Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate is the tie-in/follow-up to the recently released console game Batman: Arkham Origins. Developed by Armature Studio, its available for Nintendo 3DS and PS Vita, and it attempts to bring the trademark Arkham gameplay to handheld devices. Unfortunately, the experiment is not a very successful one.The game mostly takes place three months after the events of Arkham Origins. A riot breaks out at Blackgate prison, which is currently housing all of the previous games’ major villainous players: Black Mask, the Joker, and the Penguin. But rather than escaping, the three crime bosses have each laid claim to a section of the prison as their territory and are hatching plans to strike out at their rivals. Batman arrives on the scene ready to enter the prison and put an end to the chaos.The game’s story is told primarily through cut scenes that have the look of a motion comic. They’re not unpleasant to look at, with a nice, dark purple color scheme setting the mood, but the animation is nothing to cheer about. The returning voice actors from Arkham Origins sound decent enough, with Troy Baker’s Joker, once again, being the standout, but they all sound a bit bored, and Grey DeLisle’s Catwoman is generic, a bit grating, and pretty forgettable – though that’s probably at least as much the fault of the dialog, which is dull and content to let vaguely sexual puns be its most interesting aspect.All in all, the story is thin. As a tie-in game rather than a main series installment, the game is specifically designed to be unnecessary and it succeeds. At best, its a long tease for whatever the series has planned for the Suicide Squad, as Amanda Waller makes her presence felt in this game and we get to see a couple more recruitments made to her team.
