While many fans heavily suspected that WB Montréal’s upcoming DC game would be a reboot/soft reboot of the Arkham series, it turned out to be a totally-separate, Batman-less Batman game in the form of Gotham Knights. Meanwhile, Rocksteady revealed their long-awaited game Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, though it was a bit of a surprise that it still took place in the Arkhamverse. Nevertheless, with all the Bat-themed content coming out for the foreseeable future, fans will be looking back on the success that gave these two particular projects opportunity to release.
WB Montréal’s Batman: Arkham Origins was the black sheep of the series. While it garnered positive critical reception, it was a notable departure from its predecessors. Arkham Origins has noticeable blemishes, but brought some welcome additions that made it a good, solid entry. Here are things Origins did well and others that underwhelmed.
10 Right: Dark Knight Detective
Similarly to the live-action Hollywood Batman films, fans had yet to see a game that made an effort in diving into the sleuthing skills of the World’s Greatest Detective. With Batman being a powerless superhero, one of the things that make him stand out from the rest is his genius-level intellect and the application of it to detective work.
We’ve seen bits of this in the previous two Rocksteady games, but Batman: Arkham Origins leaned harder into it. It incorporated the player/Batman having to work with bigger crime scenes on forensic levels and made the hero uncover clues, then work backwards to recreate the crime. This was a fun, welcome gameplay mechanic in service to Batman’s character/abilities.
9 Disappointing: Combat Was More Of The Same
Surely one of the biggest offenders that held this game back from the acclaimed-level praise of City in particular was the hand-to-hand combat. Batman: Arkham Origins, in this respect, felt like DLC to the preceding game since the combat-based gameplay was mostly the same, including combos and animations.
Some animations were touched up, and some new gadget-combo implementations were introduced, but more should have been done. While there’s at least one more particularly noticeable con for Origins, this one’s the major reason it didn’t break new ground.
8 Right: Roger Craig Smith’s Bruce Wayne/Batman
With Origins being a prequel to Rocksteady’s Arkham trilogy games, it presented a good opportunity to recruit some new voice talent to portray younger characters. The first notable one being Roger Craig Smith and his performance as Bruce Wayne/Batman.
He does an excellent job delivering a powerful voice that effectively encapsulates a young, extremely raw, angry Batman still struggling to find a stronger balance between his personal vendetta/dangerous ego and what it means to be a good human being first. This is displayed well in his strained relationship with the man who raised him: Alfred.
7 Disappointing: The Open World
Along with the combat, the open world of Batman: Arkham Origins also felt unfulfilled. To its credit, it was certainly larger than that of City, but Origins falls into the modern AAA trap of creating big open worlds just for the sake of having one, hopefully pulling people in on that.
It felt needlessly large and barren in several places. The game may have done better to stay the same size as City, but set in a different part of Gotham– or just be a bit bigger than its predecessor and focus on packing their slice of the city with enough meaningful content. Like with combat, this was an aspect that made Origins feel like Arkham City DLC rather than its own game.
6 Right: Cold, Cold Heart
This particular asset to Origins was thanks to the developing team using the game as an opportunity to pay a tasteful, loving homage to a tragic Batman supervillain and story. One of the greatest adaptations of the Dark Knight came in the form of Batman: The Animated Series during the 1990s. Through it, Victor Fries/Mr. Freeze was given a much-deserved mature, empathetic, and haunting redemption as a character. The Cold, Cold Heart DLC rekindled the essence of the Heart of Ice animated episode in a great new medium.
5 Disappointing: Downplayed Assassins
The biggest catalyst for the plot of Arkham Origins was that Black Mask ordered a hit on the Batman worth $50 million and hired eight of the world’s deadliest assassins to get the job done. This entry in the series had a good story overall, though the promise of introducing some lesser-known supervillains in Batman’s rogues gallery didn’t pan out to its fullest potential.
Deathstroke, Bane, and even Copperhead (to a lesser extent) got satisfying treatment, with Bane getting a stronger portrayal than in the previous two Rocksteady games. However, others like Lady Shiva and Electrocutioner weren’t as fortunate. Shiva got more focus in a not-so-compelling side mission and Electrocutioner was just a joke.
4 Right: Troy Baker’s Joker
Opposite to Smith’s Batman was Troy Baker’s Joker. Given Mark Hamill is the voice for the Joker, Baker gave a worthy, chilling show as a young, up-and-coming version. While there are cons to the character’s inclusion, Baker’s performance offered a compelling beginning to the iconic abusive relationship of Gotham City and the destructive obsession shared by the two. Bruce/Batman countering Joker’s claim that they’re the same, though two sides of an insane coin, was a great catalyst to force the former to grow as a person and accept help.
3 Disappointing: The Joker In General
Joker being an important antagonist to the story, while working well to what the story set out to accomplish, brought along some frustration. Joker’s the most famous supervillain in Batman’s rogues gallery, and perhaps even in comic books in general, but oversaturation had become an issue in every Batman-related media.
He was a major villain in the last two Arkham games and Origins suggested Black Mask would be the focus, which was something that intrigued fans. Pulling the rug out from underneath by having the Joker be the surprise-twist villain actually on top got some eye-rolls from some. Though, it did prove to be a fun inspiration from Under the Red Hood.
2 Right: Boss Fights
Coming off the back of Arkham City that brought some new, creative twists to boss fights – namely the Mr. Freeze fight – Origins did well to execute some thrilling bosses. The most memorable being Deathstroke, which impressively managed to incorporate QTEs into a boss fight that actually presented a fun challenge and compelling fight, which is more than can be said for him in the Arkham Knight fight.
Copperhead also got a unique fight that played well on her poisonous, mentally-damaging attacks/abilities, and Bane got a particularly tense one at the end of the game, forcing Batman’s focus on stealth & without detective vision.
1 Disappointing: Needless Multiplayer
Batman games shouldn’t be focusing on including multiplayer when the single-player story and gameplay needs to be the main appeal. While the game was still good, Origins didn’t make full use of the Arkham license, forcing a multiplayer component in when that time and money could’ve been spent on improving the single-player aspects. If WB Montréal was already crunched on time, force-feeding them a side mode did the the game no favors.
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