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[Lightning Count]

Time to talk about a game which was recently shortchanged in the recent crop of remasters - Batman Arkham Origins.

Throughout November and December I have been replaying the series, I just polished off Origins and it is now time to reflect back on the game. Origins is often considered the weakest link in the series for a few reasons.

Not developed by Rocksteady
Environments are re-used from Arkham City

However the game does have a lot going for it, for once we see Batman doing actual detective work both in the main story and side missions rather than just fighting constantly. Also unlike the previous two games which just assume a high degree of familiarity with the source material (particularly the riddles) this game tackles the Batman story from earlier in his crime fighting crusade. At this point Batman has honed his skill on the street but this is the first time they are truly tested.

Considered by most Gotham residents to be an urban legend the criminal contingent of Gotham has taken notice and a bounty is placed on Batman drawing 8 deadly assassins who cannot resist the prospect of such a huge payday. Along the way Batman encounters many supervillains for the first time.

We see a rare level of vulnerability as Batman makes rookie mistakes such as not restraining the defeated Electrocutioner who promptly escapes after recovering from his defeat.

We also see Batman make his first allies in the fight against crime. The other thing I really love about this instalment in the series is that in my opinion it has by far the best boss battles in the series, Joker was a letdown when you finally fought him in Asylum.

Asides from Mr Freeze Arkham City boss battles relied far too heavily on gimmicks for me. Origins also features one of the best designed Batsuits, I will admit, initially I was not a fan but have now warmed to it and it is now my favourite of the default Arkham Batsuits.

Finally we have the voices many lamented the lack of Kevin Conroy but I really enjoyed the performance of Roger Craig Smith and Troy Baker who now incredibly has voiced Batman, Joker, Two Face , Robin, the Arkham Knight and Thomas Wayne.

 

[TheKeyPit]

The other thing I really love about this instalment in the series is that in my opinion it has by far the best boss battles in the series...

Now take a look at the boss battles in Arkham Knight; compare the Firefly fights...

Origins definitely has by far the best boss battles in the Arkham series.

 

[iTehDroiD]

Origins is actually my favorite game of the Arkham series. The story was much better than in the other games (even though their story wasn't bad at all). Also gameplay wise it was even more fun than AC. Only the FPS drops were annoying.

 

[Spinky]

Origins was mediocre as all hell, but Cold, Cold Heart is the best DLC in the series.

 

[balladofwindfishes]

Origins got a bad rep, but it's a fantastic game I was really surprised by. I actually kind of like parts of it better than City.

I think Conroy is the only voice I immediately notice missing. Baker does a pretty damn good Hamill impression.

 

[Bergerac]

Agreed it's also my favourite. Only downside is how quickly Deathstroke is dealt with. I think along with Bane, he should've been a major threat that reappeared throughout the game.

Well, that and how the Riddler challenges are all just collectables and not imaginative.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

Origins was mediocre as all hell, but Cold, Cold Heart is the best DLC in the series.

It was the best DLC. It was exactly what I was hoping for DLC out of this series: episodic, relatively intimate stories following the disturbed, tragic villains. Each of the stories in the main games got too bloated at times in regard to threats/developments with increasingly higher stakes and little emotional payoff. CCH was just right, and had a few new spins on existing gameplay thrown in.

 

[DieH@rd]

I really liked it, but the best part of it all is how they managed to tell the origin of the Bane.

 

[Loxley]

Origins was mediocre as all hell, but Cold, Cold Heart is the best DLC in the series.

Bingo.

 

[dex3108]

Best Batman story in games, best boss battles, best character designs... Also Roger > Kevin in my opinion.

 

[Markitron]

I say this as someone that really likes Arkham Origins, but it is by FAR the most overrated game on GAF. It's got a great story and some decent boss battles but, those aside, it's nowhere near as good as the other 3.

Needlessly altered combat timings
The shock gloves completely break the combat
Horribly buggy
Empty overworld, half of which is a copy/paste of Arkham City - except with less details
Boring and un-inventive predator encounters

The whole thing feels very much like a spin-off to me, I didn't miss it in the collection at all.

 

[bonchooski]

Very underrated game, would love to play on Xbone BC.

 

[Irobot82]

Game was ruined a bit by the shock gloves. No need for combat strategy after them.

 

[GeeTeeCee]

Origins was mediocre as all hell, but Cold, Cold Heart is the best DLC in the series.

Yes. I cannot understand the love the main game gets here on GAF. The combat is worse than the previous games, the new sections of Gotham are boring as sin, and the only challenge the endgame has is to stack every rooftop with multiple snipers, making traversing Gotham a chore.

