Batman: Arkham Origins / YMMV

For tropes describing the series as a whole, click here.

Anti-Climax Boss:
- Electrocutioner, for all his bluster, goes down in one hit. Though this is the point.
  - Surprisingly, Electrocutioner manages to be an Anti-Climax boss twice! Despite it being a relatively late-game unlock, it's fairly obvious that you're going to get an electricity themed gadget at some point, and since you don't get the Shock Gloves from your first encounter with the Electrocutioner early in the game, you might be led into thinking that you'll get them after a rematch that's a "real" fight. Shortly after the "fight", Tracey taunts Batman that Electrocutioner has escaped and vowed revenge and later on Batman has to track down a meeting of Assassins by tuning in to the Electrocutioner's gloves, and that seems to be priming you up for a fight with him. It turns out that it's just another trick though, as the Electrocutioner is killed before Batman can even lay a finger on him. You do get the gloves this time though.
- Lady Shiva starts off as a reskinned martial artist and flanked by four ninjas; after getting her down to half of her health, she switches to a reskinned ninja flanked by three martial artists. The only difference between Shiva and the standard versions of the classes she fights as, is her immunity to Batman's stun and takedowns.
  - Somewhat averted in the DLC, where she is not only harder, but requires you to cape stun her to damage her, even if your Shock Gloves are active.
  - The real anticlimactic element comes from her character outside the game series, in which she's clearly among the people who should have a good chance of being Batman's better in pure hand-to-hand combat, leading to expectations of her as the combat version of the Mr. Freeze fight in Batman: Arkham City - or somebody you wouldn't actually beat or fight at all. At least the game seems to establish this as very early in her career, when she isn't even working on her own yet. It is actually made clear that she was only testing Batman and is the only assassin not disabled after their fight.
- Copperhead can appear challenging due to the vast number of duplicates she spawns but they can be easily beaten with counters, letting the player attack her without much resistance. You can easily dispose of the duplicates by spamming Explosive Gel.
Awesome Music: See here.
Best Level Ever: Most who played it admitted the hotel level is quite creative and fits the Joker's M.O pretty well where you make your way around the now refurbished penthouse which has been remade into makeshift Amusement Park of Doom. It's also where some of the major story beats of the game happen (Electrocutioner's Death and Batman gaining the electric gloves, Batman's first face to face with Joker, the first encounter with Bane and the lead up to Joker's Foe Romance Subtext with Batman). The fact that it culminates with a very challenging boss fight with Bane helps likewise.
Broken Base:
- Some fans were not particularly happy that it was a prequel (mainly because of more than one Sequel Hook in Arkham City and a ton of foreshadowing, though there was a sequel released two years later), while others were rather intrigued by a game set before Batman became trusted by the police, a la Batman: Year One.
- And the fact it has Multiplayer has ticked off a few as well, while some are excited to play an "Arkham" game with friends.
  - It was confirmed that the Wii U version will cost less as compensation for not featuring multiplayer. While great news to Wii U owners, Arkham players who want to play the game on other platforms and do NOT care about the multiplayer are not pleased that they are being forced to pay for a feature they don't care about (although the console game's price is identical to the previous Batman titles which had no multiplayer, so arguably it is a free bonus).
- The Joker being the villain, and that he ordered the assassins to go after Batman by impersonating Black Mask hasn't gone over well, because there was a lot of hype surrounding the fact that someone other than the Joker would function as the primary villain. Some people think it was a wasted opportunity and predictable, but some fans enjoy it because the game explores Joker's psyche more closely than the previous games did, and because he's a popular villain, hijack or not. And then there's a third faction who, while still irked that the Joker is the mastermind, also ended up appreciating how Bane ends up getting to share the villain spotlight with the Joker, with Bane fans enjoying that the game gets to show his criminal mastermind side off as it rarely gets showcased in non-comic media, including in the two previous Arkham games.
  - Similarly, though the devs never hyped up Anarky as a replacement for the Riddler, many commentators speculated that he was, leading to confusion on the part of gamers who never followed up on sources. Anarky gets a brief sidequest, while the true "replacement" for Riddler is... Enigma; who is the Riddler. Some are irked that another well-used villain takes the place of a lesser-known one hyped to be important, others found Anarky's shtick to be annoying, and are glad to see an origins for the Riddler, rather than having him replaced by a b-lister at best.
- A more minor one in the issue of Deathstroke appearing as a high profile antagonist in the game. Some take issue with the fact Slade is a Rogues' Gallery Transplant (he's Nightwing's Arch-Enemy in comics) and he more or less comes in as a Giant Space Flea from Nowhere. While some are excited to see one of their favorite DC villains receive an Arkham debut, others find the character overexposed and annoying (especially because of his infamous exaggerated feats in Identity Crisis) and feel that his role could have been taken by Lady Shiva, who is a Batman villain and has a reduced role in comparison (and an easier boss fight). Given how he was hyped up and was the only assassin who's also playable, it comes as quite a disappointment given he could have at least had his own sidequest, if not his own playable missions like Catwoman did in Arkham City.
