Batman: Arkham Origins
PlayStation 3
I have had a lot of fun with the Arkham games in the past. Arkham Asylum was very original for its time and brought Batman to life like I have never seen before. The setting was terrific, it was loaded with great villains. The game was just flat out fun to play. Arkham City took what was offered in the original game and upped the ante, moving Batman out into the city and giving him larger territory to explore.
Unfortunately, for me Arkham Origins doesn't do enough to separate itself from the first two entries in the series. It is just far too similar to Arkham City. There aren't any new ideas. The moves and the controls are all the same. The battles are just as button mashingly tedious and plentiful as they were before. This game may even have the most hand to hand combat of all the Arkham games, and that is not a good thing. Everywhere you turn you have to fight, and it is just the same punching and countering shit for hours on end.
When you aren't fighting, you are solving crimes by analyzing crime scenes (another idea lifted straight from Arkham City) and solving Riddler puzzles (sound familiar?). The game doesn't do anything new or original. It's like the people who made the game just said - if it ain't broke don't fix it. But it is far too unoriginal for me to have serious fun with.
Not to say I didn't like it. I love Batman, and this game was definitely good for story purposes. It tells of Batman in his early days fighting crime. He must dodge assassins and get to the bottom of a new massive threat in Gotham City. Many villains are introduced like the Penguin, Black Mask, Bane, and Killer Croc. But in the end it is the Joker who steals the spotlight for the third Arkham game in a row. The Joker this time around was actually played by the same guy who voiced Joel in the Last of Us and Booker Dewitt in Bioshock Infinite. He does a pretty good job, I must say. Disappointing though that Batman has been replaced. It just isn't the same without Kevin Conroy.
The graphics are absolutely amazing. I can't believe that people are buying new consoles when games look THIS good on the PS3 still. The city is huge, the characters are detailed. The environments are haunting and authentic. The level of detail put into this game is truly astounding, I must say. The Christmas like environment is really beautiful. I love how it is set during the holiday season.
The cutscenes are really cool too. And also this game includes bigger and better boss battles. Larger explosions and chaos on a more massive scale than anything seen in the past games. Also like in previous Arkham games, Batman takes damage as the game goes on. But in this one, he really looks like he is hurting and has been through hell by the time you get to the end of it.
I think one of the things that rubbed me the wrong way with the game is that the tone of it has changed. I have played Arkham Asylum and City in the past. Of the two I have played Arkham Asylum twice, the last time was a few months ago. With that game fresh in my mind, it made glaringly obvious the differences between this game and that one. Arkham Asylum is more personal and focused of a game. There are lots of creepy and intense moments. It is more introspective in tone.
This game is all about big battles and explosions and zipping around the city in grand fashion. The action is way over the top and comic book like. Which is fine. But I prefer the more dark and personal feel of Arkham Asylum. The game also feels like one giant fetch quest. There are little things to find all around the city. Literally, all over the city. You can spend hours and hours on end collecting everything, and not even touch the main story. It's infuriorating because I always tell myself I am just going to get one more thing and then stop playing. And then I keep playing. I get sucked in.
It's cool if a game sucks you in, right? It is, but not when it is wasting hours at a time collecting essentially meaningless artifacts from all over the city. I guess I am trying to say it effects the pacing of the game. There are a lot of side quests too, so it always feels like there is way too much going on at one time.
There is so much to unlock in this game, that when I finished the main story my completion rate for the game was only 38%. It felt like I had been playing this game FOREVER and I still was only at 38%. I can't fathom popping the game back in and playing it to 100% completion. No. Just no.
I guess it does sound like I am being very harsh on the game. To be fair, if I had never played any of the other Arkham games before - and this was my first experience with the series - I would have said it was bloody brilliant. It's a very high quality game, great to look at and fun to play. The story is a Batman fan's wet dream. The size and scale of the game is beyond epic.
It is a very well done game. It is just flat out not original. And that hurts it majorly. There were almost no tweaks made to the game play. It could be the same game as Arkham City, practically. The item fetching is tiresome, as well as the non stop punching and countering battles the game is littered with.
So it is a mixed bag for me. I think a C fits it perfectly. It is too well made of a game to give it anything lower. It is too much of a rehash of old series ideas to grade it any higher. This is one of the most middle of the pack games I have ever played. Truly just one little small deciding factor away from either being very good or really annoying.
Overall:
C
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