Review – The Harley Quinn’s Revenge DLC
To coincide with the release of the Game of the Year Edition of Batman: Arkham City, developer Rocksteady Studios has released the latest (and more than likely last) bit of DLC for their gaming masterpiece. Previous releases have been limited to costumes, maps and additional characters for the challenges, but this is the first time we’ve seen an actual expansion campaign. For the record, I support the character add-ons. I found value in both the Nightwing and Robin packs. New medals in all of the existing challenges plus new maps made them easy buys. I don’t need multiplayer. I don’t want multiplayer. Give me something I can sink my teeth into all by my lonesome. That said, I think there’s maybe more value to the challenge map character packs than in “Harley Quinn’s Revenge.”
For the low price of ten bucks, you’ll get the new expansion, available via a dedicated icon on the main menu, much like the Catwoman chapters from the core game. What follows is a tale set a couple of weeks after the Joker’s death (spoiler alert, as if you didn’t already know). Batman’s gone missing, and it’s up to Robin to find him (with a little help from Oracle). After the first time you load the game, all of Robin’s costumes are available. So that’s cool. Gameplay soon shifts back to Batman and we see how he’s captured by the grieving Harley Quinn. Then it’s back to Robin to save the day. There are a couple of opportunities for predator play, plenty of combat and hey, you get to use Robin beyond the challenge maps. There’s some more plot (and I for one loved the story in Arkham City) and new gameplay. That’s not bad for ten dollars.
It’s not terribly long and it’s completely linear. It only takes a couple of hours to beat, but it’s more Arkham City, so I don’t care. It doesn’t break that excellent mold; it just gives you more of it. But it is indeed the short play time that makes me think there’s more value in the character packs. There are hours of play time in each of those, if you’re medal-obsessed. If you have the Robin pack, you’ll find his moves are exactly the same in this campaign as in the challenge maps, and that’s cool. Harley’s hideout isn’t just a replay through the steel mill. It’s a new environment with a new story and a new playable character.
The biggest shortcoming by far is the lack of free roam in Arkham City as Robin. Hell, Robin doesn’t even get to go outside. Batman has a little outdoors material (though it is confined only to the industrial district), but Robin is all indoors (with a really cool new predator area). Also, by the end of the campaign, gameplay is probably a 50/50 split between Batman and Robin. I’ve played a whole game as Batman (two, actually) and was most excited for the Robin part, so I was a little surprised to find there was so much Batman in it.
Reviews on this pack are mixed, but for me, I found the ten bucks an easy pill to swallow for what I got. I give “Harley Quinn’s Revenge” 4 out of 5 creepy Joker monuments. It’s a little short and the lack of free roam is a bummer. Other than that, it’s a really solid bit of additional content. If you’ve for some reason not played Arkham City, there’s no better time to get it, since the Game of the Year Edition comes with every bit of DLC
Filed Under: Reviews • Video Games
Interesting. I might have to check this out.
Love me some Arkham City and i will definitely be getting this.