Batman: Arkham Origins Preview – Striking From The Shadows

It seems to me that Arkham Origins is in safe hands with Warner Bros. Games Montreal, the first game in the acclaimed franchise which hasn’t been developed by Rocksteady Studios. They’re not revolutionising the mechanics of the series, but at the same time they don’t necessarily need to when the its still very well regarded and has many features which could be deemed best in class.

The real focus is on presenting a new side to Batman and differentiating this game from Rocksteady’s previous iterations. Origins presents an earlier version of the masked vigilante, set in his second year on the job, and so still quite an inexperienced character in many ways. He’s already risen to the top, knocking heads together and cutting down on much of the crime in Gotham City, but this game depicts a long night in his life and one heck of a learning curve.

Origins marks Batman’s first conflict with DC Comics’ legion of twisted and demented super villains. The illusive Black Mask has put a bounty on the caped crusader’s head, and in doing so, has attracted thugs, hitmen, and assassins from all over. Not only that, as Bats fights off the likes of Deadshot and Deathstroke, Gotham’s lesser, petty criminals are allowed to go about their business without fear of his winged justice.

Unlike in previous games, Batman has to tackle this on his own and without the network of allies and friends which he has spread across Gotham, which we saw in Arkham City. There is no Robin yet and Captain James Gordon is still working his way up the ranks of a corrupt GCPD which is set on taking down Batman, even as this very public set of villains arrive and start causing mayhem.

Batman’s only ally is Alfred, and even he is somewhat uneasy and reluctant to support what he sees as Bruce Wayne’s folly, though he does still support from the Batcave. This Batcave is a cool addition to the game – reachable via the Batwing fast travel system – letting you explore one of the core parts of the Batman universe, use the Batcomputer, try out gadgets and, more importantly, get some practice in on the VR simulator which earns experience that ties back into the gameplay.

I could probably have done with more time on this, because the combat in this current string of Batman games takes a lot of nuance and control to really master. It will still be familiar and fairly easy to pick up and play, but even having played the first two games I struggled to string attacks together and get combos.

It’s a combat which WBG Montreal have been particularly careful to preserve and really only tweak, with more of their efforts going towards teaching you how to use Batman’s varied attacks and abilities to their fullest, and then pushing you to using them more often. That then allows them to introduce newer and trickier enemies, such as the armoured lieutenants and martial artists.

The eight assassins which you’ll face off against are a part of this, and the one on one fight with Deathstroke is a particularly good example. It’s there to really teach you how to counter attacks and fight enemies who will try and counter yours – such as the aforementioned martial artists. Every point is there to teach you about countering the multi-staged attacks and it’s really quite effective. Even when you fail, you’re better able to handle what he throws your way and make progress while learning.

This boss fight comes right in the middle of an encounter with the Penguin, as a pleasantly surprising turn of events unfold as Batman hunts down Black Mask. However, even with these various forces arrayed against him, there’s always time to deal with the smaller scale crimes within the city.

That might be taking a small diversion to beat up some goons who have just raided a shop, heard via the radio scanner, or take advantage of a much improved and expanded use of Batman’s detective skills. The example I played through saw a police helicopter sweeping into view, having spotted Batman, before suddenly and abruptly spinning out of control and crashing to the ground.

Upon getting to the wreckage, I was able to trigger Batman’s Detective Vision, switching to a first person view and letting me hunt around for the salient clues. Upon finding the corpse of the pilot, this data was uploaded to the Batcomputer which then created an augmented reality recreation of the crash and let me head in the right direction to hunt for the next clue.

In this case I was subsequently able to determine that the helicopter was shot at from a sniper, and the ability to scroll through a visual reconstruction of the crash let me find the point at which the bullet’s trajectory was shown. Following it back there was a somewhat misleading conclusion, as a police sniper’s body was slumped on the floor, and at first glance he was the shooter. It wasn’t until I reviewed the timeline again that Batman was able to determine that the shot was actually one of Deadshot’s, impossibly accurate and timed for anyone but him.

It’s a very well executed element of gameplay that joins the Arkham series’ mixture very naturally. It’s just a diversion of a few minutes from your main objectives, and is one of the many reasons I think demonstrates that WBG Montreal are a good fit to tackle the franchise.

There’s a level of care and attention to all of the things they’re doing, taking everything that was already so well refined in the first two games and then adding to the experience in a few key areas. Most importantly it’s still just as deep and nuanced a title as before, but just as Batman learns how to cope with the new challenges ahead of him, the game teaches and pushes the players to do so too.