Developer: Warner Bros. Games Montreal
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Platform: PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Batman Origins: Cold Cold Heart – DLC Review
No modern game goes without downloadable content nowadays. And truth to be told, it took longer than we expected before Arkham Origins got a proper expansion (we’re not counting all those short mission-downloads). The game’s successor might have already been announced, but for now we’ll take a look at Cold Cold Heart’s worthiness.
It’s been a few days since Arkham Origin’s conclusion. Gotham seems free of super-powered villains and could even be called relatively safe. Queue Bruce Wayne’s idea of an after-work party. One where expensive wines, enormous banquets and the presence of any citizen able to pronounce the term social status flood the halls of Wayne Manor. One where an enemy raid, followed by madness and mayhem is just around the corner.
In laymen’s terms: Mr. Freeze is making an icy entrance into Gotham’s criminal underworld.
That’s great, we love Victor Fries, he’s one of the more multilateral personae in a world filled with mostly rather narrow personalities. Yes Batman fans; like it or not, this is one comic that isn’t known for its detailed background stories when it comes to its villains.
Freeze’s story, however, closely follows that of the comics. In other words: he’s a brilliant scientist driven to a life of crime in order to save his wife who’s suffering from a (so far) incurable disease.
Needless to say, this adds some drama and emotional complexity to an otherwise action-driven plot.
There’s more to Cold Cold Heart than just an extra chapter to Origin’s narrative though. Take our caped crusader himself, for instance. In order to successfully fight against Mr. Freeze, you’ll get to toy around with nifty new gadgets. Thermal Gloves replace your shock gloves and a Thermal Batarang fits the original’s utility belt-slot quite nicely.
There are some bumps in this otherwise smooth road, though.
While the level design is truly great this time around, with lots of cleverly hidden paths you can use to sneak around enemies, Cold Cold Heart still sins against one of gaming’s golden rules: don’t overly rely on backtracking.
Sadly, once you’ve made it halfway through this expansion, the game loses its narrative focus and demands you run back and forth between most locales you visited earlier.
Batman’s fight against Freeze is a major let down as well, as it turns out to be nothing more than a lazy carbon copy of the battle found in Arkham City.
Original, this is not. A pity, because if it wasn’t for these few flaws, Cold Cold Heart could have kick-started a series of great Batman Origin-DLC.
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