Graphic - 7/10
Sound - 9.0/10
Game Play - 8/10
Story Telling - 8/10
Customization - 5/10
Graphics: This is it, we're coming to the end of a life cycle for last gen consoles and making way for the next generation of systems, most companies know the in's and out's of the PS3 that allow them to make games seem as beautiful as could be for as old as the technology is, developer and mapper short-cuts allow for some truly outstanding looking games.
But with that having been said, there are some clipping issues that you'll notice from time to time, as well as graphical glitches that weren't ironed out before the games final release, some of you will come across this where textures loaded oddly, or sometimes not at all, sometimes the world would actually split apart on one part of the map causing me to fall repeatedly into the water below the city surface, or just continually fall till my character eventually bat-grappled back to safety.
This is most certainly jarring and unpolished in that respect, but this might not happen to everyone and for that I can only half way reduce the merit this category would otherwise perfectly receive.
Sound: The sound is pretty crisp and the voice acting after about thirty minutes into the game tends to grow on you given that barely any of the original voicing cast remained.
However the sound of the wind as it blows, the flow of your cape, the crackle of broken bones, crushing gloves, dismantling weapons, beating baddies, and using gadgets all have their original charm from the previous Rocksteady games, with that having been said another case of unfortunate glitches can sometimes leave a crackle in the audio that would mar this category from being a perfect score.
Game Play: The game play is more of the same and that isn't necessarily a bad thing as some professionals might try to argue, this is consistency of a free-flow combat system that was proven to work, gadgets and fists/feet fly and mix perfectly with a responsive countering system, i'm going to break the 4th wall of reviewing here and mention that i've seen other reviewers say that the combat didn't flow as well as Asylum or City, I would strongly care to disagree and propose the fact that possibly these players have become rusty, as anytime that I was hit by a baddie, it's because I wasn't paying attention and wasn't prepared for the number of enemies I was about to be facing.
With that being said this game can sometimes be downright frustrating from mechanical glitches that should have been easy to spot and iron out if proper play testing had been done, searching corners could lead to your inevitable checkpoint restart due to the fact that you can seemingly get stuck on thin air, the game will sometimes freeze randomly when these glitches pile up in a certain order and if the game is saving (potentially) lose your save data to corruption, as stated above in the graphics category I even fell through the world a few times where the road was seemingly just an empty texture with no solid base, it wasn't game breaking but it was certainly jarring and frustrating, compared to the shoes they had to fill.
A fast travel system is a welcome change that allow you to zip from one area of the map to the other without much trouble using the automated bat-jet, however using these will force you to unlock and decipher the hack codes to open the relays that will freely unlock your quick travel points, of course using this system could cause you to miss a crime in progress for challenging fights and bonus XP.
Detective mode also makes a return with two different styles, the vision is the same one we came to rely on in the previous two entries, showing us where the baddies are, what weapons they use, their heart rate, or mood meter and how you're effecting it, the other however for actual Detective work made a complete and welcomed overhaul that got many excited, being able to scan a crime scene and take each second of a crime and recreate it frame per frame, listening to Batman talk as you pieced crime scenes together was a real treat.
Challenge maps make a return and in a stylish fashion, with a season pass that ensures more to come, instead of the Joker being a playable villain, Deathstroke is now the counter opposite to Batman at the moment allowing for a fresh new take on some acrobatic combat styles, the combat maps can be a challenge if you're into leader boards and different stipulations can make a map harder or easier depending, predator maps also make a stylish return and force different factors to make a map harder to get a three out of three trophy rating, stipulations can also make these maps easier or harder depending, but can also prevent you from getting a perfect rating, factors that I hadn't noticed in prior games are also included like a hostage situation after taking out a terrified thugs crew members till he was the only one left.
Combat Training is another part of the challenge maps that can actually help you master your craft at being the Batman and not just another spandex wearing vigilante, gadget use, predator stalking skills, and combo mastery are all really helpful tools to learn for when you start jumping into the fray with extremely large crowds of enemies and want to take them out quickly, effectively and stylishly so as to fill the new grading meter that awards extra XP for thinking before punching.
Mutliplayer Combat makes a controversial appearance, one that I was both excited for and skeptic of, unfortunately it's potential has not yet been met, due to the fact that players are too busy playing the story, challenge maps, or just generally don't care for that kind of experience, however I can attest that when I did find enough players and was able to play enough games to level up past rank 10, the game really opened up with customization and weapon choices, the thugs act as an almost gears of war over the shoulder shooter, while answering the door to the Joker will keep you in that TPS mode but with a one shot pistol, answering the door for Bane will open up to a new style of instant take downs and knock down special attacks that can stun regular thugs, two players are also chosen at random at the end of reach round, usually consisting of the top four scoring players that will take the place of Batman and Robin, similar to singe player mechanics the heroes now hunt users instead of AI thugs to try and sneak take down or mull over head on, usually resulting in some form of death unless your opponents have terrible aim.
The downside to multiplayer however is the fact that there is currently only one mode, with no mention of other modes in coming at this time, a nice little filler for now on what could have been, but matches also require a MANDATORY user count of 8 players to even start the match, with a 30 second wait to vote for a map and another 30 seconds to even start, regardless of all players being ready, it's unneeded and could possibly be tweaked in the future being a peeve by most players, for now it's pretty bare bones and could desperately use some extra content when phases start to roll out to get the ball rolling.
Story Telling: Spoiler-free, the story has some great focus on some of Batman's lesser known villains, though the pacing is kind of frantic and in your face with most of them all at once, it still greatly stands up there with Rocksteady's prior franchise entries and takes us to some new places that was I graciously thankful for, however it did end kind of short in my opinion, but with more phases coming in the DLC packs with a supposed entire brand new story line, you can't help but be excited to return for more filling story information that bridges the gap between Origins and Asylum.
Customization: Customization is mostly limited to Multiplayer when it comes to your thug characters, otherwise there is a plethora of Batman and Robin suits that are both wearable in story/challenge/multiplayer (Robin isn't in the story), so this rating could only be so high to begin with, as weapon customization is merely just skins that have no actual purpose towards bettering your weaponry.
Overall Value: Batman Arkham Origins is very much a love/hate relationship, I can't help but love this Batman game cause it revisits some of the best parts of Arkham City, while being able to take us to new and exciting avenues of it's own giving us a fuller picture of this specific universe, it's an acceptable entry by a newer developer and I won't knock them for giving the old college try and for the most part knocking it out of the ball park, however there are some hefty bugs that are scattered throughout the game and it's game play that really do affect the score tremendously, do I believe it's worth the full $60, for Batman fans with money to spend, yes, for a regular gaming fan that just enjoys the casual super hero game, wait for about a $40 price drop and then perhaps if you want drop another $20 on the season pass, or just wait for the GOTY edition, overall i'd give this game a definite buy. (Even if at reduced price.)