Batman: Arkham Origins

Every few months or so, I devote a month toward playing a particular video game, beating it, and then devoting that time to do an intensive walkthrough and review. Last time, it was NBA 2K13, and now, it's Batman: Arkham Origins.

The events of Arkham Origins are set approximately five years before Batman: Arkham Asylum, in the middle of winter in fictional Gotham City. After playing the first and second installment, they just keep getting better and better and I'm loving it! I'll be updating this every step of the way as I'm playing through. If you haven't seen the official trailer for it, here is the link to it:

Right off the bat (no pun intended), you start the game off as Bruce walks into the Batcave to don his cape and cowl. Unlike the first two games, you never really get to explore this realm or interact with Alfred as much. A lot of the visual elements resemble the Nolan trilogy, but I really don't mind that at all. I actually think it was cool that the developers were able to incorporate that cinematic feel to it.

The first level you're dispatched to is Blackgate Prison, where you'll try to save Commissioner Loeb and find Black Mask. Like many intro missions, you'll get acquainted with the controls for the first time. If this is your first time playing any of the three Batman installments, it will take some figuring out. As you navigate through the prison and learn the combat moves, you will finally reach your first assassin, Killer Croc. He may look intimidating, but just avoid his mad dashes and use the beatdown moves to make quick work of him.

After defeating Croc, finding the Penguin is the next step to locating Black Mask. After landing near Jezebel Plaza, follow the prompts to the tower. You’ll encounter your first Vantage point inside. You'll need to disable the interference coming from the towers. These outcroppings act as visual cover and perches for strategic planning they also allow you a quick grapple point for escape if your ambush plans go awry. The thing I like about this new detective mode is that now you get to playback the reenactment of the crime scenes as they took place. You can rewind and replay them as they played out, and thereby looking for more evidence that will help you through the game a lot quicker. To do this, activate your Evidence Scanner and recreate the crime scenes. Scan for clues, and when prompted, reward the crime. Look for red triangles indicating points of evidence, and focus on them. After opening both stations, the location of the Penguin’s ship will be revealed. Follow the prompts to the dockside. Your first priority is to eliminate the snipers. Glide to the bow of the ship, then walk to the base of the crows nest. Then after you've disabled them, take out the rest of the armed guards. Below Decks is the next step. Once you defeat the guards from the previous encounter, head into the door below decks. You’ll face tougher enemies with knives and assault rifles. Once you make your way through the decks and get past the enemies, you'll find yourself in a fighting chamber facing the Electrocutioner.

This dude is all talk, but no game. Wipe the floor with him with one punch. After the Electrocutioner is finished with, a wave of enemies will descend into the ring. Watch out for knife-armed enemies. Blade dodge and quickly disarm them, then just go to town with the combo moves. Once you've finished, interrogate the last thug about Penguin's plans and whereabouts. Take a long way around through to the casino where Penguin's office is. When you move to open the unlocked doorway, a huge enforcer will surprise attack through the door and knock you backwards.

Avoid him while incapacitating his goons. His red flash attacks cannot be countered, only evaded. If he gets his hands on you, tap rapidly to escape. Stun him with your cape, then initiate the Beatdown. Keep doing this and repeat until you knock him out. The next area is a Predator room, which should be familiar to all of you that have played Batman games in the past. Climb to the Vantage Points and take out the armed targets to proceed to the next level. Once you've finished them off, there will be a cut scene at Penguin’s office with Falcone's son. Take out the guards and make Penguin talk by beating him down.

Now this has been my favorite battle thus far, the Deathstroke fight. As you're about to get Penguin to succumb to the beatdown in the cut scene, a grappling hook will take Batman out and fling him into an open arena area. The battle against Deathstroke is almost entirely a reactionary QTE. No matter how tempted you are, don’t vary too far from the on-screen counter prompts, otherwise Slade will knock you out every time.

The fight is broken into three parts. In the first two, wait for Slade to attack, then counter, get in a few hits, and then wait for another Counter opportunity. Don't be hasty to hit the Counter button, otherwise like I said... you'll get knocked down. When Deathstroke throws a flash grenade, rapidly tap Counter to block his flurry of blows, then respond with a beatdown of your own, rapidly tapping the attack button. When Deathstroke fires the Remote Grapple, wait until the Counter prompt appears and tap it quickly to send a barrel flying back at him. Then rush toward him using Evade and wait for another chance to Counter. Cape Stuns won't work against Slade. It is possible to keep long combos against him so long as you meet all your counters and don’t get overly aggressive between prompts. Once Deathstroke draws his sword, he becomes much more dangerous. No matter how tempting, don't attempt to improvise. Hit Counters when prompted it and do not deviate. He’ll fall easily if your timing is right. Once you defeat Slade, you'll obtain his Remote Grapple in order to build a bridge between the two Anchor Points above you and escape.

