The Dark Knight Rises The TDKR General Discussion Thread - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Part 149

[Kane52630]

It's has a more concentrated story than Arkham City but there's a few things in Origins that I groaned at.

 

[Travesty]

I still haven't played it, yet. I was waiting for it to go down in price, and I was just about to pick not up this week, but then I got Skyrim for $10. I'm gonna play that first. By the time I'm finished with that, I'm sure a cheap version of the Game of the Year will be out.

 

[DACrowe]

I was turned off by some of the reviews, but I keep hearing the story is really good.

As a videogame, I think Arkham City is better. It was fresher when it came out, the boss fights were better, there was more variety (Ra's, going underground, the new Riddler challenges that involved saving people, playing as Catwoman, etc.), and despite being a "prison," the city felt more alive.

In Arkham Origins it's Christmas Eve. And for some reason, that apparently means the whole city is at home asleep during the snow storm except for goons running around outside. It is a rather flimsy premise honest to ensure that Gotham is barren.

With all that said, it has a better story than the first two, especially City which despite being the best has an asinine plot, and is still a great deal of fun. If you are a Batman fan, you will enjoy this one. It also has nice nods to Burton, Frank Miller, Nolan, and even an Adam West playable skin. So, there is plenty of heritage to enjoy.

 

[Kane52630]

For me the better story goes to Arkham Asylum, the mood really sets it apart from City and Origins.

 

[The Shape]

Arkham Origins was awesome and was very Nolan-influenced in a lot of ways. Then again, I got it the day it came out and experienced no glitches while playing so I think my experience was somewhat unique.

 

[Green Goblin]

In Arkham Origins it's Christmas Eve. And for some reason, that apparently means the whole city is at home asleep during the snow storm except for goons running around outside. It is a rather flimsy premise honest to ensure that Gotham is barren.

.

I agree that it made the city feel dull but it was a good excuse if you ask me. I mean think about it, you very rarely see people about on Christmas night. Everyones waiting for Santa obviously. Add in the fact there's a freaking snow storm outside I would much rather stay in my house and watch Elf the movie than possibly die of frostbite!

 

[The Joker]

There was a curfew in Gotham on Christmas Eve because of the severe snow storm. That's why the city streets didn't have random civilians wandering them. You hear the public announcements for it several times throughout the game, including in the intro sequence.

I love Arkham Origins. Best story out of the three games by far, and I enjoy playing it more than Arkham Asylum. Gameplay wise Arkham City is the best of the three, but it has the worst game story.

 

[Tequilla]

I liked the Ra's storyline in A.City. But in all these games , the narrative is all over the place. Incredibly sloppy writing. What i really enjoy about these games is the challenge mode.

 

[I Am The Knight]

I still haven't played it, yet. I was waiting for it to go down in price, and I was just about to pick not up this week, but then I got Skyrim for $10. I'm gonna play that first. By the time I'm finished with that, I'm sure a cheap version of the Game of the Year will be out.

LOL, you will NEVER be done with Skyrim I got it last september and I stil have so much to do, but then again I haven't played in a while. Now, if all you want to do is play through the main quest, you should be good.

As a videogame, I think Arkham City is better. It was fresher when it came out, the boss fights were better, there was more variety (Ra's, going underground, the new Riddler challenges that involved saving people, playing as Catwoman, etc.), and despite being a "prison," the city felt more alive.

In Arkham Origins it's Christmas Eve. And for some reason, that apparently means the whole city is at home asleep during the snow storm except for goons running around outside. It is a rather flimsy premise honest to ensure that Gotham is barren.

With all that said, it has a better story than the first two, especially City which despite being the best has an asinine plot, and is still a great deal of fun. If you are a Batman fan, you will enjoy this one. It also has nice nods to Burton, Frank Miller, Nolan, and even an Adam West playable skin. So, there is plenty of heritage to enjoy.

I only own Arkham City, so I was wondering if I should just get Asylum instead of Origins. I was really disappointed with the story in City but it was great fun. I will probably wait for a fixed/all DLC incuded version of Origins, as there are other games I still need to play, like The Last of Us.

 

[Tequilla]

Asylum is pretty good , although the gameplay and combat flow isn't nearly as good as the sequels. Origins is basically a City rehash.

 

[DACrowe]

LOL, you will NEVER be done with Skyrim I got it last september and I stil have so much to do, but then again I haven't played in a while. Now, if all you want to do is play through the main quest, you should be good.



I only own Arkham City, so I was wondering if I should just get Asylum instead of Origins. I was really disappointed with the story in City but it was great fun. I will probably wait for a fixed/all DLC incuded version of Origins, as there are other games I still need to play, like The Last of Us.

