1. Batman: Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition
2. Batman: Arkham City Game of the Year Edition
3. Season Pass for Batman: Arkham Origins
4. Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate Deluxe Edition
Prior to this purchase, I haven't played any spin off games of Arkham series. I always been curious about Arkham Origins Blackgate for a few years. This port is on many platforms with some faring better than others. Some would consider the PC port to be the worst. I can only judge it on what I played.
Everybody knows by now another team made Batman: Arkham Origins. Most spin off Arkham games are made by a few teams including the same one behind Mortal Kombat & Injustice series. Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate is considered canon to the time line. Therefore I must talk about it on my blog.
This is a sequel to Batman: Arkham Origins following some time after it's Cold, Cold Heart dlc. Yes some game play mechanics remain. You can move around in vents like the main games. You can fight the bad guys & famous Batman villains. You can use gadgets similar to those games. You can hack machines similar to them.
This does have the same cast as Batman: Arkham Origins with Nolan North reprising The Penguin. Surprisingly this is a very different experience from the main Arkham games. 2.5D instead of 3D style games similar to a particular dlc challenge map with Black Mask in Arkham City. Some gadget upgrades has other gadgets combine together. Obviously these gadgets would be separate.
Each Arkham game has a different hack system. In this game you quickly find the correct three digit codes. There's a few versions of these you must deal with through out the game. Instead of having an experience system like in main Arkham games. You have to find your gadgets, their upgrades, attack upgrades & armor upgrades.
Unlike most Arkham games, this one is more like games similar to Metroid & Castlevania series. You have three main sections of Blackgate. Regularly the main Arkham games has one large map filled with locations & secrets. In this game, the size of just one of those sections is very large. Also the map doesn't change when you need it to. Which makes going for upgrades & detective cases frustrating.
Let me to explain, in most main Arkham games. As stated before the main map is filled with locations. Some locations has their own maps inside them. They made it easier to tell where on the map to go. Mostly due to having pieces of the map covering several areas. They have it automatically showing up depending where on the map you are.
Sadly following some areas in those three sections is confusing. In some areas you are going left or right. But upon looking on the map you are going in the opposite direction. These maps doesn't change at all if you are going beneath or above. A few areas goes into another section. You have to find two particular routes to fight The Joker & The Penguin respectively.
Lucky that path for The Penguin is much easier to remember. You can quickly get loss trying to find the secret route to The Joker boss fight. I kid you not this could take a little longer than you probably expecting. Along with finding gadgets & upgrades. You also have to find pieces of several detective cases.
You also can find pieces of several batsuits. Unlike most Arkham games, each batsuit has abilities. For example Blackest Night batsuit makes you invincible. You have to defeat The Joker, The Penguin or Black Mask last for several things. Unlike most Arkham games, there's three different endings. Each also comes up with a extra scene at the end of the game.
This also determines what will happen after finding out the truth behind Catwoman. If you defeated The Joker last, you must go to five areas to disarm a powerful bomb inside a giant birthday gift. If you defeated The Penguin, each hostage will be close to the same heavy gunners during his boss fight. You must rescue the hostages under a strict small time limit.
If you defeated Black Mask last, you have to disarm the bombs similar to saving the warden. In my opinion this was the most difficult out of the three. To my surprise The Joker had the easiest out of the three. Usually you expect The Joker to be the most difficult since he's Batman's nemesis. Catwoman will also give you a piece of three particular batsuits.
Along with Blackest Night batsuit, Dark Knight Returns batsuit also gives you invincibility. Either way to fully experience the game you have to beat it three times. Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate drops the ball on the combat. Granted it was okay for Batman: Arkham Asylum. This felt like they wanted a 3D beat em up but given us a confused 25.D game instead.
The controls plays a huge part in enjoying this legendary game series. I couldn't stop noticing some times the controls doesn't work fast enough or not at all. Mostly notable in combat since this game doesn't follow parts of the rules. A great example of this is attacking opponents wielding blades & electric rods with a few bad guys.
You have to stun him the correct way or your attacks doesn't work. Usually in the main Arkham series, if you failed you have to try again. In this game you can keep attacking them. Most bosses are very strict than I would like them to be. In a sense you get two different boss fights with him. The first one you are only fighting his henchmen while he's throwing grenades & firing at you.
The actual Black Mask fight is very simple once you figured it out. If you attempt directly fight him or you do something wrong. You are very likely to die with no way to escape. What you are suppose to do is throw a batarang to the alarm on his right. Then quickly destroy a light closest to you. Quickly go behind the cover on the ground to the right.
Finally throw another batarang to the left quickly go back beneath. Very quickly get right beneath him, wait for the option to take down & that's it. This is more like many boss fights in Arkham Knight. The Joker boss fights in this particular series isn't great overall. This has the easiest Joker boss fight that's even easier than his Arkham Asylum or Arkham Origins boss fights.
You must use line launcher often with The Joker across from you. This is strict on when to use your line launcher. If you use it at the wrong time, The Joker hits you on the spot. Later in the boss fight, he will be running towards you often. The Penguin is one of the toughest bosses in the entire game. I would go as far to say his best in the series.
You have to worry about heavy gunners & drones. This is felt with so many trivial & errors. You can't directly attack those heavy gunners. You have to wait for them to move away from you at a good distance. You can use batclaw on their backs to take them down. You can't attack them in any other way.
Out of all the henchmen in the game, those guys are the most on top of what you are doing. If you get close to The Penguin the wrong way. He will keep knocking you back with several shotgun blasts. What you have to do is get those gunners away from him. You must go up to the middle top area then work your way to the ledge there. You must drop on him then attack The Penguin according to the button commands.
Bronze Tiger fights similar to Catwoman in two of her boss fights. Thankfully he is easy to memorize. Yes it is strict what to do but you will quickly notice what to do. Solomon Grundy has the best boss fight of the entire game. He will keep charging at you often. You have to attack him by using machines & timing just right to do damage to him. This game is very strict nailing it unless you have the other method. Believe it or not, only his boss fight has two different ways to win.
This other method involves you finding the shock batarang upgrade. Then work your way to this boss fight. Make sure you analyze the water in the middle of this long area. All you have to do after this boss fights starts is go to that area. Wait for Grundy to run into the water then throw a shock batarang at him. You can quickly do a combo to knock him out. You only have to do this once to win.
In comparison of using three similar machines & wires to defeat Grundy. Deadshot ends up being the easiest boss in the game. You have to keep avoid his shoots often. There is a particular area you can't avoid those shoots at all. You quickly take out a light to stun him then quickly use a line launcher. Yes it's that easy even a caveman can do it.
Of course anyone would agree the final boss is the single worst part of the entire game. You will be fighting Catwoman in three different phrases. The first phrase is very similar to her first boss fight & Bronze Tiger's. Her second phrase is strict on countering & doing combos. You have to pay attention to a particular sound & her googles. You can take a lot of damage during this phrase.
Her final phrase is even worse since you have to pay attention to the real Catwoman attacking you. A few fakes just quickly in front of you then jump away. The real her will quickly attack you. This is the worst point of countering the attacks. It is painfully strict since if you attack too early, the real one gets a hit.
These hits do even more damage than her last phrase. If you counter at the wrong time, you won't be able to do anything when she attacks. Almost the same as attacking at the wrong time. You have to counter several times in a row then deliver a combo to her. You have to do this twice to beat the game. OMG I really don't like this final boss fight.
You will get loss often in this game even in multiple playthroughs. Although you can take out any of the big three out in any order. Believe it or not, this doesn't affect the game that much. Some areas will have bad guys waiting for you. It doesn't matter where in the campaign or you are attempting to get an 100% completion. They will be in many areas waiting to fight you.
Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate does have some interesting things going for it. I felt with more time & a better team would've made this port even better. In it's current state it would be the worst Arkham game I have ever played. Thank god it isn't as bad as Batman Forever on Sega Genesis. This game does some things right while others wrong.
I really can't recommend this Batman game to fellow bat fans. This game couldn't be as close as great as the main Arkham games. I can't believe this version gets a lot of hate with some of it yeah I agree. I felt there are worse Batman games in existence. I will say it was a little better than what I expected.
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