Batman: Arkham Origins

richymcdermott

While i love the batman ac series , i wish they would make a superman game , who knows, maybe i get my wish if the man of steel movie is a huge success

gizmo

Looks like it's getting its own unique 3DS and Vita title too.

After its Mega Man FPS was canned, Armature Studio finally re-emerges as Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate dev

2.5D Metroidvania Batman from some of the guys behind Retro Studios? Definitely going to be keeping an eye on that one.

Otacon

gizmo wrote: »

Looks like it's getting its own unique 3DS and Vita title too.

After its Mega Man FPS was canned, Armature Studio finally re-emerges as Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate dev

2.5D Metroidvania Batman from some of the guys behind Retro Studios? Definitely going to be keeping an eye on that one.

I hope Armature look very closely at Mark of the Ninja and how that game works. Add in some decent combat and they will be onto a winner there.

Mr. K

Great to hear this, it sounds like an interesting idea. Since they'll have all of Gotham to play around with, I want to see lots of involved detective stuff in this. In any case, the Arkham series is among my favourite new IPs of this generation, so it's an insta-buy.

gizmo wrote: »

2.5D Metroidvania Batman from some of the guys behind Retro Studios? Definitely going to be keeping an eye on that one.

This could be so awesome, Metroidvania Batman is such a good fit. It meshes with the exploration elements in the main series so well. Hopefully the Vita and 3DS versions are suitably different and take advantage the systems' potential.

Zero-Cool

Load of info released based on a demo shown! The detective mode sounds brilliant and really looks like they are focusing on the detective elements. Also can't go wrong with Far Cry 3 like towers.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/400085/batman-arkham-origins-full-details-batwing-dark-knight-challenge-system-remote-claw/

• Origins takes place on Christmas Eve early in Batman's career, before the events of Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. The tale is inspired by Batman: Year One and Legends of the Dark Knight.
• Supervillain Black Mask places a hit on Batman's head, offering a fortune to whoever can off the caped crusader. Assassins and supervillains from across the DC Universe come to Gotham to take their shot at Batman.
• Batman must take on all comers, solve the mystery of why Black Mask wants him dead, and prove to the GCPD that he's on their side.
• Warner Bros. Montreal used Batman Arkham City Armored Edition for the Wii U to familiarise itself with Rocksteady's codebase.
• Eric Holmes, who served as lead designer of The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction and has experience writing Transformers: Megatron Origins for IDW, was selected to drive the creative vision. He also worked at Epic Games, and so is familiar with the Unreal Engine.
• Rocksteady offered guidance on tech, mechanics and engine, but WB Montreal was left to handle story entirely
• Going with a younger Batman lets the developer "refresh characters, refresh ideas, refresh the dynamic between Batman and other characters, and refresh the world"
• Batman isn't the character fans know yet
• GameInformer's demo starts about an hour into the game, with Batman perched on Jezebel Plaza watch an arms deal.
• Gotham is blanketed by snow and Christmas lights decorate the city. It's Christmas eve.
• Black Mask's assassins have stirred up criminal activity
• "Old Gotham" hasn't been turned into an urban prison yet
• The most obvious difference cited between the two period is Amusement Mile, which hasn't flooded yet
• Batman is trying to figure out why Black Mask wants him dead, and is aiming to use Penguin to get information
• WB Montreal hasn't tinkered with the free-flow combat: "If it's not broken, don't fix it" says senior producer Ben Mattes.
• It has, however, introduced "new layers, new opportunities, and new tactics"
• New enemy types will force Batman to use new moves
• Batman hasn't honed his skills yet, so his interrogation ends with an unconscious thug. Batman is still unrefined and sometimes pushes things too far.
• Batman scans the thugs phone to get the information he needs
• He summons Batwing to get to the northeast coast, where Penguin's base of operations is. Players don't pilot Batwing directly, but it is part of the story sequences and a form of fast travel.
• Glides, ledge takedowns and sleeper holds are back
• Inside Final Offer, an old ship The Penguin has taken over, Batman uses his predator mode.
• Batman can swing from perches and do upside down strikes, like in previous games.
• A new gadget, the Remote Claw, functions much like the grappler in Just Cause 2. Batman can target two objects and pull them together. It can be used to knock enemies together, launch objects at enemies or string up enemies.
• An example combat situation involves stringing an explosive barrel to a perch, luring enemies over, then cutting the rope using a batarang.
• Batman eventually find Penguin talking to a tied up Alberto Falcone, trying to convince him to leave the weapons business, he agrees to tell his father.
• Batman enters and fights Penguin, before interrogating him by lifting him up and smashing into a mirror. Before he can get the information out of him a grapple claw latches onto his ankle and pulls him out of the room. Batman's tries to get a hold of a door frame, but his arm is stomped on. The mysterious assailant is revealed to be Deathstroke.
• WB Montreal wants to tell a story "within the detective environment", it mentioned BBC series Sherlock as an inspiration
• In a later segment Batman is in a room and uses his first-person detective vision to figure out the events that occurred in it. Bullet paths and holograms act out his theories as he mutters information and scans points of interest.
• The Batcomputer in the cave runs simulations, players can watch these as much as they want from multiple angles, in slow motion, pause and scrub it. They must find clues to further the investigation
• Small and large cases are spread out over Gotham City, they serve to provide a break from combat scenarios
• Old Gotham district is only half of the game world, another area called New Gotham also exists. It doubles the size of the game world in Arkham City.
• To access content in the city players must dismantle the hacked tower network. These tower emit a jamming signal that stops Batwing from flying there and prevents sensors from placing points of interest. They're likened to Far Cry 3's towers.
• Dynamic events dubbed "Crime in Progress" occur in the city. The example given is of saving cops from a group of thugs, or stopped a snitch from being thrown off a roof. Completing these impact Batman's notoriety.
• A "Most Wanted System" lets players pursue villains outside of the core assassin story
• The Dark Knight system offers tasks that escalate in difficulty. They're not tutorials, but do train players to be better at combat and stealth. Completing challenges grants XP or upgrades for a particular skillset.
• The system doesn't replace Challenge mode, which will be included "in one form"

