Batman: Arkham Origins Gets Back to Batman's Roots

[Sarah LeBoeuf]

Batman: Arkham Origins Gets Back to Batman's Roots

?Twas the night before Christmas, and all through Gotham City?

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[jFr[e]ak93]

Did Batman just...ah... you know... kill someone?

OT interesting premise. Glad they're not going for Arkham Nation and then Arkham world.

 

[Malisteen]

Would have preferred if they had stripped down the gadgets a bit to focus on Batman's personal physicality, this being a prequel and all, but I loved the previous games and there's no way I'll pass on this one.

 

[senordesol]

Hurry and take...er...uh...EARN my money!

I've got no problem what so ever of an expansion of gameplay features even if it is a prequel in story. I'd rather be having fun than being constantly frustrated by limitations overcome by previous titles (though it would be kind of amusing if there were occasional malfunctions of experimental equipment). What I'm really hoping for, though, are more segments in the vein of the Scarecrow mini-games a la Arkham Asylum. If the prequel focus means they can break up the gameplay a bit; I'm all for it.

But I'm not preordering. I have complete faith in the team, and they'll get my money if they do this right; but NOT BEFORE!

 

[loc978]

Hmm... I was kind of hoping for something more along the lines of Batman: Year One. Not sure how they'd portray him mostly gadget-less and regarding himself as a "fucking amateur" through video game mechanics, though.

Still, this looks quite good... even if Batman himself seems, if anything, more advanced than later in the Arkham timeline.

 

[tdylan]

Hmm... I was kind of hoping for something more along the lines of Batman: Year One. Not sure how they'd portray him mostly gadget-less and regarding himself as a "fucking amateur" through video game mechanics, though.

Still, this looks quite good... even if Batman himself seems, if anything, more advanced than later in the Arkham timeline.

That's one of my pet peeves about prequels - they almost always feature better tech than the stories that should have taken place later. It shatters my suspension of disbelief

 

[tdylan]

Hmm... I was kind of hoping for something more along the lines of Batman: Year One. Not sure how they'd portray him mostly gadget-less and regarding himself as a "fucking amateur" through video game mechanics, though.

Still, this looks quite good... even if Batman himself seems, if anything, more advanced than later in the Arkham timeline.

That's one of my pet peeves about prequels - they almost always feature better tech than the stories that should have taken place later. It shatters my suspension of disbelief

Deus Ex Human Revolutions had that problem to. Everything is so sleek in comparison to the blocky and disjointed augmentations of the original. Probably because Human Revolutions is a graphical and aesthetic powerhouse where the original one can be run on a toaster with a pick axe in it.

OP: Looks very promising

That's one of the reasons I didn't pick up HR - the "step back" in what they could do was just too jarring. I found myself thinking "wouldn't it be great if Denton could do even half the things his predecessor could?"

There is a "throwaway line" in Arkham City when Batman request some equipment and Alfred replies to the effect of "why not just carry a larger belt." Bruce answered that it was too much weight and slowed him down too much. Of course, he receives the equipment anyway and doesn't seem to be impeded by it, but that's neither here nor there. In the case of origins I hope to overlook it by saying:

He was younger, stronger, and less experienced so he needed all of that equipment. The Arkham games lend themselves to "he had to limit himself on what he could carry," versus games like Human Revolution where there's really no justification for the step back in technology.

 

[sturryz]

In Deus Ex HR you were a clunky robot man, not nearly on par with a nano augment-able future warrior.

Arkham Origins looks happy fun time btw, can't wait for more batman.

 

[ZZoMBiE13]

Is it weird that Batman has more refined combat, more gadgets, and more detective abilities in a game set years before the previous Arkham titles?

Actually it's not that hard to imagine if you think about it. Remember that in the first game, Bruce was trapped on Arkham Island and had to gain access to his gear through a limited back up Batcave and occasionally talking to Alfred. Mostly though, he was on his own with just what he had available. And it was after spending the night chasing the Joker, so who knows how long it'd been since he "restocked".

Similarly in Arkham City, it was still a limited tool set, only having available the things he could get flown in. Not exactly 100% access to everything in the Batcave.

