Like a bat out of programming Hell
The Caped Crusader has been through some serious changes since Bob Kane introduced him to the world. Beginning as a pulp-noir character, the Bat-man has been a comic book fan-favourite since his introduction in 1939, spawning a multitude of graphic novels, movies, and games.
Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, one of many graphic novels starring The Dark Knight, is a powerful and defining tale. When Rocksteady announced their plans to create a game based on it, expectations were high. Thankfully, the game was fantastic and a sequel quickly followed – Arkham City – which was well-received but ultimately a step backwards, albeit a small one.
When it was revealed that Warner Brothers Montreal would be taking over the franchise for a prequel, many fans lamented the loss of Rocksteady, with a strong few remaining hopeful that Batman: Arkham Origins would at least maintain the smart design and gameplay of the last two titles. As it turns out, you can have too much of a good thing.
Arkham Origins takes place two years into Batman’s vigilante career on a very snowy and incredibly long Christmas Eve (My playthrough lasted over thirty hours). Black Mask has placed a bounty of fifty million dollars on the young Dark Knight’s head, bringing in a team of eight assassins to take him down. Batman quickly discovers Black Mask’s hit during a confrontion with Killer Croc after attempting to quell an escape at Blackgate Prison. With both the assassins and Gotham’s corrupt police force hoping to win the bounty on him, Batman searches out the Penguin in the hopes of locating Black Mask.
The game’s story is surprisingly well told, featuring some nice twists and interesting confrontations. As Batman is quite new to the vigilante scene, he is regarded as an urban legend to many and unknown to some. His struggles with justice are at the forefront and are very well conveyed.
The yin-yang relationship between Batman and The Joker is introduced in Arkham Origins and thanks to some very strong voicework from Roger Craig Smith (Batman) and Troy Baker (The Joker), it remains the most intriguing plot of the series.
Despite a somewhat abrupt ending, the story is told very well and really pushes the idea that Batman is still new to this crime fighting gig and struggling with his image.
The gameplay in Batman: Arkham Origins remains true to the franchise. Batman counters blows and attacks based on proper timing and button prompts. Each successful knock-out awards players experience points based on skill and threat level and allows for upgrades to Batman’s equipment and abilities.
While I really enjoyed the combat in Arkham Asylum, the style and simplicity of the system is beginning to feel outdated. New gadgets add to its intricacies but by the end of Origins, I was completely uninterested in fighting and desired something fresh.
Boss fights allow for a much-needed break in beating up fodder enemies. Deathstroke’s battle in particular was fantastic – a side-view camera angle evokes Injustice: Gods Among Us while quick reflexes on the counterattack and grapnel gun added some more dramatic elements to the fight. A later battle with Bane comes to mind as an intense match-up as well.
The open world promise of Arkham City returns, and with it, the same city. While the landmass is bigger, it looks and feels like it was pulled directly from the previous game. It makes sense in the fiction that Gotham wouldn’t change drastically in under a decade, but creating Arkham City 1.5 just isn’t enough to encourage players to really enjoy exploration.
Completionists and explorers do have a lot to experience in the city, thankfully, though most side-missions devolve into a brawl rather than any interesting narrative.
Detective mode allows Batman to examine crime scenes throughout Gotham and in the style of Capcom’s Remember Me, scrub through a virtual reenactment to discover clues. This great idea goes to waste when the suspect is found, however, with little closure after a quick fight and call to the police.
The Riddler is back – though he hasn’t donned his green hat yet, and goes by “Enigma”. With him, plenty of data packs to locate throughout Gotham can be searched out and intrepid players can solve the typical Riddler puzzles of Arkham yore.
Fast travel has been introduced to the city by way of radio towers. Enigma has locked these towers with passwords for Batman’s trusty gadgets to open, but the concept falls flat due to uninteresting execution and several bugs.
My most memorable experience with Arkham Origins and its tower unlocks was being forced to consult numerous forums and YouTube channels on how to exploit a glitch to successfully launch Batman in the air and onto an otherwise unaccessible rooftop. Attempting to unlock the tower in the game’s intended way would bug Batman in a vent with no escape.
Issues like the aforementioned and many others should have been caught and rectified during bug testing. The game crashed on me on three different occasions and at one point, Batman fell through the geometry of Gotham into a black void. Patching will hopefully solve these problems, but it is disappointing that the game is in an unpolished state at release.
Arkham Origins at least looks great, particularly so with an Nvidia video card. The game utilizes advanced PhysX and some nice particle effects to really bring forth the gritty realism of Gotham’s streets. I had very few issues with the game’s presentation aside from some clipping problems and a strange framerate drop near the end.
Fantastic voice work compliments the strong facial animations of the characters, with the exception of Alfred’s bizarre mug. A traditional sweeping score feels right at home (as it is apt to) while bringing down the thugs liberally placed around the city.
Multiplayer is included, but unfortunately it doesn’t seem like the PC crowd has embraced the mode. After several attempts to get a game going on many different occasions, I gave up trying. At most, I witnessed two other players connecting to a match and abruptly leaving. Hopefully as time goes on, more people will try it out, as it does seem promising on a conceptual level.
Batman: Arkham Origins is not a terrible game. A big city to explore and a solid story allow for a generally fun experience but thanks to the lack of polish and repetitious nature of the once-innovative combat system, it is hard to recommend at full price to anyone not desperate for more Arkham before Rocksteady’s inevitable next-gen offering.
