Comics and video games have gone hand-in-hand for decades dating back to the days many were sitting in front of a big box television screen with an original NES hooked to what would become known as less than “standard definition” viewing. But it wasn’t until the last few gaming generations developers have been gifted the tools to craft worlds worthy of the source material. On the DC side of things, Batman-oriented video games not only produced memorable experiences, they set a standard chased by other developers holding onto big superhero licensed products. Now Warner Bros. Studios are ready to add to the legacy of great Batman games … by not focusing on “The Dark Knight”. Instead, Batman’s greatest proteges take up the mantle in hopes of saving Gotham and yours truly was ready to see if the four heroes were ready to prove themselves as true heroes.
Did I Complete “Gotham Knights”?
The Batman is dead – that is the initial premise of “Gotham Knights” to get the figurative ball rolling as his proteges in Dick “Nightwing” Grayson, Barbara “Batgirl” Gordon, Tim “Robin” Drake, and Jason “Red Hood” Todd not only try to discover the reason behind Bruce Wayne’s demise, but also stop the criminal power vacuum “The Dark Knight’s” death has caused in Gotham. By opening up Gotham in the same manner as “Batman: Arkham Knight” from a generation ago, “Gotham Knights” is littered with things to do; for better & for worse.
Players are given the opportunity to play by themselves or with a co-op partner online, but the overall goal is the same: finish the main story, complete a plethora of crimes both random that appear when traversing through Gotham and “Premeditated” versions resetting every time the player returns to the Knights’ headquarters, the “Belfry”. After nearly thirty hours, I finished the main story, the three major side narratives focusing on Harley Quinn, Clayface, and Mr. Freeze with the latter having two of the toughest boss battles the game has to offer, and attained quite a few trophies including some of the grind-oriented ones focusing on defeating a certain type of enemy from one of the five main villain factions (“Freaks”, “Regulators”, “Mob”, “The Court of Owls”, and “The League of Shadows”) a certain amount of times on “Normal” difficulty.
The real test began during the endgame as I moved throughout Gotham to complete 250 crimes, find all the necessary collectibles (sixty “Batarangs”, forty-two “Historia Strigidae Pages”, twelve “Street Art” murals, and forty Gotham landmarks) for trophy completion, and struggle for those rarer enemies to appear associated with the aforementioned trophy requirements focusing on beating particular bad guys numerous times. Another three or so hours passed before I could move onto the last major grind: reaching max level with a Knight via “New Game Plus”. Everyone’s first playthrough will only allow the Knights to reach level thirty and it isn’t until playing “New Game Plus” at least halfway through the story or farming crimes does one attain the maximum level of forty – a goal that should take around two to four hours if everything goes well; making this a relatively easy, though time-consuming game for full achievement & trophy completion.
What Makes “Gotham Knights” Unique?
Though not directly connected to the “Arkham” series of Batman games, those “Rocksteady”-developed experiences set a standard that its spiritual successors will always be compared to starting with the combat. “Gotham Knights” has a combat system that does very well individualizing itself from other games in the genre while proving lacking in comparison to the gameplay beats seen in the aforementioned “Arkham” games.
All four playable characters have the same base combat options where players have melee and ranged attacks with the holding down of those buttons connected to regular projectile or striking options causing “heavy” versions of ranged or melee attacks (heavy ranged attacks having the tendency of being a lot shorter in range than expected, longer start-up times, and the general aim being off if the player barely touches the movement analog stick/mouse/button). Players can dodge with the touch of a button, though tapping the dodge button alongside the analog stick may actually be a hindrance as the character will jump in the opposite direction intended even if the player has their movement orientation lined up as necessary for the planned avoidance.
The base character settings allows for each Knight to feel initially different. Nightwing is an acrobatic melee specialist who can artfully dodge while landing close strikes. Red Hood is the rather slow tank character whose ranged attacks (using his guns in the flashiest of ways even if he isn’t aiming at an actual enemy) are arguably the best of the four. Batgirl has rather quick strikes both up close and far away, but doesn’t have the greatest damage output, health or dodging capabilities. Robin’s stature is perfect for quickly sleuthing around for stealth attacks while his bo staff helps keep enemies at bay when in combat to make up for his lacking health as well.
