Let me start out by saying that Arkham Knight is one of my favourite games released in the last 5 years. The story is absolutely amazing (much better than Arkham City in my opinion) and I would urge anyone who hasn't played it or was put off by reviews of uninspiring Batmobile gameplay, to pick up the game and play it.
That said I want to talk specifically about the Red Hood DLC pack which was I believe a pre-order bonus at the time but is now readily available for everyone.
Without giving too much away, Red Hood is a vigilante like Batman whose origin story develops throughout the main storyline of Arkham Knight, even though you may not realise it. However the main difference between the two vigilantes is that Batman does not kill. Red Hood on the other hand certainly holds no such ideals as we find out during this admittedly short, but fascinating DLC.
The DLC takes place after the events of Arkham Knight as we see Red Hood attempt to locate Black Mask by infiltrating an arms deal with Penguin's thugs. All fairly run-of-the-mill stuff, especially after having played the main game for hours upon end, this will seem very familiar.
Where the familiarity will end, however, is when you're casually beating up thugs and the game tells you to counter a charging thug with what you fully expect to be a Batarang throw. This is most definitely not a Batarang throw. Red Hood proceeds to counter the thug by simply, how do I put this, shooting him in the face with two MASSIVE guns.
After hours upon hours of incapacitating enemies as Batman by use of non-lethal force, this came as quite the shock when I first played the DLC, and still gets me to this day!
Doing takedowns results in a similar outcome. Once your combo is high enough Red Hood will do some fancy moves to get a thug on the ground and again, simply shoot him in the face to finish him off. It honestly leaves you feeling somewhere between elation and despair, it's that jarring.
Things get even more brutal in the stealth section of the DLC. Sneak up behind an unaware enemy for a silent takedown, just as you would as Batman, and Red Hood has a chance of doing an animation that, well, snaps the enemy's neck, complete with cringe inducing audio. Like I said, brutal. Oh, and you can also just straight up aim your guns at an enemy and take him out, in a Batman game.
Now don't get me wrong I'm not saying all this is a bad thing, on the contrary! It's so far removed from the rest of the game and I love it! Plus, Red Hood looks absolutely badass.
As I mentioned the DLC is fairly short, which is a real shame. I'd have really liked more time with Red Hood and all his rootin' tootin' ways. Fortunately you can use him in all the combat and predator AR maps in the game so that's something.
It's a fairly confirmed rumour at this point that Rocksteady are making another Batman: Arkham game, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't wanting it to be a full on, guns blazing, Red Hood massacre of a game. I think it'd be brutally amazing. They should probably make it an 18 though don't you think?
That said I want to talk specifically about the Red Hood DLC pack which was I believe a pre-order bonus at the time but is now readily available for everyone.
Without giving too much away, Red Hood is a vigilante like Batman whose origin story develops throughout the main storyline of Arkham Knight, even though you may not realise it. However the main difference between the two vigilantes is that Batman does not kill. Red Hood on the other hand certainly holds no such ideals as we find out during this admittedly short, but fascinating DLC.
The DLC takes place after the events of Arkham Knight as we see Red Hood attempt to locate Black Mask by infiltrating an arms deal with Penguin's thugs. All fairly run-of-the-mill stuff, especially after having played the main game for hours upon end, this will seem very familiar.
Where the familiarity will end, however, is when you're casually beating up thugs and the game tells you to counter a charging thug with what you fully expect to be a Batarang throw. This is most definitely not a Batarang throw. Red Hood proceeds to counter the thug by simply, how do I put this, shooting him in the face with two MASSIVE guns.
After hours upon hours of incapacitating enemies as Batman by use of non-lethal force, this came as quite the shock when I first played the DLC, and still gets me to this day!
Doing takedowns results in a similar outcome. Once your combo is high enough Red Hood will do some fancy moves to get a thug on the ground and again, simply shoot him in the face to finish him off. It honestly leaves you feeling somewhere between elation and despair, it's that jarring.
Things get even more brutal in the stealth section of the DLC. Sneak up behind an unaware enemy for a silent takedown, just as you would as Batman, and Red Hood has a chance of doing an animation that, well, snaps the enemy's neck, complete with cringe inducing audio. Like I said, brutal. Oh, and you can also just straight up aim your guns at an enemy and take him out, in a Batman game.
Now don't get me wrong I'm not saying all this is a bad thing, on the contrary! It's so far removed from the rest of the game and I love it! Plus, Red Hood looks absolutely badass.
As I mentioned the DLC is fairly short, which is a real shame. I'd have really liked more time with Red Hood and all his rootin' tootin' ways. Fortunately you can use him in all the combat and predator AR maps in the game so that's something.
It's a fairly confirmed rumour at this point that Rocksteady are making another Batman: Arkham game, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't wanting it to be a full on, guns blazing, Red Hood massacre of a game. I think it'd be brutally amazing. They should probably make it an 18 though don't you think?
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