Eye candy: Blur’s Batman: Arkham Origins cinematic

The original developer may be off the case, and the villains are starting to plumb the depths of the B-list, but the cinematics for the new Batman games are only getting more and more epic.

In fact, the first teaser for Batman: Arkham Origins – created, like that for its predecessor, by Blur Studio – is virtually a short in its own right.

Animation, editing, environments – the works
Clocking in at just under five minutes, the trailer shows a young Batman giving three thugs a very bad day in a warehouse, battling Deathstroke in the loading dock outside, and nearly getting his head blown off by Deadshot.

The fact that these are some of the least super of the villains in the Batman canon actually works to the advantage of the piece, giving the animators scope to create some amazingly balletic close combat sequences.

The edit runs through an entire candy box of extreme angles, slo-mo and bullet zooms, and the little details are lovely – check out the way the snow slides over the roof of the shipping crate beneath Deathstroke’s feet.

Whether the game itself will be anywhere near as good now that Rocksteady has handed over development to Warner Bros remains a moot point – but don’t let that spoil one of the best cinematics you’ll see this year.

Batman: Arkham Origins is due out on current-generation consoles and Windows on 25 October 2013.