Batman: Arkham Origins maybe the best Batman game I ever played. (Why'd it do so poorly?)

[DudeistBelieve]

So I remember when this game first came out, I remember people complaining about glitches and the like... People complained about how the rest of gotham felt tacked on... Well I only bought it last week and I've slowly been making my way through it (so it's been patch).

Can I say, and I've never had this happen before, that story wise this is EXACTLY how I'd write Batman if given the pen? Masked Vigilante, World Of Corruption, I love it. I love that at first when he doesn't know what the hell is going on he goes right to work shaking down Penguin for information. I love how when Bane gets away (I just reached this point, NO SPOILERS? PLEASE?) he blames it on alfred. They said it's a younger, less experienced Batman and he is, and I love it. So far I love how it adds to the two other Arkham games, I can fully grasp now what *MUST* of been running through Batman's head in Arkham Ayslum when he almost through that Batarang knocking Joker off his perch.

So I need to ask, now that it's been patched, what is so bad about this game? I know some complained the boss fights where all the same, just chuck a lot of enemies at you, but this is the first time I felt any Arkham game really switched it up. I'm a huge Teen Titans fan from the cartoon and I dug the hell out of the fight with Slade! Yahtzee I recalled mentioned the lack of a tutorial, but having played the previous two I actually found myself rather liberated that the game just gave me a bunch of tools at the start and trusted I know what the hell to do.

And the city itself, I think it's way better than Arkham City alone just based on the fact there isn't this prison/No Mans Land vibe to it. As it stands now, I can just boot up the game and pretend I'm Batman: Year One just knocking bad guys around.

So someone, justify to me how this game didn't live up to previous two? The only real knock I can think of is that it didn't do enough different, but when you got something good how much different do you want? At this point that only thing I really want would be able to drive the Batmobile and have a full living breathing gotham with Civilians AND bad guys ala Spiderman 2.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

Well glitches, scale, and canon conflicts aside...

It is pretty much a kick ass batman game. It catches the spectacle of Batman, where city and Asylum leave you alone with no mention of the outside world. Batman adventures rarely go unnoticed. Especially with the people he fights being overly theatrical.

And its not Slade, its Death Stroke. You can call him by his real name. That's like calling Superman Clark Kent when he is in his Superman costume. They called him slade because CN didn't want to mention death. At all. With an hired assassin who violently kills anyone by chopping them up into tiny bits for money.

Its like talking about a police officer and not talking about the hookers, drug dealers, murderers, and rapists he has to arrest. Without a real purpose, he is just there.... silently watching.... making sure you are a good little boy...

Just like Deathstroke from the Teen Titans. An old man hanging around a bunch of under aged teens for little reason. Because why not? Not like it can be taken the wrong way or anything. /sarcasm

Look... You tell me his real name is Deathstroke The Terminator? That's silly. Oh! Wow! Watch out for DEATHSTROKE! It sounds like an Xbox Live user name.

But Slade? Slade Wilson? That sends chills up my spine like finding out the BTK killed was named "Ed Gene", It's creepy because it's normal.

 

[Strelok]

But Slade? Slade Wilson? That sends chills up my spine like finding out the BTK killed was named "Ed Gene", It's creepy because it's normal.

BTK is Dennis Rader this guy:

Spoiler

Ed Gein was the guy they modeled some parts of Leatherface (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) and Norman Bates (Psycho) after, for the movies, this guy:

Spoiler

Best known for making and using human bone and skin furniture, as well as keeping his dead mother stuffed and mounted in his barn. He died in 1984 in a mental institution.

But I get your point.

On topic, I am with you, Origins is one of my favorites, and I was really surprised. I waited till it was on sale, cause I was not sure how good it would be with out Rocksteady. Well I am glad I bought it, they really did a good job. I too bought it after all the patching, sorry early buyers. Troy Baker (The Joker) did an amazing job, my favorite scene, which very nearly had me actually rolling on the floor laughing was:

Spoiler

The Joker after just being saved by Batman fall through the roof of the hotel, the police storm the building.

