When Arkham City came out, I was instantly amazed. The game managed to capture the essence of Batman, the intensity of the Joker and it managed to interesting and intricate side quests since most of the secondary quests added depth to the story and game play. There were tons of villains from Batman’s rogue gallery and the game was well paced. However, the newest DLC, Harley Quinn’s Revenge, falls short in the simplest ways.
There are crazy girlfriends, and then there is Harley Quinn.
The DLC does start out interesting enough, as you take control of Tim Drake (the 3rd Robin) as you search for Batman. Old Bats went missing 2 days after attempting to rescue several police officers from Harley Quinn, so it’s up to Robin to find him and put an end to Arkham City’s last super villain. While this is not Robin’s first time being playable, it is nice to use him in lieu of Batman. However since he has been a part of previous DLC before, his fighting attributes and controls do not heavily impact the likability of the Harley Quinn’s Revenge DLC.
Fighting is still a great aspect of the game, and Robin does it with such style.
With that being said, the story is bare-bones and it’s painfully obvious. There is no intricate trap set for Batman and Robin (besides a lot of easily escapable dynamite). Also, besides a brief few mentions of Batman blaming himself for the death of the Joker and Talia Al Ghul; there is not defining narrative to the story except “stop Harley Quinn.” This is where the DLC falls short because the weak plot is coming off the heels of the extremely creative storyline of Arkham City. If the DLC had been longer or if Batman could have lamented about the death of Talia or Joker or even if the game had just once solid cinematic: I think this could have been well worth the 800 Microsoft points (which is $10 actual dollars). Instead of being a solid follow-up DLC, it just seems tacked on. Sure, the fighting aspect is great and using stealth mode as Robin is a lot of fun, but it just lacks depth.
Harley's monument to the Joker is, for lack of a better word, insane. Yet a disappointment.
- Great to use Robin as a playable character
- Very short
- little to no plot
- Tim Drake is the 3rd male Robin, who deduced Batman's secret identity on his own.
- Look for Harley Quinn's pregnancy tests!
