The official GameFront.com Review posted by Mitchell Saltzman
It can be scary when a new developer takes the reins of a beloved game series. There’s always that creeping fear that a new team equals a new misguided vision for the franchise, that the new team isn’t as talented as the team that made the series famous, or that they simply don’t know what made the prior games so great in the first place.
Let me be clear right off the bat when I say that all of those above fears are absolutely unfounded when it comes to Batman Arkham Origins. If nothing else, WB Games Montreal has done a spectacular job of taking everything that Rocksteady did right with Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, and incorporating it into this prequel that takes place during Batman’s early years.
That being said, one can’t help but get the feeling while playing through Arkham Origins that WB Games Montreal was perhaps so concerned about preserving the legacy of the previous Arkham games, the new team neglected to add anything of substantial significance of their own to the series, outside of a new multiplayer mode for which no one was really asking.
Batman: Arkham Origins Platform: Xbox 360
(Reviewed), PS3, PC, Wii-U
Developer: WB Games Montreal
Publisher: WB Games
Release Date: Oct. 25, 2013
MSRP: $59.99 on Consoles, $49.99 on Steam
Arkham Origins takes place during Year Two of Batman’s vigilante career in Gotham City. It’s Christmas Eve, and the villainous Black Mask decides to celebrate by offering up a $50 million bounty for Batman’s head. He even goes so far as to hire a team of eight assassins, ranging from mercenaries like Deathstroke, to psychopaths like Firefly, to monsters like Bane and Killer Croc.
Not content to just let the assassins come to him, Bruce Wayne suits up and sets out to take the fight directly to Black Mask. What follows is a much more personal story than prior Batman games; one that is less about the threats facing Gotham City and the rest of the world, and more about the threats that face Batman himself, and how he reacts to them as a relatively inexperienced rookie in the vigilante business.
Initially slow in starting, the story eventually finds its focus and hits its stride about a quarter of the way in, once Batman’s greatest arch nemesis makes his long-awaited appearance. The Joker shines here as he always does in the Arkham games, and it is especially interesting to see Batman and Joker’s first encounter and how they both react to the aftermath of their confrontation in very different, but also strangely similar ways.
Gameplay-wise, if you played Arkham City, you know what to expect here. This time the action takes place throughout the entirety of Gotham City, rather than the walled-off confines of Arkham. That being said, Arkham Origins doesn’t really do all that much with the added real estate, and as a result, the world feels bigger than it really needs to be.
To help players get around the larger world, Arkham Origins smartly introduces a fast-travel system that is similar to what you’d find in a game like Assassin’s Creed. There are a number of powered-down communication towers strewn around Gotham City, which can be restored by finding them, beating up the enemies guarding their entrances, and then solving a simple puzzle that opens the door to a hackable console. Doing so will open up a fast travel point on your map in that district, and allow Batman to use the Batwing to quickly drop him off in that spot.
Restoring towers is just one of many side activities to indulge in while exploring the city. Batman also has a “Most Wanted” list of villains, and can choose to follow up on one of their side missions. Each side mission typically has its own set of objectives and brief storyline detailing the villain’s motives, but ultimately they boil down to “Go here, fight/disable/destroy/collect this, now go here and do the same thing again.” Though, there are some standouts that I’ll let you discover for yourself.
Then there are also the Case Files, which for the first time in a Batman game, really make an effort to tap into Batman’s “World’s Greatest Detective” moniker. Case Files begin with Batman investigating a crime scene using his Detective Mode. From there you’ll spot clues and will be able to reconstruct the crime scene based on the evidence available. You can then scrub the footage back and forth, much like you could in Remember Me’s memory remix segments, and look for more clues that further tell the story of what happened.
Eventually you’ll wind up with a suspect, at which point you can track them down, beat them up, and get a confession. As cool as the whole idea is, it feels little lost in the execution here. Ultimately, all you’re really doing is following visual and audio cues to home in on the next clue. While it is cool to watch the crimes unfold and see Batman put together the pieces, it would have been nice if the player could somehow become involved in the detective work, rather than pointing out things for Batman to look at and have him make the connections.
As you can see, though, there is a metric ton of stuff to do in Arkham Origins. So much so, that even after beating the game, I was only at 21-percent completion.
Looking back at what I’ve written so far, it does seem like I’ve been a bit hard on the game. But that’s just because we haven’t gotten to the actual meat of Arkham Origins yet: The combat and “Predator” gameplay.
Let it be known that I hold the Arkham games in the highest regard in terms of combat systems. Rocksteady has some programming magicians on its development team, because despite numerous imitators over the years, no one else has even come close to matching the fluidity and versatility of the Arkham games’ hand-to-hand combat.
