Batman Arkham Origins Review

The Batman Arkham franchise has attracted a mass following over the last four years thanks to its engaging, reaction-based combat system, impeccable writing, and palpable, grungy atmosphere. But in handing the series over from creator Rocksteady to newcomer WB Game Montreal for this third entry, Warner Bros. has effectively robbed the title of the latter two boons, leaving only the combat system that Rocksteady pioneered to support the weight of this bloated game.

I want to say first off that Arkham Origins is not a bad game. The combat is still fun even three entries in, and the addition of a grappling hook succeeds at adding even more options to a system that many would say was already verging on excess. If you're one who enjoys choosing your own approach to an encounter, you'll eat up all the options that Arkham Origins has to offer and come back to the expertly-paced Challenge Rooms for more.

The combat is just as you remember it

Having said that, the rest of the Arkham arsenal has been significantly dulled for this origin tale. The change in development teams is immediately apparent the minute Batman opens his mouth. The script is pure amateur hour, and reads like a fanfiction that a sixth-grader would throw together after school. Batman's dialogue falls into two categories - expositional and informational. "The only way to advance is to grapple up and through this gate," the vigilante growls as he approaches a grapple point. "These goons work for the Black Mask," he says at another. "I can interrogate them to find the Black Mask." 

Aside from reading stiffly, the dialogue leaves no room for interpretation. The instant you come upon a spot where Batman can use one of his gadgets, the voice of Roger Craig Smith as Batman chimes in with a wooden, "gamey" suggestion. These comments ensure that you practically never have to think while playing the game. Worse, they rip you straight out of the grim atmosphere that the previous games worked so hard to preserve; nobody would go around narrating all of their own actions like that. It's ridiculous.

Speaking of Batman's voice, it's worth noting yet again that Batman and The Joker are both voiced by newcomers. And as massively talented as both Roger Craig Smith and Troy Baker are, neither feel quite at home in their new shoes. Craig Smith sounds nasally as Batman (appropriate, I suppose, given the game's Christmas Eve setting), and Baker doesn't quite nail the manic highs of Hamill's Joker. They give it their best shot, but with a weak script to work with, they're kind of left hanging.

Origins is easily one of the prettiest current-gen games

With the atmosphere compromised, this Arkham game loses out on quite a bit of its character. Still, a few mechanical tweaks do make this a superior experience from a mechanical perspective. The aforementioned grappling cable is a nice, if ultimately unneccesary, accessory, and a fast travel system makes getting around Gotham much more pleasurable than in Arkham City. No more skirting that heavily-armed prison base in the middle of the city, either, which improves the flow of the world, which itself is much larger this time out.

A multiplayer mode has also been added to the mix, although you'd be forgiven for forgetting. The mode is conceptually unique in that it pits two teams of thugs against one another as they race to kill two other players who control Batman and Robin. It's perhaps most reminiscent of Splinter Cell's 'Spies vs Mercs' mode, and playing as the Caped Crusader and Boy Wonder yields similar sneaky thrills. Where it falls apart a bit is in its implementation of third-person shooting mechanics for the thugs; Arkham has never been about shooting, and while the controls are competent enough, you've likely played a dozen or more shooters just like it.

Arkham Origins may be mechanically superior to its predecessors, but its marginal improvements in gameplay can't hold a candle to the massive downgrade in world-building and storytelling. With dialogue that sounds like it was written by a child and voice actors who never quite feel comfortable in their roles, Arkham Origins struggles where Batman stories typically excel the most - in creating a desperate and engrossing atmosphere.

 

Score: 8/10

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 3


Comments (0)

New comments are currently disabled.


Subscribe to me on YouTubeFollow us on Twitter!
Join our Steam group!