Resident Evil HD was as masterful as it was frustrating.

On the one hand, the slightly undercooked story carried an intriguing sense of mystery and freshness that kept me on my toes through its sinister unravelling. Applying its ideas to a corporate mystery offered ample opportunity for critique, but it's a shame that the one-note characters didn't give it the emotional punch it deserved. As well as this, I felt that certain mysteries didn't get their deserved payoff, and I couldn't help but feel slightly underwhelmed by the end. That said, the story kept me going, even when the gameplay was a slog.

The core mechanics were standard, albeit slightly clunky for survival horror, but I like how they encouraged player creativity and foresight over simple brute-force techniques. For example, the game's item system makes no point of holding your hand, forcing you to select and combine based on your wits alone. The ever-changing enemy types also force you to stay on your toes. The flip side, however, is that the system was more tedious than challenging, with endless backtracking weighing down the game's pacing. Another factor here was its puzzle system, which was both genius and frustrating. At times, the puzzles served as an engaging test of intuition, while at other times, they relied solely on trial and error, which felt more relieving than satisfying.

However, the atmosphere is truly where the game shined, as its artistic direction elevated the familiar concepts to a new level. From the music to the "helpless" camera angles and designs of the environments and the creatures, I can only hope the future Resident Evil instalments offer as engaging a sensory experience as this. Here's hoping they do.

In conclusion, while the game succeeded in story and atmosphere, it ultimately let itself down through cookie-cutter characters, endless backtracking and reliance on trial and error to progress.

Still to this day one of my favorite fighting games of all time. The roster is a small but varied and unique showcase of the Marvel universe. The gameplay is an improvement over X-Men Children of the Atom in many ways and would be use as the base for the VS series. The games graphics are consistent and colorful with sprites and stages being incredibly varied and memorable. The music is top notch and has some of my favorite fighting game music. The gem system is really cool and helps make matches and characters more unique. And finally, this game was the introduction to my favorite version of Iron Man, which is always a plus.

Overall, peak fiction. idc what anyone else says I will always love it.

Note: Since the Steam version doesn't have a bundle that allows you to buy the game and all the DLC, I decided to just focus on the base game and what it has to offer, so I really won't have much to say about the DLC including the Mr. Freeze DLC.

This was an interesting game to take a look at. With this game being handled by a different studio instead of Rocksteady, I was curious to see how they would manage to handle the Arkham formula while still being something of its own. While the game initially felt like nothing more than an expansion pack DLC to Arkham City, the game began to incorporate more and more interesting mechanics, ideas, and themes that helped it become its own thing in many ways, albeit with flaws not seen in Asylum and City.

- The story like the last two games I find to be very solid. It's a very good prequel story that sets up a lot of things explored in future titles, gives Batman a really solid character arc of learning to trust and accept help from others, and a really fascinating way of portraying Batman and Joker meeting and becoming enemies. The performances also help this story a lot as well as, even though I do miss the performances of Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill as Batman and Joker, I think Roger Craig Smith and Troy Baker did a great job at doing their own versions of the characters while still feeling like they're in the same universe.