Cop: Get down on the floor freak!!!
Joker (to Batman): I think he's talking to you.

With that voice, it was just amazing, loved it.

 

[T_ConX]

So I need to ask, now that it's been patched...

I tried finishing the game two weeks ago (PC), but couldn't because of some stupid glitch.

Spoiler: Batman:AO Ending

I get to the part in the chapel where Batman pummels Joker. During one of the final QTE sequences, I'm prompted to punch Joker over and over again, but Batman just hangs after two punches. Since I stop right there, Joker takes the chance to attack, and I can counter. After countering, I start the QTE over, and get the same bug.

Whats worse was that my game was essentially stuck here. I would have liked to head out into Gotham and hit up some side quests (never touched the Shiva missions), but the game locks me in the area until I finish the scene.

It also kind of pisses me off that they're promoting/releasing all this DLC when the base game is still broken.

I also share Yahtzee's annoyance with the villain swapping. I remember how AC was promoting Strange as the big bad in trailers, but the game became more focused on Joker as it went on. NO! Bad Joker! Asylum was your game! Let one of the other villains have fun for once! The trailers for AO were all about Black Mask and his eight non-Joker assassassassins...

Spoiler

... but then we find out it was Joker all along, as though the game was making fun of AC shifting it's focus onto him. The assassins either get shafted into minor boss territory (Copperhead, Deathstroke, Killer Croc), show up for one single sequence (Firefly), are assigned to side quests (Deadshot, Shiva), are a complete joke (Electrocutioner) or got promoted to secondary villain because of the movie (Bane).

Also, I thought the design of the city was a little weak. I always hated flying from one side of that bridge to the other...

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Here's the problem I had with the game:

It starts out great. It felt great to play a Batman game again, and the fact that it was familiar was good. And then I noticed something: The trigger buttons had been switched. L2 and R2 were now the buttons to use things, not R1 and L1. This was a bit difficult to get used to, and even at the end of the game I was still mixing them up. An option to change it would have been nice, but I just brushed it aside and kept playing. It was just a small thing, after all.

But then more and more small things started adding up. I heard that there was a slight timing difference in the combat. A delay from when you press a button to Batman doing the move. I didn't believe it, but as the groups of enemies got bigger and bigger, I began to notice it more and more to the point where I was getting angry because I knew I had hit the counter button or the attack button on time.

Then missions started glitching. They wouldn't show up on the map, so I had no idea where to go. Not the main storyline, but the side quests.

Then, I got to fight Bane for the first time. That was were the timing delay really came to light, and after that I just wanted to be done with the game, so I powered through it, wearing myself out. It was no longer fun, but just seemed to go on and on. "Just finish it, then you can clean up the stuff you missed. Don't worry about anything else," I kept telling myself. Then I hit a glitch in Joker's Fun House where the Batarang would not activate a switch so I could cross some electric water. I thought I was doing something wrong and was stuck there for fifteen minutes.

And when I finally beat the game, I went back to clean up new missions and a few Riddler informants. And I kid you not, I could not interrogate anyone. Not informants, not the criminals after I caught them, no one. That was the final straw. I turned the game off and went, "DONE!"

So that's my problem with the game, and why I don't think it's the best. There were too many little things, too many small annoyances, too many glitches, that just kept piling up until the game became a chore instead of entertainment.

 

[F'Angus]

Origins had a far better story for me than City. It was fantastic and kept me interested. The Deathstroke battle was brilliant as well.
All that let it down for me was the combat. The timing is a little off between pressing the button and Batman moving. Hard to make real combos. I didn't bother using the remote grapple o enemies either because it would've made the game far to easy.

Overall a very good Batman game, I wish perhaps there were some Easter Eggs though, it felt a little empty. And the multiplayer was fine, but could hardly ever find a game, 40 minute wait. But as I said story was brilliant.

 

[AndrewC]

Pros: Easily the best story, the boss battles - Deathstroke/Bane battles - were far above anything in the other Arkham games and the soundtrack and voice acting were both also excellent.

