Why Batman Arkham Origins Was Disappointing

Batman Arkham Origins was one of the most disappointing games released last year, and today I am going to talk about why that is. Now I want to stress by saying that if this game was the first Arkham game to come out of this series, then it would have been a pretty good game, hell, it might have been a great game, but seeing as this game is following Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, it has a lot of live up to what with its older brothers setting the bar so high.

Let's start with the nitpicks of the game, why is it called Arkham Origins? The game has absolutely nothing to do with Arkham, it should just be called Batman Origins. Although I guess Arkham is part of the brand name, but it still needs to make sense, it's like having an Indiana Jones movie without Indiana Jones, it's kind of an important aspect. And also why was Deathstroke marketed as such a huge character when he's the first boss fight then he never shows up again? And Batman using his electric gloves to give someone CPR, are you freaking kidding me!? Alright then, those are the nitpicks, now let's get into the meat of this game.

First of all, with gameplay, there is nothing new to be added. One of the best things about Arkham City was how much improved on an already fantastic gameplay, gliding was better, you were given more weapon upgrades, combat became a lot more creative, it had a lot of innovation. This game adds almost nothing new apart from one feature involving the grappling hook, and even the "new" stuff is just rehashed stuff from the previous games, like they turned your ice grenades into glue grenades even though they do the exact same thing. And not to mention it's very contradictory for this game to have all these features when it takes place years before the first two games so why is Batman just as powerful as he is in those games!? I mean yeah we'd feel cheated if he was weaker but at least it would have been logical! You know what would have been more logical? Not-making-a-prequel! Also why is Gotham city apparently nothing but thugs? I mean it made sense in the last two games but this game is supposed to be all of Gotham, yet apparently it's only criminals for some reason.

And as for the voice actors, I am mixed on them, Roger Craig Smith as Batman...the guy is trying his hardest but...that's the problem...whenever he's supposed to be threatening it sounds so obvious that he's trying to be threatening. With Kevin Conroy, the guy just sounds so badass, he has the most badass voice in history, he's the greatest Batman we've ever had! And Troy Baker as Joker...he's the best part about this game, I mean it is absolutely fantastic, no matter how bad the product, Troy Baker will never give a bad performance, that is just a fact.

But the biggest problem with this game isn't the lack of innovation or repetitive gameplay, it's the story, the story is a step backwards in every single way possible. Look Arkham City was one of the deepest and most complex stories I've seen in a videogame, all of the themes and subtext behind it, it's just genius and is one of the best adaptations of Batman I've ever seen, it makes you genuinely feel like you are The Batman. But this game doesn't have that, it's a generic story with no depth behind it or themes and goes on a smaller scale with no major impact on the future of the franchise, and they bring the Joker back because apparently a BATMAN game can't get by without the Joker being in it...bullshit! Batman has one of the best villain rosters out there, and killing off The Joker in Arkham City was one of the biggest surprises I've ever experienced in a videogame, and taking away that affect by having your game focus on the Joker (AGAIN!) is just taking a huge step backwards. There are no themes, nothing is developed, no foreshadowing, no massive changes, it's a boring story with boring characters and boring gameplay.

The fact that this game is connected to the Arkham franchise is almost insulting, I cannot tell you how happy I am that the next Batman Arkham game (Arkham Knight) is going back to the original developers at Rocksteady AND has Kevin Conroy back as Batman AND is actually continuing the story. Just from the demo at EA alone I was able to tell there is going to be far more innovation, faster and more agile gliding, driving the Batmobile, improved graphics, a brand new and interesting villain, who I hope actually is a completely new villain and not just The Joker or Red Hood. This game is guaranteed to be better than Arkham Origins, no doubt about that.

-Danny