If Arkham Knight exceeds at anything, it's the multitude of characters you're able to play as. Harley Quinn's skillset is pretty cool.

What wasn't cool was that ballache of a fight with Nightwing.

Also, it's over too quickly.

short and simple
harley being able to take on nightwing and a endless supply of cops also feels wrong

oh and nightwing is also just a stun stick enemy

I do really like what they did for harley's ui and gadgets however

Link to my Arkham Knight review - https://www.backloggd.com/u/Flameyboy928/review/1419456/

I enjoy this one a lot compared to the other ones probably because you can play as a new character. Harley is enjoyable to play as and her playstyle is probably the most different out of all the characters basically having no stealth options at all. Premise has Harley breaking Poison Ivy out of jail in Bludhaven before the events of Arkham Knight. Fighting Nightwing is literally the same as a regular enemy with a stun stick bit of a let down there.

The strange combination of Harley and The Penguin works surprisingly well and has a few good comedic moments. I also like Harley's version of detective vision which looks really crazy. Its pretty fun for what it is, I would recommend this one but only on sale.

Harley Quinn is the most unique playstyle of all the characters in the Arkham series. Instead of sneaking around and taking down enemies from the shadows, she had no silent takedowns and instead can only take people down in ways that will alert every other enemy in the vicinity. On top of that, she has a special ability that puts her into a rage state, able to take out an enemy with the press of a button (for three or four enemies). Both of these together makes Harley a much more blitz approach to stealth, which can be a welcome change of pace.

It kind of stinks, though, that she's only really able to put this to the test in a DLC that takes no more than 20 minutes if you really take your time/struggle, otherwise only really being able to use her in maps that were clearly not made with her in mind. Her combat is also the most shallow of the lot. Her three gadgets are more or less clones of Batman's freeze grenade, explosive gel, and smoke pellets, and none of those are notably great in combat, so you're really just left with the bare necessities.

The story DLC is... not much to write home about. Harley goes to Blüdhaven to break Poison Ivy out of prison so she can join them in Scarecrow's plans to bring Gotham and Batman down, all the while she has Penguin in her ear. There's a lot of witty dialogue with Harley playing dumb (or... I think playing dumb? It's hard to tell with Arkham Harley) to Penguin, Penguin trying to get her to work with him or just insulting her, and Harley making various cop jokes, but it's none too special, really. The DLC ends with a fight against Nightwing which is actually pretty good and caps off the story well. I think it's hilarious that Harley canonically kicks Nightwing's ass.

Shame that they didn't even try to show Blüdhaven off at all. Not that it surprises me, especially with such a short story, but it all takes place within the police department, nary a glimpse of the city beyond. Oh well, it's kind of just Gotham 2 from what I know, so it's no big deal.

Overall, Harley is an appreciated addition to the Arkham cast when it comes to stealth, but lacking in combat, and it very much feels like she was not intended to be played outside of this very short story originally.

Arkham Knight wasn’t a very good game, it was not only blatantly unfinished in spite of having the usual issues open world games are plagued with like far to much side content that is meant more as busywork to keep a customer hooked with a sunken cost mentality, instead of keeping a player engaged, but it was also full of under designed predator sequences, horrible excuses for boss fights, and a terrible story.

Which is why the Harley Quinn pre order DLC is a pleasant surprise. Despite its short length (around 45 minutes), you’ll most likely enjoy your time with it.

The biggest improvement over the base game is that the DLC feels mostly finished in terms of predator and free flow scenarios, which isn’t a high bar but it clears that well.

The predator sequences are a welcome twist on the usual Arkham fare. Due to her psychotic nature, Harley’s take downs cause a lot of noise and you’ll need to make use of her enhanced super human agility to quickly navigate the maps.

Harley is much faster than Batman and you’ll be escaping enemy detection very quickly. To compensate for this, the enemy AI sticks together in small groups far more often, but unlike the base game where you would just abuse the fear multi take downs, here you have to actually use Harley’s two gadgets rather extensively, whether you use laughing gas to take them out one at a time, or play it safe and use an exploding jack in the box to lure them to their doom, you’ll have several options of how to go about it thanks to the abundance of dead end office cubicles to use these, a welcome change from the abundance of grates from the base game.

Harley’s Free flow combat mobs are as polished as the main games, though with the added benefit of far less gadget bloat. Her enhanced speed and superhuman gymnastic skills will have her effortlessly zipping around each mob, with the added cool factor of her doing attacks bouncing off of walls adding to the chaotic feel. Due to how fast Harley’s animations are, this makes mob fights much easier, which is great from a character standpoint as she does have superhuman abilities (In the comics poison ivy exposes her to spores which give her enhanced agility) and is a good change of (literal) pace from Batman.

Harley does also have access to a super mode called psycho mode, which makes her 2-3 shot mobs. The meter is thankfully balanced by filling up very slowly during free flow sections and very fast during predator sections, the player will be clued in quickly to not waste it during predator segments due to how powerful it is.

Unfortunately due to this, it also makes the terrible boss fight against Night wing even more terrible, as you can just save up psycho mode and wail on X till it runs out, or simply flip over him, press B, then mash X. The most annoying aspect of this fight is that not only are you constantly harassed by re spawning guards, but the camera also constantly gets caught on the left wall, obscuring your vision from Night wing's very dangerous attacks (He also never shuts up which is incredibly annoying, even if it is accurate to the character). Thankfully due to how powerful you are, this fight ends quickly, but it’s a poor finale from a game play standpoint to a mostly solid DLC.

Visually the game is as beautiful as the base game. Textures are deep and sharp, with details like rotted wood, visible skin dimples and pores, the lighting casts realistic shines and reflections on linoleum tiles, and the phenomenal dense particle effects are a sight to behold.

Harley’s version of detective vision, named psycho vision here, is a great visual twist on the mechanic, her insanity is on full display with the walls covered in hand written scribbles and demonic clown imagery. It’s a cool metaphor for the imagination of a psychopath.

The animations are also top notch, Free flow feels smooth due to animations being fast and simple in favour of good response time, and Harley’s loud take downs during predator segments are wonderfully over animated and overly detailed to convey her psychotic nature. This is paired with impressive jiggle physics on her breasts and skirt, which bob up and down and side to side realistically depending on how fast she moves. And one of the coolest details is how she walks backwards much more slowly than every other character in the series due to wearing heels. The dedication to capturing the feel and nature of the character is translated wonderfully from the medium of comics to the medium of games, incredibly impressive.

Musically the game offers nothing new, as it just reuses music from the main campaign, if you like the generic high tempo semi dark orchestral music the series is inundated with, you’ll have more of the same here for better or worse. The lack of any new tracks that would fit Harley’s bubbly, ditsy personality is quite disappointing.

The plot is also nothing special, Harley is hired by scarecrow to free Poison Ivy and that’s where the story begins and ends. Night wing just shows up at the end and gets jobbed with nothing interesting happening in between, and the DLC does not even have an ending cut scene, making it feel as unfinished as the base game.

There’s some slightly funny banter with Penguin simping for Harley and offering her money to work for him, and she casually tells him to fuck off due to her Stockholm syndrome for the Joker still affecting her, which is nice, but Harley’s character is still captured much better through the game play. I would have loved for the DLC to be around 3-5 hours instead of 45 minutes to really flesh her out more.


There’s a lot to enjoy with this DLC if you’re into Harley as a character, as the game captures her nearly perfectly, paired with the high visual fidelity, and good level design and fun combat, you’ll have a good time, though the poor unfinished story, extremely short length and bland music leave much to be desired.

7/10.