So, as you may remember from the last blog I wrote, Arkham Origins was the only Batman game (of the recent Arkham arc (ARCham)), that I had not played. But no longer, for I have played it! And you know what?
I really liked it. But, before I get any further, I'll give my usual, "I'm going to discuss some spoilers but it'll be whited out" notice. I will say that if you like the other Batman games, and haven't played this one, you should. Just stop reading, and go play it. I hope you'll be pleasantly surprised. If, for whatever reason you can't play it (and I understand), then I'd still recommend trying to watch the cut-scenes on YouTube, or something. Anyway, enough preamble! Time to amble!
I didn't really know what to expect when I started playing it. On the one hand, I've seen quite a few people say it was just a straight up bad game. But I've also had people tell me that it has some of the best story stuff, and that it actually has some neat stuff in there game play wise too. I'd also heard that the game was really buggy. Aside from it being a bad game (which it's not), I think all of that is true.
I'll start with the parts of the game I didn't like. First off, the technical issues. I played the PS3 version, and I don't have any clue as to how it compares to the other versions, though I do vaguely remember reading that they straight up abandoned the Wii U version in terms of bug fixes. The game is, to be frank, kinda messy. The frame rate is all over the place. Indoors, it's usually fine. And by fine I mean, you know, 30 FPS. But outdoors, it can get pretty choppy. Not always, but sometimes it gets real bad, both when gliding, and fighting large groups of enemies. But like I said, it's not always. It's weird, and bad enough that it did kinda affect the game. Made some of the fights harder than they otherwise would have, frankly. I also ran into more situations in this game, than the others, where I was moving faster than the game could load, so it had to pause whilst it streamed in more of the world whilst I was gliding about.
I also had the game crash on me once, but once is within my tolerance limit for any open world game. A little more frustrating was when, very near the end of the game, I got stuck on a very simple puzzle for about twenty minutes because some scripting broke, or something. Basically, all I had to do was hit a button that turned some electricity on, throw a batarang through that into a thing, which would then raise some water and let me proceed forward on a floating thing of glue (because video games (more on the glue later)).
Trouble is, it didn't actually raise the water. So, after wandering around for a while trying to figure out what to do, I reloaded my save. Now, the water was already raised, even though the thingy I was trying to close wasn't closed, and the button to turn on the electricity wouldn't work. HOWEVER, since the water was raised, I could move forward...But Batman kept repeating the same inner monologue hint about needing to raise the water...Until I eventually reloaded the save (after hitting another checkpoint), and then everything worked fine.
I've also heard things from other people about vents not working, collectibles being broken, and other bugs here and there. And less critical to playing the game is that sometimes the transitions between in engine game play/cut-scenes to pre-rendered cut-scenes (which sometimes look a little artifact-y) can get a bit choppy. Again, that doesn't break the game, but when the story is the best part of a game, it's a bit of a bummer when that happens and I almost miss stuff.
The reason I (and most people) suspect these technical issues exist is that the developers weren't given enough time, or resources to make the game as good as they could have, in that regard. Given the amount of reused things from Arkham City, I think that's a pretty safe bet, too. Things like how half of the game world is reused from City (and the thing connecting the two halves is a long bridge that is a pain to cross, though thankfully there's fast travel). Granted, there are some differences here and there, but those mostly amount of covering everything in more snow (which does move around a bit as you walk through it) and putting Christmas decorations things. There's even one side thing that is exactly the same in terms of what you do. It's just that instead of helping Bane destroy vats of Titan, you're destroying vats of Black Mask's drugs. But it's the same exactly vats, just maybe with a different color on them, or something. There's also a couple times where you go into buildings you went into in the other game, with varying amounts of changes from them.
And while there are some new gadgets and other things, there's also stuff like the glue grenade, which is exactly the same as the ice grenades from City, except with glue instead of ice. It just seems like they were trying to reuse as much stuff as they could, but couldn't concoct a reason to have the actual ice grenades again (because Mr. Freeze is in the DLC). It's also a little weird that glue can be used to make little floating rafts. The ice made sense in City, this...not so much.
