Batman: Arkham Origins
Nov. 20th, 2013 12:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seriousficOverall, I'd say it's pretty good, not great. The gameplay is as fun as ever--but when it's supposed to be making you feel like God of the Night Batman and you're supposedly playing as Rookie MakesMistakes Batman... I don't know. Also, the technology displayed is pretty much of a piece with earlier (later?) games in the series, maybe even more advanced. I hate to be that fan, buuuuut... while admitting that gameplay should come first, and it could very well be just too much to ask of the player to take all their toys away and start out from scratch... there was an opportunity here and I feel it was missed. I would've liked to seen more of the Frank Miller Batman who can nearly get taken out by three thugs lugging a stolen TV out of an apartment. Maybe just the Bat-grapple, the Batarangs, and the smoke pellets. Maybe they should even 86 the Detective Vision (if we must, give Bats an MGS-style radar instead). Instead of making Batman a proto-Iron Man, reduce him to being a young man in spandex. I know it goes against the ain't broke, don't fix it school of prequels, but that's the kind of risk I like people to take. And for heaven's sake, instead of showing Arkham City from the second game in pristine condition, why not make an effort to do an eighties-flavored David Mazzucchelli city? Neon! I want to see neon! Take the neon back from Joel Schumacher and let it once more bathe Batman in its Japanese neo-noir glow!
As for the story, it's fair enough. It's hard to do anything very exciting with the "early days of Bat" storyline, since everyone up to and including Nolan has done their take on it, but this take on Batman and the Joker's first meeting does alright for itself, and has a fun origin for Harley Quinn. Otherwise, it doesn't do much to take advantage of the story's prequel status. You don't get a first encounter with Catwoman, or Batman's first meeting with Superman, or Robin's origin story--nothing like that. On the one hand, it'd be a teensy bit ridiculous for all of Batman's early development to be centered around one Christmas (even with Christmas now taking up the whole months of November and December these days). On the other hand, who gives a shit about Batman's VERY FIRST MEETING WITH KILLER CROC!
And the theme of the story, as you do, is Batman learning to not be such a jerk, whereas in the prequelized stories he's one of the jerkier Batmans we've got, to the point that it helps to have a different voice actor from Kevin Conroy to sell this Batman as his own, jerky dude. But this is admittedly faithful to the comics, where I think every Bat-event since 1990 has been about Batman learning to be a family man, forgetting that, then learning it again. New crossover idea: All the Robins and Batgirls realize that Bruce will forever be a toxic asshole, tell him to fuck off and die, decide to hang out with Bronze Tiger instead. "Is there a... is there a Bronze Tiger Family? I can be Silver Tiger!" Dick Grayson will say.
They do have a nice conceit, continued from Arkham City, where there are some supervillains who Batman deals with in the main storyline and some he deals with in side-missions. I would've preferred if all the assassins were non-optional and then there were some extras in the side-missions (Killer Croc, for instance, should be Batman investigating strange goings-on in the subway). And (That Fan!) that the main villains were official DC Universe Assassins rather than a couple randoms out for a bounty. That's what side-missions are for! Sorry, sorry. But c'mon, get me some KGBeast up in here.
The villains themselves are well-done. You have Copperhead continuing the Arkham series' dedication to diversity in giving minority representation to underdressed supermodels; Riddler they do a particularly good job on. I remember in the first Arkham game, they implied some grimdark thing where he's a serial killer who murders stupid people, but here, he's more of a hacktivist who's going to Wikileaks the entire city of Gotham. It's a very modern, pleasant take on the character and I'll give kudos for it, even if the ending to the storyline is the biggest disappointment in gaming since the Treasure of Big Whoop. Bane, playing off his central role in TDKR, shows up as something of the Dragon, though the story isn't ambitious enough to actually have him break the Bat. Black Mask--this I have mixed feelings about--initially seems to the Big Bad, but pretty quick the storyline pulls a switcheroo and it's Joker back in the driver's seat. On the one hand, the Joker is of course better than Black fucking Mask, but on the other hand, Joker's been the main villain for three games now, and it stinks of laziness to do a prequel just to avoid dealing with his death in Arhkam City. Hopefully, this rounds out the 'Joker trilogy' phase of Arkham games, and we can give him a long overdue vacation from the PS3.