- The lack of alternative playable characters beyond Deathstroke and Bruce Wayne (Who is somewhat of a reskin, but still noticeably different from Batman) is another. While playable in the Multiplayer, Robin isn't featured as a playable character like he was in the previous game, nor is Nightwing or Catwoman. As such, some who enjoyed them in the previous game and wanted to play them again feel disappointed, while those who didn't care for them, well, don't care. One camp notes that the multiplayer isn't canon, so none of the City's characters don't actually exist yet (Except for Catwoman, but Batman hasn't met her yet; not to mention she was an antagonist in that game), and Deathstroke already shares many moves with Robin.
Catharsis Factor: After committing atrocities just for his own amusement throughout the entire game, giving Joker a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown is incredibly satisfying.
Common Knowledge:
- As with Arkham City, thanks to the actors only being listed instead of being credited, there were a few misconceptions about the voice of cast of Origins, such as Steve Blum returning to voice Killer Croc, Kimberly Brooks returning to voice the young Barbara Gordon, either James Arnold Taylor or John Kassir was Firefly, and Grey DeLisle replaced Kari Wahlgren as Vicki Vale—except while Blum did return, he was replaced as Croc by Khary Payton; neither Brooks or Taylor are in the game, and while Kassir is, Crispin Freeman is Firefly, and Wahlgren was never Vicki in City as it was always DeLisle.
- The Gotham bank predator area is often called a direct Palette Swap of City's museum map, but in reality they have very different layouts, with most comparisons focusing on the fact that both have two floors with a bridge in the middle. That said, the two predator challenge maps on the PS3 exclusive "Knightfall" DLC actually are direct reskins of both the Police Station and - fittingly enough - the natural museum challenge maps from City.
Complete Monster: See here.
Contested Sequel: Or prequel. The game was made to expand the Arkham franchise beyond Rocksteady studios, and was rushed to the point there were many bugs upon release and the actual gameplay was 90% identical to that of City (using mostly modifications of the City assets to build upon). Still, the change in production company and story writers is noticeable. Many feel that the story is simpler and more cinematic than the prior games, having a more engaging method of having Batman face off against his Rogues Gallery, while others criticize it for the retcon and changes it puts into the Lore, and more or less doing a Batman-Joker story but without the higher stakes and personal dimension that Rocksteady did in the main trilogy.
Cry for the Devil: Surprisingly, Black Mask of all people gets this to an extent. He's a sadistic and ruthless crime lord for sure, but even he didn't deserve to be forced to kill his own girlfriend and be beaten and tortured for days while his criminal empire turned against him in favor of The Joker. At the end of the game he's forced to do a small drug-running operation just to get some attention again and he just looks plain miserable and upset at how much he's fallen.
Enjoy the Story, Skip the Game:
- The story was widely praised, but the game itself was criticized for severe bugs and a lack of innovation.
- Seems to be reaching meta levels: the game is yet to receive a remaster, but some of its story elements and character designs have been used in other Batman continuities — Gotham in particular takes after it in many ways. While the Rocksteady games are also referenced occasionally, they usually adapt elements from other continuities while Origins's take on the lore is adapted by others.
Ensemble Dark Horse:
- Copperhead seems to be rather popular for fanart, for obvious reasons.
- There were some complaints of Martial artists not reappearing in Knight, so they seem to have a fanbase.

Evil Is Cool:
- Deathstroke, due to his awesome fighting skills, cool outfit, and actually being able to take Batman on in hand-to-hand combat.
- Bane's appearance here has been deemed to be much better than his previous outings in the series. Here, he nearly wins his first fight with Batman and is much more intelligent and calculating, so much so that he's even the first villain to learn Batman's secret identity (although he loses this information after suffering amnesia).
Fanon Discontinuity: Despite the fact that both Warner Bros. and Rocksteady have confirmed that Arkham Origins is a legitimate canonical prequel, some fans absolutely refuse to consider it canon to Arkham Asylum and Arkham City due to its glitches, small but noticeable continuity errors^note and mainly, because it was developed by WB Montreal instead of Rocksteady. (Honest Game Trailers is especially vocal in its hatred of the game. Even stating flat out that they'll never do a parody trailer for it). Seeing that there are several Continuity Nods to Origins in Batman: Arkham Knight, it is definitely canon. However, when it was announced that Arkham Origins was excluded from the upcoming Compilation Re-release titled Return to Arkham, Origins fans are angered and believe that WB have gone back on their word and officially declared Origins Canon Discontinuity. Furthermore, there was a digital-only compilation titled Batman: Arkham Collection released in late 2018, featuring all the games in one package plus all the DLC....except for Origins.
