Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate

Genre: Metroidvania

Players: 1

.

Review:

Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate is a Metroidvania released on PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS in 2013 and then later ported to PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii U in a Deluxe Edition that adds improved visuals and new features like a fully 3D map. This game was released as a “companion piece” to Batman: Arkham Origins, taking place a few months after the events of that game. The main plot involves a riot at the titular Blackgate prison resulting in the supervillains Joker, Penguin, and Black Mask each taking control over a portion of the prison. Naturally, Batman sets off to recapture the supervillains and rescue the hostages they’re reputedly keeping locked up, reluctantly accepting the help and intel provided to him by Catwoman.

Arkham Origins Blackgate was clearly designed with the intention of “shrinking down” the Batman Arkham formula to be something more befitting a handheld device. As such, this game retains numerous elements of the Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, and Arkham Origins, all while reimagining them in a “2.5D” game.

This game makes use of 3D visuals with good lighting and a fair amount of environmental detail, though some characters (particularly nameless mooks you fight by the dozen) have some blocky character models and blurry textures. These visuals are interspersed with hand-drawn still-frame cinematics and backed by some phenomenal moody orchestral music and voice acting about on par with Batman: Arkham Origins (which is to say it’s quite good, though not as good as Arkham Asylum or Arkham City).

For the gameplay, the elements of the fully-3D Batman Arkham games have been reworked to fit this game’s 2.5D design, and the results are less than ideal. You still have the free-flowing combat system of those earlier games, “Detective mode”, signal hacking, stealth elements, and roughly the same selection of bat-gadgets, however, each of those elements suffers in the transition to this format.

Without a free range of movement, Batman’s somewhat automated shifting during combat as he effortlessly flows from one baddie to the next feels awkward and even more automated. Detective Mode here often feels forced, as you’re repeatedly required to scan the door barring your path forward, something that feels less like being a detective and more like giving the player busywork. When you need to hack those doors, the process feels less like honing in on a radio signal and more like completing a newspaper word search (or in this case, a number search). Without a third dimension to make use of, stealthily taking out enemies feels less like a hunter stalking prey and more like making use of a very limited number of contrived sneaking spots to do what the game expects of you. Similarly, the Bat-gadgets all now largely seem to be context-sensitive, meaning that you’re not really using them in an intuitive way, you’re just using them to do what the game is more or less telling you to do. Even grappling to move around, something that was so fluid and natural in the other Batman Arkham games, has been reduced here to a select few context-sensitive hot spots.

Unfortunately, as bad as these issues are, none of them are nearly as bad as the way this game handles its 2.5D elements, making simple navigation around its convoluted environments exasperating. Frequently, your camera perspective will shift, tempting you to want to change your control inputs to match, only to find Batman fumble around for a moment like an Alzheimer’s patient forgetting why he entered the room. Even worse are stealth combat sections where the 3D environment is a part of things, resulting in you trying to escape to a place that’s in line of sight, but that the game doesn’t consider accessible from where you currently are on the 2D plane.

Despite all these many, many flaws, there’s still a lot to like about Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate. There’s still a lot of charm and appeal in those remnants of the Batman Arkham formula that still shine through here, and at times this game evokes memories of the great games it’s based on. Unfortunately, these moments of greatness are broken up by far too many moments of frustration.

In the end, I don’t hate Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate. In a way, this “demake” of the Arkham formula is impressive in its dedication to reinterpret the series’ hallmarks to a different format. However, it may have also been misguided, as many of those elements simply don’t translate well to 2.5D. If you’re a fan of the Batman Arkham series, or Metroidvanias in general, you still may find this game to be worth playing, but be prepared for a much lesser, more compromised experience than the other games in the Batman Arkham franchise.

tl;dr – Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate is a Metroidvania that features numerous elements of the 3D Batman Arkham series, reworked to be used in a “2.5D” game. While there are definitely still elements of greatness left over from those other Batman games, overall this formula just doesn’t work as well in 2.5D, with nearly every part of that formula made worse here. It’s still a fun Metroidvania that should be enjoyable to Batman fans, but it’s a pale shadow of Batman Arkham games it’s based on.

Grade: C

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