What has changed? How is the game? Here, as always, my personal in-depth review and opinion.
First let’s begin by saying that I basically liked the game. I think it’s a lot better than the second installment (Arkham City) in terms of the narrative, the presentation and - of course - the combat system, since that again got upgraded with moves, gadgets and fierce enemy types. For me the battling is one of the key parts that made this franchise special from the begin with. It is challenging, responsive, fast, tactical, it feels natural and makes a ton of fun. I have played a lot of Hack & Slay and brawling titles in my history of gaming, as well as countless action adventures, but never had I seen a game with such a masterpiece of a battle system before Batman: Arkham Asylum in 2009! Some were close, like The Matrix: Path of Neo for example, but Sefton Hill’s Freeflow Combat System set the bar to an unprecedented level. The core of the combat system is so simple that it is fast and easy to learn throughout all gamer classes and ages. Nevertheless it will still take quite a while of hardcore gaming and concentration to really master the system and get some juicy 150+ chains.
Aside to the well established and yet again improved combat system the new Batman looks graphically better than the last, in my opinion. I am not talking about resolution or frames of course, but about the general look and feel of the city - Gotham, in this part. Yes, there are lot of complaints on the net about the city being too empty, especially on a Christmas evening, but I wouldn't take that too seriously. I mean, what do some people expect? First of all: It's Christmas, so I guess naturally people could also spent their evening with their family at home. Furthermore: It's Gotham, and hardcore criminals are on the loose because of the bounty on the bat's head! I mean, did some people really expect NPCs to have some small talk with in a Batman game? "Hello Batmen. Can you help me with the groceries or are you very busy at the moment?". Actually I think you can even enjoy this city a lot more, because there are still a lot of enemies on the streets, even at the end of the game, and that was not the case in Arkham City! if I remember correctly, in Arkham City the streets just got emptier and emptier over time. No, I think the Gotham is fine the way it is. Also flying around through the different districts feels a lot more comfortable than in Arkham City.
For all out there still playing through the story and wondering what the second disc is for: Batman: Arkham Origins features a great multiplayer mode that, after just a few rounds, looks very promising and like many more hours of fun. At the moment (probably there will be a lot of DLC) you can play as a member of Joker's or Bane's gang and fight against each other until reinforcements (team respawns) are used up and the enemy gang is defeated, or other game mode specific objectives are completed. And while the gangs struggle in a 3rd-Person style shooter other players take control over heroes (Batman, Robin, Joker or Bane) and sort of do their own thing. Of course the Joker and Bane support their team. While the heroes control scheme is more or less familiar from the game, admittedly the shooter controls of the gang members feel a bit strange, but can get used to after a few rounds. I must say this multiplayer mode is basically the main thing that saved the game for me, cause without it there would be not much new stuff to it. All in all it's thought through well the only issue is that it is a bit unbalanced for beginners, since it is based on a level-up experience tree and rewards hardcore players with better weapons and equipment. Basically while you start on level 1 with a submachine gun and underpants, level X players already have camo-clothing, armor bonuses, aim support, rocket launchers and what not. If you start to play online, prepare to die constantly and big time!
Last but not least to mention in a positive light is the story; in my opinion the story, although short, is good. It could have included a deeper insight into the beginnings of the Dark Knight, but it was decent - including the one major ... twist I am not revealing at this point, of course.
Above I stated, that I basically liked the game. So naturally that implies there's also a few things I didn't like. The first and foremost thing I didn't like is an obvious QA issue with this game. I honestly don't understand why they released the game in the state it currently still is in, but probably publishing schedules again. I tell you honestly that this game made my Xbox crash and freeze to death on an hourly basis! And that didn't happen only to me but also to a whole lot of other gamers. A friend even had to start the campaign all over again after he got stuck falling into an infinite black void over and over due to a mandatory auto-save! - If that happened to me,.. oh boy, I would be raging that game to pieces. For myself, I "only" experienced about crashes and stopped counting after the 25th. They appeared mostly when initiating a fast travel, but also when passing over from on district to another on foot, when opening the map, even during battles as well as in multiplayer. In one word: Ridiculous! How could this major flaw have not been detected during testing?
The other major issue of the game, at least I want to complain about, is it's open world characteristic. Sorry, but I just don't like it. It's the same like in Arkham City; too much redundant and boring riddles and mostly uninspired side quests from the "other" villains. But above that, what I absolutely hated and what made me furiously skip the credits roll, is that the game didn't tell me when I entered the last location. You know, like: "This is the last location. Here you will face the last boss and you can't get back out and do side quests until you beat the boss!". I am sorry, but I am one of the of gamers, that like to complete everything to a 100% and then, JUST THEN, go to the boss and beat the game! This "Congratulations, you beat the boss but you can still run around without a goal afterwards"-attitude, mostly common in open world games, just annoys me deeply!
Finally I would like to conclude this review by getting back to the one question that I stated at the beginning: What has changed? - Well, and that really hurts to say: Not much. Besides the new multiplayer feature, combat upgrades, more tedious boss encounters and the ingenious rename from "Riddles" to "Extortion Files", there is not much traceable effort from the side of Warner Bros. Games Montreal. Like I said in my first impression, the game (story mode) is basically the same like Batman: Arkham City. Again, without the multiplayer feature, I think there went an almost negligible amount of additional code into the game's engine, from the time that Rocksteady Studios handed it over. We pretty much only got new models, animations, locations, names and pictures. Not to say that this alone wasn't a lot of work, but does it really justify this game to most likely once again cash-in a ton of awards, titles and above average ratings? I don't know... Sometimes I hate it when franchises always want to reinvent the already best solution with every part (like Final Fantasy), yet sometimes it feels absolutely wrong if they just do the minimum and get even more money than the last time. I guess we're back at what I think to be the main problem of the videogame industry after all - franchises.
As good as I still also find this game to be for the most part and as much as I still might continue to enjoy the multiplayer mode, for me the Batman: Arkham +"STRING" train has departed. If the next game will again be the same but with other pictures, I am pretty sure I will not buy it anymore.
Play more! Chain more!
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