What really differentiates the Knights is their purchasable skills via skill points earned when leveling up a character and “Momentum Abilities”. Each Knight has four skill trees with the fourth – “Knighthood” – only unlocking once the player completes a static “Challenge” usually associated with defeating certain enemies or finishing particular crimes a bunch of times.
These skills really bring out the uniqueness of each Knight. For example: Nightwing has an “Acrobat” tree focusing on making his evasive skills more efficient including producing a cloud of enemy-debilitating smoke on the final jump when dodging; the “Shadow” section of Robin’s skill tree allows him to be the best stealth character in the game by taking away his sound of footsteps when running; Batgirl’s “Oracle” skill tree gives her hacking abilities to stop security cameras and enemy turrets; Red Hood’s “Brawler” skill tree column emphasizes his melee capabilities & larger size compared to the other Knights by allowing him to do things like grab larger foes that is impossible with anyone else.
“Momentum Abilities” are unlocked via “Challenges” and provide each Knight special attacks that emphasize just how much fun the combat can be and, at times, how finicky. By landing attacks and successfully dodging at the last second to avoid an enemy’s attack (“Perfect Evade”), the “Momentum Bar” at the screen’s lower right-hand corner will fill up. Depending on the “Momentum Ability” used, the bar may empty one segment, two segments, or the entire thing depending on how deep the player is into the game.
Some “Momentum Abilities” are incredibly useful like Robin’s exploding hologram decoy, Batgirl’s drone that both shoots enemies and restores her health, Nightwing’s “Nest” that creates a health-restorative dome while dealing minor damage to enemies inside it, and Red Hood’s “Mystical Rounds” made to annihilate small groups of targeted enemies with one shot. Unfortunately not all “Momentum Abilities” are created equal mostly due to the game’s questionable soft-lock mechanic like Robin’s twirling bo staff when he rushes forward or Batgirl’s jumping, wide-range batarang throw where the player’s aim with the camera doesn’t always correlate with the Knight’s direction when performing the “Momentum Ability”.
Though each playable character generally feels unique when switching between them (something that can only be done when inside the Belfry), the combat’s rhythm squanders the characters’ rooted individuality and provides unexpected frustrating moments. The introduction of the game’s earliest foes gives the impression there will be some grandiose expansions in regards to latter adversaries. And while Owls and League-oriented enemies provide more of a challenge than the other three villainous factions, a majority of every enemy type plays the same. Each faction has a brawler, projectile thrower, shooter, and large bruiser that only becomes vulnerable when the player lands a heavy attack. A majority of the strategies needed to conquer these particular adversaries are the same no matter the faction (just avoid their attacks and smash the melee button). The Owls’ “Talon” and Regulators’ “Drone Master” enemies are the only ones built to be stunned by heavy ranged attacks with the gamer not being informed of such in regards to the latter.
As mentioned, the game’s soft-lock doesn’t always align with the player’s aim or the camera in general. There will be many times when the player is in the middle or tail-end of a combo, only for their Knight to suddenly change focus and strike another enemy that could be halfway across the battle arena. Dodging is iffy is as well thanks to just how many foes will be presented at a time no matter if someone is playing by themselves or with a partner. A player may see the sight-line of a shooter, dodge to avoid the incoming bullets, only to be struck by another enemy cut off by the camera or their Knight is unable to pull of a split-second secondary dodge due to input delay. These dodging issues are made more emphatic against quick enemies who string together damaging attacks when playing as Red Hood or Batgirl who don’t have the same avoidance speed & capabilities as Nightwing and Robin.
Another major gameplay issue is the lack of enemy animation locking. When performing a takedown or even some “Momentum Abilities”, the Knight is locked in the animation while all the enemies who have either seen the takedown or are in the heat of combat can still strike the player’s character and the player can’t do anything to stop them or the animation while precious health is lost.
