Opinion: Is There Any Hope for Batman: Arkham Knight's DLC?

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Batman: Arkham Knight

Back in April of this year, the Batman: Arkham Knight $40 season pass was announced. The season pass provide access to six month's worth of additional post-launch content including, but not limited to, new character skins, AR challenges, and story DLC. We are now approaching the fourth of those six months and so far, the content Rocksteady has delivered is mediocre at best. Now that we know what’s on deck for October, let’s how Rocksteady can right this listing ship.

We Ordered An Entree And Got Appetizers

The string of woefully underwhelming Arkham Knight DLC actually began on the same day as the game’s launch. Two different pre-order bonuses (one for all buyers, and the other for GameStop customers only) allowed players to control different characters: The iconic Harley Quinn and the ruthless vigilante Red Hood, in one-shot story episodes set before the events of the main game. While it was a fun treat to play as these new characters and their unique skills, the story episodes themselves were disappointingly short, averaging out at about 20-30 minutes of playtime apiece. Even worse, they also didn’t include any sort of collectibles or other optional side content, which meant virtually no replay value.

Things didn’t get much better during subsequent months. The highly anticipated Batgirl expansion, A Matter of Family, was initially used to hype up the season pass. It wound up being a slightly longer and slightly less linear version of the Red Hood/Harley Quinn episodes, and a fun side story for longtime fans, but certainly not worth all of the attention it received. Add in a few new AR challenges for Batman and company, some new costumes, and a pair of new racetrack packs that let players turn the Batmobile into some of its famous movie incarnations, and that’s about everything the season pass has covered so far. Not exactly a collection that screams value.

Saving The Best For Last?

To be fair, there are still several parts of the season pass have yet to released, not counting the GCPD Lockdown story, which featuring Nightwing. New post-game stories star characters like Catwoman (Catwoman's Revenge) and will offer glimpses of what a post-Batman Gotham City looks like. Heck, they might even shed some light on the mysterious cliffhanger players were treated to in the game’s “true” ending.

Then there’s the equally mysterious “Season of Infamy” DLC, which will apparently involve brand new villains invading Gotham (rumors point to six villains: Killer Croc, Ra’s Al Ghul, Mad Hatter, Mr. Freeze, Prometheus, and Black Mask as potential villains). This is the DLC that many players have been eagerly waiting for, and it is likely the best hope Rocksteady has of redeeming itself in the eyes of disappointed season pass buyers. Of course, since Rocksteady has previously confirmed there are no plans to make non-Batman characters playable in free roam, it will be interesting to see just how exactly the Season of Infamy DLC is implemented.

Playing Catch Up

Personally, I’m confident my $40 season pass purchase won’t feel like a waste. Sure, it’s a bummer that we , but when all is said and done, Arkham Knight will be a much more expansive and hopefully better game once all of its additional content is released. However, just because I’m looking forward to what Arkham Knight’s DLC will be, doesn't mean I’m not somewhat disappointed in what it is out now.

Sure, it’s nice that Rocksteady is implementing fan-requested features like AR challenges that star characters other than Batman, and even an upcoming character-select feature for the entire AR challenge mode. But imagine what else Rocksteady could be working on if it wasn’t busy adding in functionality which, honestly, should have been in the game from the start. Obviously I’m happy that I’ll soon be able to pick which character I play as in the AR challenges, but that happiness is somewhat tempered by the fact that it means I probably won’t ever get to see a Court of Owls or playable Deathstroke DLC.

A Graceful Exit

As I said before, I have no doubt that Arkham Knight’s season pass will wind up being worth its $40 asking price once the six-month period has come and gone. Whatever irritation I feel towards Rocksteady for its seemingly blatant disregard of player expectations will surely fade in time, especially once I’m distracted by the upcoming season pass content.

It’s hard to say at this point how exactly Arkham Knight will be remembered, especially since it’s still in the process of “settling in,” what with the ongoing PC issues and the DLC that still has yet to be revealed, but the optimist in me says that the final result will have been worth all of the pain. It may not have gone as smoothly as both Rocksteady and fans would have liked, but Arkham Knight is, slowly but surely, becoming a fitting tribute to the end to the Arkham legacy, and that is something which I’m definitely happy about.