Well as you may have guessed I still do not have the software required to make Scenes Out of Context. I will still be doing the show it is just on hiatus for the moment. This review has been a long time coming, I've just been avoiding everything about it. When Arkham Origins came out, I was so young and naïve that I was actually excited for it. As time went on I realized that there was just absolutely no need for this game.
Arkham City was the perfect Batman game. I worded that sentence very carefully. Arkham City was not without its faults but it was as close as you could get to being Batman without putting on a cowl and attempting to fight crime. Arkham City also had one of the greatest endings to any game I've ever had the pleasure of playing. It was emotionally taxing and brilliant at the same time; even more so when you take into account that this was the last time Mark Hamill would be voicing the Joker.
Arkham Origins takes place at an unspecified time before Arkham Asylum at a very early point in Batman's career. Black Mask has placed a 10,000,000 dollar bounty on the Bat's head and eight assassins have come out of the darkness to claim it. The eight assassins are Bane, Deathstroke, Dead Shot, Fire-Fly, Copperhead, Killer Croc, Shiva, and last and certainly least the Electrocutioner. It is unclear why Black Mask decided to put the bounty on Batman's head but if you ignore that fact long enough it gets explained.
The controls are the same as the previous two games but unlike the previous two games, they just feel shitty. Often times if you press the attack button multiple times in order to perform a combo but then try to counter an oncoming attack, Batman will instead finish his combo. This will usually lead to him getting beat up and some very frustrating battles.
One of the reasons I was so excited about Arkham Origins is because the plot was about Black Mask and a bunch of B-list villains. This series told their Joker story, it was genius and they did not need to do it again. Unfortunately, Arkham Origins is a Joker game in disguise. Yes, it turns out Black Mask never put the bounty on Batman's head at all. It was the Joker wearing a Black Mask... well mask. He has some stupid plan to blow up the GCPD or something I don't care. At this point, I was so angry that it was the Joker I was just playing to finish the damn game.
At some point, the Joker gets blown out of a window of a skyscraper and begins falling to his death. Batman saves him much to the Joker's surprise. He gets sent to Blackgate Prison where he meets his doctor Harlene Quinzelle. This scene was actually really great. Joker is talking to Harley about how he met someone who really surprised him and changed his life tonight. The entire time he is thinking back to his origin story when he was the Red Hood. As he is speaking, Harley thinks he is talking about her when he is actually talking about Batman. It was really well put together and it could have only been better if my game was not constantly SKIPPING AND GLITCHING DURING THIS SCENE! Luckily the audio still worked fine and I was able to make out what was happening. This is where the game should have ended. Unfortunately, there was still about three hours left. Believe it or not nothing of note really happens so I'm just going to end my summary here.
I realized that these games are essentially Zelda games. You roam around doing quests and helping people until you unlock a dungeon. Inside the dungeon you will inevitably find a new gadget that you will need to fight that dungeon's boss. The only real difference is that the dungeons in Gotham are just large buildings. Also, unlike The Legend of Zelda series, all of the Arkham series of games take place along the same time-line. The reason that that is significant is that when Batman acquires gadgets such as glue grenades and shock gloves in one game, it makes no fucking sense when he doesn't have them in the games that take place after!
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