What, no Batman: Arkham Origins thread??

[JasonPratt]

Granted, it isn't wargaming I guess, but neither are F/3PS -- and the Arkham games are definitely 3PShooters (or tactical brawlers anyway).

I mention this because I started my playthrough last night, having finally received it for my birthday.

First no-spoiler impressions:

1.) The visual presentation redesign looks subtly... off... somehow. I can't put my finger on it. (I'm playing it on PS3 --  it's available cross-platform of course -- but I can't understand why that would make a difference. I played the hell out of both previous games on the PS3 first.)

2.) The music is very different, and more 'metal'. I still like it (especially the Christmas Bell Carol woven into it), but miss the old music. I guess this was to get across a "younger" vibe.

3.) Come to think of it, this is contributing certainly to feeling the redesign looks subtly off: Batman's HUD looks cheaper and less sophisticated, and flickers.

4.) I like seeing the official Batcave, in its state of kind-of-permanently-not-finished.

5.) The coming Joker introduction is cleverly being set up with the open Red Hood case. I liked the Croc and Riddler introductions so far. (First meeting of Croc, first meeting with Riddler whom Batman currently calls "Enigma". First meeting with Julian Day, Calendar Man, has already happened: Batman's first big super-villain case solved.) Batman seems to know about Bane already (and is surprised he would take the bounty). Knows about other assassins, can't tell how many he's met yet. Haven't gotten far enough yet to tell if he and the Penguin have crossed yet.

6.) Young not-Kevin-Conway voice is sufficiently good. Haven't heard the Joker voice yet obviously. Acting is good (as usual) so far.

7.) I like being able to fast travel with the Batwing.  :D This (without details) is also where the Riddler comes in.

8.) Early Batman functional costume design is very nice.

9.) YAAAY MOAR BATMAN ARKHAM GAMING!!!

[Jarhead0331]

I've got about 10 hours in to it. Very enjoyable, although the City feels too quiet and the random encounters become too repetitive.  I've heard some say Arkham City is the better game.  I have City, but have not played it.

[Martok]

That reminds me:  I believe I purchased a copy of Arkham Asylum from somewhere (I want to say GamersGate).  If so, I should really get around to actually playing it one of these days...  ::) 

[Jarhead0331]

The Arkham games are probably the best super hero games ever made. You really feel like Batman and pretty unstoppable too. Lots of fun.

[Arctic Blast]

That reminds me:  I believe I purchased a copy of Arkham Asylum from somewhere (I want to say GamersGate).  If so, I should really get around to actually playing it one of these days...  ::)

Yes, you really should. It's a fantastic game. Hell, the Scarecrow stages alone are more than worth the price of admission.

[bbmike]

Is Batman a Groghead?  :o

[JasonPratt]

Batman often serves as the Justice League's strategian and tactician (since he doesn't actually have super-powers other than being hyper-competent, which is why Mr. Terrific also fills that slot.)

So, yes. :)

[JasonPratt]

I've got about 10 hours in to it. Very enjoyable, although the City feels too quiet and the random encounters become too repetitive.  I've heard some say Arkham City is the better game.  I have City, but have not played it.

Well, the city doesn't feel any quieter to me than Arkham City did -- more mooks running around I'd even say, which is why the random encounters can start to feel repetitive quickly, especially since they aren't any different from AC's except for being more of them. Although to be fair, once the Riddler portion showed up early I stopped following the main plotline to farm experience on the Riddler side plot as much as possible, which would naturally tend to make everything feel very samey. As I upgrade my bling, the mooks upgrade theirs to match. But I'll be better equipped to handle the main plot. There is literally no reason other than gameplay for why Batman doesn't just have all his equipment and skills up and running immediately -- the wry observation from AC, about him being selective because it made his belt too heavy, made no sense in its own context (since he only became more competent at clearly no loss in basic combat technique), and makes even less sense here when Batman starts with more abilities unlocked than in AC.