That brings me to, what I'll say is my last "major" issue with the game, and it's an issue that I have with lots of prequels (not just in the realm of games, either). It's that despite being set in the past, the developers were too afraid to remove too many things from Arkham City. Or, anything, for that matter. Off the top of my head, the only gadget in City that isn't also in Origins is the REC, the thing that shoots out the little electric shots to charge things are range. Instead, Origins has the Shock Gloves, which I think are cooler, in a lot of ways. While I totally get that they don't want to remove things like the Grapnel (which lets you grapple directly into glides), it also doesn't make a whole lot of sense when the Grapnel is explicitly referred to as "not being ready yet" by Alfred in City. And this isn't a prototype thing in Origins, they just call it the Grapnel, and Batman has it from the get go.
I know I would have been totally into this being a lower tech Batman that doesn't have the same level of tech as fully experienced Batman. Make him a scrappy underdog that really has to work to get stuff done, rather than having a gadget for everything, and having some things that weren't even in City or Asylum. The most notable of which being the crime scene reconstruction tool, which made its debut here.
Okay, one last complaint. As cool as that crime scene reconstruction is, because it lets you scrub through holographic interpretations of what probably happened in a crime scene, there's not many of them in the game, and they're all painfully linear. You only ever have one thing you can scan at a time, and they're always clearly marked by a red triangle. Usually you have to rewind the crime scene and find a specific moment to figure out what happened, but even then, it still marks the thing you have to scan, and the game does all the real work. I know I'm not the first person to criticize this aspect of these games, but I didn't actually read the article I saw about this, nor do I remember who wrote it, otherwise I'd probably link to it and say you should read it.
Anyway, now that I've spent several pages of this complaining, let me get to the stuff that I really like about this game. I think the story is great. Overall, I'd say my favorite story of the Arkham games. I think Knight probably has the best "cinematography" (probably using the wrong word), and City has some of the best moments (best opening (if you discount the Catwoman bit) and ending, I think), but in terms of the plot, what's going on, and, for lack of a better phrase, character moments, this one is definitely my favorite.
Part of that is because, again, overall, this story is more grounded than the other ones. It's not about making an army of monsters (though Bane's Venom does play a role), it's not about this absurd prison city (which I liked in City, don't get me wrong), and there's no threat of chemical attacks or an army of drone tanks invading the city, like in Knight. The set up is that Black Mask has put a $50 million price on Batman's head, which has drawn eight of the world's best assassins to Gotham to take him out. There's twists and turns along the way, and the stakes do get raised to have the plot involve a greater threat to Gotham, but even then, it (not really a spoiler, but kind of a spoiler) is more about domestic terrorism, and blowing up buildings, which is still pretty grounded.
But it's not just about that. It's about Batman taking on the biggest threat he's had to deal with yet, and how he deals with it and it continues to escalate as the night progresses (which is all of these games, I know). It's about how he is definitely a younger, cockier Batman, and how he learns that sometimes he can't just rely on himself. It's about how his relationship with people like Alfred, and Jim Gordon develop. It's about how he starts to go from the cops hating him as much as they do the criminals, to starting to gain their trust.
And I really like all of that stuff. There's some really great moments in there too, like the first time that Batman meets Barbara Gordon. Again, mild spoilers, but when the two meet, and Barbara is helping out Batman even though she knows her father would be furious with her, I just thought that whole scene was adorable. Mid-teens Barbara doing what she feels is the right thing to do was just kind of, I dunno, heartwarming in a way that these games rarely are, and seeing Batman reluctantly accept her help was nice too.
And (this IS a big SPOILER) there's a moment late in the game where Alfred almost dies, and Batman has to resuscitate him. It's simple stuff, and not anything that would win an Academy Award, but between what's happening in the game, and the fact that the voice acting is pretty great (Roger Craig Smith, who you may remember as Chris Redfield and Ezio, is a great young Bruce Wayne) just makes the scene work really well. As does most of the game, frankly. It helps Batman feel more like Bruce Wayne, more like a person with a very troubled past who is trying to punch and kick his way into making the world a better place, and slowly realizing that he can't do it on his own. Which, yes, I mentioned that earlier.