Cons: Game was an absolute disgrace of a mess when it was released: more bugs than a red-light hooker and they also delayed the European PC/Wii-U releases TO FIX BUGS, only to fucking send every damn region the wrong activation code (PC) so no-one could play it for 48 hours.

Also, the combat for a significant part is completely broken in this game. Broken hit system, enemies that can slide 20 feet across the ground with broken animations delivering you a hit you can't counter.

Now I am excellent at the combat in the Arkham games but even I could call complete b/s on a lot of stuff in Origins and I'm far from the only one. However I will say stuff like the martial artists you encounter were a lot of fun to fight because it mixed up the fights in a really fun way.

Also, MP? Absolutely no need. This series is SP and it should've been left that way.

 

[sXeth]

A lot of complaints revolved around the city feeling more emptied out, despite supposedly being a functioning Gotham i nthe storyline. Whereas ArkCity had more free floating people despite being a walled prison district.

The combat was definately different, and harder to get down properly. Some have cited glitchiness for this, some have said they just made the timing much more precise.

Spoiler

The midway point when they almost drop the whole assassin plot, put Black Mask on a bus, and go right back to the overused Joker & Bane was also a bit of a letdown for me. They set up with a cast of new characters that seem fairly interesting, but most get done with almost a cameo-style one-off battle. There's been two games of Joker now, and while Origins debatedly gave us the best rendition of Bane's story in non-comic media, it felt like a cheap cash in on DKR.

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

have the fighting glitches still not been patched out?

I'm thinking of getting this when the GotY is at a good price. Is it true abut the story, that Bats basically meets his cast of villians for the first time in this game. sounds like an immersion breaker

 

[Talvrae]

have the fighting glitches still not been patched out?

I'm thinking of getting this when the GotY is at a good price. Is it true abut the story, that Bats basically meets his cast of villians for the first time in this game. sounds like an immersion breaker

Not totally, meet a few of them for the first time yes but not all of them. See spoiler tag if you want a list

Spoiler

Joker
Mad Hatter
Firefly
Bane
Riddler
Deadshot
There is a few others but they arent Batman villian like Deathstroke or Shiva.
There is no poison Ivy, no Catwoman, no Mr Freeze.
The Penguing is there but it's clear it's not the first time they cross path same for Death mask

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

have the fighting glitches still not been patched out?

I'm thinking of getting this when the GotY is at a good price. Is it true abut the story, that Bats basically meets his cast of villians for the first time in this game. sounds like an immersion breaker

Not totally, meet a few of them for the first time yes but not all of them. See spoiler tag if you want a list

Spoiler

Joker
Mad Hatter
Firefly
Bane
Riddler
Deadshot
There is a few others but they arent Batman villian like Deathstroke or Shiva.
There is no poison Ivy, no Catwoman, no Mr Freeze.
The Penguing is there but it's clear it's not the first time they cross path same for Death mask

hmmm, still a lot of big names... I'm still going to buy it eventually, obviously

 

[MiracleOfSound]

I thought it was an enjoyable game. The cutscenes were some of the best in the series and anything with Joker in it was brilliant.

However I felt the combat was inferior due to the previously mentioned seemingly random counter system that only worked when it felt like it and the clunky, wet, wimpy feel of the combat in general.

The environments also felt empty, ugly and bare compared to the previous games.

There was also the issue of diminishing returns. When you change pretty much nothing, there's not much to make the player feel like they're playing something new & fresh.

Still, it was a good romp.

 

[hermes]

The story was interesting until it devolved into a typical "Joker masterminded it" crap of all the previous games (I won't even bother with "spoiler" tags: The Joker is in the box art, its one of two villains selectable in multiplayer and there were tons of news about him, including his new voice actor and even an official trailer). It took some interesting turns near the end, but it felt like too little, too late.

The city was empty... during Christmas eve. At least in Arkham City there was a reason for it (a not very good one, but still) in this one there is nothing. No people moving from their relatives homes, no cars moving on the streets, no business open, no civilians roaming the streets, no faces looking through windows, nothing. Gotham could have been a ghost town for all it matters. They didn't even bother with the cases and the political prisoners, since most times they were goons attacking policemen, policemen attacking goons or goons fighting each other. I think the only people that were not part of one of the enemy factions I saw in Gotham were kidnapped or dead.