Game-Breaker:
- All combat challenges become a breeze after one acquires the Shock Gloves. Once activated, they can punch through any measly defense that the mooks might have, and they double the hits in the combo counter, making it easier to pull off special combo moves. In addition, some campaigns allow you to use an ability that allows you to punch through shields, armor and batons, like in Arkham City. The difference here is that instead of just doing that, the power-up simply gives you infinite shock glove use during the fight. Combine that with the shock glove's multiplier effect, and it's not that hard to get triple the points needed to get all medals on that challenge. Granted they're not required when in combat and just an additional help if you need it. If you still want to play the game normally like the previous games, just don't turn them on when they're charged.
- A big deal was made about how hard the I Am the Night -mode was going to be, since the player has only one life to beat the game with no saves... except the developers forgot the last part, and the player can use the restart feature between checkpoints with no repercussions as long as they don't die.
- The remote claw in the predator sections allows you to take out any henchman that so much as wanders near a gargoyle or other vantage point from a distance. Since they're everywhere, they make those sections a lot easier than they really should be.
- If you're ever overwhelmed by groups of thugs in the streets, the Enhanced Dive Bomb makes it insanely easy to whittle down forces. Dive Bomb, grapple away, repeat. You can even use the glue mine for ensured multiple knockouts.
Goddamn Bats: Martial Artists, if only because they are immune to instant takedowns. Other than that, they aren't too annoying, even if they can counter you.
Good Bad Bugs: For some reason, be it a forgotten developer shortcut, remains of a cut function, or just another glitch, placing one of Deathstroke's proximity bombs sometimes causes the closest enemy to start walking to it, allowing you some control of their routes like with Batman's sonic batarang. The downsides are that you only have three and sometimes need them for challenges, they detonate on enemy proximity so you need to act before they do so, and enemies coming for them tend to break their A.I on ladders and get stuck standing still after using them. Still, it can make some challenges significantly easier.
Harsher in Hindsight: Quite a lot after playing Batman: Arkham Knight:
- Part of the plot is Bruce learning to he can't do everything alone and he has to trust other people to help him. Batman: Arkham Knight reveals that not only didn't this lesson take, but the lesson not taking is ultimately what does Bruce, his career as Batman, and the Wayne legacy in.
  - Saving Joker at the hotel, since he ends up dying in Arkham City. Especially when talking to Barbara or Dr. Quinzel, or passing by Dr. Young's apartment, knowing that Batman is essentially dooming them.
- "Cold, Cold Heart" shows Mr. Freeze's origin. Batman: Arkham Knight shows him utterly failing to save Nora. He destroyed his life, and countless others, for nothing.
- Here, Bruce is able to save Alfred after Bane attempted to kill him. In Tom King's run, Bane is successful in his attempt to kill Alfred.
- When trying to disarm Anarky's third bomb during his sidequest, Anarky and his followers complain about how Gotham's police force doesn't actually care about its citizens, and how the city would actually be better without them. Their attitude here is a little more uncomfortable to observe come 2020, where public opinion on the police after the death of George Floyd would eerily reflect what Anarky and his supporters believe, leading to many people protesting to defund, reform, or even outright abolish them in multiple parts of the U.S.
He Really Can Act: Troy Baker turned out to be an excellent Joker. He still has his detractors, but many find him to be one of the better Joker voice actors.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Tim Drake is now the Joker. Are we talking about Troy Baker's roles in the Arkham series, or the plot of Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker?
- Moviebob once compared the Arkham games to Assassin's Creed. And now we've got Ezio Auditore as Batman.
  - Even better, the story of Origins is written by Corey May, who is better known to write the first three numbered games of Assassin's Creed (and yes this includes Ezio's own trilogy).
- The Big O is often described as "Batman with giant robots". The protagonist is Roger Smith. Batman, in this game, is played by Roger Craig Smith.
- Arkham City included the line "How come it all ended in a church?" while making a reference to Lost. The final confrontation with the Joker occurs in the chapel of Blackgate Penitentiary.
  - Additionally, the final confrontation with Black Mask happens in an actual church.
- Deathstroke and Bane both play major roles in the game, with Bane eventually turning out to know who Batman is, but then loses his memory due to a combination of chemicals. Cue Beware the Batman, where Deathstroke appears... And his fate and motivation is identical to Bane's.
