Batman: Arkham Origins Confirmed

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The Batman Arkham Origins prequel and it’s 2013 release date had previously been confirmed in a Warner Bros financial call. he new team will have, “full access to Rocksteady’s custom modified Unreal engine” and have created what they call, “the first Arkham game set on the streets of Gotham City”. Apparently the story will focus on, “8 of the best assassin’s the world who’ve come together for one night, Christmas Eve, to kill the Bat”. Apparently this will be the “first time that Batman meets certain characters that are very important to him and defines their relationships”.

batman arkham origins screen 2Here’s the plot breakdown for the story: “The game takes place years before both of the previous Arkham titles when a young, unrefined Batman encounters many supervillains for the first time. Fans will recognize the assassin Deathstroke, who appears for the very first time in a core Arkham game”. (We had a pop at a list of Batman Arkham Origin enemies potentials awhile back.)

The game’s creative director is Eric Holmes who was (brace yourselves) lead designer of The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction and Prototype. Admittedly all the new studio have to do is cut and paste its ideas into Rocksteady’s template and it’ll probably be fine but neither of those two games even come close to the previous Arkham games.

Batman: Arkham Origins will be releasing October 25 this year on PS3. There will also be a PS Vita game called Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate. That’s described as “2.5-D Metroid-style exploration action game” being developed by Armature Studio.

Pretty sweet. The Arkham games are usually pretty great although no RockSteady, no Hamill & no Dini(Although I'm not sure if this is necessarily a bad thing) makes me suspicious. The handheld game sounds damn good too with Armature attached.

Comic fans help me, other than Deathstroke, who could the other 7 assassins be? Deadshot? Cheshire? Bane?

 

[Lee]

Talia will be in there. Check out the league of assassins: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Assassins

 

[Барбоса]

Surely any number of names from the League of Assassins/Shadows could be attached.

 

[.]

The people at NeoGaf have quite a lot of details:

Story

- Takes place on Christmas Eve
- Years before the previous two games
- Mob boss Black Mask will give a fortune for Batman’s head
- Top assassins and supervillains from the DC Comics universe are out to get Batman
- Cops on the take from the mob join the manhunt as well
- Batman needs to outsmart his enemies, find out why Black Mask wants him dead, and prove to what good cops that he’s on their side


General

- Porting Arkham City to Wii U let the team get familiar with Unreal 3
- Doing a prequel lets the team carve a unique territory if Rockstar were to move the Arkham timeline ahead down the road
- Rocksteady’s project is tightly under wraps
- Younger Batman also “gives us the opportunity to refresh things a bit”
- Combat system still in place
- Will have “new layers, new opportunities, and new tactics”
- New enemy types
- Batman not as finely honed as in the previous games
- Won’t control the Batwing directly
- Batwing will figure into story sequences and acts as a universe-appropriate form of fast travel
- Has the traditional predator mode in which players swing from perch to perch, glide kick, string guys upside-down, etc.
- New remote claw that is like the grappler in Just Cause 2
- Batman targets two objects and fires out a claw
- This hooks into the first object and launches another claw and rope to the second object
- Can then pull the two objects together
- Use this to knock enemies together, slam heavy objects into foes, string objects or people under a perch
- Can string up an explosive barrel under a perch, lure enemies with a sonic batarang, then cut the rope with a normal batarang, dropping the explosive on their heads
- Team knows Black Mask isn’t the most popular villain
- Old Gotham is only half of the game world
- Another new entire area is across the bridge called New Gotham
- New Gotham is classier and has much taller skyscrapers
- New zone doubles the size of the game world
- Players can dismantle the hacked tower network
- Towers emit a jamming signal that prevents the Batwing from flying into the area, meaning no fast travel
- It also halts Batman’s sensors from placing points of interest on the map
- Taking down the towers are varied and require all of Batman’s navigation, puzzle solving, and combat skills
- Some can be taken down quickly, others must be returned to later with an upgrade
- “Crime in Progress”: ex – saving some cops from a group of thugs, rescuing a snitch from being tossed off a roof
- Activities give Batman a chance for experience point bonuses
- Completing side quests also contributes to the GCPD’s understanding and appreciation of Batman
- They will begin to know Batman and which side he stands on based on how much you take on the optional missions
- Most Wanted system gives players a chance to go after villains outside of the core storyline
- These optional side missions can be tackled when you discover them
- Many optional missions offer upgrades
- Batman’s butler Alfred may notice that he had a tough time in that situation and give him a new gadget
- Dark Knight system is slightly more behind the scenes, though it’s still important
- Dark Knight system provides a lengthy string of tasks that slowly goes up in difficulty as the game progresses
- The team wants to avoid boring tutorials while still training players to be masters of predator and combat systems
- Complete a certain number of counters or silent takedowns to receive XP rewards or a specific upgrade
- Dark Knight system doesn’t replace challenge mode
- Team wants to make challenges more meaningful

Game demo

- Takes place about an hour into the game
- Batman is perched above Jezebel plaza
- Black Mask’s assassins have stirred up the local thugs
- No towering walls keeping villains in check and many citizens call Arkham City home since there isn’t a prison
- Amusement Mile hasn’t been flooded
- Batman is looking to find out why Black Mask is trying to kill him
- Batman decides to go to the party to track down Penguin, who hears about everything
- Eventually, Penguin gives some intel on a murder at Lacey Towers
- Claw grips Batman’s ankle and drags him out of the room before he can finish his questioning
- Batman reaches for the door, but his arm is stomped by a mysterious figure
- Batman ends up suspended upside-down from the rafters
- Deathstroke circles Batman with a drawn sword
- Batman blocks and disarms Deathstroke, using the sword to cut himself free
- Thanks to Penguin’s tip, Batman goes to Lacey Towers
- The cops say it’s a double homicide
- One victim is supposedly Black Mask
- Inside the apartment, Batman sees Black Mask’s girlfriend strung up on a chandelier
- Black Mask’s assumed body is laying face up across the room
- Batman goes into first-person detective vision to examine the situation

This sounds awesome now, sounds like Rocksteady are testing some things before putting them in the sequel to Arkham city.

At the same time this upsets me, Arkham City had so many cliffhangers that it made me really excited for the new one, that said origins setting up a new origin story makes everything much more interesting.

 

[Lee]

http://www.superherohype.com/news/articles/176085-first-screenshots-from-batman-arkham-origins

Some screenshots for you.

 

[.]

Black Mask's design looks pretty fantastic, they're actually making the mask look like the ebony it was carved from and not just some mask. Deathstroke looks badass and so Penguin looks great too.

 

[ABMorales787]

Sounds like a lot of GTA influences are going into it. Is Conroy voicing Batman?

 

[FunKay the Inevitable]

Sounds like a lot of GTA influences are going into it. Is Conroy voicing Batman?

From what I can find yes he is.

 

[#tamale]

Black Mask looks awesome. Loved Arkham City and this sounds like it's going to exceed that game.

I was kind of hoping for a sequel of Arkham City following up on Scarecrow, Azrael, and Hush but oh well.