Reiketsu

Just saw this posted on Facebook

http://www.superherohype.com/news/articles/176085-first-screenshots-from-batman-arkham-origins

johnny_ultimate

One major improvement they can implement: less ****ing collectibles. City had a lot of filler content, better to look to the more streamlined, tightly designed Asylum.

richymcdermott wrote: »

While i love the batman ac series , i wish they would make a superman game , who knows, maybe i get my wish if the man of steel movie is a huge success

You should try Superman 64. Unfairly maligned game, that, ripe for reappraisal. The clunky controls, for example, act as a metaphorical indicator of the crippling societal weight placed on the hero.

Retr0gamer

I wouldn't get too worried about the developer behind this game, seems to have some very talented people working for them. I just hope they get rid of the horrible combat system and implement something a hell of a lot better. When you have such great stealth elements why they hell would you force the player to play a silly game of press counter when the symbol appears. It's like a bad rhythm action game.

gizmo

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I wouldn't get too worried about the developer behind this game, seems to have some very talented people working for them. I just hope they get rid of the horrible combat system and implement something a hell of a lot better. When you have such great stealth elements why they hell would you force the player to play a silly game of press counter when the symbol appears. It's like a bad rhythm action game.

Outside of "disable the hint system by default", I'm not sure how they could improve the combat system much from the first two games. It flowed fantastically, gave the player a sense of the physical advantage Batman had over the majority of enemies even when in crowds and, when mastered and you were going for perfect encounters, proved to be incredibly satisfying.

Note: My initial playthroughs on the first two games were Hard and Medium with Hints disabled, respectively. The sole aim of which was to avoid the ludicrous button prompts the game offered you.

Sarky

I like the emphasis on being a detective, it was never properly implemented in the previous games. I like also the possibility that he's proving himself to the police as well as terrifying criminals. Hopefully the darker shade of artwork there is an indicator of things to come. The story premise is a good'un, there's tonnes of potential there for excellent storytelling.


Mostly I'm just praying to any god, angel, spirit or demon that'll listen that they don't f*ck up.

That_Guy

If this is anything like Batman: Year One, then this could be something special.

maximoose

When we first learnt it was going to be a prequel I wasn't so mad on the idea, but what we know of the story so far sounds like it could be feckin brilliant. I am excited.

Zero-Cool

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I just hope they get rid of the horrible combat system and implement something a hell of a lot better.

Fortunately, WB Games stated they will be keeping the combat system as it is, just adding a couple of things to mix up strategy and enemies. "If it ain't broke, don't fix" as they put it. Couldn't agree more.

