Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate Critic Reviews

Apart from those overwrought boss battles, Blackgate is a welcome evolution for the Arkham series. The fresh perspective, deliberate pace and focus on exploration prove that Batman works just as well in a smaller package.

It’s a bit of a shame that the Arkham-inspired side of this game doesn’t quite live up to what came before, but the Metroidvania aspect certainly does. And this is something for which a lot of genre fans will be grateful.

An excellent choice for gamers wanting a new Metroidvania on their Vita, this adventure with the Caped Crusader comes close to being a classic.

It's great when side games take their own direction with design but still maintain the core concepts that define a series. That's just what you'll get with Blackgate. A solid exploration/combat game that is forced to overcome a few flaws.

Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate is a good and original attempt at bringing the formula to a handheld. The interesting use of depth in this side-scroller and the implementation of the well known freeflow combat, make Blackgate a joy to play at times. Backtracking loses its appeal after a while though, as do the lack of enemies and the unintuitive map.

Batman: Arkham Origins - Blackgate is a good extension of the Arkham franchise to handhelds, but it lacks the specialness or inspiration that would make it stand out as a great Metroidvania-style game - or a great Batman game, for that matter. Without any real surprises, engaging settings, or interesting story, Blackgate feels more like a retread of bullet points than the handheld Batman we truly deserve.

Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate performs at its best when not feeling obligated to recreate the Arkham games before it.

Blackgate falls shy of greatness due to a few gameplay design flaws, but it's still an overall solid experience that Vita owners should investigate further.

Blackgate does a pretty good job in capturing the feel of the franchise, bringing some very nice elements to the table but suffering from an unconvincing approach to backtracking.

Not quite up to the standard of the console versions of Batman: Arkham Origins, but not a bad game on its own.

The delta between the bosses and the moment-to-moment gameplay make Blackgate a frustratingly inconsistent experience, but the good parts are truly impressive.

The Metroidvania formula will forever remain one of gaming’s best, so whenever a modern 2D (or 2.5D in this case) version is announced, it’s cause for excitement. Blackgate doesn’t exactly do anything new and is derivative of practically every predecessor in its “genre,” but that doesn’t mean it’s not a whole lot of fun.

Batman Arkham Origins: Blackgate is an interesting first entry on PS Vita, but it does not do justice to the great saga of videogames.

Thanks to a well-crafted level design, Batman Arkham Origins Blackgate manages to make happy fans of the Dark Knight already in withdrawal after the feast made ​​with Origins.

With a fresh prospective on the Arkham universe, Batman: Arkham Origins – Blackgate is quite a good beginning on PS Vita but not the complex and complete game it could have been.

Batman: Arkham Origins - Blackgate isn't a bad game, but it's a lesser game. It tries extremely hard to mimic its console brethren, but all it does is highlight everything it's missing.

Blackgate isn’t the top-tier AAA portable production I was hoping for. The map is borderline useless, the repetition and fetch quests get tiresome, the rewards for diligent exploration aren’t high, and that 2.5D perspective is definitely problematic in certain combat situations. Still, if you’re a big fan of the old-school side-scrolling style of game, and you’re a big Batman fan, you should give Blackgate a whirl.

It's bogged down by aspirations to be like Origins.

If you can get through the glitches and barebones plot, there is a good game to be played. I had fun with Blackgate. I will be playing through it again because this is the style of game I really like. It certainly could have been better, but Blackgate is still an above average experience.

While Armature definitely made a few bad calls when putting Blackgate together, I greatly enjoyed this new style of Batman, and didn't have too much heartburn over the rough patches.