This move defined trial by fire. After developing two of the
best games in the past decade, both winning numerous awards and receiving
critical acclaim throughout the industry, Rocksteady were to pass the Arkham
helm down to a much smaller, less proven developer named Warner Brothers
Montreal. This relatively unknown developer didn’t just have boots to fill. It
had a cowl, a cape and a Batsuit to fill. How did they fare? I would have to
say they did pretty well in a lot of aspects, but not so well in others.
The story surrounds Roman Sionis a.k.a Black Mask and his
attempt to get rid of the Batman by offering a $50,000,000 pay-out to any one
of the eight assassins that he’s brought into Gotham on Christmas eve of all
nights. It’s a simple yet effective premise that offers enough substance to
stand on its own whilst also bringing some genuinely unforeseen (at least in my
case) plot twists and revelations that went a long way to illustrate the
mind-set of certain characters, as well as giving them a more thorough
background in the Arkhamverse. One dynamic that I found to be particularly well
done was the Batman and Joker relationship. This was a dynamic that I feel made
the story far better than it may have been without it. As a result, I have
almost forgiven the game for what was a disappointingly abrupt ending, leaving
me feeling as if I hadn’t quite been given everything that I should have from
the game, with one character being left out of the main story completely,
despite being at the forefront of the game’s marketing campaign. The same goes
for another character who was swept aside quite quickly after his encounter
with Batman, only to reappear once more at the end of the game for a more than
slightly interesting end credits scene. However, that scene and the
Batman/Joker dynamic still didn’t completely wash away the slightly bitter
taste I was left with as the credits came rolling, but the story on the whole
was interesting, and I can’t fault the strokes of genius that screamed
Rocksteady.
The gameplay is essentially a carbon copy of Arkham City
with a couple of new features and slight improvements. The new features include:
The Remote Claw which
really adds very little in the grand scheme of things, aside from its
obligatory uses in missions and map traversal, as well as it’s combat
capability incorporating environmental objects into its functionality such as
knocking out thugs by Remote Clawing them to gargoyles or propane tanks (they
must have mighty shoulders to be able to burst them open)
Shock Gloves which act as a significant damage multiplier
when activated after being charged through successful strikes. These can help a
lot in some situations but in others I felt as if it cheapened the combat,
making all unique enemy abilities and weapons redundant when struck with the
Shock Gloves
Virtual Crime scenes that are literally unlosable
Fast Travel which does exactly what it says on the tin, and
a welcome addition considering the map size
All in all, I felt as if the only one of the new features
that served any genuinely useful purpose was fast travelling. The Remote Claw
was cool, but not essential, the Shock Gloves were a bit cheap for me and
unnecessary, and the VCS’s were again just there more for the fact that WB
Montreal could say “Look everyone, new things!” rather than genuinely
innovating or improving the game. I’d say, all in all, this falls into the ‘If
it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ category because, whilst not being revolutionary,
it doesn’t really have to be, because the system is already a very good one.
Multiplayer gameplay, however, is a completely different kettle of fish. Batman
and Robin play much the same as they did previously, albeit with a more
balanced combat capability to give the villains a chance, whereas the bad guys
have a totally new scheme of controls involving another new aspect in the form
of gunplay. Surprisingly enough, the controls are actually passable. A little
clunky here and there, but that is more down to the fairly dodgy net code which
causes an irritating but not game breaking level of lag. It’s a fairly simple
layout with a Gears of War style sprint charge, left trigger ADS, right trigger
shooting and button melee so there’s nothing particularly mind blowing or
stupid in the controls. The multiplayer consists of one gamemode, Invisible
Predator Online, that is built around the premise of 3 Joker thugs vs 3 Bane
thugs vs Batman and Robin. The heroes have to build up their ‘Intimidation
Meter’ by knocking out thugs, whilst the villains have to kill their opposite
team (eventually bringing the other teams ticket count to zero) and the heroes
whilst capturing various conquest style checkpoints that give them a ticket advantage.
The villains are also given the option to take control of either the Joker or
Bane (depending on the team) after reaching a certain number of points. Both of
these leaders have significantly increased health and damage with unique
weapons and abilities that can aid in their team in a big way, and even turn
the tide of the match. All in all though, I would have to say that although IPO
does have an interesting premise and does show some promise in the less laggy
matches, it still lacks that killer element to make it especially interesting,
and it also lacks some of the basic elements of a good multiplayer section such
as good netcode and balanced gameplay, as it can often feel as though Batman
and Robin are in fact less powerful than the villains (not a good thing).
The game’s overall presentation is still as good as before,
with slightly more texture dropouts than usual due to the even larger map size
than its predecessor, but not enough to cause any huge break from the game’s generally
fantastic aesthetic. However, that doesn’t excuse the shameless lack of
texturing in some of the game’s buildings, with a fair number of accessible
exterior points being left with a flat, near textureless model that acts more
as a filler to be viewed from afar, rather than something to be seen close up.
This, in my eyes, definitely did take away from the game’s level of immersion,
as I was left on a few occasions to simply sit and be greeted by a grotesque mass
of lazy game development in the form of these buildings.
Above all else though, there is one thing that damn near
killed Arkham Origins for me, and it is one thing that is simply not acceptable
for a game of this pedigree. THE GAME CONSTANTLY CRASHES. I have been left on
many occasions sitting looking at a still image of a game that I had just
fallen in love with as it chose to bugger itself as soon as the main campaign
drew to a close. Worse still is the fact that these crashes are so frequent that
I genuinely struggled to do more than one objective at a time during the side
missions without being met with the undesirable sight of a mid-zipline Bat-ass as
soon as I had done it. This is a prime example of why I strongly oppose game
developers choosing to release a game that is essentially incomplete, and then
using patches to remedy faults that should have been caught during testing. Not
even GTA 5 crashes in the way that Origins does.
Verdict:
I want to give this game a really high score, I truly do. It
has so many spectacular elements in it. The story, whilst being short, was
engaging and fun, the gameplay is as smooth as ever and the ability to travel
throughout a huge chunk of Old Gotham is brilliant, but that doesn’t make up
for the fact that the game is, at times, quite simply broken, and with a
franchise like the Arkham franchise, WB Montreal should have taken more care to
guarantee its quality.
Score:
7/10 (It would have been a six had it not been for the fun I
had when it ran smoothly)
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