It is no secret that I love Batman, in any format. But, I have a particular soft spot for the Arkham games. Asylum is still, in my opinion, one of the best games I have ever played. City, was a pretty close second or third in the list, giving nice improvement over its predecessor. It would be an understatement to say that I was excited about Arkham City Origins – even when I found out it would not be made by Rocksteady, written by Paul Dini or even voiced by the original actors!
Arkham Origins starts before Arkham Asylum, only 2 years into his career as a crime fighter. At this stage, he has not even met Joker. It is Christmas Eve and a criminal known as the Black Mask has challenged eight assassins to kill Batman before Christmas and collect $50 million. Batman, being Batman decides to face the challenge head on and beat the crap out of anyone who stands in his way (rather than stay at home as Alfred suggests and thus not get potentially killed dressed as Batman).
The setting is a slightly less grubby, but still familiar Gotham City. You can travel around the city freely, swinging and gliding between roof tops, or running through the streets (just don’t touch the water – he may be a super hero, but old Bats has still not learned how to swim). As with Arkham City, this is a joyous experience – for me the highlight of the game!
As you go about your business, you will come across crimes to break up, communication towers to decrypt and more. However, the main order of the day is the central story line. Anyone who has played the previous games will have no trouble understanding what to do. Follow the green icon on your HUD, fight the bad guys, solve a few puzzles then have a boss fight – repeat.
Combat is as fluid as ever, with combos just rolling out of simple button presses. X to attack, Y to counter, B to flash your cape and A to evade and jump over people. Rather than button mashing, the fighting mechanics require precise timing and planning to get the most out of them. It is possible to take down swarms of bad guys and never miss a beat once you get good at it all and again, just like gliding around the city, it is joyous!
Of course, this is Batman, so there has to be gadgets. You start off with your trusty Bat-claw, battarangs, explosive gel, decrypter and remote battarang. As you play through the game and defeat bosses, you not only get the chance to upgrade your gadgets (and yourself) but you also collect new gadgets. Defeating Deathstroke, for instance, gets you the Remote Claw.
The story itself is tight and enjoyable. The plot is well thought out and whilst not as solid as previous outings, keeps you interested all the way through. The cast of characters, from the smaller players like Firefly and Deadshot to the fan favourites like the Penguin and Joker are all well realised and very well voiced. Fans will also love the cameos of characters such as Harleen Quinzel and Viki Vale.
The inclusion of a Multiplayer mode, built by Splash Damage (of Brink fame), was met with some concern. Batman Arkham had always been a solitary affair. The multiplayer mode sees a group of Jokers henchmen and a group of Banes soldiers fighting for control of bombs on a map. In the background, Batman and Robin are out to pick off the other players one by one. In principle it sounds great. In practice, it is only really fun if you are playing as Batman or Robin and then it is limited. I personally found everything just too dark. In single player, where you know what you are looking for and have more time to react to things, dark is fine. In multiplayer it just means you can’t see anything until it is too late. And Yes, I could turn up the brightness, but the players still blend into the background far too much.
Arkham Origins is not as good as its predecessors, there is no way around that. It feels somehow dumbed down, with less to occupy you outside of the main missions (no Riddler question marks to collect for instance). The mechanics can at times feel a little too familiar, like you are just going through the motions between set pieces and it is showing its age a bit now. However, it is still an enjoyable addition to the series and one that should it be the final hoorah of this version of Batman, should give the developers no reason to be ashamed. After all, if you can’t be you – be Batman!
Silver Y Award