It’s been more than a decade since Warner Bros. Montreal treated us to a game. The most recent offering was Batman: Arkham Origins, a pretty solid game that was separate from Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham series. Fast forward to 2022 and we now have Gotham Knights, a title originally announced in 2020 that would follow a new adventure featuring the Bat Family. The result is an interesting idea but also one that is fraught with issues.
Batman is dead. The game starts with the Dark Knight engaged in a dangerous battle with one of his enemies and subsequently dies from his injuries. Additionally, Police Commission and one of Batman’s longtime allies, James Gordon has also passed on. Gotham City has lost its two biggest defenders and as a result, falls into a decline with crime and police corruption being on the rise. The remaining members of the Bat Family then take it upon themselves to restore balance to the city while also investigating the loss of their mentor. Their investigation has them crossing paths with the Court of Owls, a secret society with a small army of brainwashed assassins called Talons.
The premise in Gotham Knights is excellent, however, it feels squandered. There are some unnecessary story reveals along the way that can’t really be discussed because they venture into spoiler territory. Additionally, there are some twists and turns that can be predicted quite early into the campaign. The Court of Owls plot point also feels quite wasted since in the comics, they push Batman to his limits and feel nigh unbeatable. The history of the Court and their motifs don’t only contend with Batman, but actually the entire history of the Wayne Family. Because of this, they feel out of place as an opposing force for the Knights when Batman isn’t involved. The Court of Owls challenged the idea of who Gotham City belonged to and also what the legacy of Wayne Family stood for. However, in Gotham Knights, they just feel like a large organisation playing the part of the main antagonist.
Once you’ve started up the game, you’ll be able to select one of the four available Knights to play as: Nightwing, Batgirl, Red Hood and Robin. After you play through the first mission, the entirety of Gotham City will be opened up for you to patrol while checking out any leads along the way. The gameplay in Gotham Knights will feel somewhat familiar if you’ve played any games from the Batman: Arkham series, however, there are some changes. Equipped with their grappling hook, your Knight will be able to traverse the rooftops of the city and ride the Batcycle when at street level. The combat has you utilising hand-to-hand combat to beat up enemies, but each Knight also has access to a ranged attack to take on enemies who also like to fight you from a distance. Additionally, each character can perform a special technique once they’ve built up enough momentum in a fight. These can help with turning the tide of a battle or just give you a moment to think.
Completing a night of patrolling will have you returning to your base of operation, the Belfry. While here, you’ll be able to allocate points in your skill tree, complete training exercises and chat with the other characters. There’s also the option to change your playable character between patrols, which is great because you don’t have to feel locked into one Knight for the entirety of the game.
Something I really enjoyed was how Gotham City felt alive. It’s not the most densely populated city, but you will see some people walk around and depending on how much crime-fighting you’ve done, they’ll respond positively or negatively.
Heading out on patrol, stopping crimes and doing missions will net you blueprints and materials, which can then be used to craft new suits and weapons, with each one sporting different stats and perks. This allows you to cater to a specific play style, plus the suits are varied and look pretty great.
The gameplay in Gotham Knights feels a bit tiresome. Particularly, the combat doesn’t feel as clever and in the early going, a bit shallow. Admittedly, it does become a little more enjoyable as you add more moves to your character’s arsenal via upgrades on the skill tree. What’s a tad odd is how the character abilities and specialities actually take some of the fun out of the game. Some of them are fun, but just feel out of place; this is especially true for Robin’s teleportation. The Batcycle, which is meant for you to get around the city quickly at street level, also has some issues. It just never feels like it’s going fast, even though there is a visual effect that surrounds the bike while riding it, which suggests this. If anything, it felt like a Morris Minor being pushed and not the high-speed thrill ride it purports to be.
The grappling hook traversal also feels subpar thanks to the less-than-stellar sound effect that comes with using it. The stealth sections feel archaic and the mini-game when conducting crime scene investigations feels a bit dull, very much like a mobile game that tasks you with connecting two items together to solve a puzzle. The finishing moves performed on enemies do look quite cool though, but it would’ve been great if there was a bigger variety of them on show.
One thing that must be said about Gotham Knights is that it can be quite a grind. There are some RPG elements present in the game, but in all honesty, there’s a fair amount of busy work. Whether it’s finding stashes or unlocking specific perks, it just doesn’t feel very rewarding.
Gotham Knights looks quite nice visually, at least most of the time. It does a nice job with the lighting and the use of colours makes for some pretty nighttime scenery. It runs at 30 frames per second, which surprisingly, didn’t feel as irksome as I thought it was going to be. While it does look good a lot of the time, it has moments where it feels like a last-gen game. Some environments also seem to lack the atmosphere, which feels strange for a game set in Gotham City.
Gotham Knights takes an interesting idea and a compelling arc from the comics and unfortunately doesn’t put it to good use; the narrative feels flat. The combat has the tendency to grow on you a little more once you’ve unlocked more moves, but the other gameplay aspects such as stealth, investigation and traversal feel quite dated. Not to mention the fact that it feels like a grind a lot of the time. It looks most lot of the time, however, there are instances where it looks like a last-gen game. Gotham Knights feels like a good idea in theory but due to some unfortunate design choices, feels more like a chore than anything else.
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