After playing great Batman Arkham Asylum and outstanding Batman Arkham City , Arkham Origins was nothing but major disappointment for me . I really hate when developers copy the old game and paste all the assets into next game but this one is even worse than that . It is broken and buggy game with no personality . However hardcore fans of the series may like few improvements that they’ve made over past games . Sadly disappointments are way more than improvements in my opinion .
Story :
Batman Arkham Origins is about origin of Batman . This game is prequel to Arkham Origins , which is first game in the series .
In this game Batman is presented like a dark mysterious character and game does a very good job at it . Voice Actor “Roger Craig Smith” (Well known for being voice actor of Ezio from Assassin’s Creed 2 saga) , did a great job to voice act for Batman .
The game also introduces antagonists like Joker and few others as mysterious and dangerous characters but fans of the series will not be engaged because we already know a lot about these characters .
The story telling in the game is greatly improved over Arkham City . Arkham Origins have best story telling in the series . While the story itself is great , it is still a lower level story than previous games . In other words the stakes aren’t that high and there is nothing new to experience apart from better story telling and origin of Batman .
Design and Gameplay :
Gameplay of Origins is similar to previous titles in the series , however less responsive this time around . You click with your mouse until counter sign appears above one of the enemies then you counter attack by pressing RMB . Later in the game you unlock more skills and take downs like previous games . Not only that but you can upgrade your gadgets as you progress through the game and earn XP by taking down enemies , completing challenges , solving puzzles and completing primary and secondary quests .
There are variety of enemy types , and you’ll need to approach them differently to beat them . For Example enemies with knives should to be stunned with special attack (MMB by default) before attacking them and you’ll have to take stealthy approach to kill enemies loaded with guns . In the case of guys with shield , you’ll have to perform special moves to take away their shields , so you can attack them and so on .
The game also features enhanced detective mode this time around . Instead of looking for clues in limited area , now the game offers player to rewind or fast forward the scene and look for point of interests and clues , that all come together in the end of investigation . When investigation ends , the game shows everything that happened in form of cutscene with explanation in form of background commentary from Batman himself .
User interface looks good and it is very responsive . However it was noticed that sometimes opening menu doesn’t load full texts and images and forces player to quit the menu and open it again to see everything perfectly which includes map , character progress , Quests , Gadgets etc .
There are variety of different gadgets that can be used in different situations like previous games but there is not much new here , so everything is going to be familiar except few new goodies .
Most favorite of these goodies is Shock Gloves charged with electricity that you find later in the game .These gloves get charged as you fight different foes . Once the gloves are fully charged , you can activate them during fight . Since the gloves store electricity , these can be used to power up generators to clear path , open doors and activate elevators . The gloves can also play vital role in defeating bosses .
While lot of people complain that the city feels empty , it is understandable since you hear announcements about the curfew at every corner of the city if paid attention . Whether it was part of the story or it was there to hide laziness of the developers is a mystery . One thing is for sure that roaming in the city is not as fun as it was in Arkham City.
Overall , the gameplay is same as previous games with less responsiveness , good looking but glitchy interface , few new interesting gadgets but mostly the same stuff , enhanced detective mode and less interesting setting .
Presentation :
Arkham Origins looks exactly like Arkham City . In my opinion , in some places it looks worse .
Again , just like previous games , PC version comes with exclusive graphics enhancements and despite being buggy as hell , this game is most optimized game in the series for PC .
Voice acting is great . Soundtrack is simply the best part of the game . While game presents character of Batman and Alfred very well , I felt that other characters could’ve been done better , specially after watching Christopher Nolan movies .
.
There a lot of bugs in this game . Even as bad as this one , but such serious bugs are rare (But still there)
The game have few audio issues as well , on some PCs buzzing of sound was reported (including my PC as well) , while some people mentioned pre recorded cutscenes not working properly on their rigs , I had no problems with them .
Verdict :
Batman Arkham Origins is decent game for very hardcore fans of the series but it can also be disappointment for new comers and fans alike since the game is buggy and suffering from a lot of issues . Gameplay wise it doesn’t offer much new except for few new gadgets . Graphics are same as Arkham City with few PC exclusive features and game runs better than previous games . Character of Batman (and Alfred) is great but they could’ve done better job with others . Better story telling and enhanced detective modes are nice additions but not enough to keep you engaged throughout the game . In the end I have concluded that if you are hardcore fan and can ignore all the flaws in this game and don’t mind same old stuff then you should pick this game up during sale . In this way you will be supporting developers if you liked the game otherwise you won’t lose much . You may like this game since there are lot of mixed reviews about this game , specially from users .
Pros :
Great Story Telling
Enhanced Detective Mode
Voice Acting
Soundtrack
Shock Gloves
Better Optimization
Cons:
Less interesting setting
Low Level Storyline
No Innovation
Lot of bugs and glitches
Less interesting baddies
Wasted Potential