The combat was off. As others have said, it was a lot less responsive than in previous games. The counters not always registered and the enemy could "teleport" and hit me from a distance. Also, the pacing of the encounters is off. On normal, the game threw me against snipers, armored and shielded guys in the first hour, when the previous game build up to it. Luckily for me, I was still fresh in the previous Arkham game, but I can imagine it being even more frustrating for someone new. Early on, I died pretty often against some randomly created emergency calls because I was not equipped or upgraded to take them.

Finally, making it a prequel, just so they can have the Joker, is a terrible idea. Canon-wise, there is no reason for Batman to have more and better toys than in later games. They leave most of the most interesting characters out of the picture. When one of the most interesting battles is against Firefly, you know you have scraped the bottom of the barrel...

And, of course, there are the glitches, that simply prevented me from completing sidequests because it failed to register some objectives.

 

[Something Amyss]

Soem people reported they couldn't even finish the game pre-patch. Is it any wonder why it didn't sell?

If a game is a broken piece of shit at launch it deserves to be treated as such.

 

[The Salty Vulcan]

I'm currently playing it now. As much as I thoroughly enjoyed the two previous games, this one left a bad taste in my mouth, for a few reasons.

The Arsenal.

It was great to start out with as many gadgets as you do. They were familiar ones that we had used before, but at least we knew the best way to make use of them. Smoke pellets for misdirection, exploding gel for ambushes and hidden areas, remote batarang for scouting and environment puzzles etc. Simple stuff.

Then we got the Remote Claw! And its awesome! You've no idea how many times I connected an armoured thugs face to a propane tank. Plus it could be used like the Line Launcher, which makes sense. What if the Line Launcher was reversed engineered from the Remote Claw. It was something I could get behind and it was a welcome addition to the utility belt.

We also got the Concussion Detonator. I personally felt it could've been beefed up a bit, but its certainly possible to make due with what you get. Then we got the Disruptor.

It's the same device that was introduced in the last game, just made to look like the R.E.C. Hell, the Shock Gloves themselves were just another version of the R.E.C. By the time the Glue Grenades were introduced I was sorely disappointed to see that they basically operated the same way the Freeze Grenades did, down to the ability to create rafts.

It was just disappointing. If I wanted to use these gadgets I would've just put Arkham City in and played that. An opportunity to introduce some "experimental" gadgets and devices that Batman could've been fooling with while he was still finding his feet was wasted. Considering the plot for the game itself had elements of Batman:Year One, it would've been cool to have the Bat Beacon in your arsenal and use it to rush enemies during the Predator Stages.

Overall the gadgets were kind of a let down and just created a disconnected between the gameplay and the story.

The Plot

Right off the bat, the plot was what first drew me in. I mean, the idea that 8 of the worlds most deadliest assassins are all summoned to Gotham just for a chance to take down the Batman? That's brilliant! And the idea that it The Black Mask thats behind it all? Another genius move. Both of these elements lead credence to the idea that it's Batman's presence that attracted these people.

Allow me to explain; In Long Halloween theres moments in the story where Carmine Falcone is actively seeking the help of both The Riddler and Poison Ivy to help him in his endeavours. By fighting against the mob as effectively as he has, Batman has effectively forced the mob's hand and in retaliation they get freaks of their own; who turn on their masters.

In Origins, having The Black Mask (a crime boss with hopes of becoming a Supervillain) being the one to bring in individuals like Bane and Deadshot into Gotham, cements the idea of escalation even further and actually lays out the ground work for the plot of Arkham City. How can Gotham possibly combat all these freaks? Simple; put 'em in the same hole and pray to God they kill each other off.

The idea of also having Batman not only be at odds with the GCPD, but with Alfred as well is, again, another stroke of genius. This is a young Batman. One filled with pride and bravado. He's seen the corruption within Gotham and is leery to trust it no matter how useful having an ally like Gordon could be. His pride also clouds him from hearing the sound advice from his most loyal and dearest friend and father-figure.

