Gotham Knights review — fleeting moments of joy undone by a messy and chaotic system

Gotham Knights. Image: WB Games

By Darryn Bonthuys

2 Nov 2022

Gotham Knights tells a fantastic story, has a terrific cast, and its co-op gameplay can be a treat, but aggravating design decisions turn it into a checklist of monotonous sandbox fluff and a pointless loot chase at best.

Have you heard the news? Batman is dead, Gotham City is vulnerable without its punch-happy philanthropist to protect it, and supervillains are on the rise. If only there were a quartet of young heroes to step in, suit up, and save the day. Well good news then, because that’s exactly what you’ll be doing in Gotham Knights, the latest game from Batman: Arkham Origins developer Warner Bros. Montreal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSJTK8-R_sk

After putting together a fantastic Arkham prequel back in 2013, WB Montreal is looking to the future with Gotham Knights, one where the Caped Crusader has bit the proverbial bullet and has left his beloved city in the hands of his protégés. They’ve got the moves, they’ve got style, and they’ve got Bat-family drama aplenty… and not much else to really boast about in an adventure that fails to stick the landing.

Any game following one of the best eras in interactive superhero entertainment has its work cut out for it, as 2015’s Batman: Arkham Knight feels as fantastic to play as it did seven years ago; while on the Marvel side of the equation, there’s a pair of brilliant Spider-Man games crawling around on PlayStation.

Gotham Knights feels like a combination of all those games, where it tries to juggle multiple ideas that range from a more grounded approach to combat, co-op gameplay, and massive setpiece moments. But that direction results in missed opportunities and frustrating gameplay, as you begin touring Gotham and uncovering sinister conspiracies.

Gotham Knights. Image: WB Games

Chaotic gameplay

An average encounter requires hitting hard, dodging enemy strikes with acrobatic flair and unleashing some special moves in the direction of any opponent in your way. It’s not a bad system at all, and you’re able to freely enter stealth or combat at will with some admittedly great fluidity. You can even augment your arsenal with unlockable skills, add more Momentum moves to your skillset by completing challenges, and improve your stats by upgrading your gear. These are all solid ideas, but in practice, they’re a showcase of terrible execution.

Each of the four heroes of Gotham Knights — Nightwing, Batgirl, Red Hood, and Robin — has their own unique set of skills on top of the usual hit them and dodge gameplay. Nightwing is an acrobatic combo-master, Batgirl is a hard-hitting hacktivist brawler, Red Hood is a tanky gunslinger, and Robin is a well-armed ninja. The problem here is that by attempting to move to a weightier system of combat that prioritises versatility and quick thinking, the end result is a messy and chaotic mix.

For example, the in-game camera can barely keep up with you and it’s not uncommon to be sniped by a goon from offscreen, your Momentum attacks make use of generally unbreakable animations that leave you open to punishment while you focus on one enemy, and it’s incredibly difficult to even focus on a single foe as your attention is split between multiple opponents. Some Momentum skills slightly mitigate these flaws, but reaching a point where you can overcome these trials and tribulations feels like an absolute slog at the best of times.

It’s a system that shows such great promise, but the individual parts rarely work together to create a harmonious experience. Compare that to the fine-tuned rhythm of Arkham Knight or the momentum-building action of Spider-Man, and Gotham Knights feels far more aggravating and rougher than the top two heavyweight games in its genre. It’s a pity, because there are genuinely great ideas present here that help Gotham Knights establish its own identity. However, with design choices that are baffling, to say the least, it never gets a chance to step out from the shadow of the bat.

Gotham Knights. Image: WB Games

Futile game gear

Likewise, the gear system feels completely unnecessary. For the 30 hours I played the game, I can honestly say that upgrading my costume and equipment never felt like an essential part of the experience. At its base level, you’re focused on maintaining your inventory across three categories: your costume, your primary weapon, and your ranged weapon. Progress grants you newer and better gear, mods can enhance your equipment with elemental effects, and you’re able to craft items with beefier numbers at the Belfry headquarters.

And yet it never feels great to earn some new costume parts or Escrima sticks. If you’re adding a gear system to your loadout, you’re wanting a certain dopamine effect that makes you feel giddy when you unlock an item that is supposed to be of rare quality. But in Gotham Knights, the gear system feels absolutely unnecessary and tacked on as a last-minute attempt to increase player engagement. Slap on some items that are mathematically better than your current gear, hit the streets, and you’re good to go.

The other problem here is that the game can be wildly unbalanced because of the gear system. After increasing my stats so that I wouldn’t be steamrolled by a squad of zombies from the Court of Owls when I patrolled the streets, I became a one-man army in story missions as I was wildly overpowered. Sure, you want a power fantasy in a superhero game, but you also want a chance to flex your skills in the heat of combat; something which you don’t get much of a chance to do in this game without being acutely aware of its gameplay flaws and how to avoid them.

Gotham Knights. Image: WB Games

The extraordinary realism of Gotham

At least those city streets are interesting! While there’s been a lot of controversy regarding WB Montreal’s late announcement, confirming that Gotham Knights is hard-locked to 30 frames per second on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, Gotham looks fantastic. It’s a compact slice of metropolitan hell as gangs run rampant throughout the streets, but it has a certain charm and style that makes it feel realistic. If Arkham Knight’s Gotham City came off as a mid-2010s city designed by Tim Burton and Anton Furst, then Gotham in this game feels like it was designed by Dark Knight trilogy director Christopher Nolan.

There is, of course, a checklist of things to do in this sandbox, from stopping random felonies, solving premeditated crimes, and pursuing a handful of leads as you track down a few of Batman’s deadliest foes. This is where Gotham Knights shows its greatest strengths, as it does a fantastic job of creating a world that feels lived-in and is dripping with detail. There’s a certain charm to solving cold cases, gathering clues for each night out on the town, and unlocking abilities that’ll help you get around the map more quickly.

It’s also where the story gets a chance to shine, as the self-contained levels where you explore famous Gotham locations make for thrilling detective work and encounters. You’ve got an incredibly creepy clash with Clayface that goes all-in on the body horror and even includes a stomach-churning chase after him throughout the city. Harley Quinn gets a brilliant makeover as a psychopathic self-help expert. And there’s even a good old-fashioned save-the-day showdown against Mr Freeze before he unleashes global cooling on the city. Throw in the Court of Owls as a more insidious menace, and there’s no shortage of threats to tackle in Gotham Knights.

These fleeting moments of joy are undone, though, by the more annoying aspects of this game. Gotham Knights has all the tools it needs to succeed, but it doesn’t know how to properly combine them to create a riveting experience. If the last Batman game felt like a big-budget cinematic experience, then Gotham Knights feels like a made-for-TV ArrowVerse show in comparison. DM/ML

This story was first published on Pfangirl.com

Gotham Knights releases on 21 October for Xbox Series consoles, PS5, and PC.

In case you missed it, also read Cult of the Lamb: Tangle with the divine and the demonic

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-08-22-cult-of-the-lamb-tangle-with-the-divine-and-the-demonic/

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Chaotic gameplay

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