origins

Batman: Arkham Origins is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by WB Games Montréal and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Based on the DC Comics superhero Batman, it is the follow-up to the 2011 video game Batman: Arkham City and is the third main installment in the Batman: Arkham series. Written by Dooma Wendschuh, Corey May, and Ryan Galletta, the game's main storyline is set eight years before 2009's Batman: Arkham Asylum and follows a younger, less-refined Batman. When a bounty is placed on him by crime lord Black Mask, drawing eight of the world's greatest assassins to Gotham City on Christmas Eve, Batman must bring Black Mask to justice, while also being hunted by the police and having to face other villains, such as the Joker and Anarky, who take advantage of the chaos to launch their nefarious schemes.
The game is played from a third-person perspective, focusing on Batman's combat and stealth abilities, detective skills, and gadgets for combat and exploration. Batman can freely move around the open world of Gotham City, interacting with characters and undertaking missions. Aside from the main story, Batman can help the police deal with crimes and confront other supervillains terrorizing the city. Arkham Origins introduces the ability for Batman to virtually recreate crimes, allowing him to investigate the scene and identify the culprit. The game is also the first in the series with a multiplayer mode, in which players partake in a gang war between the Joker and Bane.
Development of Arkham Origins began in 2011. WB Games Montréal took over development duties from the series creator Rocksteady Studios, which was preoccupied with Batman: Arkham Knight and thus would not have been able to release a new game for a considerable time. The team chose to make the game a prequel to explore certain aspects of the Batman character, such as his vulnerability and lack of experience, that previous games could not; the story was inspired by the comics Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight and Batman: Year One, and was developed with input from writer Geoff Johns. Development of the multiplayer mode was handled by the British studio Splash Damage, separately from the main game.
Arkham Origins was released worldwide on October 25, 2013 for the PlayStation 3, Wii U, Windows, and Xbox 360. The game received mostly positive reviews. It was praised for its voice acting, boss fights, storyline, and musical score, but was criticized for its general lack of innovation in gameplay mechanics and technical issues, while the multiplayer aspect was considered an unnecessary addition to the series. Some veteran fans of the Arkham series disapproved of the game simply because it was developed by a studio other than Rocksteady and because Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill did not return to voice Batman and the Joker, respectively.
A companion game, Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate, was released alongside Arkham Origins for the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita, and a spin-off mobile game for iOS and Android platforms was released in October 2013. An animated sequel, Batman: Assault on Arkham, was released in 2014, while a successor, Batman: Arkham Knight, was released in June 2015. A direct sequel to Arkham Origins, Batman: Arkham Shadow, was released on the Meta Quest 3 on October 21, 2024, with Roger Craig Smith returning to voice Batman.

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