For the first time in the Arkham series, the reigns were handed over from developer Rocksteady to Warner Bros. Montreal. Whilst you can look at the resulting game as a project that plays it very safe, putting out a sequel that outside of a really enjoyable story, did little new gameplay-wise, it's still a solid entry to the franchise. However Rocksteady's games were most definitely not broken, and who would WB Montreal be to attempt to fix such a near-perfect product? One of the only criticisms levied at Arkham City was its kitchen-sink approach to villains, packing every DC character worth their salt into the sequel to the phenomenal Arkham Asylum. With Origins we get the story of Batman very early in his career, discovering the likes of the Joker alongside Black Mask, Deadshot and a handful more. It's a much more gritty tale than that of the previous two games, and although longtime voice actor Kevin Conroy has left the project, replacement Roger Craig Smith does a bang-up job, although the show most definitely belongs to Troy Baker's performance as Joker; something that elevates the entire production into game of the year nomination territory on it's own. A free-roaming city returns, as do The Riddler's challenges and a heap of other side-quests, and save for some incongruous elements in the form of abilities carried over from City to Origins that were not in Asylum (meaning Batman somehow forgot some of his own moves in this timeline), the overall experience is more of the same caped crusading with added brutality.
