My thoughts on Arkham Origins

[JcGross]

I thought I would try something else and write a review of sorts, since there aren't a lot of posts like this and I would like to see some more. Hopefully this will catch on and people will share their thoughts and experiences of games they play and we can have some nice discussions going on.

 

First off, I was a little put down when I heard about the bad review scores for Batman: Arkham Origins. I've played the first two games and I was blown away by them. I was never a huge DC fan, I was always a Marvel guy (still am), but these games made me Batman fans. They have great, epic stories, the production value is through the roof, great acting, great visuals, music and most of all, gameplay! The sneaking parts were a great feature in my opinion (I'm a huge stealth fan) and it really made me feel like a bad-ass when the goons were trembling in fear. Then there's the well known free flow combat that is just so great. Arkham City improved a lot on Asylum, but also took away that creepy feeling that Arkham Island gave. The lobotomized patients, the creepy medical gear, the feeling that you are on on island full of killers and you have to compete against crazy odds. These were gone for the most part in Arkham City. But in turn we got a more opened space to explore, we got more villains, and we got an even more epic story. But the best thing that Arkham City did was introducing new mechanics, building on existing ones, without being overwhelming. New weapons, new moves and new enemies.

 

So, after reading some reviews, I was hesitant to buy Arkham Origins, but after TotalBiscuit's video I decided that I'll go for it. And man did I choose right! So, I'm going to say the game's awesome. From here on I'm going to elaborate on why it's so awesome.

 

The visuals are insane. Every time I loaded up the game I was blown away by it. Because it's not the Battlefield crap where they put 10 effects in at once so you can't even see anything. This game looks great because of the texture quality, lighting effects, and most of all design. The Christmas theme is used very well in my opinion and has a big impact on the whole vibe of the game. Christmas lights hanging everywhere, presents and fake snowmen in the buildings, the snowstorm, all of this matched perfectly with this eerie feeling of dread and criminals roaming the streets. I liked it a lot. But the Christmas theme not only impacted the visuals, but the sound department as well. And much like with visuals, the music is also great. I believe that the sound design and soundtrack of a game is every bit as important as the visuals. And the soundtrack in Arkham Origins is one of the best I've ever heard. I can't even name any game that has better music off the top of my head, maybe The Witcher 2 can compete with it.

The moment I started the game and the music in the main menu started I felt immersed. This is the power of music.

 

So now that we've talked about the superficial things, let's dig deeper, let's talk gameplay. As I mentioned, Arkham City introduced new elements to the combat, and going back to Asylum, I felt it a bit lackluster after City. So what about Origins? Well, it didn't change that much about the combat as City. Older gadgets come back with some new names, like the glue grenade (which is in every respect equivalent to the freeze blast), but we also have some slight changes. The line launcher gets a pass this time around to give room for the much better "remote claw" which in some cases can be used as a remote line launcher (zipping along a tightrope) but is extremely useful in predator sequences. But the best addition in my opinion are the shock gloves. You get these babies from the electrocutioner. Now these are kind of the replacement item for the remote charge gun, in terms of operating electric motors, but are also a game-changer in combat. Now, in terms of enemies, we've got a few more enemy types. The thugs on venom, the large thugs and the martial artists (which are a pain in the ass). Some reviews say that the game is too easy, well, try playing on hard without visual hints. That'll make it hard. I've played through Asylum and City on hard without the visual hints and I rarely had problems. Now, they've amped up the difficulty big time and I really had to concentrate on what I was doing, who I was hitting, making smart decisions on the fly while also looking out for cues on who is about to hit me, often loosing my free flow combo. WHICH I ABSOLUTELY LOVE! My beef with the previous Arkham games was that they were pretty easy (apart for the poison Ivy fight and maybe Mr Freeze from AC).

 

The next thing I want to talk about is the general feel of the game. The previous games were good, felt good, I've already said this, but they were immersive and epic and my major fear was that since it's not Rocksteady who made the game, the story might not be so good. Also the new Joker and Batman voices might not feel right. Well, when I started a new game, I was both psyched and let down at the same time. I was let down by the new design on Batman. He is bulky, he has a lot of armor on, his cape is a bit shorter. All in all he felt a lot more realistic. Which is not the best direction to go when we're talking about a Batman game. But as the game went on I grew fond of it. I particularly like how the cape is attached to Batman. The other let down was killer crock. In Asylum he was a lot bigger, more intimidating, and a lot greener. Now he feels washed out, more like an overgrown scaly human. Thankfully after the first 20-30 minutes of the game we don't see him again until the very end. But I really liked how the Joker and Batman are younger in this. I didn't really notice Batman's new voice, I think it's a perfect match, it really feels like the same guy just younger. The Joker however gives a lot weaker performance, which is a shame. But the ending in the chapel is great, that kind of redeemed the new joker. The Christmas vibe and the snowstorm was a welcome change in my opinion and it was fun seeing the Arkham City part of Gotham in it's former glory.

