A Good Way To End My Arkhamverse Adventure

It'd been a while since I'd last jumped into the Batman: Arkham games, and so, during a spate of unemployment, I thought that I would pay them a visit. Beginning with Batman: Arkham Asylum and finishing with Batman: Arkham Knight, I played through the four mainline series entries in an attempt to 100% their story-based content — something that I had never before bothered to attempt. In the end, I'm glad to say that I did achieve this goal — yes, I got every damn Riddler collectable four times over — and it culminated with the completion of Knight's DLC, A Matter of Family.

A Matter of Family puts players in the boots of Batgirl (Barbara Gordon), who teams up with Robin (Tim Drake) in an effort to rescue Commissioner Gordon (Barbara's father) from the Joker. And I will say, if you read my recent little rant on Catwoman's Revenge, know that this DLC won't be receiving the same treatment; this one is a banger!

Firstly, Batgirl handles perfectly, having speed and weight (and ass-kicking potential) very similar to Batman's. As such, she can still zip about clobbering thugs like there's no tomorrow, but she never feels like she's running away from you like other, far speedier heroes do. When you factor in her new animations for counters and takedowns, it's an all-around thumbs up from me.

Granted, much like all other playable characters, she does lack the full roster of equipment and combat moves otherwise available to Batman. Fear and blade-dodge takedowns are absent, and so are two-thirds of the total gadgets. And these missing pieces do, indeed, make her combat and stealth scenarios just that bit trickier when compared to Batman. Still, it never feels imbalanced or unfair, and you can continue to lay the smack down on henchmen with marginal effort, so it remains good fun.

One thing that I did like was Batgirl's strong reliance on the Cryptographic Sequencer (hacking tool). That suited her background as a computer whiz, and was a nice nod to her character — something that Catwoman's Revenge did not capitalise on.

After rescuing all of the hostages, Batgirl and Robin must then confront the Joker and save the commissioner. In this final fight, you must survive an onslaught of henchmen, who are helmed by Joker and Harley Quinn. Drain the health bars of both big bosses, and you win, so it's a two-on-two with paper-thin thugs in between.

I think that it's also very interesting that this showdown managed to achieve something beyond the typical videogamey layout of the series’ previous boss encounters; this one had some subtext, managing to showcase the relationships of both teams. Joker and Quinn remain the weaker pairing because of the former's exploitative nature and the latter's Stockholm Syndrome. This is in contrast to Batgirl and Robin, who are in perfect sync on the battlefield, saving one another from certain death in an instant. Really, it highlights how much they genuinely care for one another — unlike their opponents — which hints at their romantic relationship post-Knight. All in all, it was a solid bit of boss design.

And now we have come to the end of my short, slapdash review of a decade-old DLC. If you haven't already, I suggest picking up the Batman: Arkham games and (most of) their DLCs because they're simply brilliant fun.