The Anarky side mission is entirely up to you if you want to do it right away, but if you want to rush through the story mode quickly, you can put this off for later. For those of you that actually want to do it, after you get off the Final Offer, you'll see a huge projection of Anarky on the sail. Talk to Anarky’s servant atop the tower and follow the prompts to the bank to disarm Anarky’s explosives. Rapidly grapple and glide to the bank rooftop, fight the circle of thugs, then punch the detonator to disable the bomb. There are about three bombs, so once you disarm all of them, you will meet Anarky at the courthouse for an all out melee. The Enigma data pack locations are important as well, just like the Riddler challenges were in the last games. For a more detailed list of where the main ones around Gotham are located, visit this link. Once you're finished with this, follow the map prompts to the hotel to the next mission and investigate Black Mask’s murder. Use the Vantage Point to ambush and disarm the GCPD SWAT officers. Once you get into Lacey Towers, use your evidence scanner inside the hotel room to piece together the evidence and put the murder together. Once you're finished, return to the Batcave and grab your Concussion Detonator. Don't forget to talk to Alfred for some free XP as always. While free roaming you will hear a baby crying. If you see a carriage, approach it and investigate to start Lady Shiva's Most Wanted side mission. Be ready to counter as soon as the cut scene starts. You'll have to do some rescue mission on the side before you can actually fight her, so once you finish it, be prepared to face off against Shiva and her ninjas.

Once you obtain the Concussion Detonator, you'll make your way toward the GCPD building to hack into their servers. Enter the GCPD through the roof. Before attempting to enter the door, eliminate the gunmen on the rooftop with Silent Takedowns so that they won't spot you.

As you're moving through the building, it is all a test of stealth and predator training. Lots of combat and Silent Takedowns and maybe a few melee battles with the cops.

You'll get your first glimpse of Barbara Gordon, or Oracle, in this scene. As you're going through the grates, you'll overhear an argument going on between her and James Gordon. Once this is over, you'll encounter her for a brief conversation about the location of the Disruptor. Make your way into the evidence room by going up the elevator shaft through the infirmary. Once you disrupt the jammer, then you'll make your way through the prison cell to fight a bunch of thugs. As you make your way to the server room, Barbara will help cover your tracks by tapping into the database. Once you'll disable the lock, you'll take an elevator to the top where you'll encounter a cut scene with Gordon, which I'm sure you've seen in the teasers. As the SWAT team approaches, use a smoke pellet and disarm them quickly. Then make your way to the rooftops and disarm the guards with a double takedown. After you leave the GCPD, head toward the next map prompt.

You’ll find this sewer gate at ground level. Enter and head down the left tunnel. Glide across the expanse. You’ll encounter your first Martial Artist enemies here. They’re quicker than ordinary thugs and sometimes require you to Double Counter their attacks. It's really self-explanatory to get through this area, as you'll be able to navigate your way through without any major problems.

Once you've completed this area and disable the main jammer, you’ll encounter a cut scene leading to the Mad Hatter side quest. You can choose to follow, or ignore it and come back to it later. Once I used the code to get out of the basement, I went to do this mission. It's very surreal like every Mad Hatter quest, and you'll find yourself wandering through a simulated Wonderland in order to find a woman captured and dressed as Alice. Once you get through, beat the Mad Hatter down and that will end the side quest. The next area you'll have to go to is the bank. Explore through to the bank and you'll end up having to blast through a floor with the Explosive Gel. Once that's done, you'll end up in a cut scene with Black Mask... or so we think.

SPOILER ALERT: Black Mask is actually the Joker! After the shocking cut scene, you’ll enter a Predator encounter. One of the thugs is equipped with a portable scrambler, so take him out with either the Disruptor or with a Takedown move. These guys are smarter than most thugs, so be careful. The thugs are fairly well armed, so make sure to isolate them before you take them down. Once you've taken them out, interrogate the last conscious thug to learn where the Joker is heading. You'll find that the info will lead you to the Sionis Steel Mill. The area outside Sionis’ Mill is patrolled by several guards, so before anything, be sure to take out the snipers first. Once you gain access through the entry point, use the grate to enter the next room. Use the beam to break a hole in the wall and then take out the men. Take out the armored enforcer first and then the rest of the surrounding men. Once you're done, activate the crane with the switch to damage the wall, then drag it back with the Batclaw and release for a second blow. Go through to the elevator and examine the dead body in the elevator. You'll go through another Predator situation shortly, and then you'll end up hearing Sionis yelling for help.

