Read our comprehensive review of Batman: Arkham Origins, covering graphics, controls, gameplay, story, boss fights, and side-quests. Discover its strengths and weaknesses.
Arkham Origins is a game with great potential that unfortunately left the gamer wanting for more.
Introduction
In my opinion, overall the "Batman Arkham" series is one of the best video game series that have ever been released for the Play Station or the Xbox, so it goes without saying that I expected great things from this game. I'm sorry to say, I was greatly disappointed.
Graphics-8/10
"Batman Arkham: Origins" probably has the graphically best game world of all the "Arkham" games. The game takes place in Gotham City, and you really can see just what kind of city it is. The player can easily get the "crime-infested" sense from just looking at the sad, run down style that many of the buildings in Gotham have. It is sometimes said that in many cities no two buildings look alike. This is proven true about Gotham City by this game. The buildings, dark and depressing as they may be, are depicted extremely well. There is no major flaw with the graphics that I noticed, no over-blurred portions of the map, and everything appeared to be as realistic as one could expect from a Play Station 3 Game.
Controls/Gameplay-10/10
I have decided to mix these two key elements of this game together, because in Arkham Origins, these two aspects largely rely on each other to show off the apex of video game technology. The controls of "Batman Arkham Origins" are most likely one of the best aspects of the game. Or at least they would be if they weren't totally ripped off from "Batman Arkham City." Its true, if you have ever played Arkham City, then you would recognize the combat system almost immediately. Aside from switching two buttons, there is almost no difference whatsoever. That being said, the truth is if something isn't broken, why try to fix it, right? Even though the controls are so similar to Arkham City, because Arkham City had such an amazing style so did Arkham Origins. For those who have never played Arkham City, the controls are extremely easy to master. Even though Batman has a large variety of moves and attacks, they all are relatively easy to use and can deal major damage to enemies after a short amount of practice, which is provided in the combat training mode that is unlocked as soon as the story starts. The Predator controls for this game are even more impressive than either Arkham City or Arkham Asylum. There are many new ways to take down enemies even though the controls have barely changed from the previous game. As for Gameplay, there are enemies almost everywhere in the city, so it is extremely easy to find a fight in order to practice your combat or predator skills whenever you please. The enemies are relatively weak throughout the story, unless you are playing on hard, so there isn't much of a challenge. However it can be fun to simply beat the stuffing out of random criminals sometimes so...
The Story-3/10
In my opinion, Batman games should have a strong story because of the strength of the comic book that they are based off of. The story of "Batman Arkham Origins" however, makes the entire game seem like a complete waste of time, and discredits the actual name of the game at the same time. First of all, the story was completely flat and BORING. The basic idea was that there were these assassins who were hired by Black Mask to kill Batman on Christmas, and that is pretty much the backbone of the story. I believe there was one single plot twist in the entire game, and that occurred about halfway through the game. There was also a little foreshadowing to the previous two games because this is, after all, an origins story right? Well my dear readers, I'm sorry to tell you all that is WRONG. The title of this game leads one to believe that maybe we will learn how he became Batman, or maybe show him losing some fights, but NO. Batman is as strong as ever, maybe even stronger than he was in the last two games, and because of this the game totally fails as an origins story. Unless Batman just gets weaker as he gets older, and we all know how true that is right? All in all, you can pretty easily guess what's about to happen next in the story before it actually happens by using a little common sense. Also, I won't tell you how it ends, but let me just say, it leaves A LOT to be desired.
The Boss Fights-2/10
The boss fights were anticipated to be one of the most amazing parts of this game. I mean seriously, what could be more perfect than to pack a game with a bunch of fun, yet challenging bosses? Unfortunately, like many other aspects of the game, this leaves much to be desired. The actual number of possible boss fights in this game is larger than that of the previous games, however, all of the bosses are extremely similar, and it is not all that difficult to identify the one flaw in a boss that makes him easy to defeat. Most of the bosses in this game require a session of button mashing in order to defeat them, and the whole point of the fight is to simply get to the part where you have to slam on the square button, mash the button, and then repeat. The only minor difference is the bosses fighting style. The boss fights are also extremely similar to those of Arkham City; even the final boss is ripped off from a fight from Arkham City. Also, while you CAN fight all of the assassins that were hired to kill you, you don't HAVE to, and when you do fight some of the optional ones, they have almost no impact on the story at all. I suppose you may say that a score of 2 is a little harsh, but this game promised to have a lot of fun boss fights in the commercials, and this game really lets you down.
Side-Quests-4/10
It was a little bit difficult to decide whether to mark the side-quests as a good or bad feature of the game. While it did not break a 5/10, there are definitely
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