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Posted in: Games, Gotham Knights, Video Games, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment | Tagged: Batman, gotham knights, WB Games
In The Shadow Of The Bat: We Review Gotham Knights
WB Games decided to take a daring leap within the Batman franchise as Gotham Knights focuses on the family instead of the bat. This is probably one of the most anticipated DC-related games to come since Batman: Arkham Knight, primarily because that series was so loved by fans of the open world and the various missions you could do that had nothing to do with what turned out to be a pretty epic plot over the course of several games. People have basically been wanting a new version of that for seven years. But what happens when you get a Batman game without Batman? Does it still live up to the hype, and does it still cater to the fanbase that supported the series that came before it? WB Games gave us a copy of the game to review, so we threw on our Hooded Robin cosplay from 2019, made a gruff voice, and dove into this new title.
Keeping things spoiler-free for the most part, the game has you playing as the four remaining members of the Bat Family in this universe, as you have all three Robins in Dick Grayson (Nightwing), Jason Todd (Red Hood), the current version (Tim Drake) and the first Batgirl (Barbra Gordon). Setting up shop in Gordon's Oracle hideaway known as The Belfry, you try to help