Batman Arkham Origins

Hi, I'm TheJoelMH here, and it's the grand finale to Batman week, the review of Arkham Origins.
Created by WB Montreal rather than Rocksteady, Arkham Origins is set on christmas eve night 2 years into Batman's career.  The villainous Black Mask has hired 8 Assassins to kill Batman before the night's end and it's your job to bring down the 8 Assassins. Of course not all 8 are spectacular, since two of the assassins are side quests and one is so pathetic he can't be called a boss in any sense of the word, so that leaves 5. The hardest being Deathstroke, now is he late in the game like his difficulty would suggest? Nope, let's shove it really earlier in the game and make nothing else as hard as him later on.

Now Deathstroke was offered as playable if you preordered the game. Cool, so we get chapters as Deathstroke like Catwoman in Arkham City. Sorry no, just playable in Challenge mode, oh joy, the mode that is soooooooo... brilliant.

Of course if you beat the game, you'll find he was only here so WB Montreal could reveal a Suicide Squad spinoff.

Riddler's back, jamming radio signals preventing the use of your new fast way around the city, the batwing, of course once you've cleared his radio towers, you can use the batwing.

Okay I'm dodging the most important thing about the game, how it plays? Well, it plays exactly like Arkham City, no not kidding, there are very few new gadgets, most are just recycled from City. Oh no, we don't have ice grenades, ooh look glue grenades which do exactly the same things to a T. So different. And aren't Batman's gadgets to good to be a prequel, the stuff you use is more advanced than Arkham Asylum, oh god this is star wars all over again, god I hate prequels. And oh yeah the return of the shock gloves, the random power up added to the wii version of Arkham City.

New enemies are thrown into the mix such as the martial artist and the enforcer, tougher enemies which require stronger moves, again, didn't have in the sequels, i.e. stronger in the PREQUEL! Another add-on to the game is a new version of the detective vision which allows you to assess a crime scene all CSI style, which again he doesn't have further on, another reason why PREQUELS SUCK!

On a positive note, Alfred finally makes an appearance which speaking with him at certain points gives you xp rewards.

The music is also well done, as I stated yesterday, it's soundtrack was inspired by Die Hard but there's one thing about Gotham City weird, where are the ordinary people, nowhere to be seen, honestly, they're all trapped in their homes due to curfew except for those you find during one part of the game shoehorned to being in transit to fit in within one of the assassins rampages. This is not Gotham City,it's Arkham City with an extension.

But I haven't even reached this game's main problem yet, it crashes... A LOT. I thought this might just be my copy but upon research, nope it's happening a lot. But ultimately Arkham Origins main fault lies in the fact it's too similar to Arkham City, while City changed huge amounts from Asylum, this did virtually nothing to change it with the few noted exceptions that make you wonder how did this come before Asylum. But I'm not done, yet, it's time to take a look at the game's disc 2- Arkham Online.

Basically it works like this, 8 players no more, no less are randomly spilt into 3 teams, Bane's gang for 3 players, Joker's gang for another 3, and the remaining two are Batman and Robin. Bane and Joker's gangs fight each other for 3 areas of control and whoever gets all 3 by the time limit or most of 3 win or if a team's lives run out, which 3 people share 30 lives. If one of the team is winning, one of the players can become The Joker or Bane. Both these teams have firearms and special weapons such as a remote control blimp or call of duty style weapons. Batman and Robin on the other hand play like they usually do with Robin using his weapons from Arkham City's DLC. Their drop is to attack the two teams, the more they do this, the more intimidation you gain and when that meter is filled you win. However if Batman or Robin die, the meter drops, though they do have infinite lives. The multiplayer is actually really good with the gangs playing like gears of war with their own detective vision which is far more limited than the dynamic duo's with a time limit, but the problem with it, is no one is playing it meaning it can take 30 minutes to get a game.

So to put it simply, Arkham Origins is good, but it's single player offers very little new to the table, but it's multiplayer is really good, just as long as someone is playing it. I've been TheJoelMH and this is the end of Batman Week. Signing off!