So, I just finished Arkham Origins and.....

Post Reply New Topic

I think it might be the best Arkham game yet!! !

Really, I just don't get all the lack luster/bad reviews for this game.

Without getting too spoilery, I think the story was great and provides a fitting end/beginning to Arkham's Batman/Joker trilogy. There's a very Milleresque, obsessive (homoerotic) vibe between those two here... If you don't know what I mean, go watch the tunnel of love sequence on the Dark Knight Returns DVD and then watch Joker's interview with Harley when he arrives at Blackgate in the game... If that ain't love....

I also liked the boss fights a lot. This is the first Arkham game where I actually bothered to learn how to fight properly--and guess what? FIGHTING IS A LOT OF FUN!

The Boss fights force you to learn how to fight properly without becoming a tedious pain-in-the-ass. That's pretty good game design in my book.

The one remotely valid criticism I've seen is that this game does not bring anything new to the table... The thing is, this really isn't a whole new game. It's more like a new story using the Arkham City engine and an expanded map. I can see why some people might be upset if this had been billed as a whole new game, BUT IT WASN'T.

When I read about this game on IGN back in the summer, it was described as a NEW STORY for Arkham City, not a new game. Anybody bitching about this being too much like Arkham City wasn't paying attention.

The only other thing that might be worth a bad review would be bugs. I don't know how buggy the game was upon release, but right now, it runs flawlessly on my rig.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on the game. I'd be interested to read other views...

PS

NOW, for the next game, I think we REALLY need to see Gotham City as a fully populated, 'open world' city. AND we need a story that is played out over days, weeks, or months (Long Halloween, anyone?). If that, or something equally cool, doesn't happen, I'll start howling too.

The biggest downside seemed to be the initial bugs, that it felt like they did not test it enough before release. But apart from that it was great, built upon the gameplay elements that worked in Arkham City, and the story involving the Joker was great. It was not the start of Batman, he had been in Gotham for a while, but we peer down the rabbit hole of the Joker's obsession and with it what you find out at the credits.

^^^ Thanks for the input, guys.

I did have this game preordered for PS3, but canceled the order because of a lukewarm early review. I'm glad I did.

I would have been annoyed at bugs--especially in a console game. By waiting two months and picking the game up on a Steam sale, I got a much improved game for a much better price.



I think many of the more critical reviews were probably overly biased due to bugs.

My biggest complaint (aside from the bugs) was that the story was underwhelming in the end. It had it's highlights, but it ran into the safe 'high stakes' problems many prequels run into. We knew no one important would die, because they have to live on to be in the 'previous' games. We know Batman will win because he always wins. We know Gordon and Batman will become allies because they're allies in the 'previous' games. Even when they did change the Arkham canon it was to pointlessly tie in Harley Quinn because there weren't enough Easter eggs or nods or whatever you want to call it. The villains were underdeveloped, even the interesting ones didn't get a fair chance to shine. The most interesting new thing Origins brought to the table was the improved Bane, and it wasn't handled as well as it could and should have been (though I appreciated the nods they gave to his role in the comics). So was Origins fun? Yeah, it was fun. Was it cool? Yeah, of course it was cool. Was it as overall as enjoyable and worth playing as either of the other two? Well...not quite. Personally I think this is partially because of the new studio handling the title and also because Paul Dini didn't have any involvement with this game. I liked playing Origins, but I would have liked it more if it had a story that stuck with me the way the story of City and Asylum did.

It got some bad reviews for being a 50 dollar expansion pack to Arkham City, it even used mostly the same exact map and playable game world, just with snow and Christmas themes. Loved the game itself, don't get me wrong, but I also understand the criticisms of it not having been worth 50 dollars back in October. I bought it pre-order on Steam because I love the Arkham games, but I wish I had waited for the sales, I felt it was a 20 dollar game at best, it was quite short and there wasn't enough new stuff to warrant the full 50 dollar price on release.

I am curious to see what happens with this supposed Arkham World game that people are talking about. I hope it is not an attempt to cash-in and create an MMO, the Arkham franchise does not lend itself well to the idea of MMO gaming.

^
$50, really? You guys are lucky on your game prices, can't even get 3DS games for $50.

I watched a YouTube walkthrough of the game and it was better than I thought it was. Too bad that Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill wasn't doing the voices.

I got caught in a gamebreaking bug, never played the damn thing again. I've started it maybe three or four times from scratch, and playing it from the beginning for a fifth just seems like a waste of time for me. I may do, but that's why I grew to hate the game. Well, that, and it didn't have the same degree of creativity, imagination and intrigue as Arkham City.

The game is extremely underrated and most people justify it by saying that the game didn't bring anything new or innovative to the Arkham series. I can understand why the developers didn't want to Changing anything in terms of gameplay but it is something that reviewers picked up on.

If the game had released as a standalone expansion to Arkham City, the reviews would be higher and it could have tied in well with Arkham City to highlight the rise and fall of The Joker. Rocksteady and Warner brothers have gone corporate commander with the DLC now, charging fans money for skins and XP boosts.