Batman: Arkham Knight‘s latest add-ons focus on Catwoman and Robin, with both characters taking on Gotham’s bad guys in the aftermath of the game’s ending. Is it worth dusting off this summer’s latest Bat-game? Not really.
These DLC chapters don’t break the streak of mediocrity established by their predecessors. Like the bite-sized instalments built around Red Hood, Batgirl and Nightwing, Catwoman’s Revenge and Robin: A Flip of a Coin are short, shallow experiences.
Spoilers follow.
A set of new environments is the best thing about these latest downloadable offerings. Catwoman sneaks her way through a toy shop that houses Edward Nigma’s automated robot factory, and Robin’s mission happens in a garbage dump where Two-Face has secreted away the spoils of his bank robberies. Both maps feature the multipath, multi-tier set designs familiar to fans of these games. Whirring toy planes, conveyor belts that serve as distractions and a combat arena filled with Riddler trap technology are details that add a little spice to the recipe this time out.
I blew through Selina Kyle’s quest to steal the Riddler’s money and destroy his robot factory in about 30 minutes. The other Arkham Episode, the one that features The Dark Knight’s junior partner battling Two-Face, took me longer — about 90 minutes, due to me flubbing the execution of one stealth sequence midway through.
As before, the heroes, villains and thugs offer little snatches of dialogue that give players droplets of story and seasoning. Hearing the Riddler try and orchestrate a breakout from GCPD headquarters over a landline with a poorly-built AI offers some chuckles. And the banter between newlyweds Barbara Gordon and Tim Drake is cute and poignant, with the former Batgirl trying to assuage Robin’s concerns about carrying on Batman’s legacy.
DLC exists to keep you connected to a game franchise’s core releases. But the problem with Arkham Knight‘s DLC has been that it’s engaged players’ muscle memory more than anything else. My affection for the Batman Arkham games comes from how they reshape decades of Batman lore into new stories. Sadly, the narrative bits sprinkled by Catwoman’s Revenge and Robin: A Flip of the Coin aren’t enough to satisfy any Bat-fan’s hunger.
Comments
9 responses to “Arkham Knight’s New Catwoman And Robin DLC Is A Drag”
It seems like the Arkham games really drop the ball when it comes to DLC.
Arkham Origin’s Cold, Cold Heart is the only time I’ve ever felt they did a good job with the DLC. In theory the Arkham City Catwoman and Arkham Knight Batgirl DLC packs were solid, but they felt really thin.
You mean the DLC that took precedence over patches to fix crippling bugs?
Yeah that’s the one. But it was actually an ok bit of content.
The Arkham City Catwoman DLC wasn’t even actual DLC per se – if you bought the game new, it was there. It was just cut out as part of the publisher vs used game sales war that was happening around that time.
I thought the Catwoman one started out alright but the whole end section with the robots was horrible. Didn’t mind the Robin episode but obviously would’ve been nice if it was longer again.
My biggest problem now is that’s really the end story-wise. The only story DLC left now is Season of Infamy which apparently takes place during the main story (just 4 extra side-missions). So post-game, the Robin DLC (from what I could tell anyway) is the last we get to see… and it still doesn’t feel like a great ending to me 🙁
Would love one last DLC episode or even just a short video or something to tie it all together. I hate ambiguous endings.
The DLC has been lacking and the less said about the treatment of Dick Grayson in the arkhamverse and Grayson storylines and replacing him with Tim Drake the better….
And when you think the Season Pass is 40€. 40€ for what? (not that i bought it or something 🙂 )
The Batgirl DLC was pretty good but all these other ones have been quite poor.
The Season of Infamy DLC looks like it has some potential though.
All I have heard over the past six months is whining. What do you expect from the DLCs, a full game? For a $1.45? Get real people. They’re good for what they cost, you aren’t going to get much more indepth story line than that. Season of Infamy should be much better, and you are paying a lot more. Just STOP WHINING. You get what you pay for.