Though, back to that SPOILERY point I made before, as much as I do like the story, there is one thread that I feel like is kinda tacked on and then almost Deus Ex Machina'd out. Again, don't read the whited out bit if you haven't played, but later in the game, it's revealed that Bane has figured out who Batman is. Now, that's fine, because I really like most of how Bane is handled in this game. Namely, he's a regular sized dude (mostly) with Venom to enhance his strength, but he's also a really smart crime guy with a loyal following.
The problem with it is that they also establish that he has what is basically Super Venom (I forget the actual name because it was just some letters and numbers), that he hasn't used yet because it causes severe memory loss in the people that do. So, this thread about Bane knowing who Batman is really only ever amounts in their attack on Wayne Manner, which results in Alfred almost dying. But then, before the game ends, Bane uses the Super Venom, which makes him into the giant monster we all remember from Arkham Asylum, and after they fight, Batman somehow knows that Bane taking the Super Venom caused him to forget that he knew Batman's identity.
Which, honestly, all felt way too convenient and like it was there solely to justify having those moments in the game. That leaves me a little conflicted, because while I think it results in one of my favorite moments in the game, it feels pretty contrived, and like a Deus Ex Machina (though not quite, but also I'm no english or literature expert, so I dunno). It's a minor complaint, but given how I feel about the rest of the game's story, it does feel like an out of place slip up.
The game has lots of other cool little moments too. Like, when Batman encounters the first of the assassins, Electrocutioner, instead of having a big, elaborate boss fight, you hit the attack button once, and it immediately goes to a cut-scene of Batman kicking him in the face, and knocking him out. Stuff like that is just plain cool. And the fact that it's a Shane Black style story, set around Christmas, is pretty great to me. It's not the first time a Batman story has been set with Christmas a the backdrop, but I'm just a sucker for Christmas music and Christmas-y stuff appearing in stories that, otherwise, have nothing to do with Christmas.
I mean, of course Christmas gets brought up, especially by The Joker, in some big story sequences, but there's also so nice quiet moments where it comes into play. There's one in the game where, after you get to a certain story point, whilst going around in the open world, Alfred calls up Bruce and says that it's now midnight, and he wishes Bruce a Merry Christmas. Again, it's a little thing, but I really like that they did that, and that they didn't just work it into a cut-scene, it happens in the world, as you're running to the next story thing. And Bruce's, "You too, Alfred" was a nice touch, given his tone and how they had been arguing not too long before then.
There's a couple of cool new game play additions too. Like the (I forget what it's called) gadget you get from Deathstroke that lets you grapple things together. For the most part, it's just used to string up a tightrope between spots for traversing things, but there's a really cool upgrade for it. It lets you shoot it at an enemy, and then the other end grapples up to a gargoyle (or equivalent) and string up the enemy from afar. Of course, it has limited ammo (which recharges over time), so you can't just get through Predator Rooms using only that, but it's still a super cool thing that just feels incredibly Batman-y to me.
Speaking of upgrades, there's some changes to how this game's upgrade system works, compared to the other games. Some of them are locked behind completing challenges, or finishing major side missions (mostly involving defeating the assassins that don't play into most of the story), but the others have been organized in a different way that I find kind of intriguing. In the other games, there were some upgrades that had to be unlocked in sequential order, like health, or the multi-batarangs. In this one, you NEED to upgrade some things like health in order to get to other upgrades. It's interesting, because in City and Knight, I tend to upgrade the melee health (or I guess armor is more descriptive) in line with the bullet armor. But here, I focused on the melee armor to get to specific upgrades and abilities that I really wanted. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's any better or worse than the other games, but it's an interesting difference from them.
