Gotham Knights review: a superb superhero game in the shadow of Batman
As the credits rolled on Gotham Knights, a cacophony of emotions ran through me. I was satisfied, I was eager to play more, I had a few doubts, but my overriding feeling was fascination. This game and its four protagonists all exist in the shadow of Batman, and it’s hard not to think about what that means.
See our video review for Gotham Knights here
In our preview, I mentioned how Gotham Knights has a separate continuity to the Arkham games, but that doesn’t mean the deceased Caped Crusader doesn’t loom over the in-game events. Each of the playable characters - Nightwing, Batgirl, Red Hood and Robin - have their own ways of processing Bruce Wayne’s passing, and the game’s multiple villains all seek to capitalise on the void left by the Dark Knight.
Advert
The carnage - both social and existential - provokes Dick Grayson and company to become more, to protect Gotham, and to solve Batman’s final case: the Court of Owls. The struggle that the Bat Family endures is a provocative one because there is no Batman to save the day himself, leaving us - the player(s) - to learn how to save a city that is pulsing with crime.
Playing as Nightwing and Batgirl for the majority of my playthrough, I appreciated the way these characters were able to balance their grief with their sense of duty, even combining the two at times to reach their goals. Dick lives with the burden of assuming Batman’s role as head of the family, while Barbara is also processing the loss of her father, Commissioner Gordon. (That’s right, Jim is also dead.)
The way Gotham Knights is able to relate the character motivations to the player creates a compelling sense of duty, and adds to the satisfaction of foiling criminals, from big bads like Harley Quinn, to the small-time crooks who randomly litter the open-world streets. There’s a sense of justice in what our heroes are doing, and that’s key to enjoying any superhero game.
And, let me tell you, I really enjoyed Gotham Knights. From the combat to the in-game world, there’s plenty to love about WB Games Montréal’s latest title. While the city of Gotham may not feel as enormous as the one from Batman: Arkham Knight, it’s a huge, open playbox filled with secrets to find and enemies to fight.
Gliding over the rooftops with Nightwing’s Flying Trapeze (the best glider I’ve ever had in a game, by the way), the neon-lit city streets are as inviting as they are foreboding. It’s a joy to leap from building to building, taking on challenges and looking for mementos, all the while looking for the perfect photo op, because the in-game photo mode is pretty damn fun.
Speaking of challenges, that's the name given to all playable missions in Gotham Knights. As well as a selection of ‘premeditated crimes’ that appear on the map in the game’s pause menu (which won’t actually stop play when in multiplayer), there are ‘case files’ relating to the main quest as well as select substories, the latter tying in recognisable names from Batman’s rogues gallery.
While you can select one challenge to be your focus, it’s quite easy to chip away at multiple missions while patrolling Gotham, as they range from defeating certain types of baddies to interrogating members of specific gangs.
Despite most challenges being familiar after a while, I was never bored during my playthrough. Much like Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered, the sense of duty that comes with the cowl means that it’s always satisfying to vanquish foes, even if many of the crimes being committed are repeated.
However, my one gripe with the repetition of the game comes in the form of the Knighthood challenges each character has on their to-do lists. The checklist for each hero is the same, and completing them is vital as they reward you with the air-based traversal systems each hero can utilise, and they make exploration much more fluid. Considering one of these methods is Batgirl’s cape - which handles like Batman’s from the Arkham games - it’s a bit frustrating that we have to earn them in this way.
The more annoying part comes from the fact that you have to repeat the same task three times to gain access to each character’s additional travel method. It’s not so much how long they take that’s the issue here, because the process is pretty fast - but once you’ve unlocked a glider as Nightwing, it’s a bit of a drag to go back to a character who hasn’t been granted their own mode of transport yet.
Each superhero has a grapple hook and access to the Batcycle from the off, so it’s not like they’re relying on a bus service or anything. But the developers missed a trick here by not streamlining the process a little by letting one character’s progress in this specific field translate to their team members.
After all, experience and ability points (the game’s currency for unlocking new moves and enhancing stats) are shared among the vigilantes even if only one hero is collecting them, so you can level up your other heroes accordingly. This avoids annoying repetition up until the Knighthood challenge, so it would make perfect sense to apply this logic to unlocking gliders and the like.
Luckily, most of what Gotham Knights does, it does well. In fact, it's excellent. The fluid combat is endlessly enjoyable, with characters weaving melee attacks with long-ranged weaponry, all the while dodging the incoming blows of a decent range of enemies.
There are heavy foes who stand tall and pack mean swings. There are smaller, more nimble adversaries who excel at catching you from just outside of your camera angle (the camera can be a pain at times, but in what open-world action game is that not the case?). Then there are ranged enemies who telegraph their attacks but are still capable of knocking you down if you get too cocky. That was my experience playing on medium difficulty, anyway. While the same array of enemy types appear throughout Gotham Knights, with some variations depending on which faction they belong to, they’re never boring because of how our heroes progress.