  - Speaking of Beware the Batman, Bane in the game is voiced by JB Blanc. On Beware the Batman, he's the voice of Alfred. Makes Bane almost killing Alfred ironic, doesn't it?
- Commissioner Gordon's voice actor, Michael Gough, is a double-whammy of this. Not only does he share a name with the actor who played Alfred in the Burton/Schumacher Batman films, but said voice actor once voiced Deckard Cain, who's voice has been compared to a different version of Bane.
- The Electrocutioner being an Anti-Climax Boss in the game is much more hilarious when his counterpart in Gotham is also taken down anti-climatically in a single hit.
- Enigma being a cop on the GCPD was a strange addition to Nigma's origin, but his counterpart in Gotham is also a police worker before his Start of Darkness.
- Firefly's taunt of "Feel the burn!" makes him sound like a Bernie Sanders supporter.
- This wasn't the first time in a Batman story where Joker ruined Black Mask's life.
- One of the criticism of the game is that Rocksteady is the only one who can really make a good Arkham game and usually list all the bug, glitches and what not, citing the previous Arkham games didn't need patches to fix them. Flash forward to Arkham Knight, a game made by Rocksteady... and its PC release was riddled with bugs and glitches and needed a patch to fix them (although it's worth noting that Rocksteady was not responsible for the PC port).
- One of the game's major twists is Joker having stolen Black Mask's identity to seize his assets. In the 2019 run of Suicide Squad, a major twist is Black Mask having stolen Ted Kord's identity to seize his assets, thanks to an upgrade to his masks that allows him to change faces.
- This game was WB Games Montreal's first major release that wasn't a port of another game, and stars Roger Craig Smith — best known as the voice of Ezio Audi tore — as Batman. Nine years later, WB Games Montreal's next project, another Batman-themed game called Gotham Knights (2022), would feature fellow Assassin's Creed alum Michael Antonakos as Batman.
It's Easy, So It Sucks!: The game's predator gameplay is incredibly broken, even on harder levels, especially with the remote claw by which one can take out multiple mooks without standing directly on a single gargoyle and giving away one's position. The level design likewise doesn't have the clutter and multi-tiered level design in the Rocksteady games. Notably, players who started with Arkham Origins found Arkham Knight much harder since Rocksteady gave the stealth and predator challenges a Sequel Difficulty Spike in the latter game.
It's Hard, So It Sucks!: Deathstroke's battle apparently was enough to turn both casual and longtime fans away from the game, and some claim that the combat is too hard, broken or at least much faster than before.
It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: The most prevalent complaint against the game is that it doesn't do much that the previous games hasn't done, with the game more or less composed of repurposed assets and design cues from both Asylum and City (Though oddly a bit more liner in the building levels which were a bit more unique save a few predator maps). This extends to the boss fights, which, while very well-received for the most part, did copy elements from previous boss fights in the series, including the following:
- While the Mad Hatter side quest is quite creepy and memorable, the overall level is based on Scarecrow's Nightmare levels from Arkham Asylum.
- Three of the game's boss-fights borrow from the Ra's Al Ghul fight in Arkham City: Deathstoke jumps out of smoke and pounces on Batman, forcing him to use his gauntlets quick-counter-style and following it up with a beatdown (with the animations being clearly recycled from that fight), while the Copperhead battle has Batman fighting several hallucinatory Copperheads in addition to the real deal, who makes a charge attack at Batman that must be dodged. Finally, the denouement of Mad Hatter's mission has Batman throwing a reverse Batarang at the villain holding a female hostage with a knife below her neck just like Batman resolved his fight with Ra's and Talia.
- The final Bane TN-1 Predator Fight borrows from the Mr. Freeze fight in Arkham City, especially when Bane is able to short-circuit Batman's Detective mode (Mr. Freeze was able to do the same thing in the New Game Plus mode in City). The Deadshot Boss Battle is likewise a replay of the Catwoman-Two Face fight in City.
- In the "Cold, Cold Heart" DLC, the final battle against Mr. Freeze copied several elements of the fight against the character in Arkham City.
It Was His Sled:
- Anyone who's read the comics will know that Anarky's a lot younger than he appears to be, though some people may have been expecting him to get an Age Lift.
- Anyone familiar with Mr. Freeze's backstory will know that Ferris Boyle isn't half as nice as he seems.
- Regarding the game itself, even people who haven't played Arkham Origins will know that Black Mask isn't actually the main antagonist. It's the Joker once again.
Jerkass Has a Point: One of the game's glitches relates to tagging datapacks; they won't show up on your map until you've beaten up and interrogated at least one of Enigma's mooks. In general the emphasis on Enigma has changed to initially using your map to track down and beat down every person working for him; that, the reduced complexity of his "core puzzle areas", and the increased destructiveness of your methods for solving them give his tendency in this game to refer to Batman as a "thug" some resonance.
