Over the years I (and many others) have discarded the old notion that a game must be lengthy and packed to the brim with content to be worth playing. The DLCs for Batman Arkham Knight laugh in the face of the base game being a bloated, unfocused and bland mess with short and sweet scenarios that are at the very least worth one play through.
I always have to commend Rocksteady for masterfully portraying body language through animations, Red hood’s walking, fighting and take down animations convey him as a savage, rage filled brute who does not fuck around. Jason Todd’s pure ruthless nature leads to brutal neck snaps, pistol whips and hip firing his dual handguns to make you feel like a savage.
The handguns can not be abused for easy victory in free flow segments thanks to them being well balanced with a long startup animation, cleverly conveying to the player that it should only be used against a charging thug, this makes Red Hood’s free flow sections slightly more difficult than Batman’s. But not impossible, as you simply have to be smart with your X presses and not mash and catch yourself getting punished with a magnetized leap towards a stun baton enemy.
Red Hood’s sole predator segment is a challenging but fair scenario. His reckless brutality will sometimes have him shooting a thug during a take down, forcing you to memorize the layout before you act. The lack of grates and the AI also making sure to search the grates addresses one of Knights biggest issues, being that the predator maps in the campaign had an abundance of them to shill the overpowered fear take down (which is thankfully absent in most of the DLC). The AI’s tendency to pair up means you’ll also be forced to strategically use your flash bang grenades to divide and conquer, as the abundance of open doors means you can’t just crouch walk and take down with out a second thought. It’s one of the best predator maps in the series, which is high praise given how great they generally are sans base Arkham Knight.
Unfortunately the poor Boss fights that plague Knight once again rear their ugly head here. The Black Mask boss fight is nothing more than just beating up his thugs till a Y button prompt shows up every 20-40 seconds, then whacking LT and repeating. I was truly hoping for a predator segment where you would have to outsmart him ala the MR freeze fight in City and Origins, but sadly Rocksteady decided to take the low effort option to cap off what is otherwise a good DLC.
The visuals are as outstanding as always, Red Hood’s hood sways and shakes subtly depending on how fast you are moving, the scratches and scuff marks on his chest plate show plenty of detail, and the rain effects and dark lighting contribute to a killer brooding atmosphere.
The music is rehashed from the main game once again, the continued lack of music that could fit the theming of each character continues to be a big mistake, as the same tired high energy string sections get old fast.
The story isn’t anything special but it gets the job done, Red Hood sets out to kill Black mask and does exactly that. In the few cut scenes the DLC provides, Red Hood finds what he is looking for and then kills his targets to make sure he leaves no loose ends. The final scene where black mask begs for his life, and you assume Jason might spare him, since you may have done this many times as Batman, only for Jason to kick him out of a window with out a second thought, excellently portrays the callous no nonsense lethality of the character.
There’s a lot to enjoy with the Red Hood DLC, two solid game play segments, fantastic visuals and great character writing carry the ten minute plot very well, though the continued mediocre music and terrible boss fight leave much to be desired.
7/10.
I always have to commend Rocksteady for masterfully portraying body language through animations, Red hood’s walking, fighting and take down animations convey him as a savage, rage filled brute who does not fuck around. Jason Todd’s pure ruthless nature leads to brutal neck snaps, pistol whips and hip firing his dual handguns to make you feel like a savage.
The handguns can not be abused for easy victory in free flow segments thanks to them being well balanced with a long startup animation, cleverly conveying to the player that it should only be used against a charging thug, this makes Red Hood’s free flow sections slightly more difficult than Batman’s. But not impossible, as you simply have to be smart with your X presses and not mash and catch yourself getting punished with a magnetized leap towards a stun baton enemy.
Red Hood’s sole predator segment is a challenging but fair scenario. His reckless brutality will sometimes have him shooting a thug during a take down, forcing you to memorize the layout before you act. The lack of grates and the AI also making sure to search the grates addresses one of Knights biggest issues, being that the predator maps in the campaign had an abundance of them to shill the overpowered fear take down (which is thankfully absent in most of the DLC). The AI’s tendency to pair up means you’ll also be forced to strategically use your flash bang grenades to divide and conquer, as the abundance of open doors means you can’t just crouch walk and take down with out a second thought. It’s one of the best predator maps in the series, which is high praise given how great they generally are sans base Arkham Knight.
Unfortunately the poor Boss fights that plague Knight once again rear their ugly head here. The Black Mask boss fight is nothing more than just beating up his thugs till a Y button prompt shows up every 20-40 seconds, then whacking LT and repeating. I was truly hoping for a predator segment where you would have to outsmart him ala the MR freeze fight in City and Origins, but sadly Rocksteady decided to take the low effort option to cap off what is otherwise a good DLC.
The visuals are as outstanding as always, Red Hood’s hood sways and shakes subtly depending on how fast you are moving, the scratches and scuff marks on his chest plate show plenty of detail, and the rain effects and dark lighting contribute to a killer brooding atmosphere.
The music is rehashed from the main game once again, the continued lack of music that could fit the theming of each character continues to be a big mistake, as the same tired high energy string sections get old fast.
The story isn’t anything special but it gets the job done, Red Hood sets out to kill Black mask and does exactly that. In the few cut scenes the DLC provides, Red Hood finds what he is looking for and then kills his targets to make sure he leaves no loose ends. The final scene where black mask begs for his life, and you assume Jason might spare him, since you may have done this many times as Batman, only for Jason to kick him out of a window with out a second thought, excellently portrays the callous no nonsense lethality of the character.
There’s a lot to enjoy with the Red Hood DLC, two solid game play segments, fantastic visuals and great character writing carry the ten minute plot very well, though the continued mediocre music and terrible boss fight leave much to be desired.
7/10.