Arkham Origins finished

As I'm writing this, the credits for Batman: Arkham Origins on the PS3 have been rolling for more than 15 minutes.  I was thinking about writing a blog about my thoughts of the game, and since the credits are still rolling I figured I might as well do so now.

If you haven't followed the series, let me just briefly bring you up to speed.  Origins is the third installment of the Batman Arkham trilogy and as the subtitle alludes, it's an origin story.  Made by a different developer than Rocksteady, who did the first two games, Origins suffers from some very rough edges not found in the previous two games.  Glitches abound (and luckily I've yet to experience any of the damaging game breaking bugs that were reported), and the city you glide your way through is a recycled Gotham from Arkham City, and a less interesting city at that.

The core gameplay is effectively the same as City.  You run around from point to point seeking out criminal masterminds and beating their henchmen senseless.  The Freeflow Combat is still a lot of fun, but now you have to put in some work in order to get the most out of it.  Like in the previous two games,  you can use your gadgets in combat, laying down explosive gel, stunning people with Batarangs and concussion grenades, yanking them forward with your Batclaw, etc.  But, you can't really do everything until you finish a set of challenges from the Most Wanted section of the menu.

Origins has a slew of villains to fight.  The story starts off with  Black Mask holding an invitational to kill Batman with 50 million dollars being the reward.  Eight of the deadliest assassins alive are after Batman's head.  These include Killer Croc, Shiva, Copperhead, Death Stroke, Dead Shot, Firefly, Electrocutioner and of course, Bane.  The majority of these encounters have been pretty fun, but a couple were real letdowns, being too simplistic for memorable fights.  There's also villains featured in the Most Wanted section, such as Anarchy and Penguin that have you running around the city doing things.  Some off these fights were nothing more than beat-everyone-up-in-the-room brawls.  The only side villain that really impressed me was the Mad Hatter, because it took me into a twisted version of Alice and Wonderland.  It made me think of Scarecrow's stage from the first Batman game.

So the game's major strength is the number of villains it features and the story that weaves their relations to Batman.  But, this IS a Batman origin story and you cannot tell it without the Joker.  Without a doubt, this is my favorite Joker of the trilogy.  They did such a great a job with him and how he reacts to Batman.  I also really enjoyed the story in general, how Batman first meets Gordon and Gordon's relentless pursuit to bring Batman in for vigilantism; the way numerous villains hold the hypocrisy above Batman's head; the self-doubt that Bruce Wayne himself has in whether or not he's doing the right thing stalking the night as Batman.

It's just a major shame that Warner Bros. needed to pump this game out so quickly after Arkham City.  The rest of Origins just doesn't hold up well with the story.  It feels too similar to City, as I already mentioned, and the Riddler challenges aren't even worth doing.  Of course, I didn't bother with them in City as there simply was too many, but that also brings up something I dislike with sandbox games.  There sometime are too many fetch-its in sandbox games that you spending all this time going around the city.  I honestly believe if Warner Bros. gave Origins another year, WB Montreal could have fine-tuned the game and made everything in it much better, something that could have been on par with Rocksteady's work.

If you never got around to playing Batman Origins, I can actually recommend you to do, despite the game's faults.  If you love Batman, you'll be entertained regardless.  Again, this is my favorite Joker.  You just have to see some of these cutscenes with him and Bats.  And well, if you played the first two games, it's only natural that you play this one as well, as it ties up everything rather well to lead into Arkham Asylum.  With Rocksteady back at the helm for the next Batman game Arkham Knight, I know it will be one incredible game.  I must say, though, it's going to be hard to top Origins in the story department.