This DLC comes in two parts. First, The Arctic Cruise. this one has some promise, but the objective in every part (level) is just busy work. With a timer in a couple instances. The time rifts in this chapter (world), however, *are* bad. Just plain bad. They feel like community-made levels by someone trying to get too clever with the difficulty.
The second part of the DLC, Death Wish. This is an extra challenge mode, entirely based on existing levels with either alterations or additions to make it more difficult, or made into a time trial. Some are fun, while others feel unfair. What killed the fun for me was the progression system. You can't decide to just skip the challenge levels you don't find to be any fun, because later challenge levels are locked until you complete so many challenges. If they just let you pick and choose (foregoing the rewards for these levels), it would be great fun.
This DLC is all about the Deathwishes and they are abysmal. High difficulty is good but only when a game can actually handle it. If you demand precision from the player, you must provide the tools to actually do it. A Hat in Time was not built for this. High difficulty represents a convenant between dev and player. It says, "hey we made this and assure you it's solid, please play it." But if your game isn't up to snuff, the cracks show.
A Hat in Time is not made for this. It's way too glitchy and also clearly untested. Hat kid cannot turn fast enough, she doesn't have enough air control, the camera becomes a problem, the game's bad hitboxes are exposed, janky prompts and input detection issues are realized, inconsistency is revealed and frustrating. All these things you won't notice in the normal game because it didn't push beyond it's bounds. The game lacks the polish in it's controls, movement, mechanics, detection, for what the Deathwishes demand of you. It's unbalanced and poorly made.
The experience of trying to complete most deathwishes is so awful it overrides the positive feelings the base game gives you.
If you want to push players, you need to have proper polish. But what this does is expose faults in the gameplay and its glitchyness. Yes there is an easy toggle after the game kills you enough, but that locks you to only 1point possible to earn and much content is behind doing bonus challenges. So the easy mode isn't an option. It shouldn't be there. Instead of easy modes, just balance your game properly. Make challenges it can actually do.
Most unlocks aren't great either. Most challenges are tedious. A handful of creative ideas but those are very few and can't fix the problems and frustration you will face because the devs honestly did not do their job properly here.
A Hat in Time is carried on it's charm. It's cool from the variety of stuff you do. It's not gameplay focused and with this it tries to be and it's just not good enough to handle it.
This DLC may bring a new stage, which in all fairness is alright, but the new hidden area is A LOT harder than the rest and the new "deals" spice up the difficulty quite a bit. If you thought the game was easy and you are a master of parkour, this new content will put those skills to the test, worth getting.
