Gotham Knights | Review

Initial Release Date: October 21, 2022

Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

Engine: Unreal Engine 4

Mode: Multiplayer Coop, Single Player

Platforms: Xbox Series X and Series S, PlayStation 5, Microsoft Windows

Developers: WB Games Montréal, QLOC

Genres: Action, Fighting, Adventure

Introduction: Gotham Knights thrusts the Bat Family of Batgirl, Nightwing, Robin and Red Hood to the forefront as Gotham plummets into chaos due to The Batman dying twice! Yes, Gotham Knights kills The Batman two times in this game. Once in the beginning and again at the end of the game.

When Gotham Knights was introduced many a gamer were confused. “What is this game suppose to be?” I use common sense and logic myself. I saw a coop Gotham City game featuring Batman’s underlings. In the end, that is what Gotham Knights ended up being.

As the credits rolled I thought to myself “it was good, but not as good as any of the Arkham Batman games I played”. I played entire campaign solo for the record. However, I did play some coop today 11/7/2022 and can easily see it’s appeal through it’s seamless drop in and out style.

Presentation: Looking at Gotham Knights presentation as a whole it’s average or middling of the raod. There were glitches and sticky character points during a few missions. This game was clearly designed as a coop game. I never felt comfortable playing Gotham Knights solo especially as the game weened on.

Gameplay encounters involving combat were clearly designed around multiple heroes being involved and not one player. Just be prepared if you play Gotham Knights solo the odds are stacked against you numbers wise. I played the game on normal and died maybe three times if that.

Story: The Batman is dead (twice!). Bruce Wayne leaves Gotham’s security to his “family” of Nick Grayson aka Nightwing, Barbara Gordon aka Batgirl, Jason Todd aka Red Hood and Tim Drake aka Robin who nobody gives a shit about.

The Court of Owls and The League of assassin’s are vying for Gotham’s takeover knowing The Batman is dead. The Court of Owls Voice lead by Jacob Kane is the early big bad guy as well Bruce Wayne’s uncle. Talia al Ghul steals Kirk Langstroms science to create an army of Bat-Mans to attack Gotham.

The Court of Owls creat Talon Hunters and Gladiators that are homunculi humanoid slaves that crawl up to Gotham’s surface causing mayhem. In short, The Court of Owls and The League of Assassins are raising armies to take over Gotham City.

The story was pure cheese. It’s DC Comics not Shakespeare people. I would say Gotham Knights’s story was okay for it’s Lazarus Pit climax. But killing Batman twice? That was corny as hell. Kinda over the top if you ask me.

Gameplay: Gotham Knights is a beat’em up brawler with ranged attacks featuring special finisher moves. Some of the Bat Family are better at certain gameplay mechanics as others. For intance, Batgirl can hack electronics due to her Oracle history. Robin is more stealthy in combat.

Red Hood’s regular attacks are ranged pistols and he’s a tank. As for Nightwing he sucks! Joking aside Nightwing is basically a acrobat fighter. Point is, every Knight is different in regards to combat mechanics, abilities and unlocks.

I would call Gotham Knight a light RPG coop action-adventure game. You are playing a role with a character and he or she has ability points and loot to craft to that specific character. I ended up finishing the game as Batgirl due to her hacking of everything. Every character except Nightwing seems to have a real role in regards to gameplay mechanics.

As I alluded to earlier Gotham Knights is a coop game first. I know because I felt at odds beating the campaign solo. Gotham Knights gameplay never flowed in single player like any of the Batman Arkham games. It’s easy to tell what a game is designed for as you play it.

As for multiplayer coop I only played one session but the gameplay felt like it flowed better when you fight along with another Bat Family member. I played as Batgirl with a random Red Hood. Pulling off combos against mobsters and completing in-game challenges together felt nice and seamless.

So yea, Gotham Knights is a coop game first and a single player game second. It doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy playing and beating the campaign solo (I did). As for the gameplay loop you always start at the Belfry and return to the Belfry. The Belfry is the Bat Family’s HUD where you can decompress from your night outs in Gotham.

Gotham City as a gameplay map is a playground for crime fighting activities. You have challenges and side activities ranging from dealing with NPCs like Lucius Fox to Detective Montoya. You have challenges that involve Knighthood gliders and your batcycle.

Playing as Batgirl aka Barbara Gordon she would often have “Story” Side activities where she visits Jim Gordon’s memorial often times to deal with her struggles as Batgirl. Each Bat Family member has latter cutscene sequences.

Leveling up your preferred hero revolves around progressing the story and unlocking better loot to craft and upgrade your armor and weapons. To really add power stats to your weapons and armor you can add modifiers into weapon and armor slots.

Villain side missions involving the likes of Harley Quinn, Mr Freeze and Clayface were just as entertaining and well designed as the main story campaign. Including their bossfights! You unlock the Villain side content by doing easy challenges while out on patrol.

Patrolling is basically you doing random incidents like stopping a robbery, investigating a crime scene or kidnapping in progress. You unlock these by interrogating the final enemy in a fight. Each piece of information is carried onto the next night where you have more crimes.

Gameplay in solo was clunky and janky for the most part regardless of which knight you choose. Coop is better designed in Gotham Knights compared to solo. XP is earned through completed almost anything on Patrol down to beating up a random enemy. Overall, gameplay is decent. It’s not good or bad if that makes sense.

The puzzles in Gotham Knight included a Sengoku puzzle a radio frequency puzzle and a Uncharted-esque globe puzzle. There were many more as well. Point is, they were kinda easy to figure out but thoughtful in design.

Visuals/Graphics: I played Gotham Knights on my Playstation 5 which featured mandatory ray-tracing at 30 frames per second. Gotham Knights looks good to average with ugly character models in cutscenes. Texture work and lighting were phenomenal however.

Sound/Music: I say sound design and music were there but not memorable. I got tired of hearing that same melody every-time I drove the batcycle. This game needed a real musical score bad. Voice acting was meh. I couldn’t feel one character except Bruce Wayne who died twice!

Final Verdict: Gotham Knights is good to decent overall. The jank and chunkiness in it’s solo gameplay holds it down for me. For a coop game it shines brighter than solo as intended. Campaign was decent. I would wait for a sale and get a friend ready when you do buy it. Before I go if you want to watch gameplay videos visit Gotham Knights Video Playlist. Thanks for reading Jason

7/10