I think the "emptier" feeling of the city (getting back to that observation which I've heard from several places) stems from two main directions:

1.) the city is on martial law and curfew, so almost all civilians are tucked away home (out of the snowstorm, too), leaving the gangs free to roam with (and sometimes fight against) corrupt SWAT teams, leavened by a few honest cops who need saving like the few civvies outside. Which naturally feels weird because this isn't Arkham City where ONLY criminals, internal security, and political prisoners were the inhabitants, this is supposed to be a wide-open Gotham City.

2.) The two other Arkham games tend to throw a lot of plot at the player right from the start, and keep the pacing up (also keeping Batman focused in limited territory for the first few hours before opening up the sandbox, during the first Arkham game). Notably, the Riddler bling quests aren't formally introduced for several hours (even though in AC many of his Riddle challenges are immediately available for collecting and xp) -- in fact in AA, the Riddler sidequests are mostly locked out (though question marks can be picked up) until shortly before the sandbox opens up. Early in my AO game, the actual working of the main plot is much thinner and more spread out across the city, literally forcing me to deal somewhat with the Riddler side immediately in order to advance (and inviting me to do so immediately, too). This leads to a decompression of material in one way, and an early sense of repetition in another way.

Edited to add 3.) The blizzard conditions keep the draw distance down, which naturally makes it seem like there isn't quite as much "out there" since it can't be seen from a distance.

[bbmike]

Batman often serves as the Justice League's strategian and tactician (since he doesn't actually have super-powers other than being hyper-competent, which is why Mr. Terrific also fills that slot.)

So, yes. :)

;D I like that answer.

[JasonPratt]

Update: not much of an update. ;) Spent most of yesterday's free time steadily working my way through the city dealing with the Riddler side missions and blinging up, so I still haven't advanced the main plot more than absolutely necessary to keep Batman and/or Alfred from constantly whining that he had better get to the Penguin meeting soon. (Apparently at this point in the story Batman doesn't know who exactly the Penguin is, btw.) All but two areas of the city are now unlocked for fast travel, and when I quit last night I was about to work on picking up the side items in the final area (where my actual main mission is located).

I can report on a step-forward/backward game design change, however, which I didn't notice and appreciate/curse until last night.

PRO: in Arkham City, the Riddler challenges had been expanded to cover skill achievements which would only matter to Batman, and Catwoman with the DLC. This wasn't only stupid, it was excessively stupid, and despite AC providing a strong step forward in giving the Riddler a real storyline and significant threat, the end result was a ton of busywork beyond the usual puzzle challenges from the first game Arkham Asylum. (Incidentally there is no mention of Arkham at all yet in Arkham Origins, which makes no sense from the game lore established in previous entries, but maybe the topic just hasn't come up yet.) That busywork hurt more, too, precisely because the Riddler sidestory was much more interesting with people's lives at stake: just like the first game, the player would have to meet all the Riddler challenges in order to beat him. ALL FOUR HUNDRED! -- many of which were difficult skill achievements. In that sense, the Catwoman DLC was practically necessary, since that added an extra 40 Riddler challenges to the game, most of which were pretty easy, while not adding to the 400 tally necessary to win. Thus the player was given some cushion for failing more difficult Batman challenges.

I'm getting to the PRO now. ;) The skill achievements in AO aren't connected to the Riddler plot.  THANK GOD! Only things that matter to the Riddler now count: destroying his jamming equipment, recovering his blackmail data caches, and destroying his monitoring cameras. (He himself spells this out literally at one point: "I understand going after the jammers, but the cameras and data caches are none of your business so BACK OFF!") Also, no photo riddles.

On the other hand, this leads to a curious detail: the Riddler isn't acting at all like the Riddler yet. He's acting more like Anarky, which is weird since Anarky (one of my favorite underrated Batman villain/anti-heroes) is in the game. In fact, it's Anarky who is providing the hidden photosnap opportunities, although these are only for experience points not to advance a plot: he leaves his mark hidden on various Gotham landmarks which Batman finds and decodes to read messages left for Anarky's followers. If I didn't know from pre-game promotional material that Anarky shows up physically to fight Batman later (he's a teen genius, including a self-taught martial artist on par with Robin at least, so matches well with Batman), I might suspect the writers were setting up the Riddler to have been "Anarky" in this milieu.