It comes as no surprise, then, that with Arkham Origins, WB Games Montreal opted not to fix what wasn’t broken. Combat is essentially exactly the same as it was in Arkham City. Batman is able to freely attack any enemy in any direction, counter most enemy attacks with a press of a button, stun enemies with his cape and open them up for special moves, and utilize a huge variety of gadgets, each with their own specific use.
The one addition to combat comes in the form of special shock gloves that are unlocked pretty late in the game. Hitting enemies builds charge to your shock gloves, and once they’re full, Batman can activate them to deal extra damage, punch through shields and armored enemies, and build up his combo meter twice as fast. It’s a pretty devastating addition to Batman’s arsenal and makes otherwise tough battles much more manageable once you’ve got them.
And tough battles are much more frequent in Arkham Origins than in prior games in the series. New enemy types, such as the Martial Artist, have a tendency to reverse Batman’s attacks, oftentimes forcing the player to counter their counter in order to actually deal damage. These enemies are also immune to Batman’s takedowns and have a unique attack that players must counter twice in order to avoid getting hit.
One of the best small additions to Arkham Origins is the way the game grades your performance in each battle, much like it does during its combat challenges. It’s always nice to see that “S” or “A” ranking to positively reinforce you after completing a particularly tough fight without getting hit.
As far as the Predator gameplay is concerned — those sequences in which Batman has to stealthily clear a room of armed thugs — once again, not much has changed. Batman still swings from gargoyle to gargoyle, picking off enemies one by one using various types of takedowns. The big addition to the Predator sections comes in the form of the remote batclaw, which allows players to attach a rope to two objects, and then pull them together, much like in Just Cause 2.
This allows for some pretty fun scenarios in which you can do things like pull a fire extinguisher into a group of enemies, drop down, take them each out while the smoke is still thick, then grapple away and watch as the remaining enemies freak out at their unconscious friends once the smoke clears.
The one area where Arkham Origins makes the most notable improvement over its predecessors is in its boss battles. Origins’ boss battles are often dynamic, very clever, and succeed at telling an interesting story while you’re in the middle of them.
Now let’s talk about the feature that’s hidden in the shadows; the thing that no one expected to see in an Arkham game: Multiplayer. Developed by Splash Damage, the same developers who brought us other multiplayer-focused games like Brink and Enemy Territory, Arkham Origins’ multiplayer pits 2v3v3 in a match of heroes vs. gang vs. gang.
At its core, this Invisible Predators mode is a 3v3 third-person shooter deathmatch with a wrench thrown into it. That wrench comes in the form of the two heroes, Batman and Robin, who lurk in the shadows looking to drop in on unsuspecting gang members. A gang wins by wiping out all reinforcements on the opposite team. Heroes win by taking out gang members with takedowns, which fills an “intimidation meter.”
About halfway through each match, Bane or Joker will become available to the first gang member to reach the doors that hide them, which are located somewhere in the map. Both characters are extremely powerful and come equipped with their own unique abilities to help turn the tide for their team. On the flip side, if the heroes manage to kill either Bane or Joker, they get a huge boost to their intimidation meter.
It’s an interesting take on multiplayer, for sure, and I had some great times stalking my prey as Batman or Robin. But when playing as a gang member on either the Joker or Bane’s team, the action is clunky at best. Guns feel wildly inaccurate, even when fired from cover; enemies at higher levels have incredible advantages over low-level players; and it just isn’t fun enough to warrant me spending the time to get to those higher levels.
Arkham Origins is a fantastic game, and one that is worthy of the Arkham legacy, but that being said, one can’t help but feel that WB Games Montreal played this one safe. They relied on the strength of Rocksteady’s rock-solid foundation, and simply applied new coats of paint and some extra decorations that weren’t there before. That’s not to say that Origin’s isn’t on par with Arkham City, quite the contrary–and even though Batman may have lost a little altitude this time due to a coasting flight, he’s still flying high, high above the competition.
Pros:
- Everything that was awesome in Arkham City is still just as awesome here, from the combat, to the predator gameplay, to the immense open world with plenty of stuff to do
- Roger Craig Smith and Troy Baker do a fantastic job of taking the torch as Batman and The Joker
- Story delves deeper into the personal stories of both Batman, and surprisingly, The Joker
- Scoring after every battle is a great and simple addition that really should have been part of the Arkham games from the beginning
- Fast-travel system makes navigating the larger Gotham City much easier
- Though it could have been done better, Case Files are a neat way of tapping into Batman’s detective prowess
- Great boss fights
Cons:
- None of the new additions are all that substantial, making Arkham Origins feel very much like a retread of Arkham City
- Too many sidequests are just “Go here, fight/disarm/destroy/disable/collect this, then go here and do it again”
- Multiplayer, despite being quite unique and potentially great when you get to use Batman or Robin, ultimately feels clunky and extraneous
- Despite being larger in size, not much is done with the added real estate, making Gotham City feel bigger than it really needs to be
Final Score: 86/100
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