We deserve better than ‘Batman: Arkham Origins’
By CHRIS CAMPBELL | Scripps Howard News Service
“Batman: Arkham Origins”
Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Genre: Action
Publisher: Warner Bros. Games
ESRB Rating: T, for Teen
Grade: 3 stars (out of 5)
Nothing destroys a franchise’s run of success like predictability. In the last few years, we’ve seen first-person military shooters pump out the same kind of content, just with bigger explosions and faux-Hollywood drama. We’ve seen countless sports franchises make tiny tweaks in hopes of luring buyers back. But when something like the Batman franchise succumbs to repetition, that’s when I really fear for the current state of gaming.
After two massively successful Batman games bearing the “Arkham” name, the very title “Origins” indicates a look at how we came to know Batman’s relationship with Arkham Prison and its inhabitants of dastardly criminals. Commercials sold us on the idea of seeing Bruce Wayne slowly garner the skills necessary to battle these supervillains and mete out justice by fist or boot. Instead of gripping us with a hero struggling with a dual identity of vigilante and boyish billionaire, we get a retread of old tropes and familiar trappings.
Sure, Batman comes off a little less refined. The Batcave is still under construction, and you learn how Batman came to be archenemies of the Penguin, Joker, Riddler and others. But if traveling around the city via grappling hook, beating up random thugs, investigating/thwarting crimes, solving Riddler puzzles and earning upgrades to make you a nearly unstoppable force all sounds too much like the first two games — well, you’re right.
I like open-world games, and “Arkham Origins” shows off the most expansive city environment yet. Unfortunately, nothing new of note populates the city. The upgrades to your armor, tech and combat skills feel almost identical to those in previous entries. The fights follow the same formula as well, relying on the free-flowing system where you string together punches, kicks, elbows, knees, counterattacks and whatever else to level goons. Punching a criminal in the face as Batman never feels boring, by any means, because it’s Batman, and he is awesome — but you never feel like a “Dark Knight in Training” as the game’s title would infer.
You swoop in and around Gotham tackling adversaries like Bane, Copperhead and Deathstroke. Fighting any of them devolves quickly into a pattern-recognition exercise, as you just wait for timely counterattacks or button-mashing to pummel foes to a pulp. Once you complete the campaign, an interesting online multiplayer mode awaits. Three teams have it out across a number of maps, with two teams of thugs battling each other while a third team, comprised of Batman and Robin, attempts to disrupt the proceedings.
The idea is fantastic, but the execution comes off haphazardly, since the Dynamic Duo have limited abilities and die too easily, making them less attractive an option to play. There are worse multiplayer modes out there, however, and maybe some patches from Warner Bros. Games will make the matches more engaging.
“Arkham Origins” has little that is new or exciting. Batman is the hero we will always need, but this is not the game we deserve.
