4/5 ★ – slayzie's review of Batman: Arkham Origins.

Arkham Origins is a game thats seen as the black sheep of the Arkham games and is kind of forgotten about by the fanbase and a lot of people argue that it’s the worst one. Heading into this game I actually thought this one would be a solid entry and I thought the overall fanbase would be wrong about the game and boy was I right. Arkham Origins isn’t even a bad game at all, and it’s definitely not the worst in the Arkham quadrilogy (I think it’s Aslyum) and I believe most reviews of the game were people just being way too critical and nitpicky of it, it’s a solid entry and to me it’s the second best game after City. (at the time of writing this review I am currently playing Knight so I won’t comment it’s positioning until I finish it) Story / Characters: I think Arkham Origins has a pretty decent story and does a good job of showcasing a younger Batman in his rookie years of being a vigilante. I really liked the portrayal of Batman here as you can tell he’s way more angrier and less patient with people, he comes off as intimidating to even those he’s saving and you can tell he hasn’t mellowed out yet as he’s lashing out at criminals and even going against the GCPD rather than collaboarting with them. This sets up a very interesting dynamic between Bruce and Alfred where throughout various moments they’re arguing with eachother which creates a lot of tension, instead of deferring Alfred’s suggestions Bruce outright pushes back against them and can come off as very rude, stubborn and aggressive. You can tell Warner Bros put time and effort into letting the viewer know this is a younger Batman who’s driven more by his anger and instinct as he lies heavily on working by himself and being independent. This high level of independence is showcased the most through his confrontations with goons and his relationship with Alfred where they go back and forth very often. Gameplay: Gameplay wise I think Arkham Origins is weaker than City, especially through it’s combat. This is where I think Arkham Origins has it’s faults. Depending on how you play the Arkham games, if you olay it after City you’ll notice that Arkham Origins feels a lot more rougher and more clunkier compared to it’s predecessor, it feels like a prototype version of Arkham City, the timings of counters are so inconsistent that it resulted in many deaths thus stretching my playtime, even the three button system itself felt like a rougher version of City which really dulled my experience as I think City has an amazing and addicting combat system. The setting of Gotham was neat to see for once as in the previous two games we didn’t get to see a full Gotham City however one thing I’d say about the map of Gotham is that traversing it in this game to say the least… isn’t fun. Gotham in this game and idk how I’d put it into words but compared to City and Aslyum the map feels like a chore to traverse, the buildings are so tall that it blocks your view when traversing grappling up to the top doesn’t necessarily help because theres only so many rooftops Batman can land on. The game mitigates this by adding a fast travel feature but you have to do side missions to unlock it and idk if anyone knows but when I play games I like to stick to the main story and the main missions only doing side content if I feel like it’s neccessary or if I want to do it and in this case I didn’t feel like it was (although I probably should have to make traversing Gotham less of a pain) Gameplay wise, where I think Arkham Origins shines the most is through it’s boss fights. The Deathstroke boss fight is the greatest boss fight in the whole Arkham Universe so far and is one of my favourite boss fights of all time. I say this because me personally my favourite types of boss fights are mirror bossfights, which Arkham Origins pulls off PERFECTLY with the Deathstroke boss fight. The timing of the counters does drag it down a bit and it took me quite a few tries to beat but the amount of options you can use to take out Deathstroke and the strict timings of the counters you have to do his attacks makes the fight such a blast, I really prefer these type of bossfights where it feels like you’re playing against yourself instead of the set piece type of bossfights or the gimmicky ones. The Killer Croc bossfight in the beginning was also a blast to playthrough and I found it much more enjoyable than the Arkham Aslyum one. The bane fights take the ideas of the original ones in Aslyum and just make it so much better especially the third one where he’s so pumped up you can only take him out through stealth (a mirror of the mister freeze one) I also heavily enjoyed the copperhead boss fight as fighting her felt like another skill check just like Deathstroke and I enjoyed the hard but fair challenge it gave. The only bossfight I personally disliked was the firefly bossfight, it just felt like the Poison Ivy bossfight in Aslyum which is boring as heck and the firefly bossfigbt is EASILY the one of worst ones in the Arkham games (along with poison ivy). Overall Arkham Origins feels lime a bridge between Arkham Aslyum and Arkham City (even though its a prequel) and I think it stands strong enough on it’s own it’s sad that it’s overlooked among the fanbase because I think it’s a good game I wouldn’t really change much about it other than the map and some areas of the combat. Slayzie Rating - 4.25 ⭐️