That_Guy wrote: »

If this is anything like Batman: Year One, then this could be something special.

I wonder if Ben Sherman from Southland is voicing Bats, like Animated Year One, which could happen if they are going for a younger inexperienced Bats.

That link above has some great pics









Even the Vita game looks good!

Mr Freeze

sheehy83 wrote: »

I wonder if Ben Sherman from Southland is voicing Bats, like Animated Year One, which could happen if they are going for a younger inexperienced Bats.

Hope not.

Kevin Conroy can still do a pretty good younger sounding voice, as he has proved in the past.

Zero-Cool

Mr Freeze wrote: »

Hope not.

Kevin Conroy can still do a pretty good younger sounding voice, as he has proved in the past.

Just looked it up and wiki says Conroy will voice Batman in Arkham Origins! I mean it's Wiki so it has to be right.......right?

Mr Freeze

^ Good enough for me.

Every time I see a new animated feature and see that its not Kevin Conroy doing the voice, it drives me mad, Conroy is the only voice for Batman, and growing up watching the animated series, That Batman for me is the definitive one.

noodler

Have to agree with Retr0 on the combat.

It was perfectly fine in the first two games but it is very, very basic and three games in a row would be a little monotonous imo.

I have no ideas though!

Zero-Cool

Arkham Retrospective on GT

http://www.gametrailers.com/full-episodes/n0zr1g/gt-retrospectives-arkham-retrospective

CastorTroy

This could be interesting as we could see other origin stories as well. Maybe see Joker's accident, or Harvey getting acid in his face

Zero-Cool

Yeah some great potential for storylines there, especially as Arkham Asylum began with well established villains. If WB Games needed backstory, just read the Arkham Asylum files you could collect and they have their origin story.

Mr. K

I'm sure they'll surprise us with regards the story. That's something I want to know nothing about before I get the game!

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

One major improvement they can implement: less ****ing collectibles. City had a lot of filler content, better to look to the more streamlined, tightly designed Asylum.

This is the only real criticism I have of City, there were far too many Riddler Trophies. It made for a compelling sidequest in Asylum because there were just the right amount, they were fun to get and they gradually revealed more of a mystery.

tok9

I think that's a criticism for every single open world game and I hope it changes too.

johnny_ultimate

The most frustrating thing was the Riddler missions were probably the best sidequests the game had to offer, but were locked behind increasingly large collectible demands.

I just couldn't bring myself to commit to the inane task of collecting hundreds of the trophies though. IMO the biggest insult a game can commit is wasting our time like that. It left a really sour taste as I was winding up the game and wanted to see the imaginative situations that particular set of missions conjured up.

Hercule Poirot

Just to give my two cents on the riddler missions, the clue based ones in Asylum were much better than the inane puzzle types that appeared in City - and making some of the clue based ones time sensitive in City (ie, Killer Croc) was just ridiculous imo

Zero-Cool

Anyone have a digital Game Informer subscription here? It's live now if you do.

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2013/04/10/batman-arkham-origins-digital-issue-is-live.aspx

Zero-Cool

Mods feel free to delete this if it is deemed 'dodgy' but I found the full GI feature on Imgur

http://imgur.com/a/y3UO2

chopperbyrne

The Riddler puzzles in City are incredibly annoying.

Have a special reward for doing them all, but don't lock out a mission involving a main villain by forcing you to do so.

sweetie

chopperbyrne wrote: »

The Riddler puzzles in City are incredibly annoying.

Have a special reward for doing them all, but don't lock out a mission involving a main villain by forcing you to do so.

which is? thanks

Zero-Cool

sweetie wrote: »

which is? thanks

Riddler holds hostages that you have to rescue. They are like a level from Saw and generally class but you only unlock the mission when you find/solve a large number of regular riddles which meant it was hard/annoying for many people to get to the end and confront the riddler. I had no issue with it personally, just made me play and enjoy the balls out of this game even more.

sweetie

sheehy83 wrote: »

Riddler holds hostages that you have to rescue. They are like a level from Saw and generally class but you only unlock the mission when you find/solve a large number of regular riddles which meant it was hard/annoying for many people to get to the end and confront the riddler. I had no issue with it personally, just made me play and enjoy the balls out of this game even more.

that sounds cool! I never bothered with the riddles after finishing the main storyline but might go back and give them a go seeing as I have it now on psplus.
cheers