Batman Arkham Origins And Background In Your Campaign

I'm not going to bore you with my final conclusions about Batman: Arkham Origins. I agree wholeheartedly with Jim Sterling's review. The game has some good points, but all those good points are cribbed from Rocksteady; WB Montreal, if it wanted the gig, needed to show it could improve on Rocksteady's work, or at least make it feel different, and it failed abysmally. It even managed to make the fights and predator challenges dull, by giving you gadget upgrades that allow you to power through both without raising a sweat. If you really feel you have to, buy it on sale.

I've been playing Batman: Arkham Asylum again, to take the bad taste out of my mouth. One thing that struck me, as I happily chewed my way through Joker Teeth and riddles, was that, in Origins, I really missed the Riddler's constant chatter. If you've played Asylum then you know that, every fourth or fifth time you snatch a trophy or figure out a puzzle, the Riddler either taunts you - if you haven't solved enough - or goes into hysterics, as you get closer and closer to your goal. That really motivated me to get 100% completion; I wanted to make the Riddler cry. But it also helped that many of the riddles and interview tapes filled in back story for the universe, giving you, the player, a sense that there's a much larger world out there, even though the island itself is small. Origins has no riddles, and very few audio tapes. In fact, I've only found one, as part of a story quest; there may not be others. The Riddler - beg pardon, Enigma - says very little, only popping up to goad you once in a blue moon. That kills any motivation I might have had to get 100%. If the Riddler doesn't give a shit, why should I?

In tabletop, Keepers don't often give much thought to background detail. There are newspapers, radios, popular trends, social personalities; but if one turns up, it's because that person or event is plot specific. Seldom do you encounter any evidence that the world is larger than the adventure your characters happen to be on at the time. Is Hitler pontificating, or Mussolini making another threat? Are the Great Powers trying to negotiate another arms treaty? What's the League of Nations up to? For that matter, what's your neighbor up to? The answer is, not much; which is an opportunity missed.

You know you're going to use a newspaper article or a radio broadcast in your Trail scenario at some point, to convey information to the players. But why make it a generic Newspaper Article, like all the rest? Make it something from the gutter press, like Hearst's New York Journal, or Northcliff's Daily Mail; convey the information in that breathless You Need To Know style. And why that paper? Because it's the paper the character reads every day. It shouldn't just appear in that one scenario; it should pop up again and again. Vicious Murderer On The Loose! Tragedy In Times Square! Government Fails Again! Bribery At The Top! None of those stories have to be relevant to the game, but they're relevant to the game world; they establish the kind of environment the characters live in, and may shape how they feel about it.

The same goes for radio, film, and possibly television if your campaign's advanced that far. Has Hitler given yet another speech? How are things in Spain? Not only can this help develop the game world, it also can provide useful background for campaign events. Do you, as Keeper, intend to have German agents seeking ancient tomes in your Bookhounds campaign? Then Hitler's Nazi party had better be in the news, all the time. Will you go for an Egyptian Arabesque theme? Then the news segments that come on before the film starts ought always to be about yet more thrilling discoveries in the Valley of the Kings. Are strange foreigners exporting books from war-torn Madrid? Then news of the Civil War ought to be hitting the headlines, and so on.

But what about personalities? Again, the exact type will depend on the campaign, but again the characters should be meeting people all the time, who have nothing to do with the current adventure. Bookhound auctions are a great place for meeting odd dilettantes, defrocked priests, stage magicians, criminals; people who might bid, and even win an auction or two every so often. Here's old Eustace again, the characters ought to be saying; I wonder what he's up to? Or, is that mystery buyer acting on Lord So-and-So's behalf? I never could work out whether that chap Forsythe actually has Military Intelligence connections. Didn't I see her down at Club Hades the other night? By establishing these people, the Keeper's also establishing the kind of environment they inhabit and, by extension, the characters live in. Are all politicians corrupt? Then the characters had better meet some corrupt politicians. Is life utterly sordid? Then pornographers and sex scandals are the rule of thumb. Did you shoot for an Egyptian theme? Then socialite Lucy Quentin had best be wearing the latest Egyptian-style fashions. And there should be cats. Lots and lots of cats.

It becomes more problematic with a globe-trotting campaign, like Night's Black Agents. All of the above assumes a relatively static base, but someone who's in Athens one week and Moscow the next can't rely on getting a copy of the Daily News every day. Faces blur, like those of a crowd in airport departures; so many, all blending into one mass. What to do?

Well, there's a reason why James Bond's iconic drink is a vodka martini, shaken not stirred; why his firearm is a Walther PPK; why he drives a Bentley. Bond carries his world with him. His identity is firmly established by what he wears, smokes, eats, drives, uses. He exists in a bubble all his own, and so ought your players. Do they live on the ragged edge? Then all their safe houses are in the worst part of town. Do they love gambling? Then all the staff in every major casino knows them by sight, and will have their favorite drink on standby. It's no less than they'd do for any other whale, after all. Are they gun nuts? Then every arms dealer they ever meet knows them by reputation, if not by personal experience, just like Lazar knew Bond in The Man With The Golden Gun. Are they the sort of people with contacts everywhere? Then other fixers all over the globe know them, and treat them with respect. The outcome is different in each case but the motivating factor is the same: the character carries the world with him, and the world responds in kind.

