While Batgirl: A Matter of Family, the first piece of DLC from Batman: Arkham Knight’s season pass, won’t be available for another couple of weeks, Entertainment Weekly has a few new details on Barbara Gordon’s foray into crime fighting.
Batgirl: A Matter of Family will take place before the events of 2009’s Batman: Arkham Asylum, the game that started the Arkham franchise. In it, Batgirl, along with Robin, is on a mission to rescue her father, Police Commissioner Jim Gordon, from The Joker and Harley Quinn. The murderous duo has kidnapped The Commissioner and are keeping him in a location new to the series called Seagate Amusement Park. The amusement park is built on top of an oil rig that is ready to explode at the whim of The Joker.
“We wanted to recreate the feeling of being trapped in a bizarre and unique open environment playing a game of cat and mouse with the Joker,” says design producer Justin Vazquez.
A major difference in the way combat will work when playing as Batgirl is that she will use her technical prowess to hack different enemies and obstacles.
“Hacking is really what separates her from the other characters. It’s a gameplay mechanic with which the player can create situations for Batgirl to really shine,” Vazquez says. “Our intention was that Batgirl should be less powerful than Batman, but that Batgirl plus hacking could give her opportunities do things that not even Batman can pull off.”
As Batgirl will be teaming up with Robin to save her father, this allows for some team-based takedowns of enemies, as well as a matchup between Batgirl, Robin, Joker, and Harley Quinn. Additionally, Harley will be wearing the black and red costume she is known for from Batman: The Animated Series, where she made her first appearance in the DC universe.
Batgirl: A Matter of Family will also include new side missions and collectibles, as has been a mainstay in the series. It is being developed by WB Games Montreal, developers of Batman: Arkham Origins, and launches on PS4 and Xbox One on July 14 for those who picked up the Arkham Knight season pass. Those without the season pass can pick it up a week later on July 21 for $6.99. No word on when it will be available for PC as that version of Batman: Arkham Knight is still not for sale while Rocksteady Studios works to fix it, despite having launched the game knowing the technical problems it still faced.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