Jerkass Woobie:
- For most of the game, Batman is this. He's somewhat rude and disrespectful to Alfred, as well as refusing any other help, but it's clear he genuinely wants to stop the Joker and the assassins who are after him, as well as the fact that he's still haunted by the death of his parents.
- Anarky as well. It's clear that he's a rather angry and embittered young man who simply wants to do what he can to handle the intense injustice and corruption that permeates throughout Gotham City. When you beat him, it's kind of hard not to feel a little bad for him. However it's his extreme terrorist methods that push him into the 'jerkass' territory.
- Probably most surprising of all, Black Mask of all people is one by the end of the game. His life is ruined, he's been forced to Mercy Kill his girlfriend, he's been beaten and tortured, his criminal empire and his crew is in a bad way due to the Joker, and to top it all off, he's blamed through the game for things he never even did. When he's seen trying to build himself up again, it's really kind of sad, since he was a big-time crime boss and is now forced to do a low grade drug smuggling operation just to be noticed again.
- Jim Gordon counts as the only genuinely good policeman we've seen. Despite being outright hostile to Batman and even treating him like a criminal, he has a good reason for him to see him as one ^note. He also has to put up crap with the corrupt cops as he tries as hard as possible to redeem Gotham's police within the legal system's boundaries, in the meantime he has a strained relationship with his daughter Barbara who ended up defecting to Batman.
Magnificent Bitch: Lady Shiva is a high-ranking servant of Ra's Al-Ghul, using her position in the League of Assassins to pave the way for events in later games. Arriving in Gotham on the basis of hunting Batman for a bounty, Shiva uses it as an opportunity to manipulate Quincy Sharp into opening Arkham Asylum and ally with the League, laying the groundwork for the League's coming decades of schemes. Outdoing Bane himself after being captured, Shiva lures Batman to her with a trap and sends him on a hunt to rescue corrupt cops from death traps before facing him in physical combat, all to test the hero for his worth as a potential member of the League.
Memetic Mutation:
- Gigachad Wayne^explanation
- It's common for fans to joke about Electrocutioner, who was one-hit K.O.d by Batman, being the hardest boss in the game.
Moral Event Horizon: Bane crosses it by attacking the Batcave and Alfred, almost killing the latter.
Narm:
- Batman's vicious final beatdown on Joker at the end of the story starts to get a bit silly. You mash the Square/X button to beat the daylights out of Joker, and inbetween, you get unintentionally hilarious split-second closeups of Batman with an absolutely adorably angry expression on his face◊. With how over-the top ferocious he gets, you'll probably start laughing and wondering if Batsy's about to accidentally violate his one rule with the flatout Kenshiro-esque speed punches he was giving Joker, after all that rigmarole he went through with Bane. Watching Batman's punches get faster and faster, you're likely to stop taking it seriously and start jokingly going "ATATATATATATATATA" along with it.
- You can also inflict this with DLC outfits in New Game Plus mode. Some of them look appropriately serious enough (Thrillkiller, Gotham by Gaslight and Blackest Night) but costumes like the Adam West batsuit and Dark Knight of the Round Table are hilariously garish enough that you can't take it too seriously when Batsy's wearing a very shiny suit of bat-armour, or a comical looking bright purple cape and cowl and the cutest bat-insignia on his chest. Even his First Appearance skin, which has an appropriate black and grey colour scheme, it still has the small, goofily spread outward cowl-ears and the Purple Fists of Justice. Oh and if you're using this outfit with the Shock Gloves powered up, the Shock Gloves' special effects don't align with the gloves too well.
Obvious Beta: The game was released with a lot of bugs, some of them game-breaking. Even the captions seem insufficiently copyedited, and 100% Completion^note is impossible due to a miscalculation in the game itself. It was bad enough for the publisher to issue an apology to annoyed customers.
Older Than They Think:
- The Shock Gloves aren't actually a completely new gadget. They first appeared as an upgrade in the mobile "Arkham City Lockdown" game and "Arkham City - Armored Edition". However, in those games they were only used for combat, while in Origins they're also used to solve puzzles.
- This isn't the first time that a superhero Licensed Game has had an Anti-Climax Boss that's Played for Laughs.
- One of the biggest complaints about this game continuity-wise was that Harleen Quinzel’s first meeting with Joker completely contradicts her interview tapes in Arkham Asylum. Canonically, Batman’s first encounter with Hush in this timeline was in Arkham City… completely contradicting the existence of Hush’s character bio in Arkham Asylum.
- Batman having useful/powerful gadgets that just disappear from the series afterwards also happened between Asylum and City; both the ability to aim multiple batarangs and the Game-Breaker ultra batclaw^note disappeared without a trace between the two games, and while the batarangs eventually returned, there's never been any In-Universe justification for the ultra batclaw disappearing.
