The core gameplay didn't change at all, but there were a lot of little tweaks that made the game feel "off." Rocksteady's games were always very carefully contructed, and this team made some minute changes without considering the effect it would have on the game as a whole.
One, the open world was bigger, but without a good way to travel around it. Batman still moved at about the same speed, but there was twice as much ground to cover and the only way to cross from the Arkham part of the city into Gotham proper was a huge bridge with shit-all going on. In City, getting around felt good; weaving your way between poles and over and under signs and buildings made you feel agile and slick. In Origins, gliding across a huge bridge while occasionally grappling was just boring. Aside from that, the city was just a bunch of open streets without anything to consider as you flew along. It incentivised fast traveling, and because of that, the world didn't seem as coherent and realised as Arkham City's.
Two, some small changes in enemy behaviour during combat and the introduction of a couple of enemies and new systems made combat feel worse than the previous two games. The enemies in Origins are much more aggressive and react more often to Batman's attacks. I've said before, it may be justified in the lore since Batman is just a myth at this point and no one knows how dangerous he is, but it reduces combat to standing around while waiting for an opportunity to counter. Unlocking the critical counter ability instead of critical strike just makes this a bigger problem, since it further rewards passiveness instead of aggression (which doesn't make sense in the lore, since Batman at this age is supposed to be kind of violent and reactionary). At some point, they introduce the Martial Artist enemy, who needs to be countered multiple times just to deflect one attack, and this is a problem since he can often fly in from off-screen with an attack primed. This interrupts the flow of combat, the rhythmic and steady tapping that used to be encouraged by critical strikes, and makes the player mash the counter button hurriedly in an attempt to block. The biggest problem with the combat, though, was the introduction of the Shock Gloves. Previously, the Arkham games have had enemies that can't be attacked from the front, can't be attacked at all, or can't be countered under any circumstances. This introduced a layer of complexity and strategy while fighting by making you consider exactly what you could and couldn't do. As soon as the Shock Gloves are brought into the equation, however, the combat loses any sense of depth or openness it had and allows the player to just flick them on when things get hairy and slam through any opposition without a second thought, regardless of what enemies were in the scenario.
Even though they didn't change a lot on its face, almost every change they did make was for the worse. I still played it and enjoyed it, especially some of the late-game story beats, but it lacks the polish and careful consideration of the earlier games.
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