With almost all of Batman: Arkham Knight’s content completed, I was looking forward to the Batgirl DLC called A Matter of Family. It actually takes place pre-Arkham Asylum, which of course predates the events in Arkham Knight and Arkham City. Being as old as it is now, I don’t think it’s a spoiler to remind readers that in the opening moments of Arkham Asylum, Joker captures Commissioner Gordon. Well, he’s done the same thing on this very night. His daughter, Barbara, is a tech wiz, girlfriend of Robin, as well as Batgirl. Of course later in canon she is paralyzed from the waist down due to being shot in the spine by the Joker, at which point she retires the cowl and becomes Oracle, a master hacker and information broker who aids Batman.
A Matter of Family begins with Batgirl making her way towards an abandoned oil rig off the cost of Gotham. Years ago, the owner of the oil rig was in the process of converting it to a massive amusement park for his ill daughter. Called Seagate Amusement Park, it’s revealed in dialog between Batgirl and Robin that it never opened despite many of its attractions being completely built and operational. On this dark and rainy night, we learn that the Commissioner has been captured by the Joker and his goons, including Harley of course, in an attempt to draw out the Batman. However, it’s not Batman who is coming to rescue Jim this time — it’s the Batgirl with help from Robin.
Screenshot captured in-game by PS4
The oil rig is a new location that was not part of the original Arkham Knight campaign. It reminds me a little bit of the Ace Chemicals area in Arkham Knight in that it’s fairly large — if I were to guess, probably no more than 500m in any direction — and also self-contained. I’m glad that Warner Bros Montreal decided to go with some fresh scenery for this add-on, and they got pretty creative with some of the amusement park rides as well, which are used for more than just visual appeal, but they’re also the focal point in several objectives. Some what you will see are a large Ferris wheel, a structure that looks like a great white shark with its mouth open, the main-event tent, a merry-go-round, and a huge test-your-strength machine. Various other amusement park items and decorations like posters and small booths and things adorn flesh out the scenery, as well as a tower which is the single tallest point on the rig.
New graphical assets are some of the most noticeable elements to A Matter of Family. The Batgirl looks great in her costume and her new animations are also smooth. I did have two or three minor, well, “visual goofs,” I would call them with her animation, though. These were not serious at all, but noticeable, and these two or three instances occurred at the end of a combat sequence. I probably could not reproduce them if I tried, but I’ll mention them here. First, one time her cape, while I was standing still, was defying gravity and its tips were facing the sky and parts of it were clipping through her body. I just had to run for a second for that to fix itself. Two other times during the final finishing move in a combat sequence, her animation was weird because she came flying in from a distance and at a really low angle. Again, these were nothing game-breaking at all, in fact these were the only graphical anomalies I encountered, everything else was great.
Screenshot captured in-game by PS4
New in-game audio comes in the form of voice-acting as opposed to new effects or music, and there is a surprising amount of new spoken dialog by Batgirl, Robin, the Joker, his thugs, Harley, and the creator of the amusement park (whose name escapes me). There are three audio diaries/memories you can discover by completing fairly quick challenges like dive-bombing onto that test-your-strength meter to max it out, and by solving a simple bumper car puzzle. It’s during these audio logs that you learn more about the creation of the park and its purpose.
Presentation aside, what’s it like to play as Batgirl? Well, it’s very similar to playing as Batman, which should not be surprising. There are no new combos to learn or gadgets to use. It felt like she ran a little bit slower than Batman and she cannot launch herself after grappling like Batman started doing in Arkham Knight. The gadgets you start with are the same ones you end with, and there no upgrades at all. Her loadout includes the standard Batarang, Batclaw, Line Launcher, Explosive Gel, and Remote Hacking Device (RHD). The RHD behaves the same way as it did for Batman, and it’s used in the same manner, it’s just that Batgirl can get more devices to interact with it, somehow. I was disappointed that the ‘hacking’ element of this DLC was touted, but, it doesn’t amount to a lot of change in terms of how you use the RHD, but instead just how often you use it. There are still jumbled code phrases to decipher, and many control panel objects to access. These are ‘hacked’ simply by pressing R2 when prompted, which is too bad. I would have liked more interactive hacking sequences than this.
The RHD is used in new ways for predator-style combat, though. When you equip the RHD and point at an applicable object, you can get a good idea of what effect it will have on nearby thugs; generally it will scare them or bring them closer together, at which point you will get a Takedown cue which is similar to the FEAR Takedowns Batman uses. Two, maybe three, of the predator sequences have over ten armed guards to contend with, so this comes in handy. Of note, there are no brute characters for Batgirl to contend with, but gun-toting, shock-stick-wielding Joker thugs are common. She has some excellent counter attacks that I not seen any other character in the Arkham series do, and it seemed like it was taking her slightly fewer hits to take down an average thug than it did Batman, too.
Screenshot captured in-game by PS4
For me, the differences in playing as Batgirl compared to Batman were almost enough. A more robust hacking mechanic with interaction beyond pressing R2 would have been the coolest change to make. I did not mind that Batgirl’s combat was a lot like Batman’s, whose is a lot like that of Robin, Nightwing, and Catwoman. Having more options with the RHD was neat, but a whole new gadget or more interactive ways to hack would have been a big plus.
To the summary…