One-Scene Wonder: Amanda Waller in The Stinger.
Only the Creator Does It Right: The reason some fans are upset that neither Rocksteady nor Dini are directly involved. However, Rocksteady praising the new developers has softened the blow.
- After the game came out, this trope ended up being subverted - reception wasn't as warm for this game as much as other titles in the series, but it was still considered good overall.
- Particularly, there's been a lot of praise for the Boss Battles, especially the ones against Deathstroke, Firefly and Bane. Loads of fans were ecstatic that Bane's boss fight was a straight-up brawl instead of a Bullfight Boss like he was in Arkham Asylum.
Porting Disaster: The Xbox 360 was plagued by freezes, black screens and save-file corruptions when it was first released.
Questionable Casting:
- German dub only. The VA of Joker didn't even try to sound at least a bit different in the lines where Joker impersonated Black Mask, thus the plot was spoiled during the first 10 minutes for everyone who has an average sense of hearing and who can count two and two together.
  - Plus, the German dub didn't switch voice actors for Batman and Joker like the English-speaking version and stayed with the voices from the previous games, which is rather jarring for the people who care about this.
- The French dub has The Dark Knight's Joker's voice as The Joker in this game. He sounds very different from his usual voice from The Animated Series, which was kept for Asylum and City.
Replacement Scrappy:
- Warden Joseph was not very well-received by fans due to just being a combining replacement of Aaron Cash and Quincy Sharp from the first game. The fact that he also has a lack of characterization didn't do him any good neither.
- While Deathstroke plays similarly to Robin from the previous game, he's often compared negatively to the boy wonder. Even if you can look past his Palette Swap aspects, his explosive gel substitute "proximity bomb" intentionally doesn't replenish and due to glitches can't take down enemies with weak walls outside one specific one in a PS3 exclusive map, and his snap-flash substitute "neural pellet" is nowhere as useful as instead of knocking the victim off their feet, it simply confuses them for a moment. His gadget selection^note is also quite lacking, exclusively consisting of gadgets with the same mechanics as Batman's and Robin's but also lacking their best ones. As such, while playing as Deathstroke can be fun, it's pretty obvious the devs ran out of time designing him and he's more functional in combat than in stealth.
The Scrappy:
- Tracey Buxton, due to her grating voice and dated British cockney slang that makes her a living caricature.
- Bird is this due to his horrible physical appearance, boring side mission (not helping this case is the fact that completing the side mission is required to unlock the Special Combo Disarm and Destroy and it pops up very late in the game, meaning that a very useful combat upgrade is unusable for 75% of the game, unlike in City and Knight, where it can be purchased in the WayneTech menu fairly early on.) and how easy he was to take down despite being Bane's right hand.
Scrappy Mechanic:
- You can only change costumes in story mode after beating the game, and the game resets Batman's costume to the default one when you quit the game. While both also happened in City, here it's much more annoying since you can only change suits in the batcave and there's no cheat code to allow changing suits before beating the game^note. Made even worse by the fact that both Knight and Return to Arkham City did away with the story-based costume lock, meaning that this game is the only one besides Asylum (which had only one extra outfit anyway) where the mechanic is still present.
- The Dark Knight System is not a bad idea in theory (indeed, City had a similar system with physical Riddler challenges), but the fact that completing every challenge requires unorthodox gameplay decisions, pre-planning and at least two playthroughs makes it more annoying than fun. Even the small change of being able to beat them in any order would have made the system much less frustrating to deal with.
So Okay, It's Average: General consensus on the game appears to be that it's fun to play and has a strong story, but does little to improve on its predecessors.
Special Effect Failure: In a game that's remarkably detailed and well designed, the flat fire effects in Joker's Blackgate takeover really stand out.
That One Achievement: "I Am The Night" which requires the player to complete the Harder Than Hard "I Am The Night" mode, which challenges the player to complete the game on a single playthrough with no continues.
- "Point Counter-Point" which requires you to defeat Deathstroke without failing a single counter, and "Flawless Display" which requires beating Shiva without taking any damage. You will restart these fights multiple times, since Deathstroke attacks almost constantly without giving you any breathing room, and Shiva has several ninjas helping her, and getting hit by any of them voids the achievement. You'll need to have both of these fights down to a science if you want those achievements.
That One Boss:
- Deathstroke and Shiva in New Game Plus and "I Am The Night" mode.
- Bane when fighting in Blackgate Prison. His being able to make a hard turn to keep charging into you after dodging is a bit unfair. It's actually easier to run from him than to jump out of his way.
