"It's high time you realize you are a man, not an island.
A man's strength comes from not just brawn and intelligence, but also from his allies."
Hello everyone!
And this week, we're heading right back to the beginning.
Well, alright, the way these games were released it isn't ACTUALLY the first one in the series, but CHRONOLOGICALLY it is, and that's the way I've chosen to re-watch the gameplays.
See, I've watched these all before, way before Gotham Knights popped on scene.
But with the resurgence in Batman interest, I decided I'm going to go right back and figure out how the story connects, if it does.
I kinda think it does, even if Knights supposedly isn't a sequel.
Anyway, we need to stop chattering and start talking about the game itself, right? Right.
Because Batman: Arkham Origins won't wait.
Links to previous related posts can be found at the bottom of the page, as per usual!
Batman: Arkham Origins is, as the title says, the beginning of Batman's career. Bruce Wayne has been back in Gotham for two years now, and he's devised the Batman persona because the corruption in the city has started to spill out of its usual, nefarious and background confines.
So on Christmas Eve, when riots break out in Blackgate prison, he decides to take Santa's place in pattering across rooftops to get there and help stop them (no joke, Alfred actually tells Bruce that kids will be expecting Santa Claus, not the Batman; Bruce growls that he does NOT patter, leaving his long-suffering butler to sigh in 'stupid').
Batman is successful enough with the quelling of the riots, but he figures out Black Mask is responsible for them - and unfortunately, isn't fast enough to save the police commissioner, not to mention that he gets attacked by none other than Killer Croc.
Croc reveals that there's a 50 million dollar bounty on Batman's head, curtesy of Black Mask (as you do when your deals keep falling through because of a guy dressed up as a bat), so now he's got to deal with that before he can handle any other situation around the city. This is why he tracks down the Penguin, who may know Black Mask's location, in the process defeating both Deathstroke and Electrocutioner.
Oh and by the way? Black Mask supposedly died in his safe house.
Confused, Batman heads on over to the crime scene and figures out that isn't quite the case, but that there may be another player involved he doesn't know much about (yet): the Joker.
You see why I say YET. In time, Batman and Joker will know everything there is to know about one another, after all.
But not just yet; nor is he on tight terms with one James Gordon, who confronts him at the GCPD while Batman's trying to figure out some more details of the case (expertly aided by a teenage Barbara, which is a nice little Easter egg about who she will eventually become). Escaping Gordon and the corrupt SWAT, Batman realizes the Joker probably needs Black Mask alive because only his biometrics can get through the systems at a bank for, well, the money obviously.
And oh, also, there're bombs being planted all around the city, in the sewers. What's the deal with that again?
No time to figure it out just yet as Joker reveals himself (and is later incensed that, after both shooting at him, leaving his goons to deal with him AND bringing a building down atop him, Batman still isn't obligingly dead), prompting Batman to try and save Black Mask, in the process fighting the assassin Copperhead, who inconveniently poisons him.
Thankfully, Bruce and Alfred know a thing or two about poisons, so Batman does not, in fact, die on the spot, but he does certainly elevate Alfred's blood pressure while he's at it, which is a common theme throughout the game as the butler isn't convinced this is the life Bruce Wayne should be leading.
Bruce though, filled with too much anger and not enough sense, returns to tracking the Joker to the Gotham Royal Hotel, where he works to free the hostages, get to the penthouse, and eventually does in fact dangle Joker from one hand (his preferred method of interrogation, though with the Joker it kinda takes on a slightly crazy tilt because the madman does the happy toddler spread-eagle, with arms and legs flung wide, just hanging there), but has to deal with Bane before he can handle anything else.
Bane, the only one of the assassins who waited to see if Batman would arrive (Electrocutioner sadly met his end when Joker kicked him out a window, but the Bat took advantage of his shock gloves while he was at it), now takes the fight to the roof, where they're eventually interrupted by the police because Alfred was terrified of Bruce dying and alerted Gordon that, hey, you know your fancy ass hotel? IT'S LITERALLY OVERRUN WITH CRIMINALS, YA DUMBASS.
Maybe you should get over there.
Things take an interesting twist here as Bane escapes, but shoots Joker right off the building; Batman, following his moral code, yeets after him to deliver him safely to the cops rather than watch him die, which thoroughly confuses the Joker because - who the hell would save HIM, of all people?
He weaves and warps a completely insane story in his crazy little head while Harleen Quinzel works on a psych evaluation after he's delivered to Blackgate, indicating that he believes he and Batman were destined to meet - and spelling trouble, but the Bat is kinda busy.
Not only is he mad at Alfred, but while trying to deal with villains like Anarky and Enigma (who've both popped up in the vacuum left behind by all the squabbling between the big players), Bane reveals he's figured out Batman is actually Bruce Wayne. Worried - but not enough - Batman tells Alfred to barricade himself in the Batcave while he deals with the latest insanity Gotham has to offer this Christmas Eve: Firefly on Pioneer Bridge.
Firefly is a fire-touting megalomaniac, by the way, and is going to blow the entire bridge if things don't go his way, and nothing Batman says can stop Gordon from attempting to breach the barricades and go after the nut-case.
