- DB
Game Review | Batman: Arkham City | Harley Quinn's Revenge DLC
It's time for the clown princess of crime...
DLC summary: As the dust settles in Gotham, Batman is lured back into Arkham City by its last remaining super-criminal; Harley Quinn. Now more dangerous than ever and leading a homicidal gang of her own, she is hell-bent on taking her revenge against the Dark Knight. (Steam)
This is going to be a shorter review than usual thanks to the nature of Harley Quinn's Revenge, which is insubstantial at best. Taking place shortly after the events of Batman: Arkham City, it's a return to the same location to deal with Quinn herself and tidy up loose ends that shouldn't really have been left to tidy up in the first place.
One new aspect is that you get to spend a large amount of time playing as Robin, even if the controls aren't exactly all that different to how Batman plays aside from the gadgets he uses. A problem to balance this out is that most of the story takes place indoors and it all feels very small in scope as a result.
This really does feel like something that should've been in the main game as a story to deal with after the main plot was over, because there's so little new to do that it just makes me wonder why this exists. It feels additive solely in terms of quantity rather than quality - effectively giving a player who liked Arkham City more of the same.
To be fair to Harley Quinn's Revenge, it still plays well thanks to the main gameplay mechanics carrying over and the least that can be said is that it doesn't break anything or ruin the main game in retrospect. Gaming has a really weird issue with 'more of the same' being a negative, even if said 'same' is material that's good to play.
That's a debate for another time though - the fact is that while there's nothing inherently wrong with this DLC, there's nothing to truly recommend it either. If you have the Game of the Year edition of Arkham City or can get the DLC for free/pennies, then go for it, but you're certainly not missing anything if you decide to give it a pass.
Harley Quinn's Revenge is a weak ending to Arkham City as a whole, acting more as an inessential epilogue rather than anything worthwhile in its own right. It still plays well enough, even if the heavy use of indoors locations feel restrictive after the aerial freedom of the main game, but is really for completionists only.
