Batman: Arkham Origins

A different studio, the same product. Arkham Origins is basically the Arkham City title, re-painted not to a pink colour but into the mood of Batman's advent. The fun is there, however and unfortunately, its drawbacks should really be solved.

Batman: Arkham Origins is a flawed, but enjoyable game that fails to improve on a winning formula. This is still great core gameplay, solid graphics, great voice acting, and a plot that's a good ride while it lasts. Just don't expect anything new.

It is a well done, if familiar game. In all its homogeneity with respect to its predecessors, though, Arkham Origins lacks surprise and spark. You'll constantly feel one step ahead of the game.

A poor man’s version of Arkham City, although that still leaves a fairly rich gameplay experience – even if it is the franchise equivalent of treading water.

Batman: Arkham Origins doesn’t seem to realize its true potential, and because of it, falls short.

Even though it's worse than the predecessors in almost every possible way, Batman: Arkham Origins is still highly enjoyable. Which says a lot about how good the Arkham series has been so far.

This reads as a harsh review, but the basic building blocks are still in place. And it's a good game compared to others. However it pales when stacked against the previous two masterpieces. The Batman in Origins is seemingly a metaphor for his creators: less experienced, and making the odd mistake.

Where Arkham Asylum and Arkham City surprised me with their ambition, Origins is comfortable taking the best from what has come before without contributing much of its own — or even fully understanding what worked about those systems. It's built on a solid foundation but it doesn't take the world's greatest detective to see that something significant is missing.

Origins is the least impressive game the series has to offer. Warner Bros. Games Montréal eagerly uses the fundamentals that original developer Rocksteady created and perfected with the two other Batman-games, but forgets to build upon it and really make it their own. The combat system is the best it has to offer and can make Batman: Arkham Origins quite entertaining. Aside from that, there’s nothing here that its predecessors don’t do better.

Batman: Arkham Origins could have been so much more. I’m not sure if a rushed development cycle, a new developer, or shoehorned multiplayer is to blame (maybe a combination of all three), but unfortunately, Origins falls short of the high bars the previous games have created.

Batman: Arkham Origins is a massive step back from Rocksteady’s Arkham efforts due to countless technical problems, poor gadget balancing, and a needless addition of versus multiplayer.

Games appeal in different ways to different people but they should never be tedious, and Warner Montreal have been unable to recapture the spark and essence which made the previous titles such a delight to play. As a consequence, Arkham Origins suffers from monotony - one crime which even The World’s Greatest Detective would find impossible to solve.

The real shame of Batman: Arkham Origins is that those attempts at innovation are so clearly visible. The studios have obviously made an attempt to freshen up the series, and some changes like the boss battles are actually very successful. But those changes are fairly minor in the grander scope of the game as a whole, leaving Arkham Origins unable to escape from under its predecessors' shadows.