But then we get to the twist and it basically becomes the last two games all over again. Joker is the Mastermind, truly his insanity knows no bounds. Its not even that I dislike the Joker, far from it, but considering the last bat-and-switch we got with Strange, it just feels repetitive. In The Joker's defence though, the investigation at the Lacey Towers was a masterfully done introduction to the character and had the plot kept Black Mask as the major antagonist with the Joker mucking up his plans, it would've made for an interesting story.

The Assassins A.K.A Boss Fights

I think we all know that the major drawing card to this game was always the Assassins. The idea of fighting a potentially colourful cast of enemies in really unique ways is always a cool idea. And for the most part I actually didn't have a problem with the line-up. Firefly and Copperhead were certainly weird inclusions, but I actually thoroughly enjoyed their encounters. What I did have a problem with though were how the Assassins were used.

To use my own personal experience; the most anticipated fight to me was Deathstroke. Being a long time fan of DC comics, I knew the potential challenge involved in facing off with him and after watching the trailer I was really excited. With all this in mind, I was beyond confused to see we would be facing off against him so soon in the game, but considering the Electrocutioner escaped after his "fight" I thought that Deathstroke would also disappear and that he would be the most persistent of the Assassins. Considering how much hype there was for the character you'd forgive me for thinking that.

No. You go to the most wanted page and you see "Captured" in big red letters over his picture. What. a. letdown.

The fact the some Assassins didn't even get a level of their own in the plot and were just sidequests was also a bummer. I had actually finished the story of the game without ever so much as hearing a peep about Shiva. I was, again, disappointed. While I could understand some of the Assassins being taken out so easily (Firefly, Copperhead) it just felt like another opportunity had been wasted. Did no one else want to see two of the Assassins teaming up to stop Batman? Like Copperhead and Bane? or Deathstroke and Shiva? Or even Deathstoke and Deadshot like in the trailer?


With all that said, I don't hate the game. I just felt like it couldve been better. There were things I did like' the crime scene analysis modes were fun and some of the sidequests were really enjoyable (even if they were ripoffs of the Zasz and Bane Cannister sidequests from the last game) and its just rewarding to hear about a crime-in-progress and stopping it like the real Dark Knight.

Overall its just an average game that couldve been a lot better.

P.S. Do excuse me if it seems like I'm rambling. Its like 3AM and I'm just beyond tired after a day like today.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I've played Asylum and City, never played Origins because frankly I'm scared of all these stories about glitches and bugs, which apparently remain unfixed. I'm also disappointed about...

Spoiler

... how Black Mask isn't even in the game, the eight assassins apparently aren't very interesting and the Joker has to steal the spotlight one more time.

This doesn't make the game bad, just disappointing. I've heard it's just a bigger and longer Arkham City.

 

[thewatergamer]

I thought it was amazing, it would be easily my favorite entry in the series,

EXCEPT It was practically unplayable at launch and to this day is still plagued by bugs, especially the Multiplayer portion, which is actually pretty innovative and cool, if it actually worked properly without my connection getting dropped...

*cough* never buying anything from splash damage *cough*

 

[stroopwafel]

Arkham Origins was great when condensed to just the story missions. The gameplay is obviously Rocksteady's template and you can see the new developers had a lot of catching up to do, but it ended up pretty good if not as flawless as Asylum or City. My biggest gripe with the game is that its spread way too thin. That whole 'curfew' plot device didn't prevent Gotham from feeling lifeless and empty(though looking quite nice in a blanket of snow). The side missions didn't have any real variety or authenticity to them like in the previous games and mostly felt like busywork to pad the game out even more.

In the end Origins plays like a poor man's version of Asylum or City, but one obviously written with love for the lore and characters. Espescially also with the fantastic role of the Joker in his early years and all the lesser known villians of Batman's rogues gallery that make an appearence. For me atleast that made this game a joy to play through and more than compensated for the little hiccups in gameplay compared to the previous games.

Btw the only glitch I encountered was a framerate problem when using fast-travel. But they patched that pretty early on.