 

Without giving away anything, the story is great, I think with all the changes it felt new and fresh. Batman is a lot younger. he is a lot more hot-headed, he beats the crap out of people and he has a lot of rage. Which is great, seeing Batman being a lot more aggressive, as opposed to the always calm Batman from the previous games. Anger and rage is my favorite emotion in stories though, so I might be a bit biased. There are some awesome things in the story that I won't spoil now, but let me just say that Alfred was used in a great way. Unlike in Arkham City, Alfred is not just a "robot", we see Bruce care about him and Alfred caring about Bruce, and there are some real emotional moments with them (again, some great, great performances).

 

The last thing to talk about is how much content is there really in this game. Well, I played through the campaign in about 18 hours. (steam says 18, but that's of course with toilet and meal breaks) I didn't rush through the story, I did a lot of side-missions to get some much needed upgrades, but the story is at least 10-12 hours long. I was amazed how long it was, and I barely touched the challenge modes and haven't even played a single online match yet. There are still a lot of enigma stuff left to be done, some more case files and curiously enough 2 more most wanted criminal that I haven't even met yet. So needless to say there is a lot of content, I have 56 hours in Arkham City, and I see myself putting in at least 60 hours in Origins (there's still new game plus, and god forbid, the "I'm a knight" instant-death mode, as well as the challenges, and who knows what DLC they're going to put out).

 

So that's my synopsis with Batman: Arkham Origins. Let me know what you thought of the game, did you think it was a major disappointment, or do you think it's an epic game? It might not be the best game in the series, but it's definitely my favorite by a country mile.

 

I'm going to leave you with some epic music:

[ForeseenVisionz]

tl dr version? Im judging by the music and from the previous games that it was positive?

[JcGross]

tl dr version? Im judging by the music and from the previous games that it was positive?

tl:dr - The game has an epic story and has great production value. I can't even remember a game I was this immersed in, or had this much fun with. Easily in my top 5 this year, possibly top 10-15 all time.

[ForeseenVisionz]

tl:dr - The game has an epic story and has great production value. I can't even remember a game I was this immersed in, or had this much fun with. Easily in my top 5 this year, possibly top 10-15 all time.

cool. Cant wait to get my pc and play it. Played the first 2 on xbox and they were amazing so ive got high hopes for origins.

[Hans Christian | Teri]

Leave the music at the top next time, so we can enjoy it while we read. Nice review though.

[ManOfDisguise]

i just had to get this game as im a fan of the arkham games so yea i got it a few days after launch and i gotta say it lives up to the other arkham games in terms of story. it just seemed too short for me(but the length should be around the same as city and asylum). there were lots of bugs though, the city didnt feel as "alive" as it did in arkham city, they took out the riddler challenges(bad move!) and the game isnt too different from arkham city so i lost my interest in it much sooner. but boss fights were pretty cool and better done this time, again story was awesome, gameplay was awesoe(but again a bit too same), deathstroke challenges were fun

 

 

multiplayer i completely ignored...

[JcGross]

i just had to get this game as im a fan of the arkham games so yea i got it a few days after launch and i gotta say it lives up to the other arkham games in terms of story. it just seemed too short for me(but the length should be around the same as city and asylum). there were lots of bugs though, the city didnt feel as "alive" as it did in arkham city, they took out the riddler challenges(bad move!) and the game isnt too different from arkham city so i lost my interest in it much sooner. but boss fights were pretty cool and better done this time, again story was awesome, gameplay was awesoe(but again a bit too same), deathstroke challenges were fun

 

 

multiplayer i completely ignored...

Well, the Riddler stuff is still in there, so are the challange maps, so I don't really know what you mean there. As for Gotham not being alive, I justify it because it's a huge snowstorm (we've had a snowstorm like this here and trust me, you don't want to go out), there's a warning on the radio advising people not to leave their homes, and I don't think Arkham City felt more alive. Also I don't know why you feel it's short, I thought it was even longer than City (by the way, City is about 2-3 hours longer at least, than Asylum, plus the side activities by my estimation). I didn't have a problem with it being iterative because I was so immersed, and it gave me a suitable challenge. I don't know what difficulty you played on, but I'm telling you, playing without visual hints is a completely different experience.