The only one that really breaks the fiction is having access to the Grapnel Boost in this prequel when they had a few lines of dialog setting up that it was a prototype in Arkham City. But that was a game changer from a pure gameplay perspective and it would be impossible to go backwards. So we accept it.

 

[RJ 17]

Honestly, this wouldn't be the first game series to have a prequel utilizing seemingly more advanced tech than that which appears in games that take place later on in the story line. At least as far as the whole Detective Mode Video thing, it can at least be understandable that the Batcomputer was always capable of doing that, but Batman just never had a reason to utilize that function. Think about the detective stuff in Arkham City...really all you ever do is trace bullet trajectories or follow trails of blood or something...no real reason to make a video of it. With the case of the Identity Thief missions, all you're doing is finding bodies in back alleys, there'd be no way for the Batcomputer to create a guess or simulation of how the body got there where as with the helicopter example we've seen in videos, it starts with the pilot's body that got flung from the cockpit to analyzing where the helicopter hit the buildings during it's fall to project how the copter fell, etc.

As for the bat-claw/line-launcher combo.....yeah, I got nothing on that. Seems like a pretty handy device that Batman might want to keep around.

Still though, my suspension of disbelief is able to look past such trivial matters as gadget loadout. I really can't wait for this game to come out.

 

[anian]

Uuuu, I bet Joker twist will actually be Joker trying to "protect" Batman. Oh, and definitely needs a Christmas carol sidestory.

Now if only Shane Black was included in the writing process.

 

[EHKOS]

I want to play as Deathstroke, but I don't want to pre-order! I'm still wary since it's not Rocksteady. And are they using the same engine or will it feel different?

It does look good though, and the Joker voice is pretty cool. But what about that Hush thing they were doing in City?

And the constolation map guy.

 

[Bat Vader]

Hmm... I was kind of hoping for something more along the lines of Batman: Year One. Not sure how they'd portray him mostly gadget-less and regarding himself as a "fucking amateur" through video game mechanics, though.

Still, this looks quite good... even if Batman himself seems, if anything, more advanced than later in the Arkham timeline.

That's one of my pet peeves about prequels - they almost always feature better tech than the stories that should have taken place later. It shatters my suspension of disbelief

I know what you mean. I am trying to look at it as a progression of Batman's character and detective skills as he gets older and more experienced. Like after a time he didn't need that video system in his cowl/suit because he became a master at analyzing crime scenes and figuring out what happened.

 

[josemlopes]

Hmm... I was kind of hoping for something more along the lines of Batman: Year One. Not sure how they'd portray him mostly gadget-less and regarding himself as a "fucking amateur" through video game mechanics, though.

Still, this looks quite good... even if Batman himself seems, if anything, more advanced than later in the Arkham timeline.

That's one of my pet peeves about prequels - they almost always feature better tech than the stories that should have taken place later. It shatters my suspension of disbelief

Deus Ex Human Revolutions had that problem to. Everything is so sleek in comparison to the blocky and disjointed augmentations of the original. Probably because Human Revolutions is a graphical and aesthetic powerhouse where the original one can be run on a toaster with a pick axe in it.

OP: Looks very promising

That's one of the reasons I didn't pick up HR - the "step back" in what they could do was just too jarring. I found myself thinking "wouldn't it be great if Denton could do even half the things his predecessor could?"

There is a "throwaway line" in Arkham City when Batman request some equipment and Alfred replies to the effect of "why not just carry a larger belt." Bruce answered that it was too much weight and slowed him down too much. Of course, he receives the equipment anyway and doesn't seem to be impeded by it, but that's neither here nor there. In the case of origins I hope to overlook it by saying:

He was younger, stronger, and less experienced so he needed all of that equipment. The Arkham games lend themselves to "he had to limit himself on what he could carry," versus games like Human Revolution where there's really no justification for the step back in technology.

Actually the guys from the dev team already explained why in here you have different tech from the other games, Batman doesnt carry all his gear at once and some gear may work better in some situatuions while others dont influencing his choice of gear at the time. Overall I dont mind since the comics, cartoons and movies do that too with him.

 

[Evil Smurf]

I hoe they ditch GFWL, I have both batman games but cant play either