Briefly about Batman: Arkham Origins – Problems and features of the most unpopular game in the series

Batman: Arkham City was an exemplary sequel, it did more and better – it gave Batman an open world for adventure, and the player a sense of freedom, albeit illusory. The combat system has become more perfect, getting rid of response delays and the general clumsiness of the battle, Batman himself has become richer in movements and techniques, there are more characters, more puzzles, the main story has become larger, and it, moreover, has been supplemented by several subplots, making the game world richer and more diverse. Even the main character’s wardrobe has expanded. Overall, it was a great game.

What does Batman: Arkham Origins have to offer in this regard?? Well, snowy Gotham. New design for Batman and his enemies. A couple of new devices for him. Bugs.

To understand why Origins is, for many, the least successful entry in the series, you don’t have to think long. The audience is hungry for new experiences, new opportunities, something amazing and no less progressive than the previous project, and Origins, in fact, turned out to be the same game as two years ago. Even somewhat worse.

What do I remember about Origins personally?. First of all, the game introduced bugs and bosses with stuffy quick-time events into the series. Killer Croc, whom we meet in the first 10-15 minutes of the game, still falls into the textures to this day, which, although does not make the fight with him impassable, still complicates it. Firefly, which is much further in the game, creates an unbearably stuffy QTE attraction, forcing you to turn the difficulty down to at least medium, and fortunately there is such an option. The battle with Deathstroke looks cool and energetic, but you quickly realize that this is the same stupid QTE with alternating several phases and moments. And only Bane seemed to me a full-fledged opponent, although he, too, is essentially a typical boss with his own patterns. Okay, Copperhead is conceptually interesting too.

Graphically, the game is not much different from its predecessor, but it manages to freeze to this day at random moments, be it even simple movement in flight, which was not the case at all in Arkham Knight.

My biggest complaint is the stylistic and conceptual disunity of the game with the Arkham series – they simultaneously exist both together and separately. Origins itself doesn’t seem to understand whether it’s really a prequel to the previous serial parts or something else – even though they have the same name, there are other characters here with a different design and character, which can be said about the surroundings of the game as a whole. Arkham City and Arkham Origins, in fact, present two different iterations of Batman – such an original comic book and even grotesque and, in contrast, a more down-to-earth and realistic type. And this is not only Batman – this can be said about all the characters, and even about Gotham City itself.

And despite the striking differences between Origins and the main series, both visual and substantive, it’s all somehow part of the same setting. I know I’m overthinking this, but this makes me view Origins as a pale copy that was afraid to stand on its own, and at the same time wasn’t good enough to become a full-fledged part of the series. At the same time, I like the art design in Origins, the Batman here, the Bane here, and the Joker turned out to be exactly how I personally see this character – an ominous and cautious psychopath, laughing only at the moment of cutting the throat of his victim. But because of all this vagueness with the setting and style, I involuntarily perceive Origins as a deliberately second-rate game, the impression of which is only strengthened by the same bugs and not very successful gameplay solutions.

In terms of merits, besides the visual images, this is really the same game as before. Is it possible to pay special attention to the plot and direction, which justify such a radical change in artistic style, because Gotham has become a much darker place, since the threats hanging over it are much easier to believe. A group of thugs who have signed a contract to tear off Batman’s head and, as a result, reign supreme over the city. Here is a thoroughly corrupt and criminal police, here is a new unknown enemy – a desperate psychopath, who for the time being skillfully led everyone by the nose in order to arrange an apocalypse in the city according to his own scenario.

As a standalone game, Origins is certainly good, but the difficulty is in avoiding comparisons with the past and future parts of the franchise to which it ranks itself. Compared to them, the game seems somehow unnecessary, awkward and careless. For the reasons mentioned above, it’s difficult for me to return to it, and I fully completed Origins only once, with all subsequent returns leaving the game somewhere at the beginning. And at the same time, despite all the flaws hidden in it, the game cannot be denied a special charm that distinguishes it favorably among the Arkham series. Here is a formidable Batman and a frightening Joker, a gloomy earthiness of the environment and a story in the “thriller” genre, told well enough and excitingly enough to at least for the sake of it get acquainted with another part in this, already a little hateful, series.

