Batman has a horrible habit of finding himself on a one day mission to stop all the villainous characters Gotham can throw at him in one night. And the newest addition, Arkham Origins, is no exception. The game takes place on Christmas Eve, much to his butler’s dismay. The suspicious Black Mask has sent out a bounty on Batman for a ridiculous amount of money and has called forth the most heinous of bad guys he can, including Gotham’s own police force, meaning that Batman is completely on his own; hunted by every character in the whole city. But as this series of events takes place before Arkham Asylum or City, Batman is unrefined and brutal. Taking out all he encounters mercilessly.

The city of Gotham is mammoth. The area to run around, glide over rooftops, grapple between buildings and take down some thugs is huge and completely enthralling. The city feels real and fluid. It is a giant playground. And the fighting sequences and cinematics are exciting. No longer is mindless button mashing going to get the job done, you have to be tactical. And as with the Batman Arkham franchise, barging through the front door and taking on everyone at once just won’t get the job done. Sneaking around like a 200lb ninja is sometimes the only way to do it; by crawling through vents and flying around overhead on a zip wire.

One of the best features of the game is the detective mode. Many times you will find Batman in the middle of a crime scene, and with his detective mode, he can piece together the events that unfolded. Although it doesn’t make a lot of sense, it is loads of fun. It gives the game an added level of richness. The player has to use their own skills and piece together what happened, from finding all the evidence and analysing it, to cycling through a cyber-reconstruction to find those all important clues. And if they are missed, that is the player’s fault, never the game’s.

The premise for the game is a good one- the worst mercenaries the world has to offer hunting down Batman- but the game fails slightly in its delivery. The villains only feel like they have been given a five minute slot each, usually in a fight, then they leave the story. Instead, a lot of time is spent chasing the illusive uber bad guy, Black Mask, but it just doesn’t feel like it really travels anywhere.

The gameplay is enormous fun, and because of this you can overlook the fact the plot feels stagnant. A lot of time is spent running around, finding clues and beating up thugs to find the location of Black Mask, but you don’t really know why.  Batman’s A to B conclusions don’t seem plausible; all of a sudden he knows exactly where he needs to go, although it makes no discernible sense. And when Batman finally arrives at his destination, nothing much happens.

Glitches are also a major problem. Doors randomly locking and trapping you in a room permanently, the on screen directional display vanishing when you are on a time limited mission, the battles against bosses ending and no cut scene allowing any kind of progression, and the worst of all is the Wonderland glitch, where Batman falls through Gotham into a dark abyss of nothing, but the city can still be seen floating above. The game does feel rushed and it doesn’t have the same care or level of attention as the others. This is possibly because Arkham Origins was developed by Warner Brothers and not the game's creators, Rocksteady. And as it is the third instalment, this is not the kind of thing you expect.

That being said though, the game is hugely entertaining. You do still want to find out the outcome of the story; no matter how convoluted it feels. The dynamics of gameplay are exciting and keep you going back for more bad guy smashing action. Overall, Batman: Arkham Origins is an immense amount of fun, the detail and design is stunning and the characters, both good and bad, are full of depth, and playing the game itself is captivating. It is incredibly easy to overlook its flaws when it provides a wealth of bad guy fighting, crime scene reconstruction and downright gritty action.