And those challenges are interesting too. These games have often had similar things (I think), but here they're ranked in this Dark Knight system, and you have to complete them in sequential order. Well, at least in the different categories, of which there are four. One's about melee combat, another stealth, the third (assuming I remember the order right, which I'm sure I didn't), about traversal stuff, and the last is just about filling in the database. I did manage to complete all of them in the melee combat one, though I think the game might have bugged out and given me the last one without earning it. That, or it gave it to me several minutes after completing a large fight that I might have met the requirements in, but I was too busy getting a, like, 93 combo to notice. I forget if that was actually the fight I got the 93 combo in, but I definitely got a 93 combo at one point, which was cool. Don't think I ever cracked a hundo, though. Sadly.
There's some neat additions in the combat too. There's a concussion grenade that makes enemies flip out and wildly attack each other, and there's a few enemy types that are new to this game, but for whatever reason, didn't return in Knight. My favorite of them being the martial artists which can do things like counter Batman's attacks, and counter his counters! Of course, you can counter their counter counters, but it's still cool, and a nice addition that helps keep you on your toes. There's also some Venom powered enemies that weren't quite as neat as the martial artists, but they were also a decent way to break up the action. Certainly better than those brutes in Knight that would switch between the electric shockers and the shields.
Oh, speaking of, another thing I was pretty fond of in Origins were the Shock Gloves. They're nothing super original, or crazy in terms of what you actually do with them, but they're a cool addition. As you fight, you fill a meter, and when that's full, you click in both sticks to activate electric sparking mode, at which point Batman both does more damage, and can cut right through whatever defenses enemies have. That means you can punch through those shields, ignore those shockers, and even attack the armored brutes that you'd normally have to use a "takedown" on to get past the initial layer of armor. Again, not anything revolutionary, but I think it's a great addition, and I'm bummed you can't use them in Knight. Though, at least they do appear in the evidence locker in the police department in that game, so there is an explanation as to why Batman doesn't use them any more. Even if that doesn't explain why he wouldn't build his own, given how rad they are and how he needed them several times in the story in this game.
Actually, I lied earlier, I do have a couple of other issues with the game. One being that, like all of these games, there's way too many collectibles, and so far as I can tell, you need all of them to see whatever there is at the end with Riddler. Er, excuse me, Enigma in this game. Which, come on, of course it's The Riddler. Though, even if the game is being a little silly in not calling him that (not yet at least), I do think showing how he and Batman first deal with each other (over the radio) over the course of the game is another neat thing. By the time of the other Arkham games, Batman is just plain sick of Riddler, and tired of his shenanigans. But in this game, he's not, so Batman is actually trying to talk sense into him, rather than alternating between ignoring him and saying that he's going to bring The Riddler in to justice.
I'm not sure if I'm going to bother finding all of his collectibles or not. On the one hand, I want to see what happens if you do, but on the other, that stuff can still get pretty tedious, and I think I might need to use a guide, so I dunno. As much as I do love these games, I feel like I need a bit of a break. Though, I do still want to play this game in New Game Plus at some point, like how I do with Knight (which I definitely will at some point before I get to the yearly and increasingly stupid Moosies Game of the Year Awards (also it's only July why am I thinking about that now??)).
I think that's about it for things specific to this game that I want to mention. Well, I suppose I should at least touch on Troy Baker's Joker. I think his performance is fine, but I can't help but compare it to Mark Hamill's Joker, especially when canonically, they are the same Joker. And it's unfair to compare Troy's performance to what I consider to be one of the most iconic voices in cartoons and video games, though that's largely because of how much I loved The Animated Series growing up (he's still the best Joker by far, though, so far as I'm concerned). Again, Troy's performance is fine, but he still just kinda sounded like Troy Baker trying to be The Joker to me, and not like The Joker.
Oh, okay, one last thing. While I definitely complained about how Arkham Knight handled its lady characters, and replaying City I felt it did about as well, I think Origins handles the women a bit better. Not perfect, because I think Copperhead (one of the assassins) is still a bit over-sexualized, but compared to the other games, this one's the best, I think. Also, she's still less sexualized than Poison Ivy, who walks around wearing literal leaf panties in the other games (she's not in this one at all).
