Rather than being used to easily change your equipment and access upgrades - as it was in Arkham City - the GamePad’s touchscreen instead displays a mini-map at all times, a very unfortunate downgrade. ![]() Mastering the controls can be complicated at first, but once you’ve become accustomed to the way Batman moves everything begins to feel natural. Batman’s motions and attacks are controlled with the left stick and lettered buttons respectively, with stealth, detective mode, and gadgets assigned to various shoulder buttons. When not using the GamePad’s screen and gyroscope to solve crimes, the controls are standard for the series. Investigating crime scenes is a perfect example of a great idea that misses the mark something that this game is full of. The effect of finding clues and rebuilding a crime scene is fascinating at first, but as the game progresses and more crimes appear, the initial charm quickly wears off and it begins to feel like a repetitive device used to enhance otherwise unexciting story elements. We saw hints of this in the earlier Arkham games, but Origins takes the concept and fleshes it out into a much more integral mechanic. Making use of the GamePad’s gyroscope to navigate, you identify specific points in the crime scene, such as a bullet hole or a spot of blood, in order to recreate the crime and figure out exactly what happened. During these portions of play, your job is to look around the room and use the Wii U GamePad as a scanner. In an attempt to put a stronger emphasis on Batman as a detective rather than simply as a guy who beats the snot out of thugs, Arkham Origins features several investigative crime scenes throughout the campaign. Between story missions, Riddler puzzles and random thugs looking for a tussle, experience points are plenty, making it remarkably easy to be the best Bat you can be. ![]() Fighting thugs and completing missions will earn you experience points that then convert into skill points that can be spent to bulk up Batman’s arsenal. Our hero is already equipped with most of his key tools – such as Batarangs and the Batclaw – from the outset, but more equipment and upgrades become available as you progress through the adventure. Gameplay has remained largely unchanged, with combat consisting almost entirely of button mashing coupled with timed counter attacks, and exploration of Gotham City and its landmarks is still aided by Batman’s various gadgets. It’s all just service designed to entice franchise fans, but it ends up creating an absolute mess of story. Between Black Mask, his eight assassins, Riddler, Penguin and various other Bat-villains including everyone’s favourite psychopathic clown, this Dickensian jumble attempts to juggle so many characters that it’s a miracle the game still manages to retain some semblance of a plot. The plot of the previous game, Batman: Arkham City, was a bit convoluted, attempting to shoehorn too many of Batman’s villains into a single campaign, But Arkham Origins makes the previous game feel abridged in comparison. ![]() Quickly revealed to be a plot to get Batman’s attention and lure him out into the open, the Caped Crusader learns of a bounty that Black Mask has offered to eight of Gotham’s deadliest assassins for the death of the fledgling hero. Taking place before the previous Arkham games, the scene opens at Blackgate Penitentiary where a novice Batman is responding to a breakout helmed by the crime lord Black Mask. Games Montréal didn’t have the creative forces behind it to piece together another shining instalment in the series. Despite having the groundwork laid down by Rocksteady Studios, it’s clear that Warner Bros. There are definite examples of licenses that have significantly improved following the move from one studio to another, such as the console games in the Skylanders series jumping from Toys for Bob over to Vicarious Visions, but Batman: Arkham Origins does not fall into this category. Whenever a video game franchise moves from one developer to another during its lifetime, there tends to be a few raised eyebrows.
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