Game Review: Batman: Arkham Origins and Assasin's Creed IV: Black Flag; majorly hyped, highly anticipated but which is better?
At the end of the day, it is all about pirates and the Templars and the search for something called the Observatory, which lets people watch the world through the eyes of others. There is action aplenty, at sea and on land, and it is all spectacularly presented.
Batman: Arkham Origins (PS3, Xbox 360)Rs 2999Assassin's Creed IV: Black FlagRs 2999 (PS3, Xbox 360)One is an iconic comic book character. Another enjoys similar status in the world of gaming. And both have pretty much dominated gaming news for the past week or so. On the one hand, we had the Caped Crusader, the Dark Knight himself, Batman continuing to carve a niche for himself in gaming territory with Arkham Origins (PS3, Xbox 360). On the other, we had Edward Kenway becoming the latest man to take on the cowl and cloak that is the trademark of the Assassin's Creed series of games in Black Flag (PS3, Xbox 360).The main reason why we are clubbing the two titles together, instead of looking at each of them in glorious isolation is that the similarities are just too overwhelming to be ignored. Both games were eagerly awaited and massively hyped. Both see a new angle being to a well-established tale. Both are basically action and adventure titles. And last but not least, refer to the first para, both feature gentlemen who dress oddly and prance around rooftops with a penchant for sneaking up and thrashing the bad folk. Batman in the beginningOf the two, we think Arkham Origins actually works better. The twist here is that the game is a prequel to the earlier Arkham series of titles - Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. It is in fact set five years before the events of Arkham Asylum. Gotham city and its authorities are still not comfortable with the idea of a masked vigilante doling out justice with his fists, and the Batman himself is a much younger and raw version of the understated and suave super hero we have seen in the previous two games in the Arkham series. He snarls more, is impatient, and seems more keen to leap into battle than sneak into it. Not that sneaking isn't an option. We see the Caped Crusader quietly get into villain's lairs (including the Penguin's ship) and even make an unauthorized entry into the offices of the Gotham City Police.
And that actually is what is missing from Assassins Creed Black Flag. The graphics are drop dead gorgeous, the sound effects are amazing (you actually sense sounds coming from different parts of the screen depending on where the incident responsible for them occurred), and the locales are far more breath-taking than dark old Gotham. The problem is that there is nothing really to hold the whole shindig together. For those who know not - and they are likely to be mighty confused for a good deal of the game - the Assassin's Creed series is built around a rather fascinating time travel concept where the memories of a character in the past are experienced by a person living in a period that seems to be our future. It is complex enough as it is, but the essence of the series always has been the fact that you dress up in a cloak and cowl and roam around medieval venues, climbing, jumping, stealing, assassinating, and joy of joys, rubbing shoulders with some historical characters (oh yes, we met Da Vinci!) - suffice to say that you are a member of a secret sect and are a trained assassin.