- Gameplay is very similar albeit slightly different from City in....interesting ways that I think should be separated into different categories.
Stealth manages to be relatively the same as City but with access to different gadgets and some being removed. I don't have much to say here as stealth was always a consistent strong point in these games including this one, but there is one nitpick I wanted to make. I was rather disappointed that the Disruptor in how it handles guns didn't work the same way as it did in City, and many cases it either only causes one shot to be fired or not work at all, completely wasting a dedicated ammo slot I had for the gadget. This isn't the worst thing this game has going as I was still able to do them just fine, but this one element I enjoyed about City's Stealth not being there was always something I was bummed out about.
The open-world exploration felt bigger compared to City, but even though I still liked it, I wasn't big on it as much as City. I wasn't a big fan of how the open world was two sections (One of which was just a part of City's open world carried over to this game) divided into a very long bridge that never felt exactly fun to explore and didn't feel like had much purpose outside of one point in the story and collecting Datapacks. The addition of fast travel is a nice and convenient feature, however, it gets very tiring having to watch the exact same cutscene every time I do it and makes me wish there was an option to turn it off and immediately head to the part of the map I want to get to. Because guess what I REALLY don't want to be reminded that Batman HAS to use the Batwing and I just want to get back into the game quicker.
The biggest issue I have with the game has to be the combat more than anything. Early on it felt the same as City with nothing too noticeable, but later on I began to see some odd things happening like fighting. Usually something like an enemy managing to get a hit despite my best attempts to avoid it, or Batman not having enough distance or moving in the direction I want to hit the enemy, or Batman not feeling as strong as how he was before, or enemies being more on the offense. I had to look it up if this was just me being bad and no, apparently WB Games Montréal intentionally changed elements about the combat, such as enemies moving faster, the timing of many attacks feeling very off, new enemy types being more annoying, it all makes the combat feel worse than City in a lot of ways. Apparently, this was an intentional choice to make it clear that this game is set early in Batman's career and originally there was supposed to be a chance of Batman failing to make a specific action (Which I'm glad didn't make the cut because that would've been fucking awful), but this is all just making me ask "Why?" Arkham City's combat was completely fine and had no reason to be altered and the changes made makes it hard to really master the combat, especially if you're trying to for high scores in combat challenges. And the excuse of this game being early in Batman's career is just stupid because these changes deliberately make the game's combat worse in ways that could have easily been avoided if they had just simply not touch the combat and kept it like it was in City. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, or in this case, DON'T MAKE IT INTENTIONALLY WORSE.

Despite my issues with the combat, one part of it where it does shine would be with the boss fights. I thought things couldn't get better with how Arkham City manages to bring in some really cool and creative boss fights, but people weren't kidding about Origins having some of the best bosses in the series. They really went out of their way to make these bosses major showstoppers and a real highlight of the game. It also helps that each fight is unique from one another and always have something going on to make them refreshing. The only one that I had a problem with was the first Bane fight, but other than that I enjoyed every other boss the game offered.

- All the sidequests were pretty enjoyable to get through and many of them had a nice length to where they never felt too short or overstayed their welcome. I did enjoy collecting Enigma's Datapacks, but not as much as the Riddler trophies from last time due to the Riddles found by using detective mode being completely removed and the lack of dialogue Enigma/Riddler berating you for getting close to getting everything makes it not nearly as enjoyable as before.

- If there was one thing I noticed about this game that makes it clear it was developed by another studio, it would probably have to be the graphics and art style. While it certainly doesn't look bad at all, I can tell it is going for something less realistic and something more exaggerated while still being relatively realistic. The two most prominent examples I can think of are how Bruce Wayne looks like a full-on giga-chad and Joker is the closest this series has gotten to having a character look something out of Team Fortress 2. The environment, while not bad and I think I would have appreciated the snowy aesthetic a lot more if I was playing this in December and not June, never looked as nice as Asylum and City and made me wish for the darker and grimier aesthetic those games had going. The soundtrack unfortunately never stuck to me unlike the last two games and I usually have a hard time remembering any songs from Origins compared to Asylum and City.

- I'm not sure if this is just an issue with the PC port of the game or all versions of the game, but compared to how near flawless the PC versions of Asylum and City ran, it was surprising to me just how oddly buggy the PC version of Origins can get at times. There was nothing here that was truly game-breaking or caused me to soft-lock the game as I was still able to play it all the way through, but it is still very noticeable.
Ragdolls act a lot more strange compared to the last two games, to the point where I often see them bouncing and moving in odd places in both combat in stealth. It was beginning to feel like these ragdoll physics would be better suited for something like GMod than a Batman Arkham game.
The audio for when Batman fast travels to another part of the city randomly decides to not play at all and just have the entire cutscene be muted. Considering how often I tend to fast travel, this was always noticeable whenever this happens and makes me wonder just what I did that cause it to happen?
Batman's cape randomly decides to freak out whenever it feels like it and I have no idea what causes it, but it's always very distracting and makes me miss just how natural the cape looked in earlier titles.
Finally, there were two separate instances where the game decided to straight up crash and boot me out for no real reason. The first time happened when I was exploring around the city, and I assumed something didn't render properly to the point that the game crashed, and the second was when the game couldn't load in the animation for the steam pipes being covered by a glue grenade when I was collecting Enigma's data packs, causing the game to crash as well. This made me wonder just how much playtesting the game had because this seemed like something very noticeable, and really should be in something like Postal 2 and not a series known for being very high quality and usually stable.

