Batman: Arkham Origins – Bane makes a strong first impression

In the last few years it’s become increasingly common for publishers to demo all their games using the PC version, even when they know fine well it’s the console ones that will account for the vast majority of sales. Now that Xbox One and PlayStation 4 games are being previewed in the wild that’s made it even more difficult to be sure of exactly what version of a game you’re seeing.

As an example we were convinced that the hands-off demo for Batman: Arkham Origins was being shown on a PC. But it wasn’t, it was just a regular PlayStation 3 – proof that this current generation still has the ability to impress both visually and in terms of its gameplay.



Of course the problem is that the developer could just be lying – you rarely get to see the box the console is actually plugged into – but after the hands-off demo we also had a chance to play the game ourselves and it still looked just as good.

The only problem is that it also looked almost identical to Batman: Arkham City, right down to the fact that it’s still snowing. Why Warner Bros. would want to make comparisons so easy we’re not sure, but they’re likely trying to compensate for the fact that this game is not by series creators Rocksteady Studios.


What Rocksteady are currently working on is a mystery but it’s presumably being designed specifically with the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in mind. Arkham Origins though is not. It is instead a prequel to the first two games, set during Batman’s early years and featuring his first interactions with many of his most famous villains.

Although the likes of the The Joker and The Penguin are in the game the mastermind behind everything is the more obscure Black Mask, with the game making a purposeful attempt to highlight lesser known Batvillains. This includes eight different assassins competing for a reward to kill Batman, with the two revealed so far being Deadshot and Deathstroke.

Because it’s a prequel none of Gotham has been segregated off into an open prison, and yet the city still looks largely the same as before – with gangs of criminals roaming about for you to pick off at your leisure. In fact the developer seem particularly proud of the random crimes which the game triggers, as a civilian calls for help while being mugged or a larger group of hoods attempts to rob a bank.

The combat and controls are essentially identical to Arkham City and although you can use the Batwing to fast travel between different points in the city there’s still no sign of using the Batmobile. As a result your primary mode of locomotion is still gliding and hookshoting your way between buildings.

Batman: Arkham Origins – the enforcers are a much tougher enemy than usual

Batman does have a few new tricks up his utility belt though, including the new Remote Claw, which is able to attach between two objects. These can be either static or mobile, allowing you to set-up a tightrope between two vertical services or attaching a fire extinguisher to a bad guy to create a distraction.



There are also new types of enemy thugs to battle, including the heavily armed enforcer and the more nimble martial arts expert. The latter in particular make quite a difference to the rhythm of the combat, as Batman has never really faced a regular opponent as nimble as him in the previous games.

The game features multiple levels of villainy and while preventing street level crime is just for a bit of fun and experience points there are also villains who while not involved in Black Mask’s scheme have taken advantage of the chaos for their own ends.

One of these is Anarky, who in the demo has set-up a number of bombs around the city – one of which Batman stumbles upon purely by accident. Disarming it involves taking down a number of hired thugs but whether you go after the other bombs straight away, and eventually apprehend Anarky, is left entirely up to you. Which is an intriguing extra level of non-linearity.

Another priority for the game is to emphasis Batman’s role as the ‘world’s greatest detective’. This is illustrated in the demo by a long and complicated sequence where a police helicopter is shot down in front of you and you have to piece together what happened and who was involved.

Building on the rather simplistic detective sequences from Arkham City this involves finding all the fragments of the helicopter and having the Bat Computer work out trajectories and 3D reconstructions. It’s essentially just busywork, and not really a puzzle in the traditional sense, but it’s a good bit of scene setting and certainly helps to increase the feeling that you really are Batman.


And that’s what’s going to forgive Arkahm Origins its lack of innovation in many people’s eyes. The first two titles are already the best superhero games by far and while this may not be offering much that is new in terms of gameplay it promises to only deepen the illusion that you really are running around the mean streets of Gotham, in pursuit of some comic books’ finest bad guys.

And to underline that it’s not all B-list villains the preview ends with a cut scene featuring Bane and The Joker, who seem to be working in cahoots. This is implied to be the first time Batman has ever met The Joker, who taunts him with a series of explosive charges before blowing up a nearby skyscraper.

We don’t get to find out what happens next, but even though we know it’s probably not going to be much different to anything that occurred in Arkham City we still can’t wait to find out anyway…

Formats: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U, and PC

Publisher: WB Games

Developer: Warner Bros. Games Montreal

Release Date: 25th October 2013

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