Batman: Arkham Origins

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There is also a more niche game in this series, which can also be called the most unpopular – Batman: Arkham Origins – Blackgate

And only Bane seemed to me https://casino-instant.co.uk a full-fledged opponent, although he, too, is essentially a typical boss with his own patterns.

Bane is the same Rhino as in the first part, but with a slightly expanded moveset.

This makes me view Origins as a pale copy that was afraid to be something independent, and at the same time was not good enough to become a full-fledged part of the series.

The game didn’t even try to be something new and independent, it was a placeholder for Warners before Arkham Knight. A typical element of such a plugin that should attract the audience is multiplayer. The publisher ordered the internal studio, which had previously only been involved in porting Arkham City to Wii U (where, by the way, electric gloves appeared), to develop a new game based on someone else’s series in a short time – it is unlikely that they would have been able to do something unique. If you read the art book “Rocksteady’s Batman Universe”, the Rockies didn’t just make games, they lived Butman, and from the development of the games themselves this is visible to the naked eye, and it’s unlikely that something similar happened at Warner Bros. GamesMontreal. And let’s be honest – WBGM is not such a talented studio, remember last year’s Gotham Knights.

The game has a good external side – a young Batman with the brutal voice of Roger Craig Smith and the Joker with the good old Troy Baker, a little more down-to-earth, but no less impressive character design, the atmosphere of winter Gotham, the pathetic soundtrack of Christopher Drake, which showed itself perfectly in the film adaptation of Miller’s comic book "The Dark Knight Returns" and other DC works, excellent production in cutscenes, a fascinating story and well-developed characters with good chemistry between them, the arguments between Bruce and Alfred alone are worth it. But at the same time, we have a ton of bugs like a broken cloak and the disappearance of the target mark; ladder leveling, in which you have to throw skill points into currently unnecessary perks; the same ladder of tests where some skills were hidden, and because of the stealth bug I never completed it to the end even once, I even tried to act according to the guides; We also have the most dull puzzles of the Riddler, which were not just copied, but also simplified; an interesting new “detective vision” mechanic is introduced, working on paper, but during local investigations you don’t need to think too much, we just scan everything, which takes a lot of time; bosses that either copy the old ones (the same Holyfly is a remade Clayface), or are fat enemies in a crowd of dummies, and here you can’t really complain, because freeflow is simply not suitable for fights with one enemy,in the same Arkham Knight, Rocky practically abandoned bosses, except that they appear in double battles, as was the case with boxer King; a revision of everything and everyone, and new devices like Deathstroke’s grappling hook do not improve the gameplay, but only simplify it – you can remove three people at once at the very beginning of a stealth episode; this same mercenary in the tests is Robin with a different skin. Of course, the developers tried to brighten up the shortcomings with a large number of DC characters, unique situations like rescuing hostages on a captured bridge and visiting Blackgate prison, where prisoners are rioting, a variety of side effects, good fight choreography, like with Deathstroke.

If we take the game as part of a series, it turned out average. If we consider it as a stand-alone game or an add-on, it’s quite. The gameplay foundation laid in Arkham City works, the story is good. I recently replayed NI+ not without pleasure, especially during the New Year holidays.

My brother and I have been playing for the last week. The plot, the setting is bomb. The fights are epic, but there are problems with the last blow in slowmo. It was funny. Christmas tree in the room plus five more points for the atmosphere. Overall a great prequel. Lots of references to the Arkham series. It was cool to find the first trophy in Ridler’s secret room. Batman is young and hot. New locations are very memorable (same area at the beginning). By bugs. Yes, I remember a very long time ago Croc lost its texture. But now the Steam version has fixed it. The current cloak disrupts the animation) Sometimes Ridler’s agents are not interrogated. Have to reboot. By the end of the game the bats are incredibly immovable. I think I’ll check out the new game. Everyone play!

