Batman™: Arkham Origins

I didn't play Arkham Origins when it first came out despite finishing Arkham Asylum over ten times and getting Arkham City at launch. I found the previews underwhelming and everything reeked of WB Games trying to force the franchise forward with an "off-year" installment by a different team. Even when I did get around to playing it I wasn't super impressed. It didn't really click for me until I replayed it, and since then it's become my favorite game in the series that I replay often. Arkham Origins has be far the best writing in the series. Taking better elements of The Killing Joke and Batman: Year One and mixing them with a strong cinematic direction for big set pieces really sells a narrative of fighting for (or even against) a broken society. Batman has an actual arc, themes on how people cope with injustice are intriguing, and the audio and text logs even dabble in some interesting political commentary. You'd be hard pressed to name another game that talks about anarchist bombings from 1919. The gameplay can be initially off-putting coming from Arkham City for being both too similar while the differences feel like detractions. But Arkham City had a great gameplay foundation and once you understand the changes (which the game SHOULD do a better job explaining) they deepen the combat and stealth. In particular, the martial artist enemies who can counter your counters add a dimension to brawls I deeply missed come Arkham Knight. And lastly, many would agree Origins has the best boss fights of the series, normally a weak point for the franchise. They do reuse parts of Arkham City for the fights but they're used MUCH more effectively in this game. I get chills facing off against Firefly every playthrough, who's normally a C-list villain in Batman's rogue gallery. If you skipped Arkham Origins definitely give it a try, and if you HAVE tried it, try it again. It's better on replays, especially once you know to time your counters carefully against Deathstroke. ;)

This is the best Batman game to date. It improves the 'Arkham formula' in every way, and has one of the best told Batman stories in all media not only in games. - It has the best written Joker to ever appear in a video game. - The best Bane also. - The best Batman suit (it is probably my favorite Batman suit in general) - The combat is the best in the franchise - The best city in all arkham games - The 'predator' levels and bosses are actually a challenge - The best DLC of the franchise (and you can get it for cheap now) - The story is simple and cohesive - It also has the best character design in the franchise Back in the day when it was released on pc people complained because of two things: - it had some bugs (right now I have been playing with no issues) - the voice actors are no longer Hamill and Conroy, but believe me: Troy Baker and Roger Craig Smith did an amazing job, the performances are truly incredible, you can perceive the passion in their work. And the dialogs are so well written that the overall experience is better than in any other game of the franchise. For example, in the cinematic with Joker and Black Mask, Baker delivers an outstanting performance. I know there are lots of Hamill fans out there, myself included, but for a second stop thinking about Hamill and evaluate Baker's performance objectively, don't miss his great 'Joker', do it you won't regret it. The game feeling has the perfect mix of the Nolan films, the Burton films and the animated series. It could perfectly be a film and a good one.

I allway thing this game did not get the recognition it deserves. It has the best bosses in the Arkham series and the story has so great moments specificly with Troy Baker Joker who does a great job with the unevenviable job of playing Mark Hamill's Joker. its not ground breaking like Arkham City "it reused many assets from that game" but this is my second favorite arkham game

I played Asylum first, and loved it; it was a love letter to Batman The Animated Series. A tightly crafted game. A finely crafted experience with a great blend of exploration, detective work, direct combat, and indirect (sneaking). Then City came along, and raised the bar. While it took things in a more open world direction, it really improved on most aspects. Origins isn't terrible but for me the weakest. It borrows a lot from City, but does everything lesser. Not a bad game, it still hits the Arkham beats, but by comparison, it falls flat. Origins has a cool concept: Black Mask is pulling something big on Christmas Eve, and has hired 8 assassins (the more obscure villains) to kill Batman. I'll just list my gripes in no particular order: - The overworld and environments feel blander and the areas lack the variety that the previous games achieved. This leads to things feeling stale - Something feels off about the combat: blocks not registering, leading to lost combos is extremely frustrating - The new mechanic of the "power gloves" ruins the whole flow of the game... if you can just punch through everything, it feels like cheats, and becomes quite boring - Riddler has no riddles or perspective puzzles, and the "collectathon" feels way less inspired - The "crime scene investigation" while a good idea, wasn't well implemented and really tends to drag. - A lot of bugs that can lead to soft locks - Cold Cold Heart DLC was nowhere as good as the Harley/Robin DLC from city The new voice actors did their best, not as good as originals, but they're fine. I did like addition of enemies that required you to counter multiple times, but again, city had that as well. While I would still recommend it (still the Batman saving Gotham fantasy you want to experience), I just wanted to explain as a fan of the Arkham series why it's the worst of the series for me. It kind of feels a bit more like an Assassin's Creed, and I suspect it's because things start to feel bland/repetitive.