Overall, despite some pretty big issues that hold this back from me enjoying it as much as Asylum and City, I still had plenty of enjoyment from Arkham Origins. It manages to do plenty of things right while showcasing that WB Games Montréal had a relatively good understanding of how the Arkham formula works while still doing its own thing thanks to its great story and fantastic boss fights. Granted, there were times when I was disappointed or frustrated with the game, but it was never to the point where I could call it bad. If anything, I say it's a solid but ultimately flawed prequel to a series that was in much better hands before.

With how much praise this game gets, I was worried that I would see this game as overhyped and didn't live up to the super high expectations people set this game. However, to my very surprise, this was one of the rare instances where the praise was genuine and ended up becoming one of, if not potentially, my favorite game of this year. A game so good, that it honest to god made Arkham Asylum, a game that I already gave a perfect score, look like a tech demo in comparison.

- The game as a whole is a bigger and better version of Arkham Asylum, with nothing about that game being removed and adding new things in and fixing whatever issues I might've had with the previous game.

- The story was greatly expanded upon to feature more villains from the series and various conflicts that all manage to connect in the narrative and setting of Arkham City. There wasn't any moment in the story where something felt unnecessary or filler and its strong writing, characterization, and voice acting helped bring it all together.

- The gameplay is just as good if not possibly better than what Arkham Asylum has provided. The open world was very fun to explore and easy to not get lost in with each location being very distinct from the other. The free-flow combat has been expanded upon with more enemies and moves to use while still maintaining that easy-to-pick-up and hard-to-master design the combat uses. The stealth is just as good if not even better thanks to the new and updated gadgets that can easily help players express themselves whether to be very silent and subtle or aggressive and using all the tools and still getting away with it.

- All of the different playable characters are fun to play as and manage to feel very unique from one another. Batman is obviously my favorite due to him being the most versatile and being used the most in this game but that doesn't stop me from enjoying the others just as much. Catwoman felt pretty accurate to her abilities and how she would play in a game like this, though one of the few complaints I have with this game is that I don't like exploring the open world nearly as much as Batman, but she's still an enjoyable character to play as. Robin felt like a character who was definitely trained by Batman with how similar he is but still manages to be unique with the unique tools he comes with, with my personal favorite being the shield he has. And finally, while I was a bit bummed out Nightwing didn't get to be part of the story, I still find him to be a fun bonus DLC character with his own unique set of moves that manages to make combat and stealth refreshing.

- Just like with Asylum, I had an enjoyable time collecting all of the Riddler trophies with both Batman and Catwoman, especially with how many more there are and this game having a bigger narrative focusing on Batman stopping the Riddler. In fact, the more I kept collecting them, the more it began to remind me of the Gold Skulltula's from Ocarina of Time and how much Arkham felt similar to 3D Zelda. Although, that feels like a discussion for another time.

- The graphics and sounds manage to age really well even after 13 years. Environment and character models still look nice and detailed along with being very eye-catching, lighting and textures still hold up well, and the whole game manages to capture the feeling of being in a crime-infested city through the eyes of someone like Batman. The soundtrack is simply fantastic, with some genuinely great tracks like the main menu theme, and the sound design still holds up well, especially in the combat when the hitting sounds are very punchy and satisfying.

Overall, there may be some minor gripes I have with the game, mainly in how I find the Harley DLC to be neat but nothing that crazy, and preferring Batman's open-world exploration over Catwoman's, but that doesn't stop me from genuinely loving so much of what this game did. It takes Arkham Asylum, a game that I already loved, and makes it bigger and better while still retaining the qualities of what made the last game so great. While I still have yet to get to Origins and Knight as of writing this review (I have no plans on doing the spin-offs and I'm ESPECIALLY ignoring Suicide Squad), if there is one game in the series I would recommend playing (assuming you don't care about the story) it would be this game.