Summary [6.5 out of 10]

A prequel to the awesome Batman Arkham series, Origins tries hard to match the glory of previous titles but falls short in all the wrong ways. A compelling story cannot make up for a game that feels rushed, off balance and incomplete.

That It’s Like:

Batman Arkham City: While it is expanded a bit, this is essentially the Gotham City from Arkham City. The free roaming aspect of the game play hearkens back to that game’s open world as opposed to the more contained Arkham Asylum. Exploration and side missions are handled in a similar way as well.

Assassin’s Creed III: Arkham Origins is similar to Assassin’s Creed III in a number of ways but the number one way is how generally disappointing it is when compared with other installments. A broken combat system that used to work just fine is a close second and game stopping glitches is another. The frame work for an amazing game is here and while there are occasional flashes of brilliance the whole thing ends up being a let down…Just like Assassin’s Creed III.

 

The Great:

Deathstroke Fight: Occurring way earlier than it should have, the boss battle with Deathstroke is epic, unyielding and is exactly what a fight between these two should be. There are no tricks here or exploits, you just have to be good enough to do it and what that requires is precise timing and anticipation as well as spot on response. If you get anything wrong here you are going to lose and lose badly. This was a fight that took me a long time to sort out and there was a level of frustration there that normally would not lead to recommendation but every time I did it I got better and better and when I finally beat Deathstroke it was not only as definitive as it possibly could have been but it felt better than just about any boss fight I have ever done. That is a pretty bold statement but I felt awesome afterward and it is a moment I am not soon to forget. It is heartbreaking, then, that this is one of the best game moments of the year in a game that is not great. It almost makes me more disappointed with the rest of the game because this is terrific innovation and implementation.  Positioning it too early in the game negatively effects the rest of the boss fights as well. But holy shit was this bit worth it all.

The Good:

Story: The story here is mostly solid but it falls short of greatness with a slow beginning and a really ham fisted overuse of a plot device that hampered credibility. The stuff that is good here is VERY good, however, and the material with the Joker is incredibly strong. Character moments between Batman and Joker, Joker and Harline Quinzel, Alfred and Batman and Batman and Gordon are gold with some other interesting moments scattered around. Sadly, the story stumbles at times and makes you roll your eyes at certain spots and that is a pity because it is otherwise excellent. It is hard not to compare to Paul Dini’s work on the previous titles and just in Batman in general because as good as this story is, he would have told it without the missteps. Still, the story is good enough to keep you moving through the game even if other elements are frustrating and difficult to get through.

Voice Acting: The voice acting here is very strong and the loss of Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill stings a bit less with how good the voices generally are. Roger Craig Smith takes over as Batman here and Troy Baker takes on the Joker and both of them do pretty spot on impressions of Conroy and Hamill. That is what keeps this from being great, however, because they don’t do much to distinguish themselves here. I don’t envy them their job and I really don’t blame either of them for it as I am sure that fans would bitch pretty loudly if the voices deviated too much and they were likely directed to sound like the previous talent. That being said, it would be nice if something new was brought to the table. The other voices are all generally good with some series regulars returning like Wally Wingert as Enigma (Riddler) and Tara Strong as Harleen Quinzel. Nolan North, Mark Rolston, Carlos Alazraqui,, Kelly Hu and Peter McNicol are all great as well.

Detective Mode: Detective mode has never sucked in this series but it is definitely good here with a new emphasis on crime reconstruction and a mechanic that is familiar but brings something new to the table. This could have been a stagnant throw away or been botched altogether but instead it brings something fresh to the table and I had a lot of fun with it.

Graphics: The Arkham series has always looked great and in a general sense Origins follows suit. The city is still expansive and picturesque with a unique art style that offers darker and more twisted variations on Batman staples. Art design is also generally good and maintains the style from previous installments. What holds this one back is just a general laziness in some designs and execution that was not present in the Rocksteady games. Of particular note is Batman. When you are getting in and out of air ducts, the attention to detail is really lacking as Batman’s costume doesn’t look like something he is wearing but rather just something that was painted on him him…this sounds like nitpicking but it really isn’t because it speaks to a point I will get to later and just doesn’t look as good. That Batman looks like he ate Robin before coming out for some crime fighting also does not help here either.

The Bad:

Glitches: This game, particularly in the opening weeks of release, was broken as all hell. In the first two days of playing I had to restart the system 7 times. That is just to get the thing to boot properly. In game that number jumped significantly as freezes were frequent and restarts often required. Corrupted saves were probably the biggest and most irritating issue and while those were patched it was inexcusable to ship the game with this many problems particularly when one of the major ones took away all progress and made you start over again. Post patch things ran more smoothly although there were still plenty of moments in which the sound dropped out or cues failed to load to the next moment without restart.

Balance: For a series that was essentially perfect, Origins is all out of whack not just from a difficulty stand point but also from a pacing perspective. With enormously difficult sequences early on to cake walk sections late in the game and back again this game does not let the player ever feel at one with the momentum and equilibrium. The previous installments made you feel like Batman and while difficulty ramped up with the player’s progress it all felt like a natural progression. Here you are on a roller coaster that is never much fun. Likewise the balance of stealth sequences to combat to detective mode is skewed. Those sequences themselves are not particularly well balanced within themselves either and it makes the whole thing very frustrating. This down to not just the mechanics of fighting but also the enemy balance within fights. If you are a veteran of the Arkham series you will likely find yourself annoyed by these balance issues, many of which will be detailed below.

Combat: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City had some of the best and most intuitive combat in video games hands down. Whether you are talking about the predator mode or the hand to hand combat, if you are failing it is tactical or failure to execute. Here, the balance has been completely jacked with janky hit priority and shortened knock out windows. The ability to get decent combat flows going is severely hamstrung here by the fact that any random jackass can cancel whatever attack you are doing simply by deciding to punch. If you don’t counter whenever someone comes for you, you are pretty well screwed whether you are in the middle of a beat down or a jump kick. In some cases you could be actively hitting the enemy and he can punch you out of it if the attack indicator pops up. The predator mode is equally messed up as diving on someone often does not equal a knockout because it takes too long to go through the animations and someone will hit you from behind even if you JUST knocked that guy out with a batarang. This issues would be one thing if this were the first game of the series but for three deep it is inexcusable. All they really had to do was provide unadjusted combat with some new enemies and that would have been that. Instead they took one of the most fun aspects of the series and made it frustrating to a maddening degree.

Lack of Polish: A lot of the problems in the game come down to this one category. This is not a AAA title. It should be and was meant to be but it is not. The graphical shortcuts are right there on the screen, the glitches are obvious and the lack of detail in environments keep everything from feeling real and lived in like the previous titles. This feels like they just cut and pasted the look of the city on a basic framework and called it good. Other games in the series make you feel like you are Batman. Origins makes you feel like you are going as Batman for Halloween and couldn’t afford the gloves or a decent mask.

 

Conclusion [6.5 out of 10]

This is a heartbreaking score to give a game from this series because I am genuinely a fan of the series and because what this game gets right it gets REALLY right. There was a lot of potential here that maybe some more development time would have helped but as it is we have a lackluster installment that fails to immerse and engage and even worse frustrates. I would recommend this for the story and Deathstroke fight if you can find it for a significant bargain but when it comes to top dollar I would avoid. If you really need some Batman, play the other two titles in the series again. They are amazing.