Comic books and gaming go hand in hand, and no other superhero takes the gaming crown than the dark knight himself, Batman. The likes of Spiderman and other Marvel icons have been brewing up a storm on the scene recently, but the Arkham games remain some of the best to date (the first two outings mainly). Yet Rocksteady are bringing to life its vision of The Suicide Squad in video game format and it's now up to another studio to make a new entry for the Batman franchise, but without Batman more interestingly enough. The cape Crusader has left his tasks to a new generation of young crime fighters, in the highly anticipated Gotham Knights.
Does Gotham Knight have the chops to earn itself a spotlight in the sky? Or will it make the likes of 1997’s Batman and Robin chuckle at its misfortune?
What is Gotham Knights?
The Batman is well and indeed done for, leaving an opening for a vengeful watcher of the criminal scum and defender of the downtrodden in Gotham city. Lucky to know that Batman’s faithful sidekicks have all come together to take on the mantle and bring Gotham to a new age of peace. Bat Girl, Knightwing, Redhood and Robin have come together during a time of mourning to discover the truth behind Batman/Bruce Wayne’s untimely demise.
Everything has been flipped upside down in Gotham, with citizens scared out of their wits, criminals running amuck, causing all manner of destruction and horror, while the police barely make a dent in the criminal uprising. But while the knights have to deal with low-level thugs, thieves and brutes, there are much worse foes afoot, plotting their most sinister plans now that Batman is dead. With the likes of Harley Quinn, Mr Freeze and many more villainous icons taking centre stage and wreaking utter havoc in Gotham city.
The young crime fighters are ready, armed with Batman’s teachings, vital skills for combat and deduction, and all the gear that will suit them up for any outing or facing against any one of the many super criminals out in the streets of Gotham. This time around, Gotham Knights has much more of a focus on combat than the Arkham games, but also actively being a defender of a living, breathing city that’s in trouble. There is still plenty of sleuthing, but a stronger emphasis on helping those in need, while solving the final case of Batman.
The Caped Crusader's finest hour?
Batman is arguably (well, it is) one of the greatest comic book characters ever, and is personally my favourite. Not only has Batman evolved so immensely over his 80 years in comics, films and video games, but his lore, supporting cast and villains are some of the best in comic book history.
The Arkham games perfectly capsulated the lore, the characters, and the best moments over the last 80 years into three pioneering adventures. So, it would be a tough deal for a new studio to make another Batman game and have to match it up to that of Rocksteady’s classic trilogy.
Gotham Knights still capture that same level of character development and interaction between 4 very likeable heroes. The death of Batman deeply impacts the four young knights, and many more around them, including Alfred of course, and even a villain or two. The reaction to his death is a typical affair for Gotham, with super Villains plotting utter mayhem in the streets, while the gang try and solve the final case, that could lead to Batman’s true killer.
You have everything you could expect from a Batman game, including great villains, plenty of troublemakers, a compelling mystery and lots of detective work. But more importantly, the inclusion of an infamous enemy faction that really got the attention of fans alike, The Court of Owls. From the first gameplay trailer, seeing the Court of Owls was an amazing surprise and for fans (like my partner, a massive Batman fan) of the sinister group of shadowy killers, this was the most alluring factor to Gotham Knight.
But as a Batman fan, you will guess every beat, how things unfold and how it will end within the first 10 minutes. I recall my partner telling me how things would go down, starting off with “Batman has died so many times before and come back again, and again”. And yeah, this is true and with certain characters in the game … you can see how things would turn out. I had hoped for more of a dynamic story that differed from the other games, and many of the comics in general, much like the hit film “The Batman” flipped expectations and added in new twists to the lore.
While it's not a bad story at all, it’s one you’ve seen before in Batman history at some point, or at least the same beats and twists at least. But what shines through, really is great. There are some great moments with the Knights, who all have great personas and likability, the villains are always great and worth playing against, and while the Court of Owls is a little short-lived for my liking, it was great seeing these guys in video game form (and word is Robert Patterson wants them in the next film!).
True it’s the same old Batman affair and fans will guess what’s coming a mile away. But I can’t dislike a solid Batman story, that’s oozing with dark gothic undertones, a mystery that drives the young knights to fight crime and some of the best baddies in comic history. Plus the exchanges between the good guys and bad guys are some of the best I’ve seen in recent gaming. Especially when Harley Quinn just rips into the knights, including Knightwing and refers to his magnificent butt …. Yeah, the fan girls sure do love his butt (my partner is also a fan girl of Knight butt…)
POW! BAM! KNIGHTBUTT! 