  - Any Bane fight on NG+ modes, as his attacks can be hard to read at times. His basic punches tend to come out of nowhere and hit like a truck.
- Deadshot can be frustrating, too. Similar to Two-Face and Harley in the DLC for City, it's a predator battle rather than a pitched fight like with the other assassins—fitting, since Deadshot is a long-range fighter. He roams around the room with his mooks, periodically threatening them, which can disrupt your efforts to eliminate them by making them suddenly turn around just as you're sneaking up for a silent takedown. Unlike his mooks, you can't disable Deadshot's weapons with your disruptor so he'll always be able to shoot at you, and you can't do ground-takedowns despite his not being as physically imposing as Bane or Deathstroke. On top of all that, if you take down all his mooks and then start working him over, he gets reinforcements when you take down half his health and, if and when you're forced to go back to the shadows because of his goons, he immediately takes the hostage and you have to sneak up on him with his mooks searching for you.
That One Sidequest: The entire 'Dark Knight System'. In addition to regular upgrades, the player is expected to perform a series of challenges organised in a checklist which are only checked off when completed in order (meaning if you actually fulfill the requirements of a later challenge before you've unlocked it, too bad, doesn't count, do it again). Completing certain challenges is the only way of unlocking certain upgrades including the Sonic Batarang and the Dive-Bomb Shockwave, meaning you'll find yourself wanting to do htem as soon as possible... but some of them are beyond ridiculously hard, simply because they expect too much, or are simply poorly explained. Of particular note is...
- Shadow Vigilante, Rank 10, 'High Risk, High Reward'. Simply enough, you have to win a fight that has a High threat level with a grade of A or higher. The problem? The game doesn't tell you what threat level a fight has until you've finished it, meaning you might be scoring an S rank, only for the game to reveal it was only a Mid-tier threat, and thus it won't count. You have no idea what threat level a fight is going to be until you finish it. Your best bet is to simply get into as many fights as possible until it unlocks.
- Gotham Protector, Rank 15, 'Gotham Protector'. Stop at least one crime in each of the 9 districts in Gotham City. The problem? Well as said above: these only count once you've unlocked this challenge... and it's the final challenge in it's set, meaning chances are you've already slogged through about 50 random crimes, only to now realise none of them actually mattered, and you'll need to find at least 9 more.
  - Worse than that, two of the locations (Pioneer Bridge and Sheldon Park) are incredibly narrow / small respectively, and as such have a very low chance of crimes randomly occurring there, meaning you'll probably find yourself stuck at '7/9' for quite some time.
- Worst Nightmare, Rank 6, 'Takedown Variations'. You have to perform an explosive gel takedown, a vent takedown, a 'hanging ledge takedown' (which is not AT ALL what it sounds like) and a corner takedown in one single predator encounter. The best place for this is the Bank, but it's incredibly easy to think you're hitting the required criteria, only to finish the mission and find it didn't count. Even worse than that, you only have a handful of goons to try and work with before the mission is over. To illustrate further...
  - The explosive gel takedown must be done using a destructible wall, simply taking out a goon using the gel and knocking them off a ledge won't count
  - The infamous 'hanging ledge takedown' does not involve hanging, or even really a ledge. It involves having Batman stand above someone (not even crouching, STANDING, during a STEALTH section) with nothing in front of him, then performing a takedown when the 'Silent Takedown' prompt apears. Batman will swing down and smother them with one arm, which is what makes it a 'hanging ledge takedown'
  - The vent takedown must be done from a wall-vent, NOT a floor grate, despite them being linked to the wall-vents
  - It's worth noting that the Bank is revisited during the Deadshot boss, and that another recommended location for this challenge is the final chapter at Blackgate Prison, except both leave you at the end of the game with 9 more challenges still not completed, with your only option being to try them in 'New Game +' where it'll be even harder to pull them off.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The few changes that Montreal did make to the gameplay (shock gloves, multiple special combo moves, remote claw, etc.) were deemed unnecessary by the players and that it made Batman even more overpowered than he already was.
They Copied It, So It Sucks!: The game plays almost exactly like Arkham City (hell, even half of the map is a pre-Arkham City North Gotham, albeit in better shape) and only has minor gameplay changes.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
- The playable characters have been criticized of being Palette Swaps of already existing characters. Deathstroke is a glitchier version of Robin with some of Batman's tactics, and Bruce Wayne is pretty much a faster Batman.^note They do have some differences from the originals, but still don't stand out. Deathstroke was especially criticized for lacking many of his cool lethal gadgets, being a non-lethal character, and the fact that failing to save a hostage in predator mode still fails the challenge, even though it is against Slade's character to care about their well-being. ^note
- The idea of Black Mask being the Big Bad excited some fans and were looking forward to a vill— oh, it's The Joker. Again.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
- Three of the eight assassins are defeated fairly early on in the story (with the first being the one who introduced the entire concept in the first place as the Warmup Boss), and two more are only Optional Bosses.