The DLC is fun, at least, because it focues on Origin's only real strength: story.

 

[Iva Demilcol]

Getting Collectibles is not as annoying as it was in the previous games. Enygma trophies >>>>> Riddler trophies

 

[Lightning Count]

Game was ruined a bit by the shock gloves. No need for combat strategy after them.

True to an extent, but at least they are not introduced until late in to the story.

 

[Nabs]

Best Batman story in games, best boss battles, best character designs... Also Roger > Kevin in my opinion.

Agreed. Angry Bat is the best.

 

[Ahasverus]

The story is great. The atmosphere rules too, perfect Christmas game.

 

[Markitron]

True to an extent, but at least they are not introduced until late in to the story.

That's when the combat is supposed to be at it's most challenging though. The other games start to mix up the combat encounters, which encourages you to use the many abilities at your disposal. With Origins it's a simple matter of building up the gauge on the weak enemies and then using the gloves to end the fight. It's particularly bad on the higher difficulties, when the combat encounters get really fun. I can't figure out how anyone thought that was a good or interesting idea.

 

[keltickennedy]

Not on here...I thought Origins gets mostly praise from Gaf. Definitely up there as the best story in the series.

 

[Big Nikus]

I love Origins.
I love Batman, I love christmas, so best game ever.

But seriously, to me Origins is the best written in the Arkham games, especially for the characters. Some scenes with Alfred were great, and the relationship with the Joker was very well done.

 

[I Wanna Be The Guy]

Definitely the best Batman game. Extremely underrated.

 

[oni-link]

I think all 3 of the last gen Batman games are great, with Origins maybe being my favourite

That said the boss fights are not much better than the other games, Deathstroke is basically a QTE and Mr Freeze from the second game is the best boss in the series

Loved the Christmas setting in Origins too

 

[eshwaaz]

The fact that they chose to acknowledge, but never fix, the save file corruption bug will forever taint my view of this game. I don't care how good the DLC is - they prioritized it over fixing an issue that can ruin the entire experience. It's inexcusable.

 

[LAM09]

It's the best entry in the series IMO. Loved most of the boss battles.

 

[Goliath]

I always like Bane as a character and anytime they properly show Bane as intelligent and capable like his comic version mostly is, is a win in my book. I loved origins and didn't get the Batman Arkham remaster because they ignored it.

 

[BouncyFrag]

I'm hoping this gets bc on the Xbone. I'd reccomend backing up your saves as they can get corrupted even with the patch on the 360.

 

[InfiniteCombo]

Hey yo, perfect timing... I just finished it last night:

+ The story is the best of the original three
+ Best version of the Joker
+ Improved boss fights from the previous two games. The Firefly fight in particular is a standout
+ Bat-plane fast travel is pretty nice

- Worst atmosphere (best: Asylum)
- Incredibly annoying enemies that do nothing but purposely break your combo flow (biggest offenders are probably the Martial Artist, followed by those mini-Bane type dudes)
- Excessively bloated open world for no good reason. City's open world was great.
- Some crucial gadget upgrades are tied to the completion of side missions (or other arbitrary conditions) which is pure bullshit.
- Some cosmetic downgrades: worst default Batman costume, glue grenade is 100% inferior to the ice grenade from City, and the loud (and very satisfying) popping sound when you took out an enemy is now gone.
- In one of the sections (I think it's Amusement Mile?) they have snipers up on the roofs all the fucking time, even after you end the main story. And even if you take them out, they respawn.
- Every time I heard Batman's voice I kept thinking of Chris Redfield and Ezio Auditore, and sometimes it broke immersion.
- I don't know on consoles, but on PC the game has a number of bugs that are pretty annoying.
- The enemies are "ragdoll" like hell and bounce around all the time. WTF?

Haven't played the DLC yet but if it has Mr Freeze in it, it's probably gonna be awesome.

 

[Lightning Count]

I always like Bane as a character and anytime they properly show Bane as intelligent and capable like his comic version mostly is, is a win in my book. I loved origins and didn't get the Batman Arkham remaster because they ignored it.

Indeed this is the best representation of Bane so far, I like the fact they even acknowledged his desire to break his dependency on Venom.

 

[Septimus Prime]

My only gripes with this game, really, pertain to combat. The timing is just slightly different from that of the Rocksteady games, and guys would sometimes slide over to Batman from wherever and hit him. Bat Swarm also dropped the frame rate significantly on PS3.

That said, I actually like the shock gloves--they're like devil trigger--and remote claw.