Copperhead will sneak up on you in a cut scene and deliver a dose of poison. You'll be dizzy throughout this segment, so use your Evidence scanner to track down a sample of the venom. After a rewind, you’ll find it in the broken ceiling. Backtrack through the Mill toward the front gate. You’ll encounter hallucinations on your way out. You’ll fight three ghostly Copperheads in the foyer. Walk forward to trigger a cut scene and then you'll be in the Copperhead battle. The first stages of the Copperhead fight are like an extended group brawl. You’ll be surrounded by a horde of identical Copperheads. They'll come at you in waves, but the large number of unarmored foes allows for quick comboing. Use free flow attacks to bounce from foe to foe, attacking once or twice and leaping to the next enemy. Always counter when prompted, then leap to the next Copperhead. Concussion bombs can clear out fake Copperheads. Group Stuns and Takedowns are very effective on her, so keep comboing up. When you reveal the true Copperhead, feel free to spar with her, improvising, evading, and getting in blows when you can. If you find yourself too close to a swinging foes with a yellow prompt, pull back and jump to perform a Blade Dodge. When the final stage of the fight begins, Evade Copperhead’s speed rushes above all else. Take down all the decoys, but keep from getting run over. After you've defeated Copperhead and locked her up in the shipping container, follow the tracker to the street near the hotel. GCPD Tacticals are on guard below, so take them out in any way that you see fit. There will be an opening if you do some exploring to the very right of the building. Take out the guards and make your way through to the lower end of the hotel. As you make it down the passageway through to the basement level, the large arena below is crammed with foes. Leap from enemy to enemy, using combos to build up massive takedowns. Walk through the parking gate, then restore power to the elevator. When you enter the hotel lobby, you’ll enter a Predator encounter. One of your foes is wearing a scrambler which disables your Detective Mode vision. He’s your first target. Take him out before alerting any of the others. The Remote Grapple and a fuel tank accomplish this task admirably. Once the thugs are down, enter the code with the Cryptographic Sequencer to pursue Joker. You'll see a cut scene where the Joker disguised as Black Mask and the other assassins are arguing about Batman. Joker will reveal himself and push the Electrocutioner out the window, sending him to his death. You'll get the Shock Gloves from him in this scene. Charge the lift to gain access to the hole in the roof. Grapple up to the open window above. Pass through the doors and use your new gloves to charge the doors to open passages. There will be thugs and other challenges that meet you, but you'll be making your way up through the upper hotel to enter Joker’s amusement park. Rescue hostages and hotel workers as you go along and you'll eventually reach a bomb that's set to go off on New Year day. When you disable it, it's actually a booby trap. Leap out of the window and grab onto the passing news helicopter. The chopper will carry you to the roof. You'll see it from a news camera POV, but keep fighting since it's a real time battle. There are a lot of enemies on this roof but your new Shock Gloves make protracted fights much easier. Build them up, activate, and dominate. Once you get past this scene, you'll have another Predator scenario to worry about. Once this is done, you'll get to battle with Bane for the first time.

Make no mistake, Bane will knock you around quite a bit. His charges cannot be countered, so evade to get out of his way quickly. When Bane leaps into the air, evade away or you’ll take splash damage. After one or two leaps, Bane will be temporarily vulnerable to a Super Cape Stun. Initiate a beatdown, then evade again. Use counter opportunities when they come. As Bane ingests more Venom, he’ll become a near-indestructible juggernaut. Stay out of his way with evade and wait for a Stun opening. When you get in, perform the Takedown command to rip his Venom feed free. Thugs will eventually enter the arena. Combo on them, leaping from thug to thug and building up your Shock Gloves. If you are quick, you can pull Bane toward enemies during his charges by lingering near them and jumping away at the last second. Bane will run right over them. The Shock Gloves allow you to break through Bane’s defenses and Venom state. Every time he gives you an opening, get in a combo of hits. Remember that even with the Gloves, Bane’s charges are too powerful to counter. When he’s running or jumping, you must still evade. After you defeat Bane, find a way to get back to the Batcave and retrieve the Glue Grenade. Descend to street level and enter the sewer grate. Use your new Glue Grenades to open seal off the hot steam vents, allowing passage. Scan the body in the morgue and the computer to learn more about the TN-1 project. Retrace your steps, return to the street, and follow the prompt to Bane’s Field Headquarters. Snipers are positioned nearby. Spot them by their laser scopes, sneak up, and eliminate them. The alley below is the entrance to Bane’s hiding place. Look to the right and enter through the door. Pass through the vent, then ambush this group of foes from above. Several of your enemies will be Venom-enhanced. Carefully blind and counter them to disable their Venom feeds, or build up your meter and shock them with your gloves. Make an improvised raft by foaming your Glue Grenades in the water. Use your grapple to pull yourself using the hooks along the walls. You'll see another round of guards when you pass through. Head through the large door and search Bane’s HQ. Grab the research nearby, then step into his main planning room for a surprise.