I wish I knew

I forgot about the great crime scene investigation mini-games. Which were even dragged into the main series of spiz… (or vice versa, they were dragged into Origin from the Knight, which was being developed at the same time?).

Arkham City and Arkham Origins, in fact, present two different iterations of Batman – such an original comic book and even grotesque and, in contrast, a more down-to-earth and realistic type. And this is not only Batman – this can be said about all the characters, and even about Gotham City itself.

In general, I don’t remember who there is except Bets, whose character and (or) design does not correspond to himself from the previous parts so much that this cannot be explained by a prequel. Yes, and Bets’s more emotional character can be explained by the fact that he is a young and hot newfag, and not an experienced and seasoned one with an eternal poker face from Asylum and City. Well, yes, the suit – in the prequel, for some reason, the design is more technological and advanced.

And Gotham somehow does not correspond to itself from the City, given that there it lies in ruins and it is generally unclear what it looked like in its entirety?

I didn’t understand about the similarity between the bosses Clayface and Firefly. I don’t see any similarity at all. But maybe I just don’t remember.

Fights with Bane are similar to those from Asylum, yes. Except the final. There they mixed it with a fight with Freeze from City.

This is said loudly. How many times will Kevin Conroy’s Batman use this?? Alone when the Oracle disappears? Rather, the developers paid a nod to Arkham Origins for its good mechanics, nothing more.

Yes, by the way, I also had thoughts that the Rocks were the first to come up with this method of investigation, but I did not find confirmation in the same art book.

I didn’t understand about the similarity between the bosses Clayface and Firefly. I don’t see any similarity at all. But maybe I just don’t remember.

We throw ice grenades at the first one, and glue grenades at the second one. The situations are a little different, but the essence is the same – throw everything you have at the boss and dodge his attacks.

I didn’t mention the stealth bosses, they were also slightly borrowed from the Rocks. Deadshot, for example, is an improved version of Two-Face from the Cats expansion.e. fat enemy with ordinary dummies. And here we can even praise the developers of AO, because the villain who never misses really turned out to be a dangerous enemy with his laser pointer wandering throughout the location.

In general, I’m not surprised that at the end you need to fight Bane, like Freeze – with a local stealth mode, where Batman has a trillion opportunities to eliminate the enemy, you can make really exciting bosses that will adapt to the player’s actions, so a fight with Bane in stealth is the ideal end to the game, difficult and epic. People on YouTube are still posting videos of how they unconventionally beat the Predator mode in AK. Then you look at some stealth in the latest Spiders and yawn from boredom. It’s a pity that Rocky didn’t develop the idea of ​​stealth bosses; the same battle with the Arkham Knight essentially takes place without his participation.

Another problem with the game is that fights in the middle of the game last too long than they should. Well, yeah. The game breaks the canons in that the gadgets that Bruce did not have in other parts from the very beginning are presented literally right away. But chronologically he couldn’t have had these gadgets in Origins. About a realistic and down-to-earth approach. The developers themselves said that they were inspired by the First Year. As for character design, it seems to me that this cannot be a problem, because.To. In comics, characters also change their designs. But the fact that leveling up in the game looks terrible is that you can’t choose a specific move for yourself, and there are 2 stripes, and the hero himself moves heavily (and this is the youngest version of Wayne) and doesn’t “stick” to enemies as it should makes you more freaked out and angry. But the city looks great. It has the atmosphere of Burton’s Batman winter. Despite the fact that the bridge takes up too much space and takes a long time to cross, it still makes you feel the monumentality of the structure, as in your ICO and Shadow of the Colossus

Again, those who went minus without logic. What did they find wrong in your words??