Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate Review

Prison Capers.

One of the most highly regarded and seminal works of Batman fiction is Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth. An inspiration for Batman: Arkham Asylum, it tells the tale of what happens when the Dark Knight is forced to spend a night with the madhouse’s criminally insane inmates - or, to paraphrase Rorschach in Watchmen, what happens when they’re forced to spend a night with him. On a smaller scale, both in physical size on 3DS and PS Vita, and in implementation, that’s the general idea behind the good-but-not-great Batman: Arkham Origins - Blackgate, as the caped crusader returns to the prison three months after Arkham Origins’ conclusion.

I bring up that graphic novel because, as evidenced by Batman: Arkham Asylum, the setup is epic, worthy of a grand tour de force in which Batman has to tackle his demons, both the twisted villains in the real world and the ones inside his own head. That is not the case in Blackgate, which turns a night inside Gotham’s notorious prison, now controlled by Black Mask, Penguin, and Joker, into a fairly run-of-the-mill Metroidvania-style action adventure.

“Well, what do you expect?” I can hear you ask, “It’s a handheld game!” True, and it manages to condense the essence of the Arkham series into a pint-sized experience that retains the stealth and combat of its console big brothers. But it also feels like a stripped-down version of Arkham Origins - more of an addendum than an experience that stands on its own. Even Batman remarks in one of Blackgate’s low-tech, graphic novel-style opening cinematics that it seems like he was just here.
That’s not to say that I think Blackgate isn’t entertaining. As our review of Arkham Origins on consoles notes, even when a Batman: Arkham game isn’t very good, it’s still
pretty good. Though it regurgitates the main villains and one of the major settings from Origins, Blackgate deviates from it in a few major ways. First up, it’s a 2.5D side-scroller in which you have to explore each of Blackgate’s three villain-controlled areas - Penguin’s cell blocks, Black Mask’s industrial complex, and Joker’s administration area - to uncover the reason for the mysterious explosion that’s freed them. The Dark Knight makes the transition to the small screen well - the visuals (except for the aforementioned cinematics, which go for comic book realness but end up just looking stilted and ugly) are mostly up to Arkham standards, and the Bat’s fight animations are nearly as fluid as they are on consoles. Because it’s set inside a prison, though, too many of the environments look very same-y and not terribly interesting. Except for some colorful flourishes in Joker’s area, most of Blackgate’s level design leans toward dark and sparse.

A particular problem in Blackgate’s presentation is in the occasional “invisible predator” sequences set inside large environments. A room large enough to fit multiple vantage points, destructible distractions like fire extinguishers, and roaming henchmen condensed on a handheld screen turns Batman into Ant-Man. Given that the guy is wearing a suit designed to blend into the shadows, it’s easy to lose track of our miniaturized hero in those situations.
For some reason, Batman came ill-prepared to the Blackgate party. As is the nature of a Metroidvania-style game, Bats starts out with just his trusty Batarang when he reaches the prison, and has to search its confines for gadgets like his Batclaw and explosive gel that can be used to reach new areas. Blackgate’s lazy fiction doesn’t bother to explain why he’s so poorly armed in the first place, though, or why WayneTech crates full of high-tech weaponry are littering a maximum-security prison.
Combat follows the same dynamics previously seen in the Arkham series, and is nearly as fun, just simpler due to taking place on a 2D plane. Countering an incoming attack and then knocking the stuffing out of an inmate is familiar and fluid, though the quasi-3D nature of the visuals means that Bats and his attackers will sometimes magically align to the same plane if one is a little more in the background or foreground than the other. That doesn’t impact gameplay at all, but can look a little odd.
Blackgate adapts Batman’s stealth gameplay in a limited way, letting you hide in sewer grates or rappel up to the rafters to plan a sneak attack in simply designed rooms and hallways. It’s nothing you haven’t probably seen before, though, and because you’ll want to clear rooms of enemies, stealth is more of a mandatory puzzle-solving device to avoid being instantly killed by thugs with machine guns.
Boss fights are likewise simplified, especially the tame one-on-one battles that rely heavily on quick-time events to win. They offer some variety in the gameplay, and it’s good to match up against characters not seen in Arkham Origins, like Catwoman and Bronze Tiger.

Batman’s Detective mode is mostly about swiping your finger or stylus around the touch screen to uncover usable objects or collect clues to solve side-mysteries. These mysteries are automatically solved once you find all the clues and only unlock concept art, so don’t get too excited. You can also discover hidden WayneTech gear to augment your suit and gadgets with extra armor and enhanced abilities, though, so it pays to be diligent with your finger-swiping.
Arkham Origins Blackgate is virtually identical on 3DS and Vita, but the Vita version looks a little bit better and it’s easier to sweep a room in Detective Mode with your finger on the Vita’s touchscreen than it is to use the Circle Pad to scroll around the screen on 3DS. It looks decent in 3D on 3DS, but you won’t be missing anything if you leave it turned off – and the cut scenes are only displayed in 2D as well.