SPOILER: You'll find out that Bane has found out Batman's true identity. You' will eventually have to return to the Batcave to save Alfred.) Scan the frequencies for Firefly’s signal. Contact Alfred, make your way to the street, and swing out to the Bridge’s central pillar. At the base of the pillar is a small SWAT team. By this point in the game they’re little threat to you. Knock them out and head through the door nearby. Meet Gordon inside, then pass through the large locked door using the panel. Pull down the grate beyond with your grapple. Climb the nearby ladder then charge the generator to progress. Use Glue Grenades to clear the shaft before jumping across. Shimmy along this ledge. Climb up the shaft using your grapple and ladder. Pass through the door at the top of the shaft. Grapple above this barred door and pass through the grate. The Predator challenge room beyond is rigged with explosives. The four vantage points along the inner pillar are equipped with contact mines. Touching them will damage Batman and alert the enemies below. The henchmen also employ a backpack-mounted scrambler to negate Detective Mode. The bottom level near the pillar provides lots of cover for sneaking and silent takedowns. By moving quickly and quietly, you can easily down five of the enemies from behind without being heard or spotted. Once you've taken them down, use these three codes (PYROMANIAC, EXPLOSIVES, FLAMETHROWER) to disarm the first bomb. Once you've activated the elevator, use the nearby generator to reach the thugs above. Blast through the wall after raising the elevator to rescue Branden. Open the valve cover with a grapple. Climb the nearby ladder and head through the door. You’ll find several thugs guarding hostages trapped in a train car. Use Anchor Points to build a bridge and sneak up on those patrolling the upper catwalk, then finish the rest. Enter the control tower at the far end of the room to lower the train and free the hostages. Climb to the level above the lowered car to disarm the bomb. Disarm the second bomb. With the north passage blocked by the fire door, head south down this little side tunnel. Use your Shock Gloves to open the door just beyond. When you reach a weak wall, attach explosives. You’ll fall through the floor to the bridge’s superstructure. Climb the long girder ahead of you, then grapple through the bus. Climb out the side and leap to the exposed rail. Activate Detective Mode to spot the nearby Anchor Point. Build a bridge and grapple to it. Walk toward the pillar and grapple to the street car above, then through it. Beyond the snipers is a room full of thugs surrounded by an electrical fence. Use the grate to sneak in. Combo off the unarmored enemies, bouncing from foe to foe. Use mass takedowns and charge your Shock Gloves to take out armored foes. Use the generator to deactivate the field and open the door. Retrace your steps back to the Wire Bridge you created earlier. From there you’ll be able to spot a weak wall. Blast through it to get back inside the bridge. You’ll face a small group of thugs on the other side. Once the fire door is opened, you’ll face a rather annoying side scrolling section, Distances are difficult to judge. When you leap across an open expanse, be careful not to land on any sloping material or you’ll slide and fall. Hang from a ledge and shimmy around the obstructions, then fire your grapple to get atop the bridge. When you clear out the fracas in the arena, Firefly finally drops in.

The Firefly set-piece takes place in three stages. First, you’ll need to grapple Firefly. After he lands, Evade Firefly’s fire blasts and grenades. When you see flames incoming, Evade left or right as appropriate. When Firefly isn’t attacking, double tap your right trigger to launch a glue grenade, then quickly tap the left trigger to toss Batarangs. When prompted, fire your grapple, then tap very quickly to bring Firefly into pummeling range. Repeat. When the camera edge shifts, quickly grapple to the exposed bar. Run left along the girder, Jump-glide across the abyss, being careful to avoid the sloping steel plate on the right-side of the platform. Hang from the ledge and curve around to the left side, then fire your grapple to return to the top of the bridge. Weave between the cars, evading as you go. Slide under the semi rig and re-engage Firefly. Use the same Evade-Glue-Batarang-Grab tactics as before. When Firefly is very low on life, grapple him when prompted. Just before his life meter falls to zero, Firefly will take off, pulling you behind him. Use counter to evade obstacles.

