Arkham Origins Azreal DLC is Not Great

Written by ‪@SplinterChalk‬ Get 20% when buying G Fuel: https://www.gfuel.com/THATBOYAQUA My main channel ‪@ThatBoyAqua‬ Happy Monday everyone. When you think of DLC in the Arkham series, you probably think of things like Harley Quinn’s Revenge, Cold Cold Heart, the various Arkham episodes, or maybe even the skins in each game. One thing you probably don’t think about though is challenge maps, especially not ones that are meant to be their own DLC story. While there are a few of these throughout the series (Black Mask Arkham City, Deathstroke Arkham Origins, Initiation Arkham Origins), the most peculiar and forgotten one has to be the Knightfall DLC for Arkham Origins. Exclusive to the PS3 version, although it is available on PC with this very easy to install mod by MaximilianZeus, this DLC shows us the non-canon story of Azrael taking up the mantle of Batman to stop Bane’s gang from wreaking havoc on Gotham City. Just like the Initiation DLC, the story of this DLC is given to us over the course of a challenge campaign, although the presentation is a tiny bit different here. While Initiation shows us its story through short cutscenes explaining each challenge map beforehand, the Knightfall DLC has short slides that appear on the loading screens, explaining why Azrael is going to each of these locations, what the locations are, and what exactly Bane’s gang is up to. The story itself is quite simple. It begins in the challenge map Turning Point and takes place somewhere in the West Wing of Blackgate, where a riot has broken out in an attempt for Bane’s men to break out so they can lay siege on Gotham. Can you believe it? The third time in one game that this prison lost control. Now, when it comes to the story of this DLC, if you can even really call it that, things are quite barebones. And that kind of slapped together barebones nature is also partially true for the challenge maps themselves. The eagle-eyed among you may have already noticed this, but the layout of this map is identical to the GCPD from Arkham City. A lot of effort has certainly been put into giving the place a major overhaul though, to the degree where I wouldn’t be shocked if some people didn’t even notice this was the GCPD while playing. Mr. Freeze’s workstation has been replaced with a desk and lots of filing cabinets, the water pool has been covered with metal grating, nearly all of the autopsy table desk thingies (the name of the weird table things in the game files of Arkham City is OBJ_Medical\autopsy_table\OBJ_desk_GCPD) have been turned into servers or filing cabinets, and the cells on the south side have been replaced with a security office. Some work has also gone into blocking the player off from usually unhelpful places, such as the front and back entrances. The front entrance has been turned into a loading dock that is destroyed and blocked off by debris, and the back hallway has been covered with a gate and lots of debris as well. The set dressing here though is quite interesting. The usual Penguin weapons crates are scattered across the map, but so are these Amertek crates. Amertek isn’t the only previously established company making an appearance in this map though, since you can also find a few TYGER shields lying around the environment. Now, this doesn’t matter too much since the DLC is already non canon, but it’s interesting to see one of the first glimpses of what TYGER may have been up to before Arkham City, especially since Arkham Shadow was still a decade away at this point. That being said, there does seem to be a bit of confusion in terms of what makes sense for set dressing. This is a prison, so what sense does it make for there to be a ton of SWAT vans all over or dozens of boxes labeled evidence?