In an effort to add some depth to combat, the developers implemented a gear & “Mod Chips” system. Gear is both automatically added to each Knight’s inventory and can be crafted via the materials gained when completing missions and diversions. Each piece of gear (suit, melee, and ranged) is level-locked and has a rarity associated with it be it “Common”, “Uncommon”, “Rare”, “Heroic”, “Epic”, or “Legendary”. Depending on the gear equipped, players have the opportunity to attach “Mod Chips” if that gear has an available slot with “Legendary” gear sporting up to the three mod slots. These “Mod Chips” can increase the health & defense effects of a piece, add more damage output, or, most importantly, emphasize the effectiveness of elemental attacks.
Every enemy type is strong against particular elements, utilizes elements in battle, and are weak to certain elements. If players are planning on hunting down some talons, equipping a suit that has poison resistance is very beneficial while having a ranged weapon modded to increase the effectiveness of ice attacks to freeze the jumpers in place is imperative. Via the menu, players can discover the weaknesses and strengths of each faction and plan accordingly; something more crucial on “Normal” or higher difficulties. Each character has up to fifteen skins that, thankfully, don’t remove the character’s gear settings. Suits a partially customizable and really adds a unique flair to playing with each Knight.
Similar to the enemy variations starting off impressive before players realize the templates are essentially the same, so is fighting crime in Gotham. Random crimes that appear on the map are miniscule in nature usually involving a pair of criminals trying to steal a parked car or one of Gotham’s finest failing to arrest the “Freaks” version of Bonnie & Clyde. “Premeditated Crimes”, however, are much more extensive; though eventually fall into the same trappings as other games in the genre by never evolving after their first appearance.
Players will be tasked with situations like diffusing bombs attached to three citizens without being seen by enemies because if the Knight is spotted the bomb’s one-minute-to-detonation timer will start; making it impossible to complete said crime. Banks are robbed, murdered bodies investigated in the simplest of senses, organs stolen, and super weapons being built throughout Gotham and it’s up to the player to prevent it all with certain bonus options like “Defeat two enemies with Grab Strikes” adding bonus experience points and crafting materials to a successfully thwarted crime.
“Premeditated Crimes” also have levels of difficulty ranging from “Very Low” to “Very High” instead of the suggested character level information associated with main missions and side cases. The “Very High” versions present a small chance of players encountering one of “Gotham’s Most Wanted”; foes that, when defeated, drop the rarest crafting material in the game reserved for making that “Legendary” gear. It’s during these “Very High” crimes or even some of the game’s regular story missions that the player may die and have to “respawn”. The player isn’t just punished for dying by having to restart a section (or in the case of crimes, the mission disappearing completely until the player returns to the Belfry), they lose out on crafting materials. Thankfully, the game gifts the player up to seven health packs with defeated enemies dropping health packs randomly during any battle to help avoid a crushing death.
Traversal is definitely one of the game’s weakest mechanics. Beyond the extremely fun, though rarely needed Batcycle, players will be attempting to zip around Gotham via the grappling hook. Like aiming during a fight or being a victim of odd soft-locking, using the grappling hook may work as the player intends or the game decides a building behind the player is a better option. While all the Knights have a grappling hook and access to the Batcycle, each has their own secondary flying option that are not created equal. Nightwing’s glider and Red Hook’s “Mystical Leap” work exceptionally better than the stiff glider given to Batgirl and Robin’s woefully slow, timer-based teleport ability.
These extra traversal options only become available via the “Knighthood” challenge similar to what’s needed to unlock those extra “Momentum Abilities” including finishing “Premeditated Crimes” ten times with each Knight. There are unlockable fast travel options, but they are usually spaced rather far especially when hunting crimes and are unlocked by scanning drones located around Gotham. There is no button to jump and, at times, when attempting to perform certain actions will cause a Knight to do something completely different in terms of moving around including jumping past an enemy aimed for a silent takedown or being unable to get off of a railing.
Though the crime system isn’t the most revolutionary or even interesting after a while, the three side cases/side quests focusing on Harley Quinn, Mr. Freeze and Clayface offer very interesting looks at how the three have taken advantage of this post-Batman world. Beyond the interesting depictions of each villain is the fact their stories feature missions in unique settings topped off by some of the best and toughest boss battles in the entire game. That’s not to imply the main story isn’t riveting. The initial hook of “Gotham Knights’” story bleeds into some expected and unexpected twists featuring the not-so-usual suspects in a Batman video game.
