Batman: Arkham Origins
Separating the naughty from the nice in BATMAN: ARKHAM ORIGINS
There’s a sense of trepidation firing up Arkham Origins for the first time. It has a reputation. This is the estranged, drunk uncle of the series—one who starts celebrating Christmas in September and might not actually be a blood relative. His timing is terrible. He’s slightly unreliable. But he’s not the urine-soaked catastrophe you expect and, in fact, some people like him more than the other uncle with the flashy car.
That’s a potentially-too-personal way of saying Origins isn’t as bad as you probably think, even if it never lives up to the promise of an enriching prequel. In practice, the showcase of Bats as a rawer, more savage version of his later Rocksteady incarnations feels hollow. The Batman of Arkham Knight wasn’t exactly gentle. There are only so many ways you can explode a knee or rupture an eardrum, and few of them say ‘I’m better at dealing with things now’. It’s a missed opportunity. The title refers to the origin of the broader Arkham mythology, rather than of Batman himself, but it would have been great to see a more fragile side of Bruce Wayne. Instead, Origins makes you appear disproportionately capable as you glide through Gotham as a fully equipped, upgraded Dark Knight, and that takes much of the threat out of the ‘kill Batman’ subplot. Instead of the parade of supervillain assassins being the thing that molds Bruce Wayne into a gushing justice spigot, they’re snails crossing a busy road. They’re going to get crushed eventually.
Other things about Origins feel off. There’s a vague lack of finesse that a game designer could pinpoint and articulate far better than me. The timing of the fights is sluggish, like controls in a rhythm action game that need recalibrating. And the camera is more unruly than in other games in the series.
Technically speaking, it’s more stable than it was at launch—I had one slightly catastrophic crash, but generally it runs well and looks gorgeous, even if it can’t compare to the rain-drenched lustre of Arkham
Knight. These slightly worn edges don’t sound like much, but they diminish an experience we’re used to being immaculate.
Despite this, I do like Origins. And in fact, the contrarian in me might like it more than Knight. There’s a lack of urgency to the story which, instead of making things flat, gives me space to pretend to be Batman. I can go back to the Batcave and bicker with Alfred and it doesn’t feel like
I’m putting innocent lives at risk when I spend an hour getting distracted by petty crimes. The villains are enjoyable, too. This has the best version of Bane in the series, and actually getting to fistfight Deathstroke is a valuable narrative moment in Batman’s history. And the period and setting are fantastic, even if Gotham looks a bit drab and industrial in places. The snow and tinny Christmas songs make Gotham feel like a real place, with Bats acting like a Kevlar-coated Santa delivering fists of coal to naughty boys.
The title refers to the origin of the broader Arkham mythology