Oh, and that reminds me of my biggest complaint: the predator maps don't respawn enemies, so if you miss some progression on the predator skill tree, you might miss out on some stuff entirely. This is made worse by making the sonic shock batarang tied to this progression, so if you miss that, you can't even get all the medals in the challenge maps.

 

[HardRojo]

A shame it never got remastered. I think I initially didn't like it as much, as it felt too similar to City, but I grew fond of it later. Would probably play it again but I don't have it on PC. As a matter of fact I finished Arkham Asylum yesterday on PC for the first time, I've played it on 360 and PS3 before. Need to check out that Telltale one too.

 

[KojiKnight]

If Arkham City didn't exist, Origins would be considered the best in the series. But City does exists, and Origins was a sort of full-priced stand alone expansion at a time when people were getting hyped for the next gen Batman game being talked about.

Origins is the KoTOR 2 of the Arkham series. Technically better in story and gameplay, but suffers from being iterative and a bit rushed and buggy.

 

[Joei]

I really enjoyed Origins, but I did have a few issues with it. First, the combat was "off." They sped up the combat a hair so as to make it the worst in the series. Second, the game was unreasonably big. Most of AC was utilized and the city was very distinct, but in AO, they like, tripled the size with half the stuff to do. Lastly, the game had some technical issues and I swear the frame rate or something would drop, the game just felt so "juddery" compared to AC. The story, the villains, and pacing of the game were tops though.

 

[Septimus Prime]

That's when the combat is supposed to be at it's most challenging though. The other games start to mix up the combat encounters, which encourages you to use the many abilities at your disposal. With Origins it's a simple matter of building up the gauge on the weak enemies and then using the gloves to end the fight. It's particularly bad on the higher difficulties, when the combat encounters get really fun. I can't figure out how anyone thought that was a good or interesting idea.

For me, the challenge of combat in this series is not so much the enemies but rather finding a way to use as many variations in your combo as possible, and since this game has some truly awful enemies, like the martial artists that wreck your flow (but can't dodge electric punches) and other combat-related issues/bugs, I feel like the shock gloves provide a little balance to counteract the wonkiness.

 

[InfiniteCombo]

I really enjoyed Origins, but I did have a few issues with it. First, the combat was "off." They sped up the combat a hair so as to make it the worst in the series. Second, the game was unreasonably big. Most of AC was utilized and the city was very distinct, but in AO, they like, tripled the size with half the stuff to do. Lastly, the game had some technical issues and I swear the frame rate or something would drop, the game just felt so "juddery" compared to AC. The story, the villains, and pacing of the game were tops though.

Great post, and I agree with all of the points. I played all three (Asylum, City, and Origins) on PC, and the first two games run at a flawless 60fps. But Origins has a LOT of jank, holy shit. Framerates were all over the place. Doing a Bat Swarm will crush your framerate for sure.

 

[Omegabalmung9]

From what I played, I really enjoyed but the only reason I stopped playing the game was that your save data might become corrupted. Just didn't want to spend 10-15 hours and suddenly the your save data is gone.

Was that bug ever fixed?

 

[jelly]

I always forgot to use the shock gloves.

Best looking Batman costume and Conroy honestly sounds bored in these games now so I didn't mind the change.

Loved the snow theme, story was much better. It was more of the same with the game play and level layout but it was still pretty good and standard Arkham.

 

[keltickennedy]

Hey yo, perfect timing... I just finished it last night:

+ The story is the best of the original three
+ Best version of the Joker
+ Improved boss fights from the previous two games. The Firefly fight in particular is a standout
+ Bat-plane fast travel is pretty nice

- Worst atmosphere (best: Asylum)
- Incredibly annoying enemies that do nothing but purposely break your combo flow (biggest offenders are probably the Martial Artist, followed by those mini-Bane type dudes)
- Excessively bloated open world for no good reason. City's open world was great.
- Some crucial gadget upgrades are tied to the completion of side missions (or other arbitrary conditions) which is pure bullshit.
- Some cosmetic downgrades: worst default Batman costume, glue grenade is 100% inferior to the ice grenade from City, and the loud (and very satisfying) popping sound when you took out an enemy is now gone.
- In one of the sections (I think it's Amusement Mile?) they have snipers up on the roofs all the fucking time, even after you end the main story. And even if you take them out, they respawn.
- Every time I heard Batman's voice I kept thinking of Chris Redfield and Ezio Auditore, and sometimes it broke immersion.
- I don't know on consoles, but on PC the game has a number of bugs that are pretty annoying.
- The enemies are "ragdoll" like hell and bounce around all the time. WTF?