I hope you found this useful! Next time, with luck, I'll have forgotten all about Origins and found something new to obsess over.

Not Quite First Impressions Corner: Batman Arkham Origins

To begin with: yes, I write for the Escapist, no, this has nothing to do with the Escapist, it's entirely my own thing, and no, this isn't a review. I've only been playing Batman Arkham Origins for about 4 hours on Hard difficulty; I've penetrated Penguin's lair, and am currently fighting Deathstroke.

If someone were to ask me, right now, whether or not this was a good buy, I'd have to say no. Wait for a sale.

I don't have that option - video games never go on sale down here, particularly console versions - and besides, I enjoyed the first two episodes, so I didn't mind shelling out for this one. The first two were made by Rocksteady; in 2009 Arkham Asylum put that studio on the map, and in 2010 Warner Brothers bought the studio.  City followed soon thereafter, and was a huge success. Then something odd happened. Though a sequel to City had been announced in 2012, there were mixed messages about its content - was it Silver Age, was Paul Dini attached as writer, who would voice Batman and the Joker? - and in February 2013 it was announced that Rocksteady would not be the developer this time out. Instead, Warner Brothers Montreal would be the folks in charge. Perhaps it was thanks to talent drain; a Rocksteady developer lamented in February 2012 that an unfriendly business climate at home was forcing UK developers abroad. Be that as it may, from Feb 2013 to its release that October, Montreal was in charge, and to my mind, it shows.

After four hours, I haven't seen anything here that I didn't see in City. The environment's the same, since every outdoors location so far - and again, it's only been four hours, so that could change - has come from City. That same covered mall which was sprinkled with mines and a pain in the Bat-side to sneak around in City, is where I just foiled Penguin's gun deal in Origins. The same environments and rooftops I glided around in City, I'm gliding around now. The only thing missing is that bloody great wall, and Strange's armed thugs; but if early gameplay teasers are any indication, SWAT will be playing the role of Strange's Tiger teams. No doubt as soon as they appear, so will the choppers I remember spying on me in City. At least the wall hasn't been built yet.

The interior locations are a change of pace. Blackgate didn't really stand out. I'm enjoying Penguin's floating casino, though it seems a little small for what it is, and I can't help thinking that the basic premise is much the same as Penguin's Museum base in City. There are signal jammers outside, so deal with them first. Bust in to Penguin's lair, find your way to the fight pit, have a big fight, have a mini boss fight, move on. The Electrocutioner first appears in Penguin's lair, and what a big bag of wind he turns out to be, but the character that wins my 'least enjoyable' award so far is Tracey, Penguin's secretary. I've heard better Mockney from Jamie Oliver. The writers didn't dare say Fuck, but Bugger's ok, is it? Numpty? Have the 1970's returned, and nobody's told me?

I don't think Tracey's from the books, but I haven't followed comics since I was in uni, so I can't be sure. I hope, if she is, she gets better treatment there. Her biography doesn't say one way or the other, which is a departure from the other games; Rocksteady was always pretty good about telling you who first appeared where, and when.

The boss fights are interesting, but really not significantly different from previous outings. Killer Croc, who you fight early on, has broadly the same tactics as the Titan-boosted thugs found in both previous titles and the minor boss Siamese twin goons seen in City. He's quicker, but that's about it. Stun him, hit him, and keep hitting him. There's a really annoying Hit A Repeatedly QTE half-way through; I hope you have strong thumbs. But the bigger problem in that fight is the camera, which whooshes around like a drunk on a spree. You don't see enough of the Electrocutioner in his first fight to really test his mettle. Deathstroke has a curious block-block-hit him thing going on, but if you remember Ra's al Ghul's fight in City, you'll see a lot of similarities. It doesn't take place in a dream zone, but other than that, it's a very familiar fight.

Speaking of fights, yes, they're just as you remember them, and just as fun to plow through. The upgrade system is very odd. You get experience, much as you did before - hit things, smash objects, do well in predator encounters - but before you can buy any fun combat upgrades, you have to buy all the armor upgrades first. I've just bought the Blade Takedown, which will help deal with those pesky knife-users, but I had to fully upgrade my close combat armor first. Other combat moves are specific to bullet resistant armor, which I haven't fully upgraded yet. I'm not sure what difference that system makes to gameplay, but it did make me feel as though I was being forced to upgrade the way the developers wanted me to, rather than as I wanted to.

Again, this is a first impressions, not a review. I will play through to the end - I may even tell you what I thought of it, once it's done - but so far, I'm not impressed. Arkham City felt completely different to Asylum, right out of the gate. Origins feels like City's warmed-up leftovers. That's not necessarily a bad thing - City was a brilliant game - but it's not great for WB Montreal that my initial thought, as soon as I see the outdoor environments, is 'hang on, Rocksteady was here first - and Rocksteady was better.'