COLD, COLD HEART REVIEW

User Rating: 7 | Batman: Arkham Origins - Cold, Cold Heart PC
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Warner Bros. just released the new (and final) downloadable content, Cold, Cold Heart, for their latest (tangent) Arkham game on April 22nd.

A Cold, Cold Heart tells the story of Mr. Freeze's first appearance in Gotham on New Years Eve.

In Batman: The Animated Series, we learn that Mr. Freeze is a scientist specializing in cryogenics who desperately wants to save his wife Nora, since she was diagnosed with a terminal illness. He uses the resources of the company he is employed with to cryogenically freeze his wife until he can cure her disease.

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At the game's start we see Nora Fries in her icy slumber, and Mr. Freeze looking over her. Then it cuts to a banquet at Wayne Manor, where Ferris Boyle, the head of GothCorp, is receiving an award from the Wayne Foundation for "Humanitarian of the Year". Freeze enters flanked by some goons, and puts an end to the warm hearts and celebrations. At the first sign of trouble, Bruce heads straight for the secret entrance to the Batcave for a wardrobe change. You'll get to play a little as Bruce Wayne and take down some of the Penguin's thugs along the way. Freeze takes Ferris Boyle hostage and the thugs (ironically) begin to set the mansion ablaze.

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The DLC is accessible from the main menu, right under "continue story", you'll see an option to play A Cold, Cold Heart. It doesn't take place as a side-quest or mission in the main story of Arkham Origins, since it takes place about a week after the events of the main story line. You will find yourself in Wayne Manor, the GothCorp building and two districts (Coventry and Diamond) in South Gotham. The rest of the city is cut off by giant ice barriers, presumably set up by Freeze to prevent additional police backup from coming across the bridges to stop him from exacting vengeance.

Maurice LaMarche (from Toronto, Canada!) returns as the voice of Mr. Freeze for his origin story and he is amazing as usual. Freeze is one of my favourite villains because of his status as an "anti-villain". He is motivated solely by his desire to save his wife. He isn't a crime boss like Penguin or the Joker, he doesn't want to destroy Batman or Gotham, his heart is cold, and he cares for nothing aside from his wife Nora, and getting vengeance for her fate (to say anymore would give too much away to you readers who don't know Freeze...SPOILERS!).

One of my favourite parts of the experience was unraveling this mystery via The Dark Knight's detective work in a cryogenics lab where Victor Fries was working.

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Warner Bros. had the opportunity to take this character and craft a really great story like Paul Dini had done in Batman: The Animated Series or Scott Snyder and James Tynion in Batman Annual #1, but the bits of story that we do get are kind of sparse throughout the experience. I wouldn't say that the story was bad, they could have just given us more of it, instead of giving us the basic story that we know and expect in a few cutscenes. It would have been nice to see something new, or at least more of an emotional, character-driven telling of the Mr. Freeze's origin.

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The content is as enjoyable as it is in the main game. If you were expecting anything new with this DLC, then you will be disappointed. At least from a gameplay persepective. Just like Arkham Origins, you won't really see any additions or improvements to its predecessors, Arkham City and Arkham Asylum. Warner Brother's Studio has merely opted to stick with the mechanics that already work and are immensely enjoyable from Rocksteady's Batman games.

You'll have access to all of the gadgets from Arkham Origins, except for the glue grenade (because all of the remaining solution has disintegrated...). The only new gadgets, other than the Extreme Environment (XE) Suit, are the Thermal Batarangs, which you can use to knock down icy stalactites on unsuspecting enemies. These are more like upgrades, as you can use the XE Suit to heat them up before you throw them. There are 3 abilities to unlock by collecting all of the secrets (Anarky tags, Anarky riots and frozen victims) but I haven't been able to complete that yet because you have to do them as you progress through the story or else you might not be able to return to certain ones.

There are new enemies with freeze guns that you will have to dodge and do make fights in large groups more difficult, but once you learn how to counter them they aren't too difficult.

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The XE Suit is something that I was excited to try out. I've always wished that developers would work in unique Bat-suits to the games, each with different functions and abilities to change up the gameplay, maybe react to certain villains or situations they set up, rather than having skins from various stories that don't really do anything.

Unfortunately, the XE Suit doesn't really do anything different either... It lets you heat up your Batarangs before you throw them, and it gives you access to areas that are blocked off due to ice or extreme cold, but it doesn't change up the gameplay in any way at all. It doesn't make Batman stronger, slower or have to adjust his strategies in any way. In fact, the shock gloves are just replaced by thermal gloves in combat as well.

Like with Arkham Origins WB studios decided to stick with what worked and what we expected, and of course it works and is as enjoyable as any of the other Batman games. It doesn't, however, shock or excite or do anything new with the game or story. If you enjoy the current Batman games, you will enjoy this but you shouldn't expect anything new.

If nothing else, this, like Arkham Origins, will hopefully hold you over until Rocksteady is finished development on the bound-to-be stunning conclusion to the series, Batman: Arkham Knight.

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