Each titular knight has four skill trees, letting you customise your character to suit your play style. Batgirl, for example, has an attack that sees her leap into the air and rain down electrical strikes on those beneath her, while Nightwing is able to unleash a Hadouken-esque energy blast that can knock even the bigger baddies on their butts. These varying styles, while similar, keep the game fresh as you bounce between heroes, no matter how many fights you get into, even if some sections can feel a bit combat-heavy at points.
One of the most impressive things about Gotham Knights is the seamless integration of multiplayer. Whether playing solo or with friends, it’s a rewarding experience. The in-game world accommodates multiple human-controlled characters running all over the place with no sign of struggle. Enemy encounters seem to scale to appropriately challenge the amount of players, as long as all heroes are the same level, at least.
At one point playing with GAMINGbible’s own Tom Ryan-Smith, who was eight levels below me, he found himself totally unprepared for the threats we faced. This was funny for a while (sorry Tom), but I soon turned to guilt when I realised what I’d subjected him to. This was compounded when I was downed by an enemy and could do nothing but watch a level 4 Batgirl get overwhelmed by a group of thugs.
All of this is to say that the game adjusts itself to suit the highest-level player in your multiplayer group, so factor that in when planning your sessions, or else see your progress halted by a potentially merciless difficulty spike for underdeveloped players. Then again, who’s to say this doesn’t make for an enjoyable, unofficial hard mode? The game already has a higher difficulty option than medium, though.
Reflecting on my experience so far, which includes beating the game once and checking out a bunch of side content, there really is plenty to smile about in Gotham Knights. I love the RPG elements like levelling up, crafting new suits and weapons, and changing costumes as often as I like. Some of the outfits are true things of beauty, too. I also adore the cutscenes that play out between the four protagonists, showing how they care for one another.
But, gun to my head, If I had to pick one thing that stands out above all in Gotham Knights then it’s the story. Seeing Gotham fall to pieces in Batman’s absence is a profoundly sad experience, especially as I have always loved the Caped Crusader. When I was a young kid in my first year of primary school, my father would wake me up every morning by playing the thrilling denouement of Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman on VHS, so it’s fair to say I grew up with the Dark Knight, and this could explain why a Gotham without Bruce Wayne feels so wrong to me.
As Nightwing, Batgirl, Red Hood and Robin develop into the new, full-time protectors of what was formerly Batman’s city, it’s an emotional tale of grief and strife. Our heroes have hard feelings to face in a world where they’re not often afforded the time and space to be themselves, because the cowls they devote their lives to are needed now more than ever.
As enjoyable and cathartic as this experience is, it’s not without its flaws. There are moments where the emotional beats don’t quite synchronise as they should. One such moment came when Tim Drake/Robin was expressing his anguish over an event that he’d just endured, but because I played through the sequence alone as Batgirl while Tim was apparently sitting easy back in the Belfry, this moment was out of place in my playthrough’s canon.
There are also some arcs that don’t unfold quite as they probably should because they seem rushed or lacking in weight. There’s a revelation (which I obviously won’t spoil) that underwhelmed due to the speed at which the events played out. While I’m prepared to accept some blame as I made the choice to pursue this plotline immediately, it still feels like a mismanagement on behalf of the developer.
However, these little hiccups are mild grievances on my part as the overall plot of Gotham Knights is superb. There are plenty of characters to fit in but they all earn their place, and some of the subplots are thrilling enough to be a full game on their own.
It’s also worth pointing out that playing the game at 30fps had no drawbacks. I know this is a sticking point for some but Gotham Knights looks gorgeous and runs smoothly on Xbox Series X at this capped framerate. There’s the odd texture pop-in at times but the lack of 60fps isn’t a barrier to enjoying the game.
In summary, Gotham Knights is a first-rate Batman game despite not really featuring Batman at all. The combat takes the weight and satisfaction of a top-tier beat ‘em up title and inserts it into an open-world action RPG that is as enjoyable solo as it is in multiplayer.
Each hero is fun to play and get to know, with a variety of costumes to unlock and model in the photo mode. Traversing Gotham by ground or sky makes minutes feel like seconds, with something to do present in every block, from timed challenges and concealed secrets to plenty of criminals to battle against.
While it’s not without some mild downsides, Gotham Knights is an outstanding title that deserves a space in any Batman fan’s game collection, especially if you want to see his protogés get some deserved spotlight for a change.
Pros: Excellent story, fun combat, brilliant both solo and multiplayer
Cons: Some rushed story moments and unnecessary repetition to unlock air-based traversal
For fans of: Arkham series, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Batman franchise as a whole
8/10: Excellent
Gotham Knights releases on October 21, 2022, for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S (version tested). Game code provided by the publisher. Find a guide to GAMINGbible's review scores here.
Topics: Gotham Knights, Xbox Series X, Batman