Quick Fix: Though there is an interesting story for hardcore Batman fans, this attempt at bringing the fantastic series to portable consoles falls flat with shallow combat, boring level design and an overall bland aesthetic. For hardcore Dark Knight fans, wait for a price drop before you consider.
Not long ago in 2009 Rocksteady Studios proved to the world
that a great Batman game was not just feasible, but would be so good that it
would launch a series that is the standard for open world superhero games
today. And while it’s no surprise a new Batman hits consoles this fall for a
third time, the Arkham series is finally transitioning to handhelds, though not
without some caveats.
In Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate you take the reins as
Batman once again as he infiltrates the prison Blackgate after a massive
explosion has released the Penguin, the Joker and Black Mask. Cutscenes are
done in a comic book style animation, with the voice actors reprising their
roles from Arkham Origins, which is a nice touch. After saving Catwoman from
some goons, you have the choice to tackle each ‘dungeon’ of the three big bads
in any order.
The game is framed in the ‘Metroidvania’ style, in which
Batman comes to the show with only his trusty batarang, and as the story
progresses he must find more items to go forward. Each dungeon holds an item
and an item upgrade, for a total of two major upgrades per dungeon. Each item
feels unique and the upgrades add extra functionality to expand the repertoire
for exploration, but be prepared to wait until you are on your way to the last
boss before you collect everything.
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| Some Perspective Changes to Lighten Up the 2D Gameplay. Image Courtesy of Game Informer |
Speaking of collectibles, Batman can find pieces of armor
upgrades for extra armor, gauntlet upgrades to boost attack strength, RUSH
pieces to add extra strength when at full health, and pieces of extra batsuits
that, once all five pieces are found, can be equipped to add extra bonus
features to the Dark Knight. There are four suits total, with one suite able to
pick up by simply collecting each piece in a play through and one suit per big
bad beaten last. Meaning in order to obtain all three of these suites, you will
have to beat the game three times, beating each big bad last once. It’s a nice
way to give some extra length, but after one run through, it doesn’t seem like
enough incentive to play the game again.
Though all the parts are there, the exploration is very
standard. Blackgate prison has some variety between the three separate
sections, but nothing that hasn’t been done better in other games. The bland
environments don’t help and the cherry on top would be the fact that there are
almost no respawns for enemies, meaning in the last half of the game you
literally spend time running through empty hallways for the third or fourth
time.
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| Kitty's Got Claws. Meow. Image Courtesy of Dualshockers. |
The signature combat from the console games has been
translated fairly well to the 2D plane, but far from perfect. Batman can attack
and counter combatants, and can quick-fire which ever gadget you have equipped
at the moment. However, the fact that enemies move back and front on the 2D
plane will cause issues. For example, when two enemies are in front of you,
Batman will attack only one enemy, leaving the other to punch you while in mid
combo without being able to counter. Also, if the person you are countering is
just a little bit behind another enemy, the counter will not work, leaving
Batman open for attack. The fluidity seems to be missing as well, requiring the
player to move Batman across the screen to attack an enemy a few feet away
rather than tilting the joystick towards the enemy and hitting the attack
button. The worse offender has to be the quick-fire gadgets, which are slow to
fire off and most of the times are ineffective, which makes maintaining combos
across large levels with small groups of enemies incredibly difficult and
frustrating.
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| Batman Soaring into Derivative Combat. Image Courtesy of Cinemablend. |
Though the first or second enemy encounters are really fun,
but as the game progresses forward, the novelty of combat wears off completely,
with the exception of boss battles. Most bosses have a gadget they are weak
against, and since each boss can be tackled in roughly any order, the
difficulty of these fights may depend on how you tackle each dungeon and
collect each gadget. It is nice to see how each boss can be beaten quickly, but
most boss battles are fairly easy to handle without their weakness in hand, so
the incentive to figure out which item they are weak to is not there. That
being said, the boss battles between the final boss characters are really fun,
with a lot of variety and most not feeling like rehashes of earlier boss
fights. I especially enjoyed the final boss fight.
Outside of finding upgrades and progressing the story, there
are case files to solve, which feel like the biggest missed opportunity of the
game. Batman has his detective vision, which is toggled by tapping the screen
(the bottom screen on 3DS) to activate and moving your finger across the screen
to find and analyze items in the environment. This is how you find clues for
case files. That is it. There are no hints and there is no real deductive work.
You simply move your finger across the screen and hope you come across things.
This could have been so much more, and instead turns into a tedious and
frustrating process of hoping you come across the next clue.
Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate is something of a missed
opportunity. It’s a working game, with decent combat and exploration, but
nothing you can’t find better in other games. The story is interesting, but
very short and not earth shattering like the other three games. And though
there are some small incentives to play through multiple times, they aren’t
enough to want to endure the 6 – 8 hour campaign (unless you want some pretty
easy trophies for your Vita). If you’re a hardcore Batman fan who can handle
some underwhelming gameplay, pick it up. If not, I’d wait for a discount.
6.5 out of 10
Here are some links:
The Wikipedia Page
The IGN Review
The Metacritic Page
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