Batman Arkham origins, is the latest addition to the highly successful Batman Arkham Franchise.This time however WB (the owner of the Batman franchise) have decided to leave RockSteady behind, and instead experiment with a new studio.Warner Bros. Games Montréal took over the reigns of the game and even took the help of Splash Damage to finetune its multiplayer. So did the “out with the old, in with the new” strategy worked for The Dark Knight. We brought you the unboxing of the Arkham Origins special edition before, today we bring you the review.
The conceit is that black mask, a popular batman villain has hired a number of assassins to kill batman.Batman Has to save himself and the city of Gotham from those assassins on Christmas eve. All the villain are on top form here and game fleshes out some of the characters exceptionally well. WB Montreal has actually combed through the DC archive to come up with characters which are not your typical DC fare. Assassins such as Firefly and Copper Head are rarely seen in today’s comic books. The usual suspects are still here though. Joker, Bane all return for a pre-match. Star cast wise, this is perhaps the most vibrant one yet.
The free flow arcade style has not been changed from the previous versions.But, the boss fights have an elevated sense of drama and cinematic because of the personalities involved.After a certain point in the game, you acquire shock gloves that make your punches more powerful.You still toss grenades into water to form glue rafts and use bat claw to glide around and powering up the fuse boxes by remote controlled bata-rangs through fields of electricity. Something fresh could have gone a longways making Arkahm Origins welcoming.If you have played Batman Arkham series this game is predictable. Don’t get me wrong, the controls are still tight, and the gameplay fluent, but WB Montreal has done nothing to make Arkham Oriogins stand out.It gives what you expect from another Arkham game.
In the absence of new elements the same free flow arcade style makes feel routine rather than inspired. Its worth playing the game and to face the villians with dramatic scenes and encounters which you never played in arkham series before. But as soon as the novelty of playing the actual story mode wears off, there is not much to keep you coming back
The multiplayer are 3Vs.3Vs.2 affair. You can either play as Batman/Robin or as one of Joker’s or Bane’s goons. Its not highly entertaining, but the low player count and small maps keep the pace up. Though I don’t see it competing with Modern Warfare just yet.
Arkham Origins is not the best addition to the series, but even when its at it worst, its pretty good. For Batman fans, it brings a versatile roster and a good story to the table. To the multiplayer and re-play fanatics, it does little more than add novelty. The single player is the high point of this game, so bear that in mind, when you don the cape again.