So what's the Con?

CON: In AC, the skill challenges can be completed in just about any order at any time, once the proper equipment has been unlocked. This has now been restricted, a fact I didn't realize until late yesterday. Doesn't matter how many times I slide into two thugs, it doesn't count until after I've accomplished each preliminary challenge in order, and THEN I can do the slide.  >:( >:( >:( >:( This also means that if I get stuck on a challenge (like 20 critical hits in one free-flow chain), I can't progress, which also means I cannot unlock some of the upgrades.

While this is annoying, it isn't as annoying (and illogical) as having the skill challenges count as Riddler challenges, so on balance I can accept it as an improvement. Still. Gnash.

[JudgeDredd]

The Arkham games are superb...but I didn't want to blow £40 on an FPS...even as good as they are.

[Nefaro]

I registered my free game code for Batman: Origins which I got from Nvidia when I picked up my GTX770 recently. 

I was supposed to get a Steam key but they didn't send me shit.  Then, when I tried getting it re-sent to my email address it said, "please enter an email address registered with a code".  Yet when I try to re-register my free game code, it says it's now been used.  ::)

Looks like I didn't get it free after all.  >:(

[Batman]

Is Batman a Groghead?  :o

...indeed, i most certainly am...

[JasonPratt]

Update: having started back on the main plot (finally) a couple of days ago, I'm still around 25% through the story I think (since I've permanently defeated only two of the four assassins.)

(Mostly) non-spoilery observations:

1.) I suspect one of the Riddler data caches is bugged, since I've visited the area numerous times and walked around it from literally every angle top to bottom and I have no idea where it's even supposed to be, other than that the waypoint signal seems to be pointing to a little room of the sort that typically has a bustable door. But the door isn't bustable: it doesn't show up as such on my detective sensors, and trying some explosions anyway doesn't work (although it did permanently blacken the door, which is a nifty little touch.)

2.) Started and (apparently) finished the Penguin side of the plot (although there's a slight indication he may show up again). Not entirely satisfied with how it ended (a stalemate), although I can see how it would appeal to Penguin fans (due to the specific form of the stalemate).

3.) The one new assassin character, Shockster (or something like that)... BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! THAT WAS GREAT!...

4.) ...although then the implication is that he's tougher than Deathstroke, which is crazy talk. Seriously, plot writers? You're going to Worf Effect Deathstroke with your own pet new character?

5.) Anyone who watched the great Deathstroke fight in the preview films: the actual fight is almost nothing like that (aside from being between Deathstroke and Batman, duh). It's still very nifty, though, and fit both fighters.

6.) Killer Croc was the first assassin taken down; I'm not sure I mentioned this earlier. It's kind of disappointing because it happens in the prologue/tutorial mission (which is why I'm not regarding it as much of a spoiler), and fans have been hoping for an actual Croc fight after the buildup in the previous two games. Which happens, but Croc hasn't mutated that far yet, so it isn't even remotely as epic as expected, even though from a story standpoint it's a perfectly serviceable Croc confrontation. Begs the question of why Croc was explicitly included in the hired assassin plot, though, from the standpoint of the characters: he's an enforcer (as in this story) or even a gang leader (not in this story), or a super-crazy kind of pathetic monster (in the other Arkham games, set later), not an assassin per se.  ::) :P

7.) ...I don't recall what happens in the main plot next. Surely it wasn't that unimportant?

8.) Probably I was distracted by the Anarky sideplot: no he wasn't related to the Riddler plot after all, although the game designers weirdly decided at the climax to visually connect him to the Joker of all people.  ??? ??? ??? ??? (His gang starts drawing his pale face with red mouth accents and green hair accents.) Aside from having practically no combat skills (instead of being at least Robin caliber), he's a classic Anarky. The writers can't help a last tease that maybe he's supposed to become a Robin (maybe Tim Drake???), but leave him a subtly crazy activist after all. His speeches are among the best things in the game so far, but as noted I'm quite an Anarky fan. Since his pale face poking up as graffitti around Gotham looks a lot like Heath Ledger's facial structure (and picks up green hair and red lip accents shortly afterward, which is still inexplicable even in terms of the game's plot since the Joker doesn't have his own gang per se yet), maybe the writers for his side of the plot wanted to call attention to how Nolan's Joker kind of resembles Anarky?

