Batman Arkham Origins : Review

Batman Arkham Origins
REVIEW

The Arkham series were said to be the best superhero game series ever made and rightly so, after having tried Asylum and City (the first and second part ) one can rightly say that. It was a genre defining moment for the videogame industry in terms of Superhero games.
Although the third part in the series, Arkham Origins is the most hated one. Why, well I didn’t know, so when I got my hands on this game for the PC decided to try it out.

Story

The events of the game take place before any  game of the series and is a prequel to the series as a whole. Here we find a young and emerging Batman whose name is synonymous with that of an urban legend compared to the feared vigilante-cum-legend we find on in the later games. The criminals aren’t  all scared as he’s not that well known nor he is at his peak of physical prowess as in City and later on. The game starts with us investigating a prison breakout by Black mask and later on investigating his murder. Spoiler apart this game involves only one Christmas night where we have to take out Black Mask and all the assassin’s hired by him to take out Batman.

 

Remember Arkham City... well so do I

     “One  night to Catch The Bat “

And throw in the some rogue cops, The introduction of Joker and Commsioner Gordon, The story is pretty strong. And I don’t get the exact hate for this game, although not as exciting as the other games of this series it throws a good insight of the boy who grew up to be the Batman. His cockiness and arrogance to act alone and the understanding of the importance to have friends even if he’s a vigilante (as seen in later games where Gordon, Barbara, Nightwing and Robin are important allies ) . Overall the easter egg intro to the jokers origins is something that every  comic book fan would love. As an origin story it does a great job at it. Notwithstanding the fact about the other part of the main story isn’t that great and is okayish.

Gameplay

The gameplay is literally more or less the same of City, free flow combat remains (an introduction to this system was in Asylum where only two buttons are used to perform a variety of moves ) . Even the gadgets are the same, with the exception of the shock gloves and few more. And this was the reason that turned off many fans and reviewers. They all wanted o=something different . After Asylum, City was so groundbreaking because it improved on every featue of its, whether be its graphics, combat, transition from linear to open worldness styled missions everything felt different. But is it justified, no , because simply put Arkham Origins is a prequel to the whole series and I don’t think putting a better combat system or gadgets for a Batman who has just begun and is yet not ready is justified. I mean using common sense it aint. The gameplay is still as polished as it was and the only put off was the respawning enemies, after a time roaming a city to complete the side mission got a bit tedious cause of them. I didn’t experience many bugs except one in the Deathstroke boss battle, where ater half sequence he wouldn’t appear after that and was only resolved after I restarted my game. 

To sum it up all basically Origins just follows the same polished Arkham formula with no new additions of its own except a few minor tweaks here and there.

Verdict

7/10

Standing in itself Arkham Orgins is not a bad game nor a great one, its rather a goodgame in itself. As a Batman Arkham game it might be the weakest one of the whole series till now, but it sets out a clean origin path for him with a little bit of cluttered mess. New to this series go for it, or just simply put in like 12-15 hours and complete the story without the side missions.
The same game in a bit different package.