Introduction:
Batman Arkham Asylum was one of the first games I purchased after purchasing my PS3. What a fantastic game. The free-flowing full-force combat. The engrossing story. The amazing different gadgets. The fantastic level design. The puzzles, the challenges, the back-tracking for the Riddler trophies. The fantastic details and love for the Batman universe hiding in every nook and cranny. Above all, the game made you feel like you WERE Batman. Two years later, Batman Arkham: City gave us a sequel that gave more, was bigger and in many ways better by freeing Batman into a huge open section of the city of Gotham--and still managed to be a very integrate level design. So the expectations riding on Batman: Arkham Origins were high. How could this game deliver? It had an entirely different developer and what was important to many fans: it had huge changes in voice-acting. So how does this game do? Well it does a lot of copying and pasting. But when you're copying and pasting from games that are that amazing games how bad could it be?
Story:
It's not so much an origin story for Batman but more of "year two". In any way, it sets up Batman piror to having run into the Riddler, Joker and various other Batman villains. This could be handled well, but doesn't pan out as well as you might have expected. Example: while investigating a crime scene, Batman, having only heard of the Joker makes a quip about how the Joker operates and yet tells Alfred that he doesn't know anything about the Joker. It seems Warner Brothers had just totally fumbled how Batman met the Joker and found out about how the Joker operates and how extreme the Joker is compared to Black Mask, Penguin, etc. The assassin set up on Christmas eve sounds amazing but the way it plays out is kind of disappointing. I thought you'd set out looking for Black Mask (the guy who put the 50 million bounty on your head). Instead you start by looking for the Penguin (in search of info on the Black Mask), then you end up looking for the Joker, and Assassins just kind of find you at set points throughout the game.
Presentation (Graphics & Sound):
The graphics look good especially when out in the open city of Gotham (though occasionally there's huge frame-rate dips). The first impression of the game is that the graphics are softer and not as crisp as the Black Gate prison has boring corridors and the lighting gives Batman a funny soft glow that makes the graphics look sub-par by comparison to Arkham City. Once you get out into Gotham City and have the chance to explore you realize the graphics are as good as City or Asylum. The menus are uninspired compared to the first two Arkham games. The voice acting is overall spot on and everything fits into the Arkham Game universe. The music is good just like from the previous Arkham games and fits the overall Batman universe quite well. The sound effects get the job done and you feel like you're in an Arkham game.
Gameplay:
If you've played either Asylum or especially City you know what to expect from Origins. In fact, a large part of the map of Origins is almost literally a copy and paste from Arkham City. You upgrade your armor and weapons via XP from beating up thugs, discovering new areas, completing objectives, etc. You're graded how well you do in combat situations which seems to affect your XP. This game does not lack for things for you to do. You will be on your way to a story objective and get distracted by a crime in progress only to get distracted by a riddle only to get distracted by a symbol you have to scan only to then get distracted by a radio tower you need to unlock and then get distracted by one of Riddler's informants you need to interrogate. That's how Arkham City worked also but it feels more extenuated here--because the love and care that Rocksteady put into the previous games you felt like you were discovering everything for the first time. In Origins you sense the copy & paste--therefore everything feels like it is just there to serve the formula system. There are Riddler informants (just like City) and these data-packs (aka Riddler Trophies), there are towers to unlock (unlocking fast travel just like Far Cry 3), there are Riddler puzzles and even the Assassins are spaced out to fulfill the system's need for periodic boss battles. There's no doubt that these formulas were tons of fun in the first two games and are still fun here, but they've lost a bit of the magic. On top of that there are things that just don't work quite as well. The fast-grapple while flying doesn't lock onto some towers (even though there are more points to grapple from) and sometimes Batman doesn't go where you tell him and that feels frustrating, sometimes I found myself not being able to jump a simple wall or being blocked by an area where there was an invisible wall. The level design doesn't feel as good and the building layout also feels copy and pasted and the integrate level of detail clearly isn't as strong here.
Conclusion:
Should you buy Batman Arkham Origins? That depends. If you haven't played Arkham Asylum or Arkham City then go pick those up instead as they're the superior Batman games in story, game design, sound and graphics. If you played those two games already and love Batman and are craving more Batman then by all means pick this game up. I think it's just important to realize it's a copy & paste from the previous games. But much like with the Assassins Creed or Uncharted games, when games are this good a copy & paste isn't a bad thing if you're craving more Batman action. Batman Origins will ultimately be a forgettable game because it fails to rise out from the shadows of Arkham Asylum or Arkham City.