EXPLORING COMBAT, UPGRADES, AND GOTHAM IN BATMAN: ARKHAM ORIGINS

Batman: Arkham Origins’ creative director Eric Holmes doesn’t believe “the Arkham franchise is a lot of stuff done 'okay.' It’s about certain things done to a great level of quality.” As such, Holmes’ team at Warner Bros. Montreal isn’t phoning in their Arkham Asylum prequel. “We went through a bunch of ideas,” he tells IGN, “and we picked a small number of the best ones that we felt would give the game its own identity, give it a meaning to exist.”

To that end, tweaks to Batman’s personal progression and combat systems were not made lightly – and anything that didn’t make Warner’s demanding grade was cut without prejudice.

Batman: Arkham Origins’ creative director Eric Holmes doesn’t believe “the Arkham franchise is a lot of stuff done 'okay.' It’s about certain things done to a great level of quality.” As such, Holmes’ team at Warner Bros. Montreal isn’t phoning in their Arkham Asylum prequel. “We went through a bunch of ideas,” he tells IGN, “and we picked a small number of the best ones that we felt would give the game its own identity, give it a meaning to exist.”

To that end, tweaks to Batman’s personal progression and combat systems were not made lightly – and anything that didn’t make Warner’s demanding grade was cut without prejudice.

“We had a weather system that was dynamic in the city,” says Holmes. Gotham City’s snowy Christmas Eve isn’t the aggressive visual obstacle it once was. Breezy weather could escalate into low-visibility, leaving marksmen completely vulnerable to Batman’s stealth. “That’s something we tried and we didn’t go ahead with because it didn’t seem up to Arkham quality when we executed on it,” Holmes says. “We didn’t think that we would be able to pull it off with great quality in the time we had for it. So the best thing to do, rather than ship a half-done feature, is to pull it.”

On the other hand, Warner’s adjusted combat system, influenced by previous games’ challenge rooms, is an example of a new idea that’s paying dividends. As Holmes explains it, brawls end with ratings that dictate the experience points you earn, while the moment-to-moment action constantly explains how you achieved your given grade with visual feedback. “Did you use a gadget? Did you do a takedown? Did you do a big combo? Did you not get hit?” are all factors in helping players gain “that sense of mastery” over Arkham Origins’ familiar free-flow combat.

This XP system – which rewards skilled fighters without punishing poorer ones – feeds into Batman’s personal progression, naturally. “It’s more of a Borderlands tree-type structure,” Holmes says of Origins. “If you want to be really good at one thing, you can tunnel your way through the upgrade system and get to that. If you want to ignore one area, you don’t have to go there. It’s got a bit more of a hierarchy and building towards that mastery.” 

Completionists as well as perfectionists will find themselves earning huge – taking down the “Most Wanted” DC villains unlocks improvements, too, but Holmes isn’t specifying what, precisely, Batman earns for putting Anarky on ice.

The other major change in Arkham Origins is its open-world, now larger and taller than either Asylum or City. “In Origins, one thing you’ll notice is that the south island, [New Gotham], has much taller structures” than the northern Gotham island. “It has catwalks between the buildings, and pipes and cables…The city looks a lot more vertical,” Holmes explains. What excites him most is that the grapple-glide-grapple-glide rhythm of exploration gives players “a new way to express themselves in that space…It’s a very organic experience, to try and figure out what size that should be.” Holmes makes no apologies to those who miss the smaller scale of Arkham Asylum – Origins is absolutely bigger and broader than Arkham City.

Holmes and Warner still aren't speaking much about Arkham Origins' multiplayer, but it'll be interesting to see how the cut-the-fat philosophy applies to the competitive side of Batman's new beginnings.