Oh, and a young Barbara Gordon shows up, with her prequelitis storyline entirely foreshadowing her time as Oracle instead of her being Batgirl. So even the guys whose missions in life is to find new and creative outfits for Harley Quinn to demean herself in know that Babsgirl is bullshit. Stick it to the Man.
As for the story, it's fair enough. It's hard to do anything very exciting with the "early days of Bat" storyline, since everyone up to and including Nolan has done their take on it, but this take on Batman and the Joker's first meeting does alright for itself, and has a fun origin for Harley Quinn. Otherwise, it doesn't do much to take advantage of the story's prequel status. You don't get a first encounter with Catwoman, or Batman's first meeting with Superman, or Robin's origin story--nothing like that. On the one hand, it'd be a teensy bit ridiculous for all of Batman's early development to be centered around one Christmas (even with Christmas now taking up the whole months of November and December these days). On the other hand, who gives a shit about Batman's VERY FIRST MEETING WITH KILLER CROC!
And the theme of the story, as you do, is Batman learning to not be such a jerk, whereas in the prequelized stories he's one of the jerkier Batmans we've got, to the point that it helps to have a different voice actor from Kevin Conroy to sell this Batman as his own, jerky dude. But this is admittedly faithful to the comics, where I think every Bat-event since 1990 has been about Batman learning to be a family man, forgetting that, then learning it again. New crossover idea: All the Robins and Batgirls realize that Bruce will forever be a toxic asshole, tell him to fuck off and die, decide to hang out with Bronze Tiger instead. "Is there a... is there a Bronze Tiger Family? I can be Silver Tiger!" Dick Grayson will say.
They do have a nice conceit, continued from Arkham City, where there are some supervillains who Batman deals with in the main storyline and some he deals with in side-missions. I would've preferred if all the assassins were non-optional and then there were some extras in the side-missions (Killer Croc, for instance, should be Batman investigating strange goings-on in the subway). And (That Fan!) that the main villains were official DC Universe Assassins rather than a couple randoms out for a bounty. That's what side-missions are for! Sorry, sorry. But c'mon, get me some KGBeast up in here.
The villains themselves are well-done. You have Copperhead continuing the Arkham series' dedication to diversity in giving minority representation to underdressed supermodels; Riddler they do a particularly good job on. I remember in the first Arkham game, they implied some grimdark thing where he's a serial killer who murders stupid people, but here, he's more of a hacktivist who's going to Wikileaks the entire city of Gotham. It's a very modern, pleasant take on the character and I'll give kudos for it, even if the ending to the storyline is the biggest disappointment in gaming since the Treasure of Big Whoop. Bane, playing off his central role in TDKR, shows up as something of the Dragon, though the story isn't ambitious enough to actually have him break the Bat. Black Mask--this I have mixed feelings about--initially seems to the Big Bad, but pretty quick the storyline pulls a switcheroo and it's Joker back in the driver's seat. On the one hand, the Joker is of course better than Black fucking Mask, but on the other hand, Joker's been the main villain for three games now, and it stinks of laziness to do a prequel just to avoid dealing with his death in Arhkam City. Hopefully, this rounds out the 'Joker trilogy' phase of Arkham games, and we can give him a long overdue vacation from the PS3.
Oh, and a young Barbara Gordon shows up, with her prequelitis storyline entirely foreshadowing her time as Oracle instead of her being Batgirl. So even the guys whose missions in life is to find new and creative outfits for Harley Quinn to demean herself in know that Babsgirl is bullshit. Stick it to the Man.
