Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate

An excellent choice for gamers wanting a new Metroidvania on their Vita, this adventure with the Caped Crusader comes close to being a classic.

It’s a bit of a shame that the Arkham-inspired side of this game doesn’t quite live up to what came before, but the Metroidvania aspect certainly does. And this is something for which a lot of genre fans will be grateful.

Apart from those overwrought boss battles, Blackgate is a welcome evolution for the Arkham series. The fresh perspective, deliberate pace and focus on exploration prove that Batman works just as well in a smaller package.

Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate is a good and original attempt at bringing the formula to a handheld. The interesting use of depth in this side-scroller and the implementation of the well known freeflow combat, make Blackgate a joy to play at times. Backtracking loses its appeal after a while though, as do the lack of enemies and the unintuitive map.

Blackgate falls shy of greatness due to a few gameplay design flaws, but it's still an overall solid experience that Vita owners should investigate further.

Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate performs at its best when not feeling obligated to recreate the Arkham games before it.

Batman: Arkham Origins - Blackgate is a good extension of the Arkham franchise to handhelds, but it lacks the specialness or inspiration that would make it stand out as a great Metroidvania-style game - or a great Batman game, for that matter. Without any real surprises, engaging settings, or interesting story, Blackgate feels more like a retread of bullet points than the handheld Batman we truly deserve.

Not quite up to the standard of the console versions of Batman: Arkham Origins, but not a bad game on its own.

Blackgate does a pretty good job in capturing the feel of the franchise, bringing some very nice elements to the table but suffering from an unconvincing approach to backtracking.

Batman: Arkham Origins - Blackgate isn't a bad game, but it's a lesser game. It tries extremely hard to mimic its console brethren, but all it does is highlight everything it's missing.

With a fresh prospective on the Arkham universe, Batman: Arkham Origins – Blackgate is quite a good beginning on PS Vita but not the complex and complete game it could have been.

Thanks to a well-crafted level design, Batman Arkham Origins Blackgate manages to make happy fans of the Dark Knight already in withdrawal after the feast made ​​with Origins.

Batman Arkham Origins: Blackgate is an interesting first entry on PS Vita, but it does not do justice to the great saga of videogames.

The Metroidvania formula will forever remain one of gaming’s best, so whenever a modern 2D (or 2.5D in this case) version is announced, it’s cause for excitement. Blackgate doesn’t exactly do anything new and is derivative of practically every predecessor in its “genre,” but that doesn’t mean it’s not a whole lot of fun.

The delta between the bosses and the moment-to-moment gameplay make Blackgate a frustratingly inconsistent experience, but the good parts are truly impressive.

It's bogged down by aspirations to be like Origins. [Jan 2014, p.80]

Blackgate isn’t the top-tier AAA portable production I was hoping for. The map is borderline useless, the repetition and fetch quests get tiresome, the rewards for diligent exploration aren’t high, and that 2.5D perspective is definitely problematic in certain combat situations. Still, if you’re a big fan of the old-school side-scrolling style of game, and you’re a big Batman fan, you should give Blackgate a whirl.

While Armature definitely made a few bad calls when putting Blackgate together, I greatly enjoyed this new style of Batman, and didn't have too much heartburn over the rough patches.

If you can get through the glitches and barebones plot, there is a good game to be played. I had fun with Blackgate. I will be playing through it again because this is the style of game I really like. It certainly could have been better, but Blackgate is still an above average experience.

After getting an upgrade or a new gadget, you have to backtrack through already cleared out locations. And this is just one of Blackgate’s many missed opportunities.

Truth is, Batman is the hero the Vita deserves, but Blackgate just isn’t the game it needs right now. [Christmas 2013, p78]

Blackgate should be a good time for anyone willing to pick it up as long as you can look past some speed bumps.

Arkham Origins: Blackgate is an interesting first entry, but it attempts to mimic its console counterpart a bit too much. Some of these elements simply don’t work in a 2D style game, and it hurts the overall experience too much at times.

It’s one of those experiences that falls apart as it unfolds.

There's just no denying that Blackgate is subpar. [Jan 2014, p.70]

This has its moments but it’s barely worth the patience needed to find them. Or anything else. If you want a Metroidvania experience on Vita then get the excellent Guacamelee instead.

Arkham Origins serves to bring Batman back for more in an acceptable, if unbelievable narrative, but Origins Blackgate does nothing for the character, nothing for the player, and nothing to further the Arkham series. It’s not a complete and totally broken mess, but it’s not the portable game Batman deserves and it’s not the Vita game we need right now.

It’s a shame that such an interesting possibility falls so flat. Perhaps a little more development time could have yielded more positive results, but as it is we end up with a running time of around 5-6 hours that feels like it outstays its welcome ever so slightly, purely because the longer you play it, the more it falls apart and the more it becomes frustrating.

Great in concept, Blackgate is boring in practice – a tedious exploration of a prison's innards whose level design and combat simply aren't up to scratch. A functional but charmless and even boring title, this is not the Batman game handheld owners were hoping for.

Without new ideas and without rhythm, Batman Arkham Origins Blackgate does not do justice to a great saga of video games.

Not a very good Batman game and certainly not a very interesting take on the Metroid formula, this portable dud squanders its potential on boring exploration and frustrating combat.

The first few hours of Blackgate provide an exciting glimpse of what might have been a great game, but it slowly falls apart, hour by hour, villain by villain.

It might look like its big brethren, but this is an uninspired light version of everything that made the franchise successful.

In the end I think it’s a solid idea that is just executed poorly, and it really isn’t something I’d suggest checking out.

I'm really disappointed in Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate, and also confused. How could such a good idea be this flawed in execution? There's nothing redeeming this game from all its faults, which is truly a shame.

A waste of potential, Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate is a broken, boring game and a stain on the Metroidvania genre. Its positives are few and far between, buried under a mountain of glitches, tedious gameplay, and poor level design.