So the Bat does what the Bat does best, which is rescues any hostages left behind, disarms most of the bombs, and eventually fights Firefly which gives Gordon and his men enough time to take the final bomb out of the equation.
The police captain and the vigilante have a small heart-to-heart in the aftermath, during which Batman admits he should have gotten to the bombs quicker, and Gordon says yeah well, I should have let you through those fire doors, but together they got the job done, which is more than they'd managed all through the night thus far.
That's all well and good, but while Batman was trying not to have an explosion on his conscience, Bane broke into the Batcave and mortally wounded Alfred. Hurrying home, the Bat finds the only parent he has left on this planet dying, and the butler actually does expire in his arms.
Using the shock gloves though, Batman revives him, and then admits that he can't really protect Gotham - if he can't even protect his own home, how the hell can he deal with an entire city?
But Alfred wouldn't be Alfred if he didn't have words of wisdom to impart, which is that, no, Batman can't do it all alone - but he CAN do it with allies.
And just in the nick of time, too, as they intercept a frantic and desperate dispatch call explaining that Gordon is headed to Blackgate, where riots have broken out, and is calling on anyone - ANYONE - for help.
This being the days pre-Batsignal, one can easily deduce that it's code for BATMAN GET YOUR WINGED BUTT OVER THERE, PRONTO, so with Alfred happily ensconced in the cave, Batman does just that, realizing the Joker's leading the riots - and nope, they CAN'T let him escape, period.
Of course it won't be easy, because the Joker has parked himself in an electric chair, and now Batman has a choice: kill Bane, or let Bane's heartbeat power up the chair so it kills the Joker. So, the Bat tricks the madman by stopping Bane's heart, making Joker BELIEVE he died, even more important because James Gordon, the brave fool, tried to intercede and found himself partly connected to the chair for his efforts.
And also, totally believing Batman killed Bane, until the Bat rolls his eyes and revives the monstrosity, prompting Gordon to go 'Oh! Well, in that case, I can go after the Joker not stand here delivering sanctimonious preaching'.
This is rich, as you'll see later, but firstly, Bane injects himself with some type of venom, turning into the DC version of the Hulk, making it difficult, but not impossible, for Batman to handle him. In the process, the venom also causes amnesia, so Bane forgets Bruce Wayne is Batman, thankfully, because otherwise the man's career would have been over before it really began.
Confronting the Joker in the chapel, Batman delivers the news that Bane is in custody, and the Joker, incensed, tries to get the Bat to kill him, but is only knocked out to be locked away again - at which point, Gordon comments that any of his own guys would have killed him by now (and also, the corrupt SWAT had been dealt with to a point).
He also tries to take Batman in, but that's obviously not happening, and in the end, he decides that maybe, just maybe ... the Batman has something to offer to the people of Gotham: a symbol of hope that things might get better.
That said and done - and while there's lobbying for Arkham Asylum to be re-opened, considering the amount of trussed up criminal presents the Bat left for all of them that night - Bruce wraps up with Anarky and Enigma before heading on home to enjoy Christmas dinner for breakfast, as one does when they're in the vigilante business.
But his work isn't done just yet, because in a DLC released for the game, one can follow Batman during New Year's Eve when a villain named Mr. Freeze interrupts a Wayne Foundation shindig, prompting Bruce to rescue that year's award recipient (and for us to laugh as Alfred expertly throws shade at his master, chiding him for not knowing where all Batcave entrances are hidden around Wayne Manor).
However, during his attempts, he learns the story is more complicated than it first seemed: because Freeze isn't ACTUALLY the culprit. Well, alright, he's guilty of all the destruction, but the starting point is actually his secret work on cryogenic weapons WITH the humanitarian, who then tried to double cross him.
See, Freeze's wife is in cryostasis, and he's trying to cure her of Huntington's disease, but the idiot humanitarian literally stole her, so Batman then needs to deal with the moron AND Freeze so Gotham doesn't ... literally freeze over.
In the end, he manages to save Nora, and ensure Freeze doesn't die either, considering the only reason he's in the conditions he's in is because of an altercation which released chemicals that altered his physical state, prompting him to create a suit which keeps him at sub-zero, otherwise he'll die of heatstroke.
And all's well that ends well, again, so maybe the Bat can actually enjoy the rest of his New Year's!
Fun, engaging, but most importantly illuminating as it introduces us to a much angrier, much younger Batman who has to overcome a set of personal hurdles before he can slowly start down the path of the vigilante Gotham City actually needs, Arkham Origins is a very important chapter in the universe.
Not only does it offer us insight into what drives Bruce Wayne, but it helps in understanding his relationships with people like Alfred, Gordon, even the Joker.
It's also not a terribly long game, but it still manages to cover all the pertinent and important plot points, and man, if movies nowadays could write their characters and the plots as well as games like this do? There'd be a lot less complaining about them, I can tell you that much.
I definitely recommend this if you want to figure out how Batman started out and how he slowly transformed. The animation still holds up incredibly well to this day, regardless of technological advancement, and the dialogue is some of the best I've ever heard, both in delivery as well as in the sass factor. I will say that some of the goons are maybe slightly stupid but, you can't have everything lol.
All in all 10/10, and I can't wait to bring you guys along for the rest of the Arkham series!
xx
*images and video not mine
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