I had been waiting a long time to play Batman: Arkham Origins – the third installment in the Batman: Arkham series.  The first one (Arkham Asylum) was pretty good and I had fun with it and the second one (Arkham City) had me playing the game to 100% completion. In Origins, the game world is double the size of the one in Arkham City. Starting off in a new area, Blackgate prison, was nice, but the game soon kept sending me back to places I’d already been to in Arkham City, like the Steel Mill, the Gotham City Police Department, and in the Final Offer (Penguin’s ship). Visiting the BatCave saved me from all the familiarity though, where one can walk around and talk to Alfred plus you can even get to see a prototype Batmobile in the cave.  It was actually pretty cool since you didn’t have to stay inside the city for the entirety like you did in the previous game.

Throughout the game, Batman is being hunted by eight assassins.  The first is Killer Croc and the fight here was a lot better than in Arkham City.  The fight with the Electrocutioner was useless and it actually bothered me that they put him in this game since he didn’t seem to have anything to do in this game, apart from giving you a new upgrade.  The other bosses, on the other hand, were fun to battle against, such as Copperhead and her many shadow clones who got on my nerves a bit until I got a rhythm down, Firefly who was easy to beat but enjoyable to fight with, and even with Deadshot and Shiva  – and they weren’t even a real boss fight.  By the way, you could skip those two if you didn’t care about completing everything in the game.

One other thing that irks me is that even though this game takes place five years before Arkham Asylum, you seem to have much better technology in this game which just messes with the continuity of the story.  For instance, in Origins you can get a glue grenade, so why wasn’t there a glue grenade in the Asylum and City?  Plus, what about the Electrocutioners’ gloves?  This game gives you many new upgrades that would make the Batman from the first two games say, “What’s that?”

Although, even with all the stuff that makes me just shake my head, the game is still pretty darn fun to play.  The story in this game is well written and it’ll have you hooked.  And when it comes down to it, the game was good – not great, but good.  I give Batman: Arkham Origins a 7.5/10.  One final note, don’t forget to check out the scene after the credits. Trust me, you won’t want to miss it.