The narrative’s best aspect actually occurs during downtime in the Belfry featuring optional cutscenes that establishes the bond between all four Knights and Alfred who plays the role of a father figure looking to guide the impressionable youths who are all dealing with some form of trauma be it Barbara’s grieving her father’s death, Nightwing feeling inadequate as a team leader, Robin coming to grips with his identity as a hero taking up the cape of the more capable men before him, and Red Hood haunted by his own death & resurrection. Sadly, the main story is incredibly short and the necessity of padding through repeatable open world troupes reinforces the narrative’s pacing issues that wouldn’t really exist otherwise. It’s sad that characters like The Penguin or Lucius Fox aren’t given more of a spotlight; relegated to glorified crime quest and challenge givers.
The marketing really emphasized co-op gameplay with the most impressive part being the ability for two players to do two minor things like crimes on opposite sides of the map. Unfortunately, the joining player is tethered to anything the hosting player does in terms of activating cutscenes or starting major missions. The joining player may be working on organizing their gear, only for the menu to disappear and do whatever the hosting player has started. Thankfully, anything the secondary player does transfers into their own game including the ability to skip missions completed during a co-op session and retaining any gear & experience points earned during that time as the joining player. The game also doesn’t adapt to rather or not the player is by themselves or playing with someone else as the amount of enemies never changes; which can be a huge detriment later in the game when those fast enemies are presented in ridiculous numbers.
Technically, “Gotham Knights” is actually much better off than most open world experiences less than a month after its release. On consoles, the framerate is stuck at a max of thirty FPS, but moving around Gotham or even watching fast-moving cutscenes will see the framerate drop into the twenties. Beyond the camera & aiming issues in combat and moving throughout Gotham are graphical glitches including enemies falling into the ground or, hilariously, Jason’s hoodie strings becoming antennas.
Thankfully, stability in terms of crashes or game-breaking bugs were non-existent on the PS5 version. The sound and voice acting is absolutely phenomenal mostly across the board with music dying out when simply moving around the city, only to kick in when stumbling upon a crime; and the NPCs actually outclassing the Knights in terms of vocal presentations. Everything looks incredibly crisp with the lighting against Gotham’s wet streets being immaculate in presentation; the same can be stated during some of the more unique environment.
A disappointing lacking feature is a gallery mode or some type of mission replay option without starting a new game. With four different characters having unique dialogue moments during story missions and character-specific endings, it would’ve been nice to enter gallery mode, choose the knight, and either replay the mission to see what would happen or just watch the cutscene with a different character than the one the player originally took into The Penguin’s club or interacted with Harley Quinn. The fact the game actually remembers what characters the player used for each major story mission to highlight during the closing credits is further proof of how a gallery mode would add replay-ability not limited to the single-slot, auto-save system connected to a playthrough.
“Gotham Knights”, sadly, falls into the trappings of so many open world games of the last few years where quantity alongside loot-based systems and mechanics that don’t completely feel ironed out makes one wonder how great this experience would’ve been if the developers really focused on being a master of something rather than a jack of all trades.
Should You Play “Gotham Knights”?
Unlike the seventh generation “Arkham” games or even something like “Marvel’s Spider-Man”, “Gotham Knights” doesn’t use the focused single-player or super-powered open world templates to its advantage. The linear main story and impressive side quests awkwardly flows into the open-world grind seen in games like the most recent Ubisoft productions from the last decade. The combat isn’t as remarkable as the “Arkham” games, but is good enough; while the story is a lot better than expected hampered by the pacing issues courtesy of open-world padding.
There’s a lot to like and dislike about “Gotham Knights”, but for those interested in picking it up, there’s no reason to do so at full price; let alone before the multiplayer expansion arrives at the end of November 2022. If a player isn’t burned out on these type of open world games, definitely give it a buy at about half the price and feel even better stopping crime and would-be world conquerors without breaking the bank.
