Way back in the day, I was like everyone else; bearing feelings of extreme loathing at the mere idea of the Arkham license being handed over to someone else than series creators Rocksteady. Hell, in the end I decided to forego getting it altogether, as at launch there was scant little to hear about it but ceaseless complaints about glitches and bugs. Through random happenstance, I inevitably wound up with it... and was pleasantly surprised.
Sure, it was a bit hard for WB Montreal to entirely fuck up such a rock-solid concept as Rocksteady's already established gameplay, but from the word go, they plainly refuse to rest on them laurels. Maybe as a way of bringing home the point that Batman is still pretty new at this whole borderline-fascist vigilante thing, the fighting requires much more concentration from the player; you can actually lose without trying to, or being placed in a poorly balanced fight situation. Overall, there's a lot more intensity and fun to the fights found in Origins, even if they're ultimately not as satisfying due to inexplicable changes of sounds and stuff like that.
WB also basically drop the mic in the boss battle department, their crowning achievement Deathstroke highlighting everything great about the Arkham battle system, as City's Mr. Freeeze encounter did Predator mode. There are no truly anti-climactic fights to be found here, and the few that are less than ideal are against characters that aren't exactly physical threats in the first place.
It's also home to probably the only sequel-narrative that manages not to lose its momentum due to an overabundance of shocking swerves or plot threads. While I still don't entirely appreciate its justly maligned Hijacked by Ganon twist, at least it lead to an awesome beginning for Batman's greatest rivalry. Delving heavily into the psychology of both Batman and his human disguise Bruce Wayne, it's as much a story of personal apocalypses as Gotham-threatening ones.
No, the true flaws of Origins can be found in technical aspects like character animation; those cheap-looking lip movements are a plain disgrace for a 2013 game. Though the truly game-breaking glitches have long since been stamped out, what remains tends to rear its ugly head at inopportune moments. All in all though, WB did good, and then some!
Risk Reaps Rewards
Way back in the day, I was like everyone else; bearing feelings of extreme loathing at the mere idea of the Arkham license being handed over to someone else than series creators Rocksteady. Hell, in the end I decided to forego getting it altogether, as at launch there was scant little to hear about it but ceaseless complaints about glitches and bugs. Through random happenstance, I inevitably wound up with it... and was pleasantly surprised.
Sure, it was a bit hard for WB Montreal to entirely fuck up such a rock-solid concept as Rocksteady's already established gameplay, but from the word go, they plainly refuse to rest on them laurels. Maybe as a way of bringing home the point that Batman is still pretty new at this whole borderline-fascist vigilante thing, the fighting requires much more concentration from the player; you can actually lose without trying to, or being placed in a poorly balanced fight situation. Overall, there's a lot more intensity and fun to the fights found in Origins, even if they're ultimately not as satisfying due to inexplicable changes of sounds and stuff like that.
WB also basically drop the mic in the boss battle department, their crowning achievement Deathstroke highlighting everything great about the Arkham battle system, as City's Mr. Freeeze encounter did Predator mode. There are no truly anti-climactic fights to be found here, and the few that are less than ideal are against characters that aren't exactly physical threats in the first place.
It's also home to probably the only sequel-narrative that manages not to lose its momentum due to an overabundance of shocking swerves or plot threads. While I still don't entirely appreciate its justly maligned Hijacked by Ganon twist, at least it lead to an awesome beginning for Batman's greatest rivalry. Delving heavily into the psychology of both Batman and his human disguise Bruce Wayne, it's as much a story of personal apocalypses as Gotham-threatening ones.
No, the true flaws of Origins can be found in technical aspects like character animation; those cheap-looking lip movements are a plain disgrace for a 2013 game. Though the truly game-breaking glitches have long since been stamped out, what remains tends to rear its ugly head at inopportune moments. All in all though, WB did good, and then some!