- The reveal that Black Mask was hijacked by the Joker and ultimately reduced to a Flunky Boss also comes across as wasted potential.
- Early on in the game Calendar Man is freed from prison during the Blackgate break-in. You'd think that since it's Christmas and that he's a Serial Killer whose murders fall on holidays, that Batman would make it a point to track him down. Instead Calendar Man just disappears from the rest of the game and Batman never tries to find him. The only thing that stops this from being a What Happened to the Mouse? moment is that we know from Batman: Arkham City that he's spending the holiday murdering Judge Harkness at the Judge's Christmas Party. But the fact that this game hyped up its Detective Gameplay you would think you would investigate said murder and bring in Calendar Man. Sadly no such luck.
- Similarly: The game is set on Christmas Eve, Year Two. You have a game-mode where you solve mysterious murders? Alberto Falcone is in the game. Seems like a perfect setup for something relating to The Long Halloween, right? Also with the hype having been focused on the regular criminals, neither the Falcones or the Maronis have a big impact (or barely appear), while in the comics they were the biggest foes in Batman's early career.
  - In the end, that means that despite being set on Christmas Eve, neither Calendar Man nor the Holiday Killer feature in the story or sidequests at all.
  - Another memorable Batman villain who appeared in the story titled "Year Two" was The Reaper, who was later adapted to The Phantasm.
- There were many complaints about Batman not having his first encounter with each of his rogues gallery too. The developers would have made more fans happy if they even showed origins for the villains in a game that depicts how Batman and supervillains gained power in Gotham. Unfortunately, they were unable to involve most of Batman's core villains, though it is possible that we may see more prequel games in the future.
- From a gameplay perspective, many fans were hoping that a younger Batman would be more grounded with fewer gadgets and focused more on crime-solving, closer to the spirit of Year One and The Long Halloween. Many noted that the game's Casefile Crime Solving missions and its scrubbing methods was closer to this spirit than the main story arc, where Young!Batman is more or less the same as the Rocksteady!Batman, highly overpowered and over-advantaged, especially once he acquires the Shock Gloves.
- Likewise, Arkham Origins is set in a populated Gotham on Christmas Eve with thugs and mooks roaming around like in Arkham City. The Rocksteady games deliberately created plots that allowed for dozens of mooks in their maps usually by evacuating the city, while in Origins the city is filled with people but we don't see Batman interact with the general population in any meaningful fashion. Granted, this is hand-waved with the explanation that Gotham is in the middle of a mandatory curfew due to the severe winter weather (which you can hear over the loudspeakers as you explore Gotham), but it still seems like a missed opportunity.
Unexpected Character:
- Deathstroke as part of eight assassins hunting Batman? That's understandable. As playable DLC in a Batman title? That's a new one.
- Copperhead was already a fairly obscure villain (and male, to boot), so not many people expected the inclusion of this character, much less a female version. Batman even remarks that she's one of the few faces among the assassins whom he doesn't recognize.
Vindicated by History: The game was initially seen as a downgrade compared to City, not doing much innovating from that games combat system and having a number of bugs. But Origins was praised for having a more focused, logical story as opposed to the main games relying a lot more on video game enforcement, trying its best to build up the lore of the "Arkham" verse despite a few continuity errors. Several levels (the GCPD and the Hotel) were found to be very solid and, despite using the same map, gamers did like seeing old Gotham in its prime before urban decay we would see in City. And you could explore the legitimate Bat Cave (Asylums one was more a proxy one in case of emergencies, City and Knight only have it in a predator challenge maps, you couldn't really free roam in it). Finally, gamers loved the boss fights which put more power in the hands of the players to be Batman fighting his foes (Bane and Killer Croc you can actually fight directly, compared to Action Commands of previous games). While Arkham Knight was a bit more evolutionary overall, it regulated almost all of the boss fights to either Predator maps or Tank battles and had many wondering how Rocksteady could actually regress when it came to the newer console generation.
Visual Effects of Awesome: While the game looks fine on PS3 and Xbox 360, the PC version adds a few spicy new visual effects. Smoke, in particular, looks fantastic and moves realistically. It makes using the Shock Gloves very entertaining, as they too give off the smoke effect, and watching it trail around the room as Batman swings his fists looks very nice.
- Joker and Batman's encounter at the Royal Hotel is simply smashing. Especially when Joker has just blown up a building, while classical music blares as the windows in the suite are completely shattered by the shock-wave of the explosion.

YMMV / Batman: Arkham Origins

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