This is the "Batman Forever" of the Arkham series
In the years since the release of Arkham Asylum, I have been an avid singer of this series praises. Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City were masterfully crafted pieces of Gothic inspired artwork. They both captured a slice of Batman's fictional life, and put the player in an interesting world full of colorful villains, exciting combat, stealthy engagements, and all of it with a serviceable narrative hook to drive it all. Not the best comic book fiction ever, but certainly done well enough in service of the gameplay which, as it should be, was the main draw.
And now, once again, my table has been served a plate with heaping helpings of Batman fiction upon which I was eager to dine. Sip it's heady Gotham City atmosphere, savor it's succulent flavors, both combat and stealth, and hopefully feel satisfied once it was all said and done.
Sadly however, the metaphor I was so laboring under has all fallen apart. Because Arkham Origins is not a fine meal. It's fast food. It doesn't leave you feeling satisfied like a good cut of beef, it makes you feel gassy like they put too much cheese on it.
On the surface, it all seems fine. Freeflow combat segments? Good. Stealthy predator segments? Good. Open World Gotham City? All good. But this is a patchwork coat made from someone elses hand-me-downs. And if you tug at the seams, it will fall apart. Literally in many cases. Bugs have been much maligned from players of all walks of the internet, and I was no stranger to many of them either.
But bugs, while frustrating, are not enough to put me off completely. One can have a good time even with a few technical snafus. It's not unheard of, and if anyone deserved the benefit of the doubt, it's Batman. But something, even when the game is working perfectly, something just feels off about Arkham Origins.
The combat is technically just the same as it ever was. Freeflow from one enemy to the other, smack a room full of baddies in the face until it's all said and done. Stop ninjas and thugs and burly enforcers with your superior skills. It's the same as it's ever been in design, but the execution is what is off here. The new enemy types require a level of focus that was never present in the Rocksteady games. In Asylum and City, Batman was in control of every battlefield, in Origins the makeup of the mobs is just different enough to feel like this isn't the case.
Certain enemies always required special maneuvers to defeat. But learning which enemies required which approach never took away from the fun. The enemies who needed a certain style of attack were clearly defined, standing out from the background and the pack of thugs. Car door riot shields, tazers, armored enemies had a very specific look to them so you knew at a glance what move to employ to dismiss them. Origins is much less deliberate in it's designs. Multiple ninjas and martial artists wear near identical armor, "Penguin" thugs with their white and black marking are far too similar to thugs in armor who can shrug off you attacks, and even the car door riot shields which return from City seem more muted and easier to not notice in the heat of Batman's frequent fistfights.
Part of this problem is in the very fabric of it's design. Narratively speaking, this is suppose to be a younger, rawer, less experienced Batman. But that's just the problem with all "ORIGIN" style stories. You either have to take things away from the player that they have gotten used to, or break the narrative you're trying to build by giving us things like the Grapnel booster that we just used as a prototype in the game that was set years later. I'm of a mind that the fun trumps all and the Grapnel is certainly a piece of Bat-kit I wouldn't want to do without. Not that you get unfettered access to it's bounty. Hookpoints are not very evenly distributed in Origins. Making traversal often needlessly difficult. Again, I guess this could be explained in the narrative with younger Bruce not having the same understanding as older Bruce, but that's a poor excuse for making the city feel less kinetic and exciting and instead making the player needlessly hunt for hookable items when trying to get around.
The stealth hasn't come into Origins unscathed either. Again, this is a game that hasn't changed much, but still feels like much less than the sum of it's parts. Quickfire often manages to miss in the heat of battle. Enemy prioritization is often nonexistent, and the design of the stealth areas often makes it difficult to ascertain exactly how the enemies are still seeing you after hooking around the corner when in other Arkham games you would have been free of their sight after only two quick moves. More than this, many of the Predator missions feel very busy. There are certainly a lot of options which is nice, at least in theory, but in practice it often feels like there is too much going on. It's laudable to put in plenty of options for the player to choose from, but it so often makes the actual gameplay more difficult when spotty targeting plagues your commands and the aforementioned quick-fire seems so poorly implemented.
Even with the narrative justification for younger Bruce Wayne being much less capable and far more hot-headed, the game feels a bit sloppily put together. The bugs and glitches and crashes are evidence of this. The targeting being just slightly off manages to break the best laid plans of bats and men. One reviewer said the problem with Origins is that it stands on the shoulders of giants. And I suppose that is a nice way of saying it's OK. But I don't really want to say it in a nice pithy way. This game is unfocused. It's unrefined. And it's only worth your time if you are just a die-hard fan of Batman. And even then, the Dark Knight really deserves better. This is like Batman Forever. Similar in form and function to what came before, but just enough of it is off that it leaves you far less satisfied. Asylum and City were works of art. Origins, is a picture of that work of art put on a pair of drapes or some wallpaper rolls. Functionally similar to it's predecessors, but nowhere near as unique in their execution.
****************************************************************************************
As a side note: This review is only discussing the Single Player portion of the game. The multiplayer is not something I'm interested in playing even if it were working perfectly and I keep hearing from others that it is not that well done. But if you're specifically looking for information on the multiplayer mode, this review has not given any points for it, nor does it knock points because of it. As far as this write-up is concerned, there could have been only one disc in the ORIGINS box if you take my meaning. Thanks for reading! :)