Haven't played the DLC yet but if it has Mr Freeze in it, it's probably gonna be awesome.

Best version of Bane as well.

I always forgot to use the shock gloves.

Best looking Batman costume and Conroy honestly sounds bored in these games now so I didn't mind the change.

Loved the snow theme, story was much better. It was more of the same with the game play and level layout but it was still pretty good and standard Arkham.

That's a good thing. The shock gloves were OP and broke a lot of the combat scenarios. I made it a point to only use them when I had to.

 

[FriedConsole]

I thought it was a good game and in a lot ways better than it's predecessors but I also realized about halfway though that I was bored of the formula and never need to play another one of these Batman games again.

 

[KingdomHeartsFan]

I really liked Origins.

 

[InfiniteCombo]

I always forgot to use the shock gloves.

Best looking Batman costume and Conroy honestly sounds bored in these games now so I didn't mind the change.

Loved the snow theme, story was much better. It was more of the same with the game play and level layout but it was still pretty good and standard Arkham.

Like keltickennedy said, the shock gloves were overpowered and quite frankly unnecessary. So you didn't miss out much by not using them.

Disagree on the default Batman costume. Worst one by far, if only because he is way too armored, and apparently was on Steroids when he started the whole Batman thing. He got given the RE5 Chris Redfield treatment as far as body volume goes. Speaking of Chris Redfield...

Bored as he may sound (I disagree), Conroy still has a very distinctive Batman flavor. As much as I actually like Roger Craig Smith, the dude doesn't have a terrible amount of range, to the point where all his characters sound the same.

Best version of Bane as well.

Ahhh yes, forgot about this. Bane from the comics is actually a highly intelligent dude, so I hate it when other media portrays him as just some Venom-addicted dude with single digit IQ. But the Bane here is actually pretty smart, at one point Batman even says "impressive work..." when looking at Bane's research.

 

[Blackage]

I was legit mad that after Origins in Arkham Knight we got that week ass tank battle with Deathstroke -_-

 

[Septimus Prime]

Disagree on the default Batman costume. Worst one by far, if only because he is way too armored, and apparently was on Steroids when he started the whole Batman thing. He got given the RE5 Chris Redfield treatment as far as body volume goes. Speaking of Chris Redfield...

I like the armor. Batman's still new, so he feels like he needs it. Later on, he figures he can mostly just dodge things, so he lightens the suit up.

 

[Lightning Count]

I was legit mad that after Origins in Arkham Knight we got that week ass tank battle with Deathstroke -_-

That was such a let down.

 

[rawbhawb]

The boss battles alone make Origins my second favorite Arkham title (after Asylum). It's amazing that Montreal managed to nail that aspect down yet Rocksteady didn't even try with Knight.

 

[Tsukumo]

I shat on this game for years and now, after Arkham Knight, the Damian Wayne game news and no sequel in sight, I deeply regret it.
All the problems I have with the game still stand, but a sequel to Origins would have been definitely better than any of the upcoming titles. Especially because I was expecting an Origins... 2? with an Origins Batmobile, playable Batgirl and a full blown Long Halloween adaption...
Guess I'll keep playing A Family matter until my fingers and my eyes bleed...

 

[Dipswitch]

I played this recently and thought it was decent. On the plus side, performance was good and I liked the expanded city. Story was decent (although the emphasis on Bane towards the end got irritating) and the Batman VO actor gave a good performance as well.

On the negative side, it was buggy as hell and the challenge stuff was poorly designed. That predator challenge that was dependent on taking someone out with an explosive charge on a concrete wall, which only appeared in 2-3 rooms in the game, was horseshit. And don't get me started on that reward for solving all the Riddler puzzles....

Anyway, wasn't a bad effort overall. I'd like to play that Mr. Freeze DLC at some point, but I'm not paying $10 for that when the game routinely goes on sale for half that price.

 

[What did he mean by this?]

I played through on PC and it was quite good

Tried to replay on PS3, I was fighting some goons and one of them slid across the floor to punch me. Turned the game off

 

[GrayFoxPL]

I need to finish this. Worthy sequel to City imho.

 

[Lightning Count]

Disagree on the default Batman costume. Worst one by far, if only because he is way too armored, and apparently was on Steroids when he started the whole Batman thing. He got given the RE5 Chris Redfield treatment as far as body volume goes. Speaking of Chris Redfield...

Bored as he may sound (I disagree), Conroy still has a very distinctive Batman flavor. As much as I actually like Roger Craig Smith, the dude doesn't have a terrible amount of range, to the point where all his characters sound the same.

I disagree on that point his performance as Ezio were great and he really impressed me in RE6.