Batman Arkham Origins Blackgate Review Part 2
This is part 2 of the Batman Arkham Origins Blackgate review. The first part where I talk about the game’s story, graphics, gameplay and controls can be found here. In part 2 which you are hopefully about to read, I express my opinion on topics such as level design, equipment and some of the good and the bad the game has. In the end I make up the balance and present you with my recommendation.
Level design & Backtracking
Batman Arkham Origins Blackgate has a 2.5D design. This basically means that the player still platforms in a right, left, up or down fashion but that that game is modelled in 3D. Because of the nature of the genre there are moments that you can see parts of levels which you cannot reach yet. These parts become available when the player finds the necessary equipment.
Normally the map would be a large help for keeping track of where these places of interest are. But often I still found myself to be lost on how to reach the rooms I set course for. This happens mainly because levels can have different floors but the map doesn’t make a distinction between these floors. Rather than doing that, the game presents the map from a top down perspective.
There came a point where I adjusted to the way the map needs to be read and because my travels across the Blackgate facility helped me familiarise myself with my surroundings, backtracking became far more pleasant.
Equipment & Collectibles
Batman is known for his use of high-tech gear when dealing with his enemies in a non lethal fashion. So expect to find gear; the essential weapons upgrades and alternate batsuits to fully explore the BAO Blackgate. I touched upon this earlier, but players can find many collectibles in all the different areas throughout the game. The events which Batman investigates in Blackgate prison didn’t transpire out of thin air and finding the detective files unlocks some of the back-story and shows how things came to be.
*update: Developer Armature Studios will present a “Full pickup map” this week, on which the location of every collectible can be seen.
Combat
True, Bats doesn’t shy away from using his gadgets but this doesn’t mean he can’t do hand to hand combat. His excellent martial arts skills are in the game and battling groups of enemies feels fun and empowering but never becomes too difficult. There can be multiple enemies onscreen, some in the foreground others in the background but don’t expect to be able the actively switch between fore or background. Combating multiple opponents at once shows Batman’s superiority; the player keeps an eye out for enemies who try to attack him, counter and take them out with devastating combos. When the player masters the timing of countering incoming foes, dodging them, and manage to take out a few of them in succession without getting hit, Batman goes into a sort of free-flow combat mode, this makes the super hero even more supercharged as he becomes able to more across wider gaps between enemies and his fists hit with more devastating power.
Some types of enemies need to be cape-stunned first and taking out these mixed groups of attacking foes feels great.
Often there are times when players can sneak up on the unsuspecting goons; dive kicking them unconscious, snaring them up, or doing silent takedowns all look fancy, but because the fistfights are so fun I often chose to battle these inmates head on.
Glitches
Sadly, I can’t overlook a negative experience I had when playing Batman Arkham Origins Blackgate; on my first playthrough and near completion of the game I ran into a game breaking glitch which didn’t allow me to reach an area in the game.
I was one of the first to experience this and I contacted the developer with my findings, who after doing some research expressed their regret and confirmed they would fix the nature of the glitch in a future update. Since then there have been numerous reports of game breaking glitches of which I can attest that some are false. True the game had some problems for me and others, but a large portion of what was presented online as “game breaking glitches” was more due to players thinking they were stuck rather than that the game had failed them.
I hope the publisher Warner Bros does the Vita community and this game a service by patching these known glitches as soon as possible, because the game deserves it.
Recommendation
Batman Arkham Origins Blackgate might not be the console game which made the franchise popular, but I for one am happy that publisher Warner Bros and the developer Amature Studios set out to deliver PS Vita gamers a different experience in the rich Batman universe.
There has been a lot of public outcry on how the Vita’s library supposedly lacks in AAA games, and Batman Arkham Origins Blackgate undeniably offers such an AAA experience. If the bad in terms of glitches are fixed with a patch, I would argue Batman Arkham Origins Blackgate is amongst the best Vita games of the year and I would recommend it to any gamer.
This is part 2 of my review for Batman Arkham Origins Blackgate. If you like to read the full story and haven’t yet, this link will take you to part1 of my Blackgate review. Hopefully you guys enjoyed my thoughts. Check back soon for the review of PS Vita fighter Injustice Gods Among Us Ultimate edition.
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Great articpe,but I will wate for the Injustice one, they say that is like mortal kombat vita -60fps but with very improved grapgics .dont get me wrong mk vita is my favorite game at the moment on the vita , but they could of push it more the graphics 🙂
The game is good but what is annoying is that devs are setting a bad example for others by porting 3ds games for vita, or holding back the vita’s power.
One of the dev setting this bad example are TT which makes the LEGO games.
HURRY THE *** UP WITH TN-V4 PS4 HAS BEEN RELEASED SO LETS GO!
Hey man calm down we will get it soon im also waiting for that.
You can have TN-V4 any time you like, just put in all the hard work and time such a thing requires and release it, otherwise wait like everyone else and be grateful when totalnoob releases it. By the look and tone of your comment I seriously doubt you will be grateful when it is released, grateful people don’t go around demanding things. Personally I hope he still waits a while as Sony will probably be releasing some type of FW update pretty soon for the PS4, I have no problem waiting as more vita games will be compatible with it upon its release. totalnoob take all the time you need, I and many others want to see the best possible product released not something rushed out the door to please the masses.
I agree YS hasnt been release yet and may have compatible issues for ps4
He said he was already done with it -.-
think u ment move… game
sounds good last batman game i played was a a while ago
mybad think u ment move…. “Batman goes into a sort of free-flow combat mode, this makes the super hero even more supercharged as he becomes able to more across wider gaps between enemies and his fists hit with more devastating power……..
I don’t agree with the poster who said devs are getting lazy. I don’t think its laziness, I think piracy has made them wary so they’re proceeding with more caution than before. Sadly games like this are the result. So I ask you which is better- companies ripping off consumers or consumers ripping off companies. I’m afraid that’s where we have reached. As Michael crichton wrote – ‘business is war’ at least that’s what it’s turning into
i disagree, there is no vita hack,nider will be in the near future -2,3 years may be,the Vita is too lock ,and its the way it should be,the developers rush every thing to make money fast ,take a look at killzone,or uncharted,or gravity rush (and the second part that will be released soon)and Injustice,these are games were the developers take there time and had made good loking games ,and Batman,spiderman,mortal kombat and all the others- were they rush it and had shity graphicks. So piracy? in this case is not the picture.