Batman: Arkham Origins Review

Batman: Arkham Origins Review

         

          There are differences between this game and the last game, of course, which can be argued as being improvements. Arkham Origins is set not just during a bleak snowy winter, but specifically on a particularly bleak snowy Christmas Eve, which excuses few references to that fact going untapped; from the world’s most terrifying tune, Carol of the Bells, chiming its ostinato of impending doom across the soundtrack, to the bright and gaudy decorations that clash beautifully with the gothic meets- art-deco design of the bigger and more open city, now it is time for a bat villain beat-down.

       

          Set design is excellent throughout, and all very Batman Returns, though Batman’s suit could do with not looking quite so serious and ‘Christopher Nolan’, and certainly not so gunmetal grey. It’s just immediately noticeable that there are significant similarities, despite the fantastic job done in giving many of the same locations far more gorgeous detail and complex verticality to play with, and plenty of other, smaller touches. Setting the story five years before the events of Arkham Asylum explains why no-one has yet thought it prudent to make their lair Batman-proof by welding ventilation shafts shut, using screws of a higher quality or by rebuilding broken walls properly, using sympathetic materials and not just making do with cheap plasterboard from Wilkinsons.  Batman Arkham Origins Game + Pass

          As will happen in the future (twice), most locks are electric and can be remotely accessed, which means that our hero again spends a great deal of his fight against an insane level of crime pulling off grills so he can gain access to air conditioning vents, destroying weak walls with plastic explosives and kneeling down to use his Cryptographic Sequencer – because it’s that heavy and requires an extreme level of concentration. But hello – sometimes you might need to get a password from another location first, or have to zap a junction box with a Disrupter blast. This, in some way, is progress.

     


          Then there are nine tertiary villains whose trails are encountered on the periphery of the main investigation. They’ve all done something that requires you to either destroy a certain number of thematic objects, collect a certain number of thematic objects or get to locations within a time limit and destroy thematic objects before you get to deal with them – on the very same night that Black Mask has hired eight of the world’s greatest assassin’s to kill The Bat.

          For the previous two years Batman has been battling petty, small-time crooks and Origins is about this initial introduction to the more eccentric type of criminal – presumably they only come out to play en masse every other winter. There’s certainly a great deal more to do, at least, but there’s very little mystery to it, when this should be the first time Batman has encountered such super freaks. The table just gets steadily laid out and you get to eat your fan service, course after course after course, and nothing really feels like pudding or, indeed, an entrée.

       


Remember Arkham City’s Victor Zsasz side-missions, in which Bats needed to get between public phones within a tight time limit or Zsasz would kill someone, horribly? It was a bit Die Hard With a Vengeance or, if you prefer, Dirty Harry. But now, instead of hearing a phone ring while you’re out and about and then answering it and having to peg it to another one, and so encountering such missions almost accidentally, you can simply visit one of Anarky’s accomplices, as roughly marked on your map, who will tell you where an Anarky bomb is located without even having to be threatened.

     


    Then you have a short time to get there so you can beat up some anarchists (now reconnected to look like Anonymous-style social activists, which is fair; Anarky was based on V, of Vendetta fame), before defusing the bomb… by punching it in the face. Seriously. Doors are hacked, but these bombs are punched. And if you fancy finding out more about Anarky, the new database that should be full of such facts won’t even tell you the year and issue of the comic he first appeared in. Oh, but Joker’s hair colour is green by the way. Slow. Hand. Clap. Ok Bad guys, its time to kill the bat, and just for fun, his friends too.

     

We could go on at further weary length down this rather negative path and mention the ridiculousness of a prototype Riddler who has again been all about town, accessing areas that only Batman can get to using his very specific gadgets – areas often located deep within the hideouts of super villains. Or groan at how instead of ice bombs, you get glue bombs that are so similar you’ll also use them to block steam pipes and create rafts made of frothed-up glue. Or the electric gauntlets that do at close range what the Remote Electrical Charge did at distance (but at least can be used more effectively in combat). Then there are the moments when Batman gets all drugged up and has hallucinations, as he so often does, and the art department is allowed to go crazy. Batman: Arkham Origins For PS3

   

    Above all, we could query whatever the reason is that Gotham City’s streets are deserted of everyone but cops and criminals, on the night before Christmas when it should be at its busiest. A curfew has been enforced; apparently martial law has been put into effect. But why? As far as we could tell, because the weather had taken a turn for the worse and Gotham was put under lockdown due to the wrong kind of snow. So how come the police department is empty when it’s returned to after the main campaign and about 20% of the game has been completed? Arkham City used a fun Escape from New York conceit to explain the demographics of its sparse population. Origins offers more of the city, keeps it just as empty of other people, and doesn’t even really try to justify the situation. This extreme weather doesn’t even make Batman’s cape flap much, for goodness sake.

          So then, that’s the bad news. The good? The Arkham series still, for the most part, provides the finest representation of Batman and his world outside the comic books. And although it, too, is often confusing and nonsensical, Origins certainly is no plummeting graph like the one The Dark Knight Rises represents. It’s more of a flat, prettier, fatter, slightly droopier line.

          Although seemingly a very basic excuse for a series of eight boss fights, the core story is actually a bit more cunning than merely being about defeating eight killers, one after another. And although ridiculous even by Batman gadget standards, the remote grapple that can drag enemies together, or string them up from a gargoyle or pull a fire extinguisher into their face is a lot of fun to use, while the new and more in-depth investigations of crime scenes are undoubtedly a big boon and would have done well to be featured more than they are.

       

  There are neat touches that offer some subtlety, such as when you notice a very basic corkboard in the Batcave used for investigations and stuck with newspaper clippings about Red Hood, or meet a young Barbara Gordon. Further and heavier nods are made towards Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke and visual references to Brian Bolland’s artwork are there to enjoy.

         

          Gaining the trust of James Gordon, fighting with corrupt cops, stalking rooftops and taking down criminals one by one without being noticed, and even unlocking an ability that provides a knockout counter when combating knife fighters, all add to the positive. Actually being Batman and hunting your prey is as enjoyable as ever and then there’s the new online multiplayer modes to consider. If you want more of what Arkham City provided then you won’t be disappointed – well, not much.

          Standard fights against re-filling rooms of men, one after another, can feel like padding, as do certain boss encounters that are repeated and weren’t enjoyable the first time round. Then, lastly, there’s an absolutely hideous use of a cocker-knee accent to contend with, which sounds like a female Dick Van Dyke auditioning for a Guy Ritchie film: “Now there’s a proper naughty geezer – proper naughty!” A man dressed as a flying mammal zipping about on some thread and fighting crime we can accept, but there are limits that, when reached, ruin everything for… well, a good hour or two.

Conclusion: 

          If you’ve been warming up for the release of Arkham Origins by playing through or even finally completing Arkham City then, yeah, you probably shouldn’t have done that. This latest Bat adventure is still a decent entry in the finest line of superhero games ever made and certainly includes a lot of content, but not only does it feel overly familiar, it also seems over fed. Overall quality is high, there are a couple of sweet touches and it’s still worthy, but it’s a bit like seeing the same magic trick again and again. You can’t deny the skill, but we can’t help but have wished for a slightly different outcome.

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