It’s a good thing I stopped trying to stream as my primary content. I found it exhausting hearing myself talk over and over about how I was feeling sick, and if I found myself exhausting to hear then I can only imagine how others must have felt.

There was so little to say this episode that Shamus effectively gave me the post on his blog for the week. It was an opportunity to express my feelings regarding the combat in writing, though it also naturally led to some debate in the comments section. For some, these issues were not exclusive to Arkham Origins – and I would agree, they are issues that persist in the other games as well. However, there’s a polish in those games that mitigates the flaws whereas Origins manages to amplify them. Still there were others that insisted these flaws didn’t exist and it was effectively a skill issue.

At the very least, Shamus, who was far more familiar with the combat systems of all four games than I will ever be, could confirm that there was just something off with the mechanics of Origins. I take comfort in that.

I take only confusion from this week’s play session. The bridge might be one of the better set pieces of the game, but that’s not exactly a high bar to clear.

This entire distraction on the bridge with Firefly is an example of how this game is simply too stuffed with characters and plot points. The writers feel the need to explain how Gordon and Batman became allies, and so they take an entire narrative arc and squeeze it into just this portion of the game. If we reflect on the film Batman Begins, Batman and Gordon interact multiple times throughout the course of the story. Gordon is left uneasy and uncertain about the vigilante until he finally has to work together with him at the film’s climax. Their relationship is built up throughout the course of the story.

Here, the game writers and designers tried to stuff the entire arc into a few bursts of dialogue between gameplay segments, leaving the entire thing feeling artificial and forced. Batman never had a meaningful encounter with Gordon during the earlier portions of the game, and as a result this meeting between the two feels weaker.

Be it Batman: Year One or Batman Begins, most of these origin stories honed in on a few key characters and elements in order to explore how Bruce Wayne became the Batman we know today. Even last year’s The Batman made sure to mitigate the presence and importance of its many characters, honing in on the core idea of Batman fighting not for vengeance, but for justice.

In fact, everything Arkham Origins tried to do, The Batman did better.

Don’t play this game. Just go watch The Batman instead. Or Batman Begins. Or reread Batman: Year One. They’d all serve you better.