DuhWhitePanda
Gaming illumiNaughty
What I liked
This installment of Batman adds one new major feature into the game, the Batmobile. This car can be used to get from one place to another, to solve puzzles, and to stop ongoing crimes within Arkham city. The car is an integral part of Batman's arsenal, and much like all his other gear and gadgets, can be upgraded. Speaking of Arkham City, this time Rocksteady made the world more alive. The city, as one can imagine, has gone to shit. As such, small time criminals, and some well known criminals, have taken to criminal activities. Unlike in Arkham City, Batman is not alone in stopping these criminals. There are emergency services trying to attend to all occurrences in Arkham City, be it a bank robbery, a fire, or someone in need of medical assistance. While we may not get to see a random family living their life in Arkham, and questioning why the hell anyone would live in such a city (Especially with the city being a prison in the previous game), the city is alive. Actually, we do get a glimpse of what daily life in the city is like, though I wont spoil that part for you.
The game for the first time is completely open world. Missions can be selected using the D-pad. While each mission is essentially a side quest, they relate to the over all story in the game. Not only do they show you what certain villains are doing during the events of the main story, but sometimes the side quests reveal certain ties of a character to a specific event in the story. Outside of the side quests, there are randomly generated events that happen. For example, you can be driving down a street and suddenly find yourself in a high speed chase.
What I disliked (Minor spoilers)
The story really wasnt given much thought, in my opinion. The Arkham Knight character was really well done, though any 90's action movie has similar characters, with the reveal following the exact same story beats. The problem with the story is that its basically Arkham City all over again, Batman trying to stop a mad man from destroying the city, and revealing his [Batman] identity to the world. Scarecrow is essentially Hugo strange, Tyger has been replaced with another military group known as "The Milita" and Protocol 10 is now known as Cloudburst. Sure their are minor details which separate the two games plots, but it feels like roads we've already traveled down.
Like I mentioned, the batmobile was the biggest edition to the game. However, its relied on too much to solve puzzles. This game takes place after Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, thus there is no reason as to why there are sections where the player must get the batmobile into a compound to solve similar puzzles, which were solved with other gadgets in previous games. One of the good things Arkham Origins had was big fight feels with each of the bosses. In almost every big fight, the batmobile is used. The player has 3 fights with the Arkham Knight, there is only one fight which does not involve the batmobile, but rest assured, its some old bullshit, and doesnt compare to any of the fights in Arkham Origins.
Semi-Final Verdict
There are so many more positives and negatives which play into this game's over all rating, thus far, but there is no way to mention them without major plot points being spoiled. There is also separate story packs coming out over the next 6 months. Due to a problem, on Sony's end, I was without my Harley Quinn story pack for the first two days. In fact, I'm looking at a two hour install time for the DLC as I right this. [27% completion... I got 100 up, c'mon son!]
All that being said, I give this game a 7.5 /10.
I will be making a spoiler review thread, once I play the Harley Quinn DLC.
This installment of Batman adds one new major feature into the game, the Batmobile. This car can be used to get from one place to another, to solve puzzles, and to stop ongoing crimes within Arkham city. The car is an integral part of Batman's arsenal, and much like all his other gear and gadgets, can be upgraded. Speaking of Arkham City, this time Rocksteady made the world more alive. The city, as one can imagine, has gone to shit. As such, small time criminals, and some well known criminals, have taken to criminal activities. Unlike in Arkham City, Batman is not alone in stopping these criminals. There are emergency services trying to attend to all occurrences in Arkham City, be it a bank robbery, a fire, or someone in need of medical assistance. While we may not get to see a random family living their life in Arkham, and questioning why the hell anyone would live in such a city (Especially with the city being a prison in the previous game), the city is alive. Actually, we do get a glimpse of what daily life in the city is like, though I wont spoil that part for you.
The game for the first time is completely open world. Missions can be selected using the D-pad. While each mission is essentially a side quest, they relate to the over all story in the game. Not only do they show you what certain villains are doing during the events of the main story, but sometimes the side quests reveal certain ties of a character to a specific event in the story. Outside of the side quests, there are randomly generated events that happen. For example, you can be driving down a street and suddenly find yourself in a high speed chase.
What I disliked (Minor spoilers)
The story really wasnt given much thought, in my opinion. The Arkham Knight character was really well done, though any 90's action movie has similar characters, with the reveal following the exact same story beats. The problem with the story is that its basically Arkham City all over again, Batman trying to stop a mad man from destroying the city, and revealing his [Batman] identity to the world. Scarecrow is essentially Hugo strange, Tyger has been replaced with another military group known as "The Milita" and Protocol 10 is now known as Cloudburst. Sure their are minor details which separate the two games plots, but it feels like roads we've already traveled down.
Like I mentioned, the batmobile was the biggest edition to the game. However, its relied on too much to solve puzzles. This game takes place after Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, thus there is no reason as to why there are sections where the player must get the batmobile into a compound to solve similar puzzles, which were solved with other gadgets in previous games. One of the good things Arkham Origins had was big fight feels with each of the bosses. In almost every big fight, the batmobile is used. The player has 3 fights with the Arkham Knight, there is only one fight which does not involve the batmobile, but rest assured, its some old bullshit, and doesnt compare to any of the fights in Arkham Origins.
Semi-Final Verdict
There are so many more positives and negatives which play into this game's over all rating, thus far, but there is no way to mention them without major plot points being spoiled. There is also separate story packs coming out over the next 6 months. Due to a problem, on Sony's end, I was without my Harley Quinn story pack for the first two days. In fact, I'm looking at a two hour install time for the DLC as I right this. [27% completion... I got 100 up, c'mon son!]
All that being said, I give this game a 7.5 /10.
I will be making a spoiler review thread, once I play the Harley Quinn DLC.
