Developers: Rocksteady
Publishers: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Plot: While Batman tries to escape Arkham City, Catwoman sees it as the perfect opportunity to have some fun and make a lot of money.
When most players bought Arkham City, it was hard to resist forking out that extra bit of cash to include the Catwoman DLC. Why wouldn’t we jump at the chance for more gameplay in our Batman game? The story shows us Catwoman, yet another prisoner in the hellish city of Arkham. She instantly takes on her old enemy, the deranged Harvey Dent, more commonly known as Two-Face. However, that goes horribly wrong and she ends up needing to be saved by the Dark Knight. Batman asks for her help in taking out Hugo Strange, but she has better plans. Why stop Strange when you can steal from him? But as her hunt for the massive pile of loot Strange has tucked away deepens, she begins to question her own morality. After all she has been through, can she leave the Batman to just die?
Sadly, the Catwoman DLC turns out to be a little bit of a meaningless tack-on to the game. It is moderately clever, how when you have purchased the DLC, it interweaves with Batman’s story, so you find yourself flicking back and forth between the actual game and the DLC. However, some might even prefer to play it separately after you have completed the main story. It is far more fun to see what Catwoman is up to at specific points in time. For instance, in the main game, once you’ve first met her in the hands of Two-Face, you can go back in the DLC and see how she actually got herself into that position. It is much more enjoyable than having yourself rudely ripped from Batman’s quest. Arkham games work best with the accelerator pushed firmly down, so hitting the brakes on the game, so you can check in on Selina Kyle seems a little disorientating, especially when the Batman has been left with a jaw-dropping cliff-hanger. Catwoman’s story is only really moderately entertaining as well. She takes on some great villains that the main story arc doesn’t properly handle, but they only ever play lip service to the story. Poison Ivy pops up for a fun boss fight, but she offers so little to the story, I would rather she wasn’t even here; her appearance raised my hopes too high.
Catwoman isn’t even that fun to play. After playing a few hours beating up thugs as Batman, you suddenly need to learn a whole new fighting system. It is fun to see what Kyle is capable of and some of her fighting is pretty entertaining to unleash upon her enemies. However, while running from enemies is so easy as Batman, Catwoman struggles in the stealth sections of the game. She cannot grapple away in a heartbeat, meaning that you need to clamber up a wall in as confusing a way as possible for your enemies to lose track of you. She also hasn’t got as many gadgets up her sleeve. A whip might seem a good idea at first, but you quickly learn that is probably the most awkward weapon to bring to a gun fight. Getting across the city is annoying as well. She hasn’t got the speed of Batman, so crossing from the Steel Mill to the Amusement Mill becomes a frustrating task. You keep crossing the street and getting caught up in a miniature gang war, you could really do without. It doesn’t help that Catwoman has never really been my favourite Batman character, even if I did enjoy her actual personality more than I thought I would here.
Therefore, in conclusion, this DLC becomes a bit of pointless fluff to the game. Don’t get me wrong, it does bring enough to the game to make it not totally awful. It adds to the running time, especially once you’ve finished the storyline, meaning that there are even more trophies and side-missions to accomplish as Selina. If you want the full Arkham package, pick this up, otherwise, you might prefer to stay as the Caped Crusader.
Final Verdict: As a collector’s item, it works well, but don’t expect much more than a little padding to an already packed game.
Two Stars