Right, just to put it out there, Gotham Knights is much more focused on dealing punches and choking out fools for vital information. Okay, that was a thing in the previous Arkham games, but there was much more sleuthing and stalking. The first Arkham game was very heavily stealth-focused, and with the next two entries, combat evolved and became more prominent.
Gotham Knights take this one more step further, but giving you the largest version of Gotham City to date, and elevating the intensity to new levels. Each night, one of the knights (or all the knights in co-op multiple) will venture out and deal with crime sprees rampaging across the city. Tackle criminal activities across Gotham, ranging from muggings, kidnappings, bomb threats and bank robberies to make it a safer place for its citizens. And wow, Gotham is pretty much the worse place to live in, right?!
As each night passes, the knights will evolve their skills, learn new tactics, and obtain powerful gear, combos, and special manoeuvres to effectively take down criminals. Each knight has their own methods of combat and evasion, giving players wider choices in playstyles. Batgirl is a good all-rounder for combat and deals with crowd control measures with items such as a drone. But she’s also pretty good at sleuthing. Redhood while slower is incredibly strong and has ranged damage with his legendary marksmanship and heavy pistols. Robin is the kid wonder and moves superfast while in combat or traversing, and Knightwing can perfectly match Batman’s trademark sleuthing and stealth manoeuvres as seen in the Arkham games.
The abilities all felt great to use, either in the heat of combat or while sleuthing around. With so many different skills to unlock and use, it creates a wide variety of strategies, which when pulled off can be incredibly exciting and highly rewarding. I love blasting my way into combat, unleashing a barrage of bat-a-rangs, smoke bombs and other items, then launching an array of powerful blows and kicks in the slickest way possible.
They’re all really great characters to play as, with plenty of awesome skills to learn, that over time will dominate the playing field. But resolving more crime, the more you learn and unlock, becoming the ultimate protector of Gotham. The range of skills is incredibly impressive and the gear you can unlock is also phenomenal. You do have to deal with collecting a random assortment of resources (feeling/looking a little like something from an online service game…) but in return, you can build a wide selection of outfits, weapons and gear for each knight.
The number of outfits and customisable features for gloves, masks and other aspects of the outfit is bloody amazing. But then again, WB Games with the likes of Mortal Kombat usually nails this type of thing.
There were a couple of things which did let down the experience of playing as the knights somewhat. The first which was quite annoying and didn’t feel necessary was how you had to unlock each of the knight’s traversal methods. It sounds petty and you can understand the logic, but it really holds you back from exploring Gotham smoothly and efficiently. At the start of the game, every knight can grapple, and this is all they can do. To unlock Knightwing’s glider, or Batgirl’s ability to glide through the air like Batman, you have to do chores. This includes stopping a certain number of criminal activities, doing the same basic training event over and over for each knight and defeating some mini-bosses. It doesn’t sound much and that’s the point, as why do it at all when you could start off with the best means of transportation?
Plus, the grapple in Gotham Knights feels worse than in the Arkham games. It could be due to the design of the city, and having a multitude of surfaces and ledges to grapple with, but it feels clunky and doing this in what is the biggest version of Gotham to date, is not that much fun. You do get a bike and it's cool, but it's just a bike… while the Batmobile in Arkham Knight was controversial, it was still dynamic, fast and fun to drive.
When you do get to new traversal methods for each knight, then things get a little smoother for making your way around Gotham. But their never truly that much fun to do. Gliding is still cool, but due to the size of Gotham, it takes forever to get anywhere. You can unlock fast travel, but it’s a bit of a ball-ache doing it, and sort of removes the purpose of unlocking the new methods of travel.
2018’s Spider-Man’s swinging mechanic was pretty much the only thing to beat the Arkham games, gliding mechanic. It was fast, fun, and looked amazing. Gotham Knights traversal feels clunky, and slow and doesn’t look as good.
The other was the general movement/controls, which also felt a little clunky. I lost track of the times I would prepare for a silent takedown and instead, randomly jump off a ledge and reveal myself to a group of enemies… It was annoying, to say the least. The bottom line, the controls/commands can be a little off, to say the least.
Gotham city … what a hell hole!
Yeah, as said, Gotham city is one of those places I wouldn’t want to live in, due to all the crime, supervillains, and bleak atmosphere. But these negatives make for great crime-caping fun for the knights each and every night of the week.
