Batman

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.