The Wolf Among Us Episode 2: Smoke and Mirrors Walkthrough

Walkthrough for The Wolf Among Us Episode 2 Smoke and Mirrors. This is an awesome episode, and I'm definitely looking forward to episode 3. Before you watch the video make sure you are not in a public setting (unless you are ballsy) as this video does contain some NSFW content. Enjoy!

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Batman: Arkham Origins Ending and Review

MAJOR SPOILERS, PROCEED WITH CAUTION!!!

 I finally beat Batman: Arkham Origins... There was a special message in the credits that was dictated by Quincy Sharp, the future warden of Arkham Asylum, that basically explains why this game is called Batman: Arkham Origins. If you want to view that message and Joker's song just click on the highlighted text in the previous sentence.

 This game is not really Batman's origin story, but rather the origins of all the enemies he faces in Batman Arkham Asylum and City. Moreover, and most importantly, it is the origin of the Arkham prison system. This will only be understood by watching the previously mentioned message that Quincy Sharp tells us. If you want Batman's story you will need to wait for the Initiation DLC that was announced back in September.

Deathstroke is not a happy camper right now.

Seriously, what is up with the story being only 25%? I did not complete any side missions in my walkthrough, and even if I did it was only a small part of a bigger side mission. There is something wrong when over 70% of the game centers itself around side missions and paid DLC. Take Batman: Arkham City for example, the story in that game without any side missions took up roughly 50-55% of the entire game. It was stated that the game would come with five DLC packs way before the game was even released just so they could drive up sales of the $20 season pass. I mean if they announced all this DLC back in September 2013 why not just put it in the official release. Everything else seemed rushed so you might as well rush the DLC!

Only $19.99 for something that should have already been on the disk. What a great deal this is definitely not a cash grab!

I should rephrase that, there are five confirmed DLC packs with a sixth DLC (still a rumor, but a rumor with a lot of factual backing) being Deathstroke's story. So far we will be getting skins, skins, a few new challenge maps, more skins, and a story expansion. Initiation will take place before the events in Batman: Arkham Origins. In fact it should put Bruce Wayne somewhere in the Caribbean Sea or Asia where two possible story lines arise.  He could either train with the League of Assassins (or Shadows if you practice Nolanism) under master, and leader, Ra's al Ghul on Infinity Island located somewhere in the Caribbean Sea or he could train under Master Tsunetomo in Japan.

Master Tsunetomo confronting his past student Batman on the rooftops of Tokyo, Japan!

It could also be an entirely different story line than the previous two I mentioned as this game seems to be siphoning story material from a few comics. For example, the Shiva mission closely resembles the story found in the Detective Comics Fables Annual, which was a three part miniseries centered around Shiva testing three heroes, one of them being Batman, to see if they were worthy of meeting her master known as the O-Sensei. While I do like the fact that this game seems to follow the comics in some respect I cannot help but say that this game just jumbles up the timeline much like the New 52 Batman comics.

Previously I mentioned something about a possible DLC for Deahtstroke. If you watch this video you will noticed that Deathstroke is being offered a position in a group known as the Suicide Squad by Amanda Waller. Much like the Harley Quinn DLC in Batman: Arkham City I believe that Batman: Arkham Origins will get a Suicide Squad DLC where you play as Deathstroke. Out of all the assassins why would Deahtstroke be the only playable one in the challenge missions? The cutscene at the end of the credits and the fact that you can play as Deathstroke really bolsters the possibility of having a DLC dedicated to Deahtstroke's time in the Suicide Squad.

This will serve as a good segue into the actual story of Batman: Arkham Origins. First, I want to start of by saying that the voice actors did an amazing job portraying their respective characters. I was skeptical at first, but after playing the game I can safely say that the voice actors did an amazing job. That combined with the extraordinary soundtrack really help create the dark and epic atmosphere in the game. This definitely helps provide some tone to the story. The developers definitely knew what they were doing in those fields, nevertheless the overall execution of the game was lackluster. If you remember the previews for Arkham Origins during E3 they advertised about eight assassins, one of them being Deadshot. Deadshot is not even part of the main story line and in fact only four assassins are part of the storyline: Copperhead, Deathstroke, Firefly, and Bane. To be honest, Bane should not even be considered one of the assassins as he tries to kill Joker when we first meet the two. The only thing Bane wants is a fight to the death with Batman. As for the ending of the game, I was all but impressed. You are facing someone who can be considered one of the greatest villains Batman ever faced, right up there with Ra's al Ghul, and you only fight Joker in one big cutscene where the punch button is pressed repeatedly. Talk about a weak ending!

Scumbag Gordon.

Now lets talk about the actual gameplay mechanics. If it means anything I am playing this game on the PC. I am really, really unimpressed when it came down to the upgrade system. The only upgrades that seemed to work for me were the health and armor ones. Every other upgrade did not work at all.

Batman confronting Lucius for the last time.

On top of that the combat mechanics were definitely broken. It was a hit or miss with the ground takedown, and most of the time it was a miss. I did my entire walkthrough on the normal difficulty and it was anything but challenging. I even started a new game on hard and it feels exactly like normal. Essentially, the game just feels like it got simplified drastically. I would go as far as to say that most of the hardcore battle's were just cutscenes. The game did all the hard parts for you. For example, when you fight Deathstroke the major parts of the battle are just cutscenes where you only have to counter his attacks to effectively beat him. Once you get Electrocutioner's gloves the game becomes a cakewalk since you can just punch your way out of any situation.

Besides the singleplayer campaign and challenge maps Batman: Arkham Origins is the first in the Arkham series to feature a multiplayer component. The multiplayer is a 3v3v2  showdown where Bane and Joker's gang compete for three different locations on the map while Batman and Robin try to defeat them by increasing their intimidation. At one point in the match either the Bane side or the Joker side has a chance to call on their respective "hero."The multiplayer in this game happens to be one of the most unique and fun shooter/fighter that I have played in a very long time. As of right now the multiplayer needs a lot more content added to it such as maps, new modes, and new playable factions. I for one think a new faction such as the League of Assassins would be an awesome addition to the game with their hero being either Ra's or Talia al Ghul.

Overall, if the story was about the same length of Batman: Arkham City I would definitely have been more forgiving. However, this is not the case at all. The game is riddled, no pun intended, with bugs in both the singleplayer and multiplayer components. Even now the multiplayer servers are highly unstable with the wait times to get into a game being anywhere between five to twenty plus minutes. Yes, you read that sentence correctly. I waited twenty minutes for the match to load and when it finally loaded the teams were not even full! While I may have been overly critical in this review I must say that I still enjoyed the game, but I cannot recommend that anyone gets it until some "ultimate" edition comes out where all the DLC is on the disk/download for free. I stressed this a lot, but there were far too many errors in this game when compared to the two Batman games made by Rocksteady. But if you are a diehard Batman fan, such as myself, do not be deterred by this review and try the game out for yourself! 

SCORE: 7.5 Batarangs out of 10

p.s. For the record, I gave Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City a 10/10. Those two games were probably the best I have played to date.

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