Batman: Arkham Origins review: Protecting Gotham from the villains, or the villains from Gotham?

Batman Arkham Origins is an action-packed RPG/action game released on October 25, 2013 for the PC, Xbox 360, PS3, and even Wii U. It is the third installment of the Batman: Arkham series, and the first game in the series that wasn’t developed by Rocksteady. The PC version can be obtained from Steam for $50.

Good but predictable storyline

In Batman: Arkham Origins, you get to play as Batman in the early years of his crime-fighting career; his second year as Batman to be precise. Young, rash, and over-confident, the Batman here isn’t the refined and mature hero of Arkham City and Arkham Asylum (the series’s previous installments). Especially early on, his hubris and naivete show through quite clearly. But during the course of the game you will see changes in his personality that slowly shape Batman into the hero we all know and love.

Warning: minor spoilers: During the course of the game, a criminal mastermind puts a $50 million dollar bounty on Batman’s head, and eight skilled bounty hunters answer the call. You will be fighting against most of these hunters, and even the criminal mastermind as well. We don’t want to say too much about the story’s specifics because there are some twists and turns that are best experienced for yourself, but rest assured the game has a few surprises up its sleeve.

Overall, I thought the storyline was pretty adequate. However, when compared with the almost flawless two games that came before it, it falls a little bit short. Since this game is a prequel, it is rather interesting to see some of the characters’ history, such as how a certain criminal became what they would be, and how Batman meets him for the very first time. However, the storyline feels less epic and less engaging compared to the previous installments. The story was my main drive to keep playing those two games, and sadly I didn’t feel that drive when playing this game. Don’t get me wrong, the story is still good — better than most games out there — but it still didn’t grab me like the previous games did.

Gameplay: more of the same

Batman: Arkham Origins is pretty much Batman: Arkham City with different a storyline. The combat is still the same, and in fact almost everything is the same. You will be fighting opponents that react exactly like in Arkham City, and a lot of the missions will feel familiar. During some of the them, I couldn’t help but feel that I was playing Arkham City again in a slightly different costume.

The combat is, if anything, a slight downgrade from Arkham City. In many parts of the game, you will be fighting against tons of enemies at once, and the choppy snapping counter system can get confusing. For example, attacks from opponents can be avoided by attacking different opponents that are far away, effectively pulling you out of the first attacker’s reach, but at times those opponents will mysteriously “blink” next to you and successfully deliver their attack anyway. It is rather frustrating, and I am not sure whether this is a bug or just bad game design. Hopefully it will be fixed with future updates though.

New and improved detective mode that is visually cool, but very boring