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Reviews VideoGame / Batman Arkham Origins

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DarkGidora Since: Jul, 2009
11/08/2013 20:30:02 •••

Weaker than City, but still rather good.

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS

Arkham Origins is a very fun game. It may be a bit weaker than it's predecessor, however, I feel that it is still quite fun, and if you liked Asylum and City, Origins is something you should check out, although you may wish to wait for a price drop.

I think part of the problem for me was the bait-and-switch. Frankly, the twist that it was Joker impersonating Black Mask the whole time felt kinda unnecessary. Had they advertised it as a Joker story, or had they actually made Black Mask the main villain while somehow also working in the Joker bits, I think the game would have been a lot stronger. Overall, it kinda dredges up complaints about how Hugo Strange was hyped as the villain in City, only to be a flunkie of a midgame boss and then the Joker turn out to be the final foe. I also felt they could have fleshed out the assassins a bit more, namely Deathstroke, who was hyped up in trailers and turns out to be one of the first to be beaten.

With that said, the way they handled the Joker was excellent, I thought. The Voice Actor's performance is great (as it Batman's; both do a good job taking over from Conroy and Hammill). The sequence after the Hotel was outright awesome. Like in City, I'm irked that the plot gets hijacked by Joker, however, also like City, the way they dealt with the Joker was very well done in my opinion. Maybe not enough for me to forgive the bait-and-switch, but good nonetheless.

I feel the game could've been improved by spending more time in New Gotham and having more stuff to explore there; it did feel like a retread at times. Especially when Batman interrupts the Penguin's mook-fighting tournament in a historic/classy site that the Penguin had converted into his lair and center of his arms-smuggling operation (Complete with Long Halloween nostalgia). They could've used some different gadgets, as well, I thought, though the shock gauntlets were quite fun to mess around with.

While I've heard others felt the combat feels worse than the previous games, I didn't notice much of a difference. The boss fights were mostly well done as well. The Crime Scene investigation bits were better this time around as well.

Austin Since: Jan, 2001
11/06/2013 00:00:00

You feel the same way I did about the Joker. Good use of his character, but still kind of disappointing. As you were, I expected Deathstroke to have a bigger role in the game. With as much hype as he got, I thought he might be a recurring villain, like Bane was. At least he got a great boss fight though.

Grimace Since: May, 2009
11/08/2013 00:00:00

Seconded re: the Joker "reveal". I love Black Mask, ever since Judd Winick had him as the sarky, Genre Savvy crime boss of Gotham about 6 years ago in the comics. I liked the idea of having an underutilised character as a key villain (although I never really expected him to stick around as Big Bad to the end, to be honest), so the twist that it had actually always been the Joker, again, sort of annoyed me a little. Then I noticed how the writing and Troy Baker's acting was sooooo good, I got a more chipper. So that was me eating a bit of crow, I guess.


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