Once you defeat him, you'll have to return to Blackgate Prison. Once you jump out of the Batwing, you'll have to clear the courtyard of foes. Enter the sewer grate to access the tunnels into Blackgate. Blast through the floor and grapple up from the shaft, then build a bridge using your Remote Grapple. When you reach the electrified water, bridge the first gap with the Remote Grapple. Cross, turn right and create another bridge. Cross and climb the wall beyond. Blast through this wall. Glide down to the platform across the water. Disable the power. Create a raft with a Glue Grande and head into the tunnel. Use the grapple to pull yourself along. When you reach the wall, climb, head left, and activate this panel. A power flux will begin across the hall. Throw a Remote Controlled Batarang through and disable the power box to raise the water level. Make a new raft and blast through the wall beyond. The current will carry you forward. Rapidly toss Glue Grenades at every open pipe you see, and duck to avoid being knocked off the raft. When you reach this area, quickly Glue Grande the three pipes above the gears. The pressure will clear the platform above, and you’ll be able to grapple up. Take out the bad guys and use the Shock Gloves to move the elevator. Climb the shaft. You’ll emerge from a vent into the bottom of a huge Predator room. Use vents to move through the area until you reach a vantage point. Stick to Silent Takedowns until you get high up. You'll have to go through the Predator challenge, but it's fairly simple. Once you take them down, you'll have to head to the Panopticon, which is a gauntlet of group battles. This far into the game, you know the score on group combat. Take them all out.

You'll find yourself in a rematch with a much stronger and faster Bane. When Bane ingests Venom, he’ll become a near-indestructible juggernaut. Stay out of his way with evade and wait for a Stun opening. When you get in, perform a takedown to rip his Venom feed free. Thugs will eventually enter the arena. Combo on them, leaping from thug to thug and building up your Shock Gloves. If you are quick, you can pull Bane toward enemies during his charges by lingering near them and jumping away at the last second. Bane will run right over them. The Shock Gloves allow you to break through Bane’s defenses and Venom state. Every time he gives you an opening, get in a combo of hits. Remember that even with the Gloves, Bane’s charges are too powerful to counter. When he’s running or jumping you must still evade. After reducing Bane’s health bar to near zero, a cut scene triggers. Upon completion, Bane injects himself with TN-1, rapidly mutating into a monstrosity. He and Batman will fall through the floor to a sub basement area where the second stage of the battle takes place. TN-1 enhanced Bane is absolutely invulnerable to standard attacks and cannot be Countered. Evade is your only close-range defense against him. The combat arena is two cell blocks surrounded by a rectangular hall and with a corridor cutting between them. The blocks are riddled with vents and many of the floors are grated. Several electrified doors crackle alongside the corridors. Beating Bane here is a matter of sneaking up on him without getting creamed. A successful stealth takedown will open him to a few blows. The vents will serve you well in this. Damaging Bane is most easily accomplished by luring him to a takedown spot near the electrified doors. There are three good locations for this: in a vent immediately across from an electrified door in the central corridor, under the middle grate across from an electrified door from one of the side corridors, and at the corner of a floor grate at a corner near a door. Once you’ve ambushed Bane, hit a beatdown sequence, knock him into a door or wall, and run for the hills. Be ready to Evade rear attacks, get out of sight, and then set up a new ambush. Surprise attacks away from the electrical doors will also harm Bane, but are less effective. Midway through the fight, your Detective Mode radar will go down. Bane will eventually get wise to your use of the vents. Lurk a little back from the vent cover to avoid being grabbed is he checks a panel. He rarely checks the middle of floor grates, preferring to check the edges. Three electrical doors and another standard beatdown are enough to defeat Bane. After beating Bane, team up with Gordon to protect the Warden from prisoners. Then advance to the chapel.

Your final scene with the Joker is an interactive cinematic. There’s no real battle here just a series of counters and beatdown prompts. IGN put the ending up, so if you want to view it, here it is: http://widgets.ign.com/video/embed/content.html?url=http://www.ign.com/videos/2013/10/25/batman-arkham-origins-ending-sequence You'll have to take care of the side missions: Enigma Datapacks, Case Files, Side Quests, and Challenges just in case you want to finish up the entire game. Hope you enjoyed the walkthrough!