 

But you are right that the boss fights are cool, I especially liked the Deathstroke fight. ("What are you?!") I liked that they were more oldschool boss-fights where you have to figure out how you have to beat your opponent, even though sometimes they became a bit repetitive.

[ManOfDisguise]

Well, the Riddler stuff is still in there, so are the challange maps, so I don't really know what you mean there. As for Gotham not being alive, I justify it because it's a huge snowstorm (we've had a snowstorm like this here and trust me, you don't want to go out), there's a warning on the radio advising people not to leave their homes, and I don't think Arkham City felt more alive. Also I don't know why you feel it's short, I thought it was even longer than City (by the way, City is about 2-3 hours longer at least, than Asylum, plus the side activities by my estimation). I didn't have a problem with it being iterative because I was so immersed, and it gave me a suitable challenge. I don't know what difficulty you played on, but I'm telling you, playing without visual hints is a completely different experience.

 

But you are right that the boss fights are cool, I especially liked the Deathstroke fight. ("What are you?!") I liked that they were more oldschool boss-fights where you have to figure out how you have to beat your opponent, even though sometimes they became a bit repetitive.

As far as I know they completely took out the riddles. They kept the riddler trophies(datapacks) but they took out the riddles that you have to scan.(riddler will tell you some riddle and you have to scan some building or somehting to solve it). I probably felt its short because I beat GTA 5 pretty fast and this was like twice as short so it felt really really short and also i expected all the assassins to be in the main story missions but there were only like 5 of em and 3 of em were in side missions, so i thought the story would go longer to show me fighting all 8 in the main missions but i was surprised to see it end so soon. Also Deathstroke fight was the coolest i agree but i forgot to say they totally made Deathstroke look bad in terms of how he got defeated. Batman and Deathstroke are pretty much equal in fighting skills and both Deathstroke beat Batman  and Batman beat Deathstroke in the comics. But hopefully in the next game we will see Deathstroke return(because of AOs ending) and we will get the Deathstroke we deserved

[JcGross]

As far as I know they completely took out the riddles. They kept the riddler trophies(datapacks) but they took out the riddles that you have to scan.(riddler will tell you some riddle and you have to scan some building or somehting to solve it). I probably felt its short because I beat GTA 5 pretty fast and this was like twice as short so it felt really really short and also i expected all the assassins to be in the main story missions but there were only like 5 of em and 3 of em were in side missions, so i thought the story would go longer to show me fighting all 8 in the main missions but i was surprised to see it end so soon. Also Deathstroke fight was the coolest i agree but i forgot to say they totally made Deathstroke look bad in terms of how he got defeated. Batman and Deathstroke are pretty much equal in fighting skills and both Deathstroke beat Batman  and Batman beat Deathstroke in the comics. But hopefully in the next game we will see Deathstroke return(because of AOs ending) and we will get the Deathstroke we deserved

Oh, you mean the riddles. Yeah, they are gone, but I don't really miss them. If and when GTA V comes out on PC I'm sure I'm going to take my time with that as well.

As for Deathstroke, I did feel a bit disappointed that he was so easy to kill, I feel they should have left him towards the end, maybe putting in an other assassin in Deathstroke's place to fight Batman on the Final Offer, so it would be more climactic. But I don't feel bad about it, the Bane storyline made up for it (Batman took quite a beating there) which was also pretty unexpected.

The Firefly fight was pretty repetitive though, but the exploding bridge of fire was pretty awesome in my opinion. (I am a bit of a pyromaniac ^^)

[ManOfDisguise]

Oh, you mean the riddles. Yeah, they are gone, but I don't really miss them. If and when GTA V comes out on PC I'm sure I'm going to take my time with that as well.

As for Deathstroke, I did feel a bit disappointed that he was so easy to kill, I feel they should have left him towards the end, maybe putting in an other assassin in Deathstroke's place to fight Batman on the Final Offer, so it would be more climactic. But I don't feel bad about it, the Bane storyline made up for it (Batman took quite a beating there) which was also pretty unexpected.

The Firefly fight was pretty repetitive though, but the exploding bridge of fire was pretty awesome in my opinion. (I am a bit of a pyromaniac ^^)

Batman didnt kill Deathstroke. BATMAN NEVER KILLS. You saw Deathstroke at the very end too . But im sure it was just a typo u made.

[JcGross]

Batman didnt kill Deathstroke. BATMAN NEVER KILLS. You saw Deathstroke at the very end too . But im sure it was just a typo u made.

Yeah, I was thinking in game-terms. My bad. I meant "defeated".

[ManOfDisguise]

Yeah, I was thinking in game-terms. My bad. I meant "defeated".

np

[kierden]

3rd best in the series IMO