Arkham Origins is, unfortunately, sort of the black sheep of the Arkham Games. What with it not being made by Rocksteady while they worked on Arkham Knight, Origins was put out by Splash Damage Studios instead. And it is, to some degree, underrated. While Arkham Asylum was excellent and Arkham City was good, Origins falls further behind and winds up in the realm of "Better than average", but it is still decent. Everything you liked about Arkham Asylum or Arkham City is still here, mostly. The problem is that Origins somewhat coasts off the success of the Asylum and City, and suffers from a lack of any new cards to throw down.

On the gameplay front, combat has been improved once again, but it's gotten around to where it has inevitably become repetitive. And the entire map does feel somewhat lazily designed, as no less than half of it is copied over from Arkham City, right down to the Steel Mill section. Side missions are also making their return, although not quite as much of a spectacle. What is new is the crime scene missions, which are a welcome addition using Batman's crime reconstruction technology, although the number of them makes them go on a bit too long and a bit too short each to be truly entertaining. Boss fights haven't been copied, but as a result they're worse than City or Asylum and fail to do anything as impressive as the Mr. Freeze fight from City. Hunting down Deadshot and Riddler are also almost exactly the same from the previous games. Really, on the gameplay side, there isn't much to talk up. It's basically an expansion for Arkham City.

The story is where Arkham Origins finds a good place. Asylum played much more like a comic book and did quite well in its niche, but City tried to take a darker turn without changing Asylum's formula of "Villain X is doing Y. Go to location Z and beat them up", and therefore suffered for anyone who tried to take it seriously. While Origins doesn't do much to shake that up that formula, it actually explores the relationships of both Batman and one of his biggest enemies, which both its predecessors failed to do. The character arcs affect the plot much more than they did in the previous games, and so with that, Origins takes that successful dark step up that City tried to take but misstepped somewhat. The main plot thread does hop back and forth between side stories a bit too much, but it's not that noticable, and its enjoyable while it lasts. The voice actors also do a very good job filling the shoes of their predecessors, and one villain's VA who I won't mention did such a fantastic job that I didn't realize until halfway through the game that the character's actor had changed.

If you liked the previous Arkham games, you'll find pretty much everything you liked here, and maybe something you haven't seen before as well. That being said, while Origins doesn't do anything that made me want to punch the developers in the face, it didn't make me want to sing their praises either. There's nothing really new it can bring to the table, although it does make better developments in the story department by making characters more three-dimensional and making them more important to the plot. I'd pick it up on a sale if you aren't 100% convinced, but Origins isn't not worth your time, and it does no dishonor to the name of the Arkham franchise.

Arkham Origins is, unfortunately, sort of the black sheep of the Arkham Games. What with it not being made by Rocksteady while they worked on Arkham Knight, Origins was put out by Splash Damage Studios instead. And it is, to some degree, underrated. While Arkham Asylum was excellent and Arkham City was good, Origins falls further behind and winds up in the realm of "Better than average", but it is still decent. Everything you liked about Arkham Asylum or Arkham City is still here, mostly. The problem is that Origins somewhat coasts off the success of the Asylum and City, and suffers from a lack of any new cards to throw down. On the gameplay front, combat has been improved once again, but it's gotten around to where it has inevitably become repetitive. And the entire map does feel somewhat lazily designed, as no less than half of it is copied over from Arkham City, right down to the Steel Mill section. Side missions are also making their return, although not quite as much of a spectacle. What is new is the crime scene missions, which are a welcome addition using Batman's crime reconstruction technology, although the number of them makes them go on a bit too long and a bit too short each to be truly entertaining. Boss fights haven't been copied, but as a result they're worse than City or Asylum and fail to do anything as impressive as the Mr. Freeze fight from City. Hunting down Deadshot and Riddler are also almost exactly the same from the previous games. Really, on the gameplay side, there isn't much to talk up. It's basically an expansion for Arkham City. The story is where Arkham Origins finds a good place. Asylum played much more like a comic book and did quite well in its niche, but City tried to take a darker turn without changing Asylum's formula of "Villain X is doing Y. Go to location Z and beat them up", and therefore suffered for anyone who tried to take it seriously. While Origins doesn't do much to shake that up that formula, it actually explores the relationships of both Batman and one of his biggest enemies, which both its predecessors failed to do. The character arcs affect the plot much more than they did in the previous games, and so with that, Origins takes that successful dark step up that City tried to take but misstepped somewhat. The main plot thread does hop back and forth between side stories a bit too much, but it's not that noticable, and its enjoyable while it lasts. The voice actors also do a very good job filling the shoes of their predecessors, and one villain's VA who I won't mention did such a fantastic job that I didn't realize until halfway through the game that the character's actor had changed. If you liked the previous Arkham games, you'll find pretty much everything you liked here, and maybe something you haven't seen before as well. That being said, while Origins doesn't do anything that made me want to punch the developers in the face, it didn't make me want to sing their praises either. There's nothing really new it can bring to the table, although it does make better developments in the story department by making characters more three-dimensional and making them more important to the plot. I'd pick it up on a sale if you aren't 100% convinced, but Origins isn't not worth your time, and it does no dishonor to the name of the Arkham franchise.