Ricky Church reviews Batman: Arkham Knight – Season of Infamy DLC…
After several mediocre to disappointing pieces of story DLC, Batman: Arkham Knight finally delivers meaningful campaigns in ‘Season of Infamy’. Unlike the previous DLC, ‘Season of Infamy’ is actually treated as an expansion to the main game, offering players a few more Most Wanted side missions to complete.
The expansion features some of Batman’s most dangerous foes, such as Mr. Freeze, Ra’s al Ghul, Killer Croc and Madhatter, as they return to Gotham City to plague the dark knight. Much like the side missions in the actual game, these offer some amount of closure for Batman and the foes featured here, especially in the case of Mr. Freeze and Ra’s al Ghul’s story. Each story also offers players variation in story elements; for instance Killer Croc’s is a mystery while Mr. Freeze’s is an all-out attack by the Knight’s militia. The past DLC has featured much of the same formula so its refreshing to see each mission here utilize a lot of different aspects.
The variation doesn’t just extend to the stories, but also to the gameplay. Killer Croc’s mission employs the outstanding Dual Play feature between Batman and Nightwing while Ra’s al Ghul’s actually has two different outcomes depending on the player’s choice. Even Madhatter throws in a new gameplay mechanic with the Cryptographer as Batman has to defuse several bombs. It’s a pleasant surprise to see some new additions to the gameplay after DLC like ‘GCPD Lockdown’ or ‘A Flip of a Coin’ felt like business as usual.
Many new areas are also added to the map. There’s the Iron Heights Prison airship, where Killer Croc’s mission takes place, a new wing to the GCPD and players can now enter the Elliot Memorial Hospital. The new GCPD wing doesn’t add much except more of Cash’s Rogue Exhibits, but each area holds secret tapes featuring the villains, much like every other villain in the previous Arkham games, giving you a bit more to do in each area beyond what the missions set out for you. While they may not seem like much, they expand on the stories themselves and it is cool to enter more areas in Gotham, especially ones as iconic as Iron Heights or Elliot Memorial.
One of my main criticisms of the past DLC has been that each one has felt too short. Players who are quite familiar with the Arkham games can usually beat the DLC missions in about 15 – 20 minutes, but ‘Season of Infamy’ gives players a bit more length. Madhatter’s takes the shortest amount of time to beat, but the others are roughly 25 – 30 minutes long, giving players 1 ½ hours – 2 hours worth of new story material. There’s also a certain amount of difficulty in each mission for players, especially in the two Predator encounters in Mr. Freeze’s story. Rocksteady certainly wanted to give players a bit more of an experience with these missions than their previous outings.
Overall, ‘Season of Infamy’ is the best bit of story DLC to come out of Arkham Knight. It is a shame, however, this is the last known story DLC for the game to be released as it’s the first one to truly stand out, making me feel it’s too little too late to make up for the lack of previous material. Still, this DLC will make Batman fans and Arkham Knight players very happy.
Rating: 9/10
Ricky Church
Originally published December 30, 2015. Updated April 15, 2018.