9.) The game sets up occasional murder mysteries to be solved, which is a very nice touch missing (in effect) from the previous two games. The most detailed of these so far turns out to be directly related to the main plot, even though it isn't listed as a main plot mission. Which is probably another reason I can't recall what happens next in the main plot.

10.) I wondered whether the game would outright skip the whole Red Hood side of Joker's story, when I realized that despite Batman having been investigating the Red Hood robberies, exactly nothing was showing up in the plot about the Hood: the Red Hood information is simply sitting to one side in the Batcave for players to find while exploring around. In this case, my wondering was correct. Will they come back to the Red Hood references? He starts with the Joker face already, including Ledgeresque scarring, which makes literally no sense in terms of previous (future) games. I have come to realize that the unlocked character information from Arkham Asylum isn't going to be game canon, since it directly references comic book issues; so that isn't a problem. But I seem to recall the Joker talking in-game about being dumped in the chemicals at least once. Am I mis-remembering that...?

11.) Faux-Hamill is doing at least as good a job sounding like Mark Hamill, as Not-Conroy sounds like Kevin Conroy (with a touch of the Nolan!Batman's growly rasp. But not ridiculous.) The voice actor seems the same one as for the Injustice game and something else recently (the Mortal Kombat/DC game?) We may have found our new standard Joker VA perhaps?? Granted, the new actors don't sound quite as good as Hamill's Joker and Conroy's Batman, but they haven't had freaking 20 YEARS of experience playing the characters either.

12.) Barbara Gordon is dearly adorkable! I much approve. If they skip her being Batgirl and go straight to her being Oracle, I won't complain: I don't recall a single instance in-game where they ever referred to her being Batgirl (and the comics information from AA doesn't count as game canon).

13.) I think I can see where the "Cataclysm/No Man's Land" parallel plotline is going to come from (where part of Gotham is hit with a strange earthquake that so ruins the area, it's turned into Arkham City later). Again I approve.

14.) Batman's tech development continues to be unevenly thought out. He's getting the disruptor (and based on some data cache challenges, also Freeze tech) in this game, but has to be given it again two games later in-story. On the other hand, there's a subtle nod to the cowl not being as advanced when he can't run DNA tests in the field (yet), and the line launcher is a prototypical form that isn't anywhere near as useful as it will be. (The line launcher is borrowed directly from Tim Burton's first Batman movie, the thing that kills the Joker eventually and when first deployed provides the line "Where does he get those wonderful toys?") I greatly approve of how he picks up the line launcher tech, btw.

15.) Despite some possible inconsistency complaints with the Joker above (compared to other in-game story canon elements), I very much approve of how he's introduced in this game. I haven't gone far since he first explicitly appears, however (literally only a few minutes), so there's still time for the game to completely mess up with him. ;)

[JasonPratt]

Oh, and I would like a real "Origins" DLC campaign, please, covering Batman's first two years of action (the gameplay doesn't have to be contiguous, it can skip ahead from point to point), ending with the capture of Calendar Man, who in game canon has been revealed to be the first super-villain found and defeated by Batman.

Also, I just finished the Hatter-origin side mission (I'm told he'll show up again later ingame), which was entirely suitable. I like the nice writing touch at the end. Batman to weeping Alice: "You're safe now. It'll be okay." Alice: "...no. No it won't." The Hatter has always had a serious level of squick/nightmare-fuel/uncomfortable implications, and they lean on that very respectably here. Alice (or whatever her name is) has been abused mentally in preparation for being abused sexually. It isn't going to be okay for her, not anytime soon: mind raped indeed.