On Tuesday 22nd April Warner Bros Games Montreal released the Cold, Cold Heart DLC for their entry into the Arham Universe - Batman: Arkham Origins, which was released 6 months previously on 25th October 2013. As mentioned in the previous article covering the launch of this DLC, it is available for £7.99 / $11.99 (or equivalent) for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. But is it worth it?
COLD, COLD HEART
Set exactly one week after the events of Arkham Origins on New Years Eve, the CEO of GothCorp Ferris Boyle is being honored at an award ceremony held at Wayne Manor when the party is gatecreashed by a villain called Victor Fries AKA Mr. Freeze. Starting out as Bruce Wayne the player must slip away from the chaos and retrieve his batsuit from the batcave before rescuing the hostages which include your confidant and guardian Alfred, whom have been taken by Freezes goons. With Wayne Manor secured Batman must track down Mr. Freeze, whom has kidnapped Ferris, and investigate the bizarre villains background to uncover the truth behind what is really going on. To do so Batman will need the assistance of the Extreme Environment batsuit.
WHAT YOU GET
- 2-4 hours of story based gameplay
- 10 achievements/trophies to unlock
- To play as Bruce Wayne inside Wayne Manor
- Access to the Extreme Environment (XE) batsuit
- To hunt down 12 Anarky tags
- To stop 4 Activist Events
- To rescue 20 frozen victims
- 1 new enemy type
- 1 boss battle
WHAT YOU DON'T GET
- Access to the whole map
- Use of the XE batsuit in the main game or in the challenge mode
- The new enemy type in the main game or in the challenge mode
THE VERDICT
For those of you that purchased the season pass, you have already pre-purchased this DLC and as such should download it to, at the very least, recuperate the cost. For those of you that have not purchased the season pass, the answer to whether or not you should grab this DLC is not so crystal clear.
While the DLC made no outrageous promises, the sheer size of the main game aroused certain expectations from Cold, Cold Heart - expectations which are not met sorely enough. Firstly the DLC is played separately to the main game instead of in addition to it. Yes we do get a few hours of extra gameplay, but it is restricted to only 2 of the main games 7 districts, as are the hidden frozen victims, activist events and Anarky tags.
The story itself is well scripted with a few twists and turns, but the final battle between our caped crusader and his cold blooded nemesis is a mere shadow of the awesome, epic battle the duo had in Batman: Arkham City. In fact there is very little separating Mr. Freeze from the new thugs in the game, which come armed with a cryogenic cannon. Yet the cannons freeze-beam can easily be avoided by flipping over other nearby goons, with the thugs holding the cannons requiring a stun-beatdown or charged electro/thermal gloves combo to be taken down.
Although access to the XE Batsuit allows fiery attacks, and the use of thermally charged batarangs, its use feels more like an alternate version of the main games shock gloves. That said, it would have been nice to have had access to the suit in the main game in addition to the plethora of suits already available.
Ultimately this DLC could have added much needed fresh content to the main game and its accompanying challenge mode, instead what we get is a short lived, small impact mini-mini-mini campaign addition that has to be played separately and requires very little actual effort to finish.
FINAL VERDICT
3 / 5
A mediocre DLC, that could have heated up the main game with fresh content, but instead barely manages to raise your temperature above freezing - Avoid unless you purchased a season pass!
