Batman: Arkham Origins

Warner Bros. Games Batman: Arkham Origins is the best prequel that could be desired and certainly the most beautiful episode of Batman: Arkham.

The PC version of Batman: Arkham Origins is absolutely the best in terms of detail, smoothness, drawing distance and particle effects, though it suffers from a series of annoying glitches.

Origins is a sequel that won't disappoint the fans of the Batman Arkham series, yet it looks too familiar because of its lack of innovation.

A faithful sequel to Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, but sadly a little too conservative in some ways. Barely any new features add to the gameplay, which is naturally as strong as within its predecessors. The story is interesting, cutscenes and dialogues are well written and impressively presented. A minor setback: the Riddler riddles have been removed for this one.

It's a good game and all the ingredients are there, but it's missing the love and passion that Rocksteady used to pour into those games. The world is bigger but lifeless, the story isn't as thrilling.

You can't go wrong with sticking to Rocksteady's Bat-formula, however it is starting to feel a little played out. [December 2013, p.93]

Arkham Origins is a very good but very familiar game. It lacks the spice of originality that made the previous two games great.

If you’re a Batman fan you should already have Batman: Arkham Origins, but anyone else might want to hold off a couple of weeks for some patches to come through.

Next to Arkham City, Arkham Origins is a bit of a disappointment in its lack of new ideas and use of win buttons, making it the least interesting of the trilogy

An OK effort for an Arkham game, Batman Arkham Origins feels too similar to Arkham City and there are a few game breaking bugs that prevent it from being worthy to stand with the other two.

The critical path through Gotham City is feeling worn, even if tread by different, younger actors.

The story is the best in the series but, when it comes to gameplay, Warner Bros. Montreal seem to have taken the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mantra and done the exact opposite.

Enjoyable in places and very pretty, but sadly blighted by sloppy design, terrible boss battles, and a lack of new ideas.

"You don't want to be the guys who messed up and ran into the ground one of the absolute, top-rated franchises of all time. You don't want that at the top of your CV. 'Yeah, I'm the guy who turned a 96 into a 60, that's my claim to fame,’ said Arkham Origins’ producer Ben Matts a couple of days before the game’s release. Turns out, they did exactly that.

There’s a good game here, but that game was built and finished two years ago. Origins adds little to its mechanics and nothing to the mythology. The story of a raw and inelegant Batman in his early years is better told on the big screen and the printed page, rather than in a raw, inelegant game in a generation’s twilight years.