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| Criminals should really just curl into the fetal position by this point. |
Story
Arkham Origins revolves around Batman's earliest days as a detective, when he was just starting to make a name for himself as the caped crusader we all know and love today. The entirety of the game takes place on Christmas Eve, with a city-wide curfew in place to dissuade any civilians from traveling outside due to heightened criminal activity. The main villain from the get-go is Black Mask, a mobster boss with a legion of armed thugs ready to do his bidding. He and Batman cross paths at a prison known as Blackgate, where the aforementioned villain has convinced Killer Croc to aid him. Things quickly worsen and Batman ends up with a $50 million bounty on his head. The world's most deadly assassins then converge on Gotham, including the series' regular Bane, in an attempt to slay the Batman and claim the prize. As the Dark Knight, you must survive the night and save Gotham from destruction on Christmas day as the plans of the Joker burst onto the scene. Batman will have his hands full in this game, as many different villains make an appearance and must be pursued if you wish to unravel more of the story. This is easily the darkest Batman game of the series, with the masked hero delivering a much more brutal, visceral form of justice and his enemies dealing out death left and right in a disturbingly casual manner. WB Games has crafted a story that stays mostly true to the source material whilst fully embracing the darker themes introduced in Arkham Asylum and City. Every twist and turn of the story on my journey was extremely well done, with nothing seeming too cliche or out of character. The Joker is an especially strong figure in this game, completely owning his role as an arch-villain and being instantly loveable. Batman, the Joker, Alfred, and Bane give their best performances in the series thus far, with carefully crafted fight sequences that reveals each characters' motivations and goals. Rocksteady's absence has done nothing to harm the plot and story of Origins, with a strong cast of characters and genuinely interesting mystery to uncover. You will be thinking about this game after you have beaten it.
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| Batman's amusing version of Whack-a-Mole! |
Graphics
WB Games Montreal have added a further sheen of polish to the graphical fidelity of the Arkham series by upping the detail of almost everything in the game world, including Batman himself and NPCs. The world is extremely well done and immersive, letting you truly believe you are a force for good as you perch yourself on a nearby ledge and eavesdrop on a conversation below between a few goons. The Physx effects are back and better than ever this time, with dynamic snow being a new effect added. Now every time Batman walks outside or interacts with a snowy environment, snow particles will drift and swirl around him realistically. The effect is so impressive that it can even distract you in the midst of a heated battle as whirlwinds of snow are kicked up from Batman's impressive acrobatics. The game can render in DX11, adding several benefits including TXAA and Tessellation. Tessellation is used to great effect here, especially on snow that deforms whenever a character makes contact with it. The performance is much better than Arkham City, the effects and engine being much more optimized this time around to provide a smooth experience throughout. Truly Origins is the best looking game in the series thus far, and I cannot wait to see what the next-gen iterations will look like on the Unreal Engine 4.
