MadCap's Game Reviews - "Batman: Arkham Origins"

…no, wait, seriously?

You really want me to do this?  I mean, everyone and their mother has pretty much said all there is to say about Batman:  Arkham Origins.  I’ve joked about it, but sitting it down here to type it I really do wonder how I’m supposed to stretch “Batman hunts down criminals and makes them eat their own kneecaps, repeat” into a full review.  Because, really, it’s what we’ve come to expect from the Arkham series of games.  The only real difference being that, while Arkham City improved on Arkham Asylum quite a bit, Arkham Origins feels…well, almost kind of lazy in a few ways.

Bat-Foot Odor was a shortlived weapon from Batman's early days...

To summarize the plot, we have Batman still in the infant stages of his crime fighting career finding out that the criminal overlord Black Mask has hired some of the greatest bounty hunters in the DC Universe…and a bunch of second, third, and fourth stringers that you’ll won’t know without some Google searches…to bring him in, dead or alive.  With such a bounty on his head, one would expect even the Caped Crusader to err on the side of caution and stay in for the night-Nope!  He’s going out to feed the criminal element its own kneecaps and put Black Mask in his place.  However, as he investigating the whereabouts of the man who is clearly is archfoe, Batman begins to pick up clues referring to a mysterious and enigmatic individual that will no doubt be a game changer and…yeah, alright, it’s the Joker, but were you really surprised?

I have to admit, I actually was when I heard the announcement that Mark Hamill would be retiring from voicing the Joker followed by the announcement that he would indeed be in Origins.  That being said, however, I do really like Troy Baker’s voice work for him and he is definitely a worry successor to Hamill (who I see as the definitive Joker).  That being said, I’m not really fond of all the advertising for the game being set up around Black Mask and his plot to kill Batman…only to have the Joker come in and be the Spotlight Stealing Squad.


I completely understand why this happened, but I really wish they could have taken a Batman Begins approach to the game and perhaps tease the Joker’s first appearance on the scene, rather than actually have him be the main villain and focus of the game.  Particularly after the shocking ending to Arkham City, which I won’t reveal despite the fact everyone and their mother knows it by now, I thought it a bit of disservice to have him be brought up again and featured so prominently.

"I wonder if Clark's tights ever ride up like this..."

Also, being a prequel – much like Devil May Cry 3 – I have the same problem with Batman even more so than I did with Dante, primarily concerning the Dark Knight’s gear.  Now detective vision has a brand new (old) feature that sees him with an ability to analyze a crime scene and then fast forward and rewind through a simulation of the events that led up to the event in question that Batman is investigating.  This allows him to run through and freeze the simulation at certain points to better analyze them and perhaps pick up clues to aid him in his investigations.  Really something one would expect the Greatest Detective in the DC Universe to have at his disposal for his later endeavors.  So, it’s kind of shocking that it doesn’t show up in Asylum or City at all.

I know, it’s the third game, but it just feels rather lame especially considering that this is a prequel.
And I will say, I was entertained by some of the boss fights.  Particularly of note being the one against the Electrocutioner (which gets a spot as one of the most hilariously easy boss fights in the history of ever) and the fight against Deathstroke (fun amount of challenge and a fight I actually wanted to see happen – yes, I’m aware they’ve fought elsewhere as well).

Unfortunately I have to get now to where the game disappoints where its predecessors did not.  Namely, Gotham itself is bigger than it was in City, for obvious reasons, but the areas that exist from there have been copy/pasted and given a cleaner look.  I suppose this does make sense, but it feels almost lazy in a way.  And, of course, there are some areas in the game that retain some nod to such things – such as some cat claw marks under Catwoman’s apartment window – but on the whole it just feels kind of like they just cleaned up Gotham a bit from City and called it a day.  Largely even more weird and obvious because the original developers of City and Asylum did not do work on Origins, almost all of it being done by WB Games.  Needless to say, this makes this aspect and others to follow that much worse.

Even the weather is the same, being that Origins takes place on Christmas Eve.  Hence, snow.  Oh, goodie, snow.  Because we very well didn’t have enough of that in City at all.

Another gripe is the city of Gotham itself.  While it is nice to have free roaming to the point of insanity through the second-worst city in the DC universe (Nightwing would like a word with you if you think otherwise), the city as it stands feels very empty beyond the criminal element running around for Batman to feed their kneecaps to.  The game tries to explain this off by having a curfew on due to criminal activity, which I suppose helps to solve the problem from a storyline standpoint, but are you honestly telling me there are no people on the streets besides roving gangs of criminals and the occasion plot related NPC? Really?

As it stands, however, if you enjoy the first two games, you’ll very likely enjoy Arkham Origins, at least to an extent.  Though some people have been complaining about how it’s simply more of the same with no real improvements to it, which I can understand to a degree.  Mind you, of course, I’m not really sure what people were expecting?  Arkham City was about the closest that someone could ever come to actually being Batman without having the tragic backstory, training, and money, and that seemed to be what everyone really wanted.  Hence, more of it, you would assume people would enjoy more.

Christian Bale Batman asks "WHY AREN'T YOU VOICED BY RON PERLMAN?!"

Still, much like the Caped Crusader himself, there’s something to be said for novelty value.  Of course, like his Marvel counterpart Wolverine, Batman doesn’t actually have any.

In summation, not a bad game, though if you go in expecting anything other than more of the same kind of seamless combat and gadgets that make Batman who he is in the Arkham series, then you really have nobody to blame but yourself.  And the developers for running it into the ground.  Maybe put a little more work in next time, guys? Seriously, it’s not even bad, just…try?

Batman:  Arkham Origins is now available on Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii U, and Microsoft Windows from Warner Bros. Games and Warner Bros. Interactive.

This review is based on the Xbox 360 version.

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