Origins is much more fun than Asylum. Asylum was pretty impressive in 2009. But City, and to a much lesser extent, Origins, improved on it in nearly every way. It is at the point where Asylum would be difficult for gamers to play if they played either sequel first, I imagine.

 

[A Necessary Evil]

I love Arkham Origins. Best story out of the three games by far, and I enjoy playing it more than Arkham Asylum. Gameplay wise Arkham City is the best of the three, but it has the worst game story.

Agreed 100%. AC's story was a huge disappointment, I was really upset at how they handled Strange and Two-Face.

 

[The Derp Knight]

Agreed 100%. AC's story was a huge disappointment, I was really upset at how they handled Strange and Two-Face.

Yeah Hugo was definitely 'Baned' in the end. He went from Moriarty to poor man's Hannibal.

 

[AnneFan]

I still haven't played it, yet. I was waiting for it to go down in price, and I was just about to pick not up this week, but then I got Skyrim for $10. I'm gonna play that first. By the time I'm finished with that, I'm sure a cheap version of the Game of the Year will be out.

Get it, then you can make computer generated goons feel scared in their bones and stuff.

I love Arkham Origins. Best story out of the three games by far, and I enjoy playing it more than Arkham Asylum. Gameplay wise Arkham City is the best of the three, but it has the worst game story.

Exactly my opinion.

 

[DACrowe]

Agreed 100%. AC's story was a huge disappointment, I was really upset at how they handled Strange and Two-Face.

I did not mind how they handled Strange, but yes, Two-Face was an embarrassment. Which is a shame as the character design, modeled so well after the Tim Sale Two-Face, was awesome.

But really the concept is just silly. They are going to turn miles of real-estate, DOWNTOWN real estate at that, complete with municipal buildings, historic towers, architectural wonders like the museum, etc. into a prison?! And Ra's Al Ghul orchestrated it all by bribing Quincy Sharp a decade ago just so Hugo Strange could blow up a bunch of inmates? Why not just bomb Arkham Asylum and Blackgate prison when they're all arrested? :roll eyes:

But luckily, that game is amazing fun to play. I would say it is more inventive and creative than any superhero game ever made, so it gets a free pass.

 

[Kane52630]

It's their take on Escape from New York, that's how I always saw it when I played it.

 

[A Necessary Evil]

Two-Face was an embarrassment. Which is a shame as the character design, modeled so well after the Tim Sale Two-Face, was awesome.

But really the concept is just silly. They are going to turn miles of real-estate, DOWNTOWN real estate at that, complete with municipal buildings, historic towers, architectural wonders like the museum, etc. into a prison?! And Ra's Al Ghul orchestrated it all by bribing Quincy Sharp a decade ago just so Hugo Strange could blow up a bunch of inmates? Why not just bomb Arkham Asylum and Blackgate prison when they're all arrested? :roll eyes:

But luckily, that game is amazing fun to play. I would say it is more inventive and creative than any superhero game ever made, so it gets a free pass.

Absolutely, the fun factor makes up for the story 100%.

Yeah Hugo was definitely 'Baned' in the end. He went from Moriarty to poor man's Hannibal.

 

[Kane52630]

I hated how they did the same thing in Arkham Origins

Spoiler

with the Joker as the head mastermind. Black Mask was just wasted.

 

[Brother Jack]

I hated how they did the same thing in Arkham Origins

Spoiler

with the Joker as the head mastermind. Black Mask was just wasted.

Agreed. If felt so redundant after the stories in the previous games focused so much on that character. Origins has some things going for it narratively but it also has some of the worst moments of the series. Story-wise the first is the best, easily.

 

[A Necessary Evil]

I hated how they did the same thing in Arkham Origins

Spoiler

with the Joker as the head mastermind. Black Mask was just wasted.

Yeeeeuuuuuppp. Although it was created naturally, and so it didn't feel out of place, it still pissed me off that

Spoiler

the Joker was the main villain...again.

 

[Pfeiffer-Pfan]

It was truly redundant by the games end. The [BLACKOUT]Joker and prison riot[/BLACKOUT] developments just made it all feel like a rehash of Asylum and not a very good one.

Plus Troy Baker's whiny Joker speaking over the prision speakers couldn't hold a candle to the dialogue and performance Hamill gave in Arkham Asylum.

I liked the assassins angle and the relationship between Alfred and Bruce, but apart from that, I don't get why everyone praises this games story so profusely.

 

[Kane52630]

Probably because of those little Nolan Batman influences...It felt off to me. The first two games had a Timmverse influence all over, but Origins got rid of all of it.

 

[Pfeiffer-Pfan]

Probably because of those little Nolan Batman influences...It felt off to me. The first two games had a Timmverse influence all over, but Origins got rid of all of it.