Gotham Knight drew in a lot of complaints in previews for having a city which didn’t look or feel the part. While I can understand the complaints being made, especially when you compare this Gotham city to that of Arkham Knight's version, I still found it incredibly dense and visually engaging. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Arkham games and the gothic look to the city, but I can see this is more akin to Christopher Nolan’s version of Gotham, which was more grounded and city-like.
Visually, while not outstanding (and yeah, Arkham Knight does look better in plenty of ways), Gotham city still has that allure to it, being massively dense, complicated in design, littered with gothic landmarks and oozing intimidation. It does look the part and feels like a crime-ridden hell hole. Its structure is complex, filled with multiple hidden paths, dimly lit alleyways, and plenty of gothic/art deco buildings to make it akin to the Gotham style we all know and love.
It's also a very thriving city too, with plenty of things to do, crime to stop and people to save. Another point made was that there weren’t enough people in the city itself. I recently played No More Heroes 3 and that’s an open world with hardly any NPCs in it. Gotham still has people doing what they do (mainly criticising the knights … what douchebags) and being the victims of crime. I wouldn’t imagine the city being heaving at night time, especially with the likes of some crazy gangs running about!
Gotham is still a good city to explore (despite the traversal issues I mentioned before), with plenty of activities to do, secrets to find and general watching over citizens to make sure they’re safe.
What are we doing tonight Knightwing?
The same thing we do every night Robin … fight crime!
Now I love the concept of playing as one of the young caped crusaders wannabees and tackling crime each night. It sounds very cool on paper and could be thrilling for countless hours. But there are good and bad points for Gotham Knight’s execution.
First, it's great fun playing this with another friend, and matching the styles of two very different heroes can lead to some immense outcomes!
The general format of gathering clues that open new criminal activities each night is quite interesting and gets players actively pursuing active targets who have vital information. Each night new criminal activities open and it can be a range of different events, from robberies to hostage situations and even investigating crime scenes. These side quests differ from the main story ones, which are mostly a lot of fun and take you to Black Gate, Arkham Asylum and the Iceberg Lounge for some examples. The nightly activities will appear in various spots across Gotham and will take you somewhere new and different each time.
I liked the variety of events these criminals would conjure up, and how you could deal with them with the chosen knight for the evening. These events are mixed up between the stealthy and not so stealth ventures, but for most, you had the freedom to do as you please.
But while some events are a lot of fun, such as enemy fortresses, and robberies, some are very uninspired. The crime scene investigations could have been so good but feel like a last-minute addition. This is where you scan a crime scene for clues and then guess which will lead to the criminal. In the main game, you get the same instances where you need to investigate, but have to link up clues to reveal the solution. For the open-world version, you just need to pick one clue to get the answer, and the solution is usually spelt out, ruining any investigative needs.
But the other events are usually a lot of fun, and take place all over Gotham, meaning you’ll hardly do an event in the same place twice. Keeping it challenging to plan out and carry out your actions.
But Gotham Knights can get a little stodgy, due to the slightly repetitive nature of night-to-night crime busting and how spongey enemies are. The night-to-night stuff does throw in some interesting dynamics once in a while, with “Cases” and these will lead you to face one of the main villains in Gotham. Much like the side quests in the previous games, except these are much bigger and grander. All of these cases were pretty good, including Mr Freeze, Clay Face and a few others which really were the main highlights after several nights into the game.
But the general flow of activities never differs that much, and it would have been good to have more cases, or at least a few smaller ones that could surprise you from time to time.
And if you’re playing this solo, then maybe consider easy mode, just to avoid the frustration of some of gaming’s most spongey enemies. In co-op, normal is fine and solo, it’s doable. But endlessly punching one low-level enemy at a time does become tedious.
Overall?While I can’t say Gotham Knights will excel past the Arkham trilogy, I must admit I enjoyed it much more than many other people it seems. I’m a huge Batman fan and I didn’t feel let down by this at all, due to the great writing, interesting dynamics in the night-to-night fighting, the awesome character progression systems and just having all that great Batman stuff I love. Yes, there are some big problems with this game, and they can tip the scale for loving or hating this. But I can certainly say while not 100% on board, I certainly enjoyed my time with Gotham Knights and if you’re a Batman fan, then you will too!
++ Playing as the Knights are great fun
++ Plenty of great character progression and customisation
+ Gotham city looks cool and is engaging to explore
+ Lots of criminal stuff to tackle and fun things to do
+ All that Batman goodness
- The traversal methods aren’t that fun
- Enemies can be super spongey in solo mode
- Criminal activities can get a little repetitive and some are just not fun at all
- While it has great moments and missions, the story is very predictable
An Xbox Series X/S review copy of Gotham Knights was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
