Batman Arkham Origins is the 3rd game in the Arkham series.  While developer Rocksteady were busy making the true finale to the trilogy Arkham Knight, they had Warner Bros. Montreal take over for a prequel, released in 2013.  The previous games are both fantastic, with tense stealth elements and a combat system still being ripped off to this day, the games really made you feel like Batman.  So, does this game live up to that standard?  Let’s find out in my review of… BATMAN: ARKHAM ORIGINS!

Arkham Origins is the story of the events leading up to the construction of the infamous Arkham Asylum from the first game.  Being a prequel, it stars Batman two years into his vigilante career.  He’s still seen as a threat by police, a myth by criminals, and being questioned about his life choices by his butler, Alfred.  The story takes place on Christmas eve, and after killing the police commissioner the villain Black Mask hires 7 vigilantes to kill Batman for a huge bounty.  Each of the assassins also has their own specialty.  Copperhead has poison, Deadshot has gunplay, Bane has brute strength, and so on.  Oh, and Joker’s here, played by Troy Baker doing his best Mark Hamill impression.  And he does a great job, just like the other voice actors in the game, although the “cockney” accents by penguin and his assistants are really awful, even for something meant to be cartoonish.  

The music is great as always, but with a Christmassy twist on the classic soundtrack with chimes and bells added in making for a nice touch. The graphics are about the same as Arkham City, which is to say not all that special considering that this game came out two years later.  And unfortunately, they still haven’t managed to make Gotham feel like a real city.  It all feels like a place designed to be in a video game, which is fine since gameplay is always more important than presentation, but if older games like Infamous and even Spider Man 2 can nail this aspect of a game, Batman deserves to stalk Gotham on a night when people roam the streets and drive their cars around.

The story is alright, with some plot twists I didn’t see coming and a dark tone that’s very nice to see Batman in.  The darker world leads to more intimidating villains, as you believe they might actually kill people and make you feel responsible for not saving them.  That being said, there are definitely some characters thrown in for show and not much else, such as Penguin’s brief appearance.  It feels cheap instead of being necessary or motivated.  On top of that, of all the characters they bring out on Christmas Eve with snow everywhere, no Mr. Freeze?!  Sigh. Either way, the story is competent and makes me want to see what’s coming next, which is all you can really hope for in a game like this.  However, how does Batman have access to some of his best gadgets now that he didn’t have until Arkham City?  Why?  This is a prequel to the other games and WB Montreal chose the lazy route of giving him the same shit he had before.  Even with something like the grappling hook, why not make it more like the classic hook that didn’t pull Batman up?  He could’ve swung through the city like Spiderman, just like he does in the animated series.  It’s a minor complaint, but a valid one for sure.

The game runs pretty consistently with only a few frame drops occurring during big fights, but again, in a city where there are no people around to take up graphics processing it’s kind of sad that they can’t get like 30 goons on screen to fight at once.  Still, the best part of the presentation in Arkham Origins is the combat system.  When fighting in the previous Arkham games, the animations were cool, but counters and takedowns had only a few variations between them.  By the end of these games, Arkham City in particular, the combat started to feel repetitive simply because I had to see the same animations over and over again.  In this game, the animations are much more varied.  Countering when standing next to someone has a different animation than if you’re further away.  Same with different points in someone’s attack, what weapon they’re using, taking out multiple guys at once, etc. etc. I just wish the lines they say while fighting and during the predator missions had more variations.  Especially given how many times you have to fight in this game.

Arkham Origins plays exactly like Arkham City.  The combat might be a bit faster and snappier, but in overall, it feels identical.  Okay, so to start off- combat.  The combat system is almost exactly the same as Arkham City in that you mash square to fight, triangle to counter, circle to stun special enemies, and X to get behind them.  My biggest problem is still very much in this game, in that you can’t counter out of a takedown, which makes no sense seeing as how you can counter just about anything else thrown at you.  The only major difference is in the electrocutioner’s gloves which you get about ⅔ of the way through the game.  By fighting you charge them up, then you can activate them to get stronger for a few seconds.

The gloves are nice, but they aren’t enough to freshen up a combat system that’s needed a new coat of paint for a few years now.  I will say that the AI has improved and can be a real challenge sometimes.  I probably died more in this game than in the other two games combined.  But overall, if it weren’t for the new animation system, fighting would be pretty damn stale, even if it is still fun to knock out bad guys.

 As far as the predator segments go, they’re exactly the same as Arkham City! Sure, they might have a couple of new gadgets to play with, but EVERYTHING else is the exact same! On top of that, these segments are my favorite part of the Arkham games and there’s practically none in this game compared to the other two!  The developers probably noticed that there weren’t a lot of new things to do, so figured that by having less stealth segments people wouldn’t get bored of them before the end of the game.  And honestly, they were right.  The segments are still fun, but by the end, I was mostly left disappointed by small amount of them.

In addition to the main story, there are side objectives to complete involving various villains in Batman lore, including the infamous Riddler challenges.  Most of these involve going to a place on the map and then either beating some guys up, solving a stupidly simple puzzle, or hitting a target.  This isn’t engaging! There are so many of these challenges that have no real purpose other than to keep you busy and extend the playtime and it just gets boring after a while.

On the bright side, getting around Gotham is fun.  Flying around super quick and getting a really long flight going are still very satisfying.  I’ve heard people complain about the bridge taking forever to get through, but honestly it takes like 20 seconds and I don’t mind it.  Plus, if it’s too much of a hinderance you can take the Batwing to drop points on the map.  Although the loading cutscene is so long you might be able to get there faster by flying.  The side missions involving boss fights with the assassins also tend to be really fun.  As do the ones in the main mission, except Deathstroke.  I don’t understand why this fight gets so much praise.  All you do is counter him when he attacks, then take a few swings.  Rinse and repeat for what feels like 20 minutes and I don’t care how cool the animation is.  The fight is repetitive and boring!

In the end, this game was an okay attempt to recreate what the first two Arkham games had.  WB Montreal did improve on a couple of aspects of the game, but fell flat on a lot of others.  Had a bit more effort been put into the game design and story, this game had the potential to rival its predecessors.  As it stands, the game is a good return to Gotham and fun while it lasts.  If you’re planning on playing the Arkham franchise, I’d recommend starting with this game and moving chronologically to go from worst to best in terms of quality.  I’m going to give Batman: Arkham Origins.. 7 broken necks out of 10.