Earning Your Wings With Arkham Knight’s Batgirl DLC

Batgirl’s first appearance in the Arkham series takes things back to basics. Her inventory is limited, her shorter cape isn’t quite as adept at gliding as Batman’s and she doesn’t have a Batmobile to ride around the city. It’s just as well, then, that this adventure is set on an oil rig turned amusement park, far away from any roads or racetracks.

It naturally feels a bit more like Arkham Asylum than City or Knight as a consequence, with more linearity to be found on the relatively confined oil rig, even as many of the upgrades to combat systems and detective mode remain in place. Perhaps most notable of these is the dual play mechanic, where you tag team between two fighters in combat scenarios, with Robin being the second player in this situation.

You’ll know how Robin plays from his appearances in the main game, but Batgirl brings a new sense of speed to the combat. It can still be very methodical and slow, but she can leap across enemies as a much lighter force than Batman. Controls and timing remain mostly the same, so you’ll feel at home in combat situations.

In predator mode, Batgirl’s gear is limited to several items rather than Batman’s much fuller arsenal. You’ll still have stalwarts such as the explosive gel, batarang or the remote hacking device, and it’s the latter of these that you’ll use the most. With pre-Oracle Barbara Gordon taking up the mantle of Batgirl, she’s still quite adept at hacking, and can use these skills to her advantage.

Whether it’s simply luring an enemy towards an area by activating something in the environment, closing or opening a gate, or even startling enemies with a loud noise to achieve the new scare takedowns, you’ll want to use this device more than ever. It’s just a shame that there isn’t actually any new gear – Batgirl feels almost too similar to Batman, particularly coming off the back of an entire game of just that.

Still, it’s nice to see Mark Hamill’s Joker back in a villainous role, though his time on screen is short and there’s nothing quite as menacing as his previous appearances in the series. In fact, the story sections essentially just bookend the content, with little depth in terms of plot. Playing around with some of the amusements does reveal further backstory and the reasoning for the oil rig-based amusement park existing, and these optional objectives should not be missed, but it doesn’t have as much substance to the story as there could have been.

Other optional objectives include destroying Joker teeth and balloons – a nod to previous games – as well as finding Harley-themed collectibles, although this really doesn’t add much to the content, simply extending what is less than two hours of playtime by another thirty minutes or so. It’d have been nice to see some challenge maps, something that the main game was also lacking, but it’s likely these are being saved for future DLC packs.

While some of the set-pieces are great, there’s a certain clumsiness to the design with some bits feeling unpolished and with poor design choices. While it’s generally without bugs or glitches, WB Montreal simply haven’t designed the sections as well as Rocksteady could have done, losing a nuance that only they can bring to the Batman series. I’m left hoping that Rocksteady will have a hand in some of the upcoming content packs from the Season Pass.

Although Batgirl: A Matter of Family feels thematically akin to Arkham Asylum, it’s perhaps more comparable to Arkham Origins, as a follow-up that we didn’t really need, using many of the same mechanics and bringing little new, but one that works well enough to be enjoyable. Given that it’s the same developer as that game, the similar feeling makes sense, but while some aspects are slightly disappointing, it’s still a nice return to the series’ roots.