September has brought a lot of DLC for Batman: Arkham Knight. There’s been a couple of Crime Fighter Challenge Packs, the original Arkham Asylum skin, and the next Batmobile pack from the 2008 Christopher Nolan film, “The Dark Knight”. While the 1989 Batmobile Movie Pack failed to be something more, the 2008 Tumbler Batmobile Pack follows suit with its predecessor, making it even more troubling for the direction of these Batmobile Pack DLCs.
First and foremost, the 2008 Tumbler Batmobile Pack is nearly identical to the 1989 Batmobile Movie Pack. They are accessed from the AR Challenges menu, and you have two races, each with a 1-lap version and a 3-lap version. Depending on your love of Batmobile races or love for the Christopher Nolan version of the Batmobile, will determine whether you enjoy this or not. The trophy for completing this DLC is exactly the same as the 1989 Movie Batmobile Pack as well. It feels very copy and paste in terms of the overall structure.
The two races, ‘Cataclysm’ and ‘Ashes’ have more going on, if they are bit dulled in color. ‘Cataclysm’ seems to emulate “The Dark Knight” with the symbolic fire and explosions that were prevalent in the film. Though, the follow-up race, ‘Ashes’ seems to be more about “The Dark Knight Rises”, but it maintains thematic consistency of the Nolan films well. What struck me as odd, is that you have helicopters shooting at you as you jump from building to building, but you also see the production side of things, with blue screen backgrounds as if you were racing on a set rather than being Batman from the 2008 film.
As with the 1989 Batmobile, you can also bring the the 2008 Tumbler to other challenges that don’t require tank mode. If you want to bring the Tumbler into the main game, you must have removed all tanks from the game via the side missions before you’re able to use it. There’s no “The Dark Knight” skin from the Christopher Nolan films to coincide with the Tumbler. I got close with using last month’s Arkham Origins Batman skin in order to achieve a consistent look, but it is disappointing there’s not a batsuit to run alongside this release.
This is a DLC of diminishing returns, as it is almost exactly like the 1989 Batman Batmobile Pack, but with a different setting and some more visually interesting elements that emulate the look and feel of the films, to a lesser degree. It just a shame that despite its modest price, it still feels so hollow and not as good as it should be, with a more narrative-driven focus. This is again, like the last Batmobile DLC, is comparable to driving through a Universal Studios theme park ride. The 2008 Tumbler Batmobile Pack fits in a bit more closely with the Batmobile of Batman: Arkham Knight, and this version of Gotham City, but it still just isn’t enough to enjoy for more than 10 minutes.
A PlayStation 4 code for the Season Pass was provided by the publisher for review purposes
