Why Batman Return To Arkham Is a Waste Of Money

Just buy the original games for a fraction of the price!

That's right people, I personally believe that "Batman: Return to Arkham" is the best way to waste £40. Why do I think this? Well, as shown in exhibit A (to the left), you can see that the difference in graphics is...non existent.

The whole reason this "game" (if you can call it a game in its own right) was made was to rejuvenate Arkham Asylum and Arkham City so that it can have graphics that could rival today's graphical leaders such as Mirrors Edge Catalyst, Witcher 3 or Mafia 3. If this was the case, then perhaps the £40 price tag would at least be partially justifiable. Unfortunately, this game does not deliver, at all. Batman Arkham Asylum and Arkham City were already great games and if something was mastered the first time, it will not need "remastering" at all. The original games had great graphics for their time and still look pretty darn good today, and the remastered edition looks like it added an Instagram filter over the top.

My other point is that you can pick up the original games for £5 each from Cex. If you want all the DLC for these games, you can spend £4 more on the Game Of The Year editions, coming to £6 for Asylum and £8 for City (based current prices at Cex). The grand total coming to £14 for both games, which is about a third of the price you would pay for Batman: Return to Arkham.

Lastly, this remastered "bundle" doesn't even include Arkham Origins. If you're going to make a remastered bundle, include all of them. Sure, Arkham Origins received mixed reviews and sure it's a spin off game, but still, it's one of the great Batman games pre Arkham Knight. Similarly, the Halo: Master Chief Collection (MCC) did not originally include Halo 3: ODST because it was a spin off game. The difference with this is that ODST was a completely different game that had totally different game mechanics and did not include Master Chief, who feature in the title of the "Master Chief Collection" so that made sense. However, Arkham Origins DID take place in Arkham, you DID play as Batman and the game mechanics were true to the other games. So what's their excuse for not including it?

So, to summarise, Batman: Return to Arkham barely improves the graphics, costs way too much AND does not include one of the 3 Batman Arkham games it should have included.

Don't be so quick to throw your money at lazy developers, they don't deserve it.