DLC Review - Batman Arkham City: Harley Quinn's Revenge

Let's be honest: who actually like Robin? He might be the ever faithful sidekick but if you give people the choice of playing as either Dark Knight or the Boy Wonder, most would plump for Batman every time. Perhaps its to Rocksteady's credit then that Harley Quinn's Revenge – the final and somewhat unexpected slice of downloadable content for Batman: Arkham City – offers up both in equal parts, meaning those not taken by Robin's exploits at least have some pointy-eared goodness to keep them going instead.

Not surprisingly given the dual roles you get to play, Harley Quinn's Revenge (hereby known as HQR) is very much a game of two halves. Or, to be more correct, four quarters – you start out playing as Robin, but then find yourself experiencing a flashback section of Batman's exploits before alternating between Robin and Batman once again for the big finale. It's a simple set-up: weeks after the events of Arkham City, Harley Quinn's taken control of Joker's old hideout with her own gang of suitably harlequin-suited henchmen and taken a bunch of GCPD cops hostage. Batman goes in to save them, but he goes missing too… and that's where Robin steps up to save the day. And, it would seem, spend most of his time hitting bad guys in the testicles with his stick.



It's an interesting premise, but one that translates into a decidedly cramped taste of the full Arkham City experience. Where the main game had room to breathe, HQR tries hard to squeeze as many set pieces and gameplay styles into a fairly small space that has little leeway for freedom. Granted, there's a small amount of off-rails exploration available when you're Batman as you scour a tiny chunk of Arkham City (approximately one sixth of the full map, focused on the Industrial District) looking for clues and people but other than that, it's a totally linear experience. It's also pretty short - first-time players will finish it in about an hour, repeat plays even less - although that works to its favour, since you barely have time to notice just how on-rails the whole thing is.

You will notice, however, that pretty much every element of Arkham City's gameplay is squashed into such a small adventure. From interrogation battles (knock out everyone but the guy with the info) and sneaking around rooms without being seen to basic and en-masse combat, using detective mode to follow clues and a tiny bit of zipping around the Arkham City skyline trying to take out ridiculously accurate snipers, it's all here. That's not to say it doesn't mix things up about thanks to Robin's new gadgets getting an outing too (a Snap Flash to stun enemies, a Bullet Shield to block gunfire for a limited time, a zipline that sends Robin flying into henchmen rather than pulling them to him) and the new need to rescue hostages without being seen by their captors, although their inclusion complete with mini-tutorials do feel slightly like it's too little too late when each only really gets used the once.



But while there's so much to do in HQR, the truth is that you're only doing one thing at a time, again a symptom of the on-rails aspect of the action. Aside from the bonus quest of bursting Harley balloons (because, you know, she had a bit of time to decorate while planning her revenge on Batman), there's no skipping back and forth between objectives as was the case in the main game. Okay, so there's no denying that it had to be a locked-off section of its own rather than being integrated into the main game, mainly because of the plot, but it's still a bit stilted when you come fresh off playing what was previously a fairly open-ended adventure.

There are other issues too; Robin doesn't feel quite as robust a fighter as Batman, despite having practically the same moveset, and some odd AI bugs see bad guys getting caught on scenery or spinning in circles for no reason where they never did that before. That it's one complete chunk of gameplay too is slightly annoying, since you have to start all over again when trying to return for the balloon and time-based achievements (although at least it remembers which balloons you've already burst). And worst of all, Rocksteady also decided to include the weakest part of Arkham City – namely, the battle with Two-Face where you have to attack him while also doing stealth battle against a never-ending stream of enemies that come from nowhere – as Robin's big conclusion, except with Harvey swapped out for Harley, which is a bit of a disappointment.



Despite all this seeming like a massive downer though, the truth is that HQR is the best piece of DLC for Arkham City yet and one that's worthy of the 800 MSP asking price… just about. It's far better than the snapshot episodes that Catwoman's content offered (mainly because it's not got Catwoman in it) and towers over the challenge-based DLC by actually being story-related rather than just fighting. Okay, so maybe it's more of a footnote than a true conclusion but even so, it's definitely an interesting footnote and one that's definitely worth experiencing.