Sure, there's a couple cases where Batman has to save some civilians, some of which are women, but there's also dudes in those groups of hostages, which I think clears it. The other lady assassin, Shiva (who clearly works for the League of Assassins, but that's never directly stated in a way I liked) is pretty decent and not over-sexualized, and as I mentioned earlier, I really like how the game handles young Barbara, even if she's only just barely in it. Granted, this is still a game with an almost exclusively male cast (mostly white too, so far as I know), so I'm not saying this is some great example of feminism or anything. I'm just saying it's better than the other ones.
So, that brings me to the question that I just know someone is going to ask me: Which one of these games is my favorite? Well, after having played Knight, replayed both Asylum and City, and now played Origins, I can definitively say that...I'm not sure. I still think Asylum is my least favorite of the bunch, because while I admire its purity, and straightforward nature, I also think that game has some pretty rough spots, and the bosses are uniformly bad. Plus, those Scarecrow parts are great until they turn into instant-fail-stealth-platforming sequences, and you screw up one of them repeatedly because of the imprecise controls. That, and I still think that game is way too restrictive in terms of what you can do game play wise, especially in the "traversal" stuff in the outdoor areas.
Honestly, if it wasn't for the technical issues, and all the reused assets from City, I'd be inclined to say Origins is my favorite. But, given that stuff, and the fact that the gliding and traversal stuff feels kinda junky after Knight, I dunno. I didn't mention that earlier, because it feels more or less the same as in City, which also feels kinda junky after Knight. I guess, since I think Knight plays the best overall (aside from that one brute enemy type and some of the Batmobile segments), Origins has my favorite story of the bunch, but City has a decent mix and some of my favorite moments in the series, I guess I'd have to pick City if I HAD to pick one? I dunno. I love them all, just for different reasons!
As much as I'd like to say Origins is my favorite like at least one of my friends (hi Lina!), I just can't. But I also feel like I can't honestly say City or Knight is my favorite, so...it's a three way draw! Yay for shirking actually making a choice and just going for an indecisive middle ground! :D
But seriously, having played all of these games within a month, I can say that I genuinely love all of them, and it's helped me remember how much I love Batman. It even somehow led to me watching the animated version of The Dark Knight Returns for the first time (thanks Patrick!), which I quite enjoyed! Hope I can read the source material at some point.
Anything else?
Despite my usual MO being to write about multiple games in one blog, and my original intention to also write about DriveClub here (the theme being they were two games that were better than I expected), I didn't want to sully this blog with that game (DriveClub isn't that good), so I'll just sum this up with what I've got coming up in the short term.
I ordered a new hard drive on Amazon, and that should be arriving either later today, or tomorrow. It's a 2TB drive that I intend to put into my PS4. Once that's all said and done, I'll report on how it worked, and how frustrated I was at the incredibly slow process of copying all my saves onto a USB drive because I have over twice the amount of data in saves than I can have in the cloud.
Once I get that, and get my games installed and stuff, the next game on my docket is Dying Light. No, I did not buy Dying Light, I'm going to borrow it from my cousin. Very interested in that game, to say the least. Dunno if I'll like it, or what, but hey! I can't complain about the price.
I've also been playing a lot of Rocket League with my friends Ross and Tom (and a friend of Ross's (I assume at least, he sounds hella Scottish (he's a cool dude too, but I don't know him as well as I do Ross and Tom))), and I might write something about that at some point. But there's not much to say other than it's rad and you should play Rocket League too. It's free if you have PS+!
After that, I'll have the rest of July and August to get in whatever Metal Gear games I want to before MGSV. I still would like to play them all and write something, but we'll see. I don't want to force myself to play through all of something like MGS1 on PS1 if I'm having a miserable time actually playing it, for example. I don't have an audience of thousands watching to keep me going like Drew did. (Not saying Drew had a miserable time, the combo of seeing that story for the first time and having Dan there helped him have fun with it. I have neither, and given my fluctuating moods these days (though I've been feeling well lately!), I'd rather spend my time doing things that make me happy, rather than frustrated at something I love.)
Anyway, thanks for reading, and have a swell day! <3
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