This was originally posted on the now-defunct Random Fury! videogame blog.
Caution, there are spoilers ahead.
It’s rare for me to devote time to a videogame near it’s actual release date. Halo is about the only game I play as soon as it appears in my hands – most other videogames are added to a pile of shame (either physical or digital), marked as “pending” and forgotten about for around twelve to twenty-four months. I would say that the only exceptions are games that Jane and I are looking forward to playing together, and the Arkham series of Batman games. Which explains why my thoughts on the latest Batman game, Arkham Origins, is reasonably timely.
I get around to these games quickly because I enjoy them. Batman is as over-powered as ever – as long as you stick to the shadows and make full use of your inventory, that is. And he still packs one hell of a punch – those slow-motion final hits in combat scenarios are one of the defining moments of the series for me. Combat is an area in which this series excels, and it feels a lot tighter than the second game – countering and utilising quickfire gadgets in particular. Another of my favourite bits which no other game seems to do is the little crime scene investigations – Which is really quite ironic as I can’t stand those TV series where they investigate crime scenes. Those programs remind me of the photo enhancement sketch from Red Dwarf. Anyway, I digress. Solving these mysteries is massively improved in this third game simply by making them more believable and interesting. And you can even rewind and fast forward the timeline in the crime reconstruction to find evidence that flies off, for example. A lot of people have mentioned that this game was buggy, but to be honest I only ever encountered one potential “hit that reset button” bug – somehow landing behind a chemical vat and being stuck, but it was quickly solved by the trusty “waggle the sticks and hit the buttons until you are free” technique.
In the previous game I had pretty much levelled up my core skills before starting the main storyline by clearing out the entire map of thugs and goons. I couldn’t do that in this game as clearing the map is impossible – the goons just keep respawning, especially those larger groups which made up the “Crimes In Progress”. These semi-random set-pieces were a genius addition, and could feature anything from a small group of hoods robbing an ATM, to full on street warfare between the SWAT and the various gangs that are trying to claim Gotham for their own. The other reason my usual strategy was not possible was that I was not entirely sure what the main storyline was early on. The ever-respawning enemies is not a bad thing in my eyes, I welcomed it, but for half the game I felt like I was playing side-quests, and that the main storyline proper would begin soon. Then I realised that it must be the main storyline, so stopped following it altogether and cracked on with some side-quests.
I enjoyed having to solve the radio towers riddle to enable fast-travelling to that region. I almost solved one of them too early (before I had the glue grenade to create a glue raft) by diving, doing a 180 spin while diving, then gliding over water to land below and behind where I initially leaped from, but the door was locked, so I assumed that was the exit, rather than the entrance and left. The door magically unlocked itself later in the game, I found. Collecting the Riddler’s (or Enigma’s, rather) data-packs was fun, and very straightforward compared to previous games – which probably explains why I bothered to catch ’em all.
A short stint as the Red Hood, and then The Joker himself was unexpected – but it did it’s job and kept my attention locked towards the game while Joker was describing his epiphany. As important as it was in detailing the genesis of Batman and Joker’s unique relationship (as well as Joker and Harley’s relationship), if that whole speech was conveyed in a cut-scene… I would’ve skipped it or browsed elsewhere for a little while if I didn’t have to walk The Joker round and punch some dudes, I’m not going to lie to you.
There are a few other annoyances as well, sadly. Annoying in that you have to do the challenges in order – there’s one in the “Worst Nightmare” track that, upon researching, I discovered can only really be done in one point early on in the game and can not be done at all in the Challenge mode. I stupidly assumed you could do it in Challenge mode. Miss it, and you either have to start the game again or do it in New Game+, which is obviously a trickier mode, and multiplies the annoyingness of missing it in the first place tenfold. The boss encounters are a mixed bag. Some are terrible – The Bane fights in particular are dull, and only get duller as Bane gets more and more hooked on drugs, but Batman’s confrontation with Deathstroke is incredible – It’s up there with Dante versus Vergil. The Copperhead fight is quite fun too, and I loved how the developers handled The Electrocutioner.
Also, the Achievements in this thing are horrible, I’ll maybe only get to about 500. Seeing as there are no achievements linked to getting a fraction of the medals in the Challenge modes, I’ll just go ahead and mark them with a red flag – I don’t have the patience or requisite skills to get through them 100%. I was also quite disappointed that the Achievements weren’t very imaginative. Early on in the game, when you are infiltrating the GCPD, you are hanging over a large group of around 20 SWAT Police, the majority of whom are toting machine guns. You were clearly meant to waddle on past them, but I decided to see if it was possible, that early in the game, to take them on. With cunning use of a smoke pellet and the Concussion Detonator, I came out on top (admittedly, after a few tries), but sadly there was no reward for it except the completed deed itself. It was a fun little challenge that I would’ve liked to have seen recognised. My overall Achievement score for this game also depends on whether or not I decide to try the multiplayer. I’ve watched a few videos, and it all looks fairly innocuous, so I may give it a shot.
What’s the worst that could happen?
