So, the trailer for Batman: Arkham Origins has been released. Remember the teasers for Arkham Asylum and Arkham City? One had just a float-through of a medical facility, followed by the Joker’s laugh, and a “Arkham Asylum Intensive Treatment” sign. No explanation required; Batman’s gonna whup ass in Arkham. The other showed a shuttered Arkham Asylum, Gotham’s streets being torn apart by inmates while a clearly dying Joker laughs his ass off from an abandoned factory. Says everything right there; Batman’s being unleashed on Gotham.
Now we have this trailer. 4 minutes long, 3 minutes longer than the other two took to set up the premise, it introduces Deathstroke, some sort of assassination plot against Bats, a boring Unreal Engine meatslab fight, and….that’s it. I’m down for a new Arkham game much as the next guy, but before this trailer, I wasn’t terribly concerned about the game being handled by new caretakers Warner Bros. Montreal instead of Rocksteady, even with no Joker, no Paul Dini, and Kevin Conroy possibly being out (though, good news everyone! UPDATE: …..maybe. Conroy spoke too soon.). But, notwithstanding the whole Oblivious Catwoman controversy and not getting boss fights right, Rocksteady was unquestionably good at setting a compelling stage to drop Batman on. So far, despite promises of a kind of Batman: Year Two scenario, Origins‘ stage is frustratingly generic, the kind of generic that keeps me from reading modern day comics to begin with. That’s a problem, but one that I might be way off the mark about when more of the game comes to light.
I hope I’m way off the mark.
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