Batman: Arkham Origins for the PC was my first taste in disappointment with a Batman game. The irony is, it was a love hate relationship. Why the hate? To put it simply, the developers were clearly composed of amateurs.
Now let's get a few things straight. Though Rocksteady wasn't perfect with the bugs, the game design and polish was excellent.
And boy can you tell the difference between the veterans and the rookies. The biggest flaw in Batman: Arkham Origins, is not that the game isn't fun or that the characters aren't interesting. It's that the developer made some bone-headed game design decisions that made you want to throw the game out of the window. It's just terrible and frustrating to play. So let's dig in shall we?
- On the PC version, there was a game breaking bug where Batman wouldn't climb the air conditioning vent. Although this is now fixed, it took at least two weeks for a GAME BREAKING glitch to be fixed. This is a bug that should have never passed QA and is something that obviously didn't show up on consoles or people would have been furious. I literally had to stop playing the game until the patch came out, because I refused to come up with some bizzaro way of completing an objective when the game wasn't working as intended.
As of the time of this writing, the game still glitches out after the Deathstroke encounter. Basically the doors to the level WILL NOT OPEN unless you restart from a check point. (PC)
Amateur.
- The combat is not nearly as responsive as it was in Arkham City and Asylum. Sure it works. But too many times do thugs slide across the floor to punch you and break your combo. Yes, literally slide without moving their legs. Batman can also end up doing stupid things like blocking when you meant to do a ground take down. I never had this issue in the previous Batman games, but this game felt completely off in the combat.
They've patched it and improved the combat to where it should have been, but this is several months after release.
- Someone at WB Montreal thought it was a good idea to have a portion of the city that had respawning snipers heavily covering a certain radio tower. This normally wouldn't be a problem, except that when you're collecting Riddler Data Packs (i.e. trophies) you have to venture into that area. Without a doubt, if you don't take out those snipers, you will get shot. Well, it gets a little tiring to have to take out those snipers over and over every time you change locations. So some days you feel a little lazy, and that laziness gets you shot to death. Terrible placement of enemies, a complete rookie mistake.
- Collecting data packs is now more annoying than ever. In Arkham City there was just too many to collect. In Arkham Origins? It's boring, mind numbingly boring. Why? Because you will see certain data packs locked in levels where you need a specific bat gadget to get it. So when you finally do get the gadget, guess what? You have to travel through the ENTIRE MAP without ANY ENEMIES just to collect one measly data pack you left behind. Oh, and there ain't no fast travel out of the map. So you have to RUN ALL THE WAY BACK to the beginning of the level in order to exit.
Who thought this was fun? In Arkham City and Asylum, any back tracking you did could be done quickly and painlessly. But no one wants to run around a HUGE level just to grab a trophy and then run all the way back out without opposition. That's just stupid!
Again, poor game design decisions on the part of the developer.
- Were you planning on completing the WORST NIGHTMARE challenge for Batman? Well guess what, you can only do it in story mode. That's right, all 15 of those ranks need to be achieved in story mode. Instead of, oh... I don't know, THE CHALLENGE MAPS that come with the game. I understand the original intention, it's to give you an excuse to play New Game+ and I am the night mode. But the problem is that the challenges ARE NOT EASY. Doing predator rooms without detective mode or executing 4 different take downs is not always available!
So you could be in a predator challenge room, but if there's no railing, or no gargoyle, or no whatever you need for a take down. That's one less opportunity you get to complete the Worst Nightmare tree.
But one of the biggest offenses this game commits, is that everything is recycled. Arkham Origins is like playing a mod for Arkham City. A retexture here, a mesh change there, and a change to the game rules. What do I mean by that? In AA, AC, Batman could punch through boarded windows. In AO, he can only open them with explosives. BUT WAIT! If for some reason you can use the remote hook (line gun) and batman charges into it with the zipline. He could BREAK THOSE SAME BOARDS without an explosive.
HOW DOES THAT MAKE ANY GOTTDANG SENSE!?
Everything is just a dang retexture from the previous game! Glue grenade? Just a freeze grenade with an ugly mesh. There's really no new gadgets, they're all the same and, AND... for some reason Batman can't grapple to the highest buildings and bridges. WHY? There's no consistency in following the game rules!
Yes there's a batclaw and it's cool, and also a concussion detonator. But the detonator is useless. The batclaw, I will give credit, is actually a very cool gadget.
The multiplayer is a vacant wasteland. Though the game mode isn't perfect, it is fun to play, but no one wants to play it.
Why you ask? Because it takes FOREVER to find another person to play with. Then when you do find a player, it takes FOREVER for the map to load. Okay, so let's say you load into the map? Oh no! Someone disconnected, migrating lobby, and re-load the long ass load time again.
It takes so long to find a match in Batman that I literally alt tab out of the game, browse the internet, write, do other things, and then check in to see if the game has loaded.
Also, the controls for Batman and Robin are not the same as they are in singleplayer. So when you're perched on top of a gargoyle and you press right click to AIM the batarang. Guess what? Batman is going to throw it instead! In fact, right click automatically makes him throw his batarangs when you meant to do silent take down or ground take down in multi.
If you're starting off with the starter weapon? Ooh, sucks to be you. The starter weapons are garbage for the gangs and the only way to be truly viable in multiplayer is to have an assault rifle. Poor balance choices makes me wonder why people would pick other weapons besides the assault rifle?
Some gadgets can kill in one hit and the heroes feel much weaker against the gang villains. You go from fearsome night avenger to, "Let's scare these gangs so they don't fight anymore!" It's utterly pathetic.
Overall, the Batman game is fun to play, but it's also frustrating too. It's buggy, amateur, and horribly recycled. If you're thinking about picking this one up, wait until it goes on sale.