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| Seriously guys, stop trying to fight him. Gotham hospitals can only hold so many injured thugs. |
Gameplay
Getting into Origins, you will notice that a lot of key gameplay elements have either been left unchanged or tweaked. There is nothing innovative here, just layers of fine-tuning and polish on systems that work extremely well together and provide a stellar experience to the player. Origins is the most well-balanced Batman game in my opinion, refining your impressive array of gadgets whilst adding a few new ones to the mix and upping the challenge by including additional enemy types. This is not a clone of Arkham City, but there are so many similarities between the two that one could be forgiven for thinking that Origins was originally just an add-on. This is not the case, Origins is a lengthy game that will take upwards of 20 hours to beat, and that's not including doing all the side missions and Riddler challenges. The Free Flow combat system returns better than ever this time, with Batman arcing and flying between groups of thugs seamlessly as he delivers cringe-inducing amounts of physical trauma to the unlucky saps seeking to kill him. Increasing your combo meter grants you access to unlockable special moves that can easily turn the tide of a difficult fight, such as summoning a swarm of bats to stun foes or instantly snapping limbs to cripple an opponent. Getting into a large fight is exhilarating, as jumping from foe to foe to deliver some head-bashing goodness is spectacular to witness. New enemies such as Martial Artists and Armored Enforcers add variety to engagement scenarios, each new type displaying innate strengths and weaknesses you will not see in vanilla thugs. The Martial Artists are quick hitting, counter-happy melee experts with lower than average health but who still know how to dish out lightning fast strikes and counter your own moves. The Armored Enforcers are massive Titan replacements whose armor must be ripped off before you can actually damage them. Fighting these foes is great fun and really adds to the melee masterpiece that is the Free Flow system. Gadgets are mostly unchanged this time but they are nonetheless still extremely useful when initiating a fight with unwary enemies. All the gadgets are fully upgradeable via two upgrade trees that will turn Batman into an unstoppable force once fully maxed out. Melee, armor, gadgets are all enhanced through these trees with varying effects. The Batarangs for example can be turned into Tri-Batarangs, which launches out three homing projectiles which knock down foes. The Glue Grenade is a new gadget that replaces the Ice Grenade from Arkham City, and it serves the exact same functions: Encasing enemies in a sticky resin and creating blobby rafts to traverse water upon. Perhaps the best new addition are the Shock Gloves, large gauntlets powered by the kinetic energy generated from connecting hits to enemies. Once charged these babies can be powered on, adding a massive amount of additional force behind each blow, sending foes flying back with each hit. Like I stated earlier, nothing too new here, but what is here is very well implemented into the gameplay. Old Gotham is fully navigable, a bit larger than the area in Arkham City, with lots of its own sights and experiences to enjoy. Getting around is easy enough with the grapnel launcher and gliding, but you are also given access to the Bat Jet to nearly instantly travel to certain parts of the city. These areas must be first unlocked by disabling a Riddler tower, which can usually only be done with the right gadgets that you may not yet possess. I mostly ignored these towers and went about grapnel boost gliding around like a horrific night beast powered by the fear of bad people. There is plenty to see and do, with optional objectives to complete for certain villains who you will later fight upon completion, ensuring you are never bored in Gotham as you go about cleaning the city's streets of crime. The boss fights in Origins are spectacular, incorporating a much more cinematic feel with quick time events designed to capture the ferocity of the battles. The fights with Deathstroke, Bane, and Copperhead were by far the best boss fights I experienced, with each employing various tactics and tricks to usurp the Dark Knight. I won't spoil anything about the fights, just know that you will emerge feeling like a total badass. Overall Origins feels like an upgraded version of Arkham City, with enough new content to feel like its own game rather than a blatant copy.
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| Become a billionaire and you could afford these too. |
Sound
To be honest I never really noticed the music in Origins, likely because I was too busy listening to the excellent dialogue or the visceral crack of bones breaking. The ambient sound effects are largely similar to Arkham City, given how similar the settings of the two games are. Voice acting here is top notch, with the Joker and Batman being the most noteworthy of mentioning. Other than the stellar performances by the voice actors, everything is par for the course here. Nothing is lacking in this area, though the music did fail to grab my attention but that was likely more to a design choice than anything else. Old Gotham is more immersive and beautiful than ever.
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| Maybe you shouldn't trail behind that guy Batman. |
Conclusion
Arkham Origins is a prime example that another company can in fact carry on the great works of another and even improve upon it. Origins may not have a lot of original content, but that doesn't meant it is an inferior product. It sticks with what works and adds more to the formula based on that principle. It is an amazing experience that any Batman or action game fan really owes it to themself to experience. With an interesting story, fantastic characters, perfect combat system, and multiple game modes, Akrham Origins gives you plenty of reasons to keep coming back even after the credits have long since rolled. WB Games Montreal has done Batman justice in this latest installment of the caped crusader's perilous adventures. 9/10 (PC version reviewed, multiplayer portion still being tested)
