If by any chance you live in a cave and haven’t played any of the Batman Arkham games:
SPOILER WARNING.
Batman: Arkham City is
arguably the greatest super-hero game ever made, and is now the benchmark for
all others in the genre to follow it. 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man showed a valiant effort by replicating
elements of Rocksteady’s achievement, but couldn’t land even remotely close to
the pedestal that City towers over boldly
with pride. Despite its success I couldn’t shake a lingering fear that I
have felt since the viewing of its end credits, and Arkham Origins quickly brought that dread to reality; the
stagnation of a truly wonderful series.
I know what you’re probably thinking; “It’s a sequel (prequel)! Surely
you can’t expect the game to be ground-breaking.” And surely you would be right with that statement in most cases,
but what Origins fails to accomplish
is the growth of the franchise. Progressing through each mission, collecting
extortion data, and swooping in to beat up a group of bad guys looks and feels exactly like City. Gadgets found in the previous adventure return with a
slightly different aesthetic, like the Glue Grenade, which has the exact same
functions as the Ice Grenade. Meaning that you’ll once again throw pellets at
the water to make rafts and pull yourself across flooded hallways with your
grapple hook. Predator missions - while capturing the same essence of
gratification through great stealth mechanics - manage to become a chore rather
than a challenging obstacle once you attain most upgrades. The few new toys
that Batman carries in his arsenal this time around only serve to make overall
progress even easier than before; now you can whimsically point and shoot at a
dude and have him hanging from a vantage point across the room. In combat you
have the Shock Gloves, which turn you into a bloodthirsty monster truck and everyone in a square-mile radius into a crowd of Justin Bieber fans; satisfying in the
most cave man of senses, but takes away all the tactical aspects the game tries
so hard to build up. In the end, you
lose a bit of self-respect because you know you’re better than that.
So, Origins treks
similar paths as City in the gameplay
department. At least it was kind enough to switch it up by having a brand new
group of villains pose as a threat to a younger, more aggressive Bruce Wayne.
...Right?
 |
| Nope. |
The Joker makes yet another appearance, assuming the role of
the main villain. This rings a bit insincere; I know that this is a prequel
but Joker died in City. This was the grand opportunity to have Batman focus on at least one of DC Universe’s other colorfully costumed psychopaths. Yes,
there are villains such as Deathstroke and Bane, but Batman shrugs Slade
off in one fight and finds him imprisoned not much later. Bane on the other
hand, while threatening, doesn’t particularly fulfill the role of a cunning, harsh
villain despite that he could. Though
I suppose it’d go against Arkham
tradition to have an installment that doesn’t have you fighting a
steroid-induced brute.
So, WB Games has even managed establish an aura of monotony
in the string of events that tie all of the game play together.
Mind you, none of this is to say that on its own Origins is a bad game. Though it
certainly isn’t memorable, so what’s the difference? If a game is unsuccessful
at leaving a significant mark on the player then it’s failed to do its job,
even more so than something genuinely abysmal like Sonic ‘06.
What’s particularly amusing however is this:
It seems that Rocksteady has hastily jumped back on board to
fix this boo-boo – but it hasn’t even been a full 5 months since release and
this so-called Arkham Knight is
coming later this year? I understand
that Batman games are becoming a cash cow but Christ, please don’t let this go the same route as Assassin’s Creed; we don’t need another gargantuan sandbox being released yearly.
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