The events of Batman: Arkham Origins take place about one year after Bruce Wayne assumed the identity of Batman and serve as a prequel to the video game Batman: Arkham Asylum. The story’s main antagonist is a drug lord named Black Mask, who hires eight of the most dangerous criminals in the world, including Bane and Firefly, to kill Batman once and for all. In the course of the narrative, Batman will also encounter the Joker for the very first time. Since this was a long time before Arkham City was founded, Batman is free to investigate the entirety of the city; the unknown portion is roughly the same size as the known region. The fact that the setting is different does not make a significant difference because there are no civilians to be discovered because there is a curfew. Batman can use the Batwing for rapid travel (there is no actual flying involved) and use it to get to his Batcave.
The gameplay is essentially the same as it was in Arkham City. Batman can still glide through the open city and travels to more linear locales for plot missions, including multiple boss battles. The fights utilize the typical freeflow system of the series, in which Batman engages many adversaries and rapidly shifts between them while simultaneously building up a combo counter. In these battles, one of the most crucial aspects is knowing how to react to the foes, such as by employing a counterattack or using specific talents or devices to defend from the foes’ unique assaults. Batman is forced to rely on his stealth abilities when his adversaries are armed with weapons rather than engage in close-quarters combat. After that, he will often mount one of the gargoyles, survey the area, and single out one of the adversaries at a time. Here, Batman can use his gadgets to confuse or eliminate his foes or activate his detective view to see past walls. Defeating foes awards experience points, and starting skills or gadgets earns additional experience points. These experience points can be utilized to strengthen Batman’s talents or upgrade his devices.
During the open-world sections of the game, there are several activities to participate in. In addition to confronting even more foes, there are optional challenges and side tasks to solve. For example, you can end the sniper Deadbeat or solve the Enigma puzzles, which typically entail using switches and other devices. The Riddler’s photo challenges have been taken away, but in their place, the crime scene investigations with a detective view have been expanded to include brief movies that can be examined for clues.
In addition to the main story, the game features a challenge level in which players must overcome waves of enemies to earn a high score, as well as a new multiplayer mode that allows up to eight players to compete against one another in one of three parties: two gangster factions with three players each, and Batman and Robin. While Batman and Robin are forced to use the stealth techniques from the single-player mode, the gangsters are playing the game as if they were in a standard third-person shooter. Warner Bros. Games Montreal was responsible for developing the single-player mode, while Splash Damage Ltd. was in charge of the multiplayer mode.
The Deathstroke Challenge Pack is included in the Windows version released on Steam.