Exactly... It was too Nolan-y for me. Hopefully Rocksteady takes it back to the original influences.

Plus, why go to the trouble of bringing back Robert Costanzo and CCH Pounder (for one freakin' line) if you weren't going to bring Conroy back.

 

[The Joker]

It was truly redundant by the games end. The [BLACKOUT]Joker and prison riot[/BLACKOUT] developments just made it all feel like a rehash of Asylum and not a very good one.

Plus Troy Baker's whiny Joker speaking over the prision speakers couldn't hold a candle to the dialogue and performance Hamill gave in Arkham Asylum.

Whiny Joker voice? No way. He was an amazing Joker. One of the best. Better developed and written than Joker was in the previous two games, too. That goes for all the characters in Origins. All of them were better written and fleshed out.

Arkham City is basically chase the cure. A lot of people get brainwashed into thinking 'the setting IS the story' which it isn't.

Thing is, Arkham City ( the game title that is ) never ever was about Arkham City ( the prison itself ). Arkham City is arguably the most intriguing and fascinating premise for a Batman story. A walled off prison like Escape From New York, with some of Gotham's worst villains in there dividing up the land between them. Whenever people talk about the story all they have the image of that very unique setting in the back of their heads.

If you take the setting away, if you just take the game's plot and put it into just a random corner of Gotham City.. it's actually one of most bland, run-down-the-Mill and forgettable Batman stories ever created.

The story in Arkham City is nothing more then a glorified 'chase/track-down story', one we've seen at least a thousand times in the Batman comics and done less contrived too.

Batman has to find Catwoman for information
Batman has to find Joker just because he took a pot shot at Catwoman with a gun
Batman has to find Mr. Freeze for finding Joker's cure
Batman has to find Penguin for finding Freeze's suit
Batman has to find Ra's Al Ghul for finding an enzyme in his blood
Batman has to find Joker again for taking the cure
Batman has to stop Hugo Strange and stop Protocol 10
Batman has to find Joker again for taking Talia

Practically none of this has ANYTHING to do with the Arkham City situation or Strange foreshadowed "protocol 10", or the hierarchy among criminals and gang bosses.

I called Arkham City contrived because at times it really was. Batman is on a mission to stop Arkham City from the inside, take down Hugo Strange and prevent this mysterious "protocol 10" from happening. Yet for some reason he totally goes after Joker ( whose in prison with rules so "technically" is doing nothing wrong whatsoever ) because he fired a bullet at Catwoman. So what? It's the Joker! It's what he does for God's sake! Wouldn't taking down Hugo Strange be on a higher list for just this once?

Then Joker needs a cure.. which is again totally unrelated to any Protocol 10 sub-plot and is basically there to kill the time.. and of course Mr. Freeze has it. Who was coincidentally just kidnapped by Penguin, who then coincidentally needs a enzyme that only Ra's Al Ghul has, coincidentally one of his ninjas is sitting nearby in Penguin's display case.

I could go on, but the message should be clear. There's nothing extraordinary about Arkham City's story at all. Yes, the idea of prison built between Gotham were the inmates are allowed to tear each other apart.. is nothing short of genius. But it's never used for the story. The idea that Batman has to chase a cure because he got poisoned, is one the laziest and forgettable premises for a Batman there is. That's the main story.

I liked the assassins angle and the relationship between Alfred and Bruce, but apart from that, I don't get why everyone praises this games story so profusely.

Because it has a real character driven story to tell. There is not one character interaction in Asylum or City that matches to scenes like Joker's therapy session with Harley, or the Bruce/Alfred and Batman/Gordon interactions.

By the end of the story you feel like you've been through a proper rich Batman story.

Black Mask may have been wasted in Arkham Origins, but he was better used for the twist in the game. He didn't feel like a non entity. Unlike Hugo Strange and Two Face, who were promoted as big presence characters in AC, and are nothing but glorified cameos with barely any relevance to the main game story.

Even in the game you're always hearing Dent's man blabbing to each other that he's coming back, and you're waiting and waiting for it, and then we find out it's just a Catwoman side mission where she whups him again.

I love Asylum and City, brilliant games, but the game stories are among the weakest Dini has ever written. Asylum is better written than City though. City is by far the weakest of the trio story wise.

 

[BatmanBeyond]

Whiny Joker voice? No way. He was an amazing Joker. One of the best. Better developed and written than Joker was in the previous two games, too. That goes for all the characters in Origins. All of them were better written and fleshed out.

Basically, this.

Chris Redfield was rather surprisingly good as a younger Batman, also.

As I've mentioned in the Bane thread, the only voice I didn't really like was JB Blanc as Bane - sounded too much like a generic Latino thug to me.