The mobile version of Batman: Arkham Origins, developed by NetherRealm Studios. The company has also developed over Mortal Kombat, Injustice: Gods Among Us, mobile Injustice and Batman: Arkham City Lockdown. The novelty is an over-the-shoulder brawl designed to whet the appetite of players hungry for a console game release.
The mobile version has the same plot as the main game: Batman’s career has just begun, but Black Mask is already tired of fighting the vigilante. She decides to offer a large sum of money to anyone who can kill Bat, attracting the attention of a small group of assassins including Deadshot, Detstroke and Bane.
In Batman: Arkham Origins, the user takes control of Batman and goes head-to-head with these assassins, but not before beating up every thug, criminal and smuggler in town. The game uses the familiar ‘free-to-play’ model, which itself is free to download, but offers microtransactions to players who would like to exchange real money for items such as character boosts, extra experience points or alternate versions of Batman’s costume.
Feature
Bat costumes will be the most tempting for Batman comic book fans, and there are plenty to choose from, including versions from The Long Halloween, The New 52 and even Batman Beyond. If a player creates a WBID account or logs in, they can get the Red Son version of Batman as a free bonus.
While it’s unfair to expect a mobile game to have the same gameplay as its console predecessors, a mobile game can be fun. Unfortunately, this is where Arkham Origins falls short.
It’s essentially a one-on-one fighting game (users go through entire levels, but only one at a time), controlled by tapping the screen, swiping it during quick events to perform combos and pressing additional buttons for things like blocking, changing stances or using a special move. It all works quite well.
Overall impression
It’s a bit too simple. Some thug shows up and you have to quickly press the screen to beat him up. Another thug jumps into the ring, the process repeats. There’s a lot of stuff in the game (different types of missions, boss battles, lots of unlockable items from skills to costumes, etc.) to try and keep things fresh and varied, but ultimately none of that changes the fact that the game just isn’t fun to play.
Even the simplest fighting games usually have two to four different types of punches and a cross or some other directional input that allows you to change those punches based on location. But in Arkham Origins there’s a regular punch, a special punch, and any quick events that occur during gameplay. Sure, you can block and change stances, but that’s a poor substitute for being able to move.