a a few occasions has forced me to quit out and restart because it makes the game unplayable.

Soundwise the voice acting from Roger Craig Smith as Batman and Troy Baker as the Joker is pretty good, but, for the most part, don't get to bring their own interpretations of the characters to the game. From the moment you hear their first lines you know they have been told to impersonate Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill. Other than that the rest of the cast do a stand up job of bringing Gotham's residents to life.

On the SFX side, once again there are not too many issues, although on occasions music and gadget noises are delayed or drop out for no apparent reason.

So with the cosmetics out of the way, let's move on to what makes or breaks all games, how it plays. The best way to explain this would be like Arkham City but not as good. The series' traditional Freeflow Combat returns but definitely feels unpolished once you get into large scale conflicts. Frequently your combos will be broken up when Batman swings for empty space or fails to recognize the counter button being pressed. Since Freeflow entirely depends on long combos to make it fun seeing it being broken regularly due to the game's fault is frustrating.

On the other hand the predator encounters which encompass the stealth element of the game have been left relativity untouched. My only complaint is that after certain upgrades these segments become too easy with one gadget performing the games' famous inverted takedowns without you needing to be near the statues.

Outside of the main story there are a few options. The first is to collect Enigma Datapacks by either just finding them laying around or by completing a small logic puzzle with your gadgets (much like Riddler Trophies in the last game).

The second is a bunch of side missions that can range from catching a bad guy to sabotaging illegal activities with the explosive gel gadget. On a side note the boss fights in this game feel uninspired as well. While there is one truly brilliant fight in the game, most are just QTE-fests with waves of regular enemies joining the mix to up the "challenge."

Occasionally Batman will come across a crime scene to investigate which shows off the all new Detective Mode features of reconstructing a crime scene and replaying the incident. It sounds more interesting than it actually is though since all you do is find a red triangle, scan it and rinse and repeat until the scene is complete.

Annoyingly Gotham City is twice the size of Arkham City in the previous game. 50% of the map is new with the other half being a reskin of the previous game's map. But even with this extra space the game has less to do than before. Also the open world exploration aspect of the game is hindered by the OTT placement of goons with guns.

It made sense in Arkham City as to why the place was overrun with criminals on every street corner. After all, it was a prison city. But in Origins the game lazily explains the situation as Gotham being on lock down due to the assassins. So why are there snipers randomly on rooftops guarding nothing at all? At least in the previous game snipers existed to stop you going straight for collectibles and missions, here they exist to annoy and take large chunks of your health as you glide by.

This could be to encourage me to use the new fast travel system which does everything except what it says on the tin. Using this will cause the game to load a cutscene of Batman boarding the Batwing, another of him flying it and then you have to glide to where you want for the point. If your lucky it won't crash your game or cause the pre-mentioned framerate slowdown.

Other glitches have hindered my progress at times throughout. On one occasion a predator encounter couldn't end because the last enemy had walked through a wall. Another time the story could not continue because the interrogation prompt didn't pop up. Sometimes the game won't let you climb onto ledges vital for progression or will magically place an elevator on the wrong floor.

I would like to tell you how the multiplayer works, but every time I've tried to use it I have been unable to get a game. This could be down to Warner Bros online WBID service which is meant to work like uPlay does for Ubisoft. It could be coincidence but everytime I've used WBID in conjunction with the single player game it is more prone to the problems I have mentioned.

As I mentioned before Arkham Origins is not a outright terrible game, but any good that is here was the work of Rocksteady and their two magnificent games. What we have here is a cash grab looking to make one last swipe for people's money before the new generation of game consoles kick in.

Tired and uninspired, Arkham Origins has done more harm than good for the series. One can only hope that Rocksteady return for one final game that closes the story and allows the series to pass on with its reputation intact despite this misfire.