Batman Arkham Origins has finally been announced
The Batman Arkham series of videos are perhaps the most acclaimed super hero titles out there, and it was only a matter of time before another was added to the mix.
It seems many games are doing Origins stories right now, and so it makes sense for Batman Arkham to follow suit. The game has just been confirmed for an October 25th release, on the PC, Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii U – Playstation 4 and Xbox 720 haven’t been mentioned.
We’ll also see a handheld Batman too, Batman Arkham Origins Blackgate. This title has been announced on the Nintedo 3ds and for the Playstation Vita. It is said Blackgate will be a separate story to Batman Arkham Origins, and will indeed be set after the events of that game.
Batman Arkham Origins will serve as a prequel title, and the bad news out of the way first – Rocksteady are not involved in the creation of this new title. Instead responsibility has shifted to Warner Brothers Montreal. It is worthy to note that Motreal do have access to the heavily modified engine that Rocksteady had used for both Batman Arkham Asylum and Batman Arkham City. They are said to be aiming “to capture the look and feel of the Arkhamverse.”
The lead designer of Prototype and Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, Eric Holmes is serving as the creative directory for Origins. Some may argue they are very different titles and styles of play than Batman would typically see – but both titles have been well received so in theory Batman Arkham Origins should be in good hands.
As the name suggests, the title will see Batman as younger and inexperienced, not having fought many of the super-villians that he does in later years. Eight of the worlds best assassins arrive in Gotham on Christmas Eve with the sole purpose of killing Batman. A gameinformer image shows DeathStroke – who is yet to appear in a Batman Arkham title.
It has been said that Batman will meet characters who are “very important to him” for the first time during the progress of the games story, but just who those characters are remains a mystery. It certainly would be interesting to see Batman’s first take on Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Riddler or Joker.
I for one am very much looking forward to the game, and we don’t have that long to wait before it arrives. I can onl
y hope that the PC port is handled a lot better than that of Arkham City, which was met with a series of delays because of the implementation of Nvidia’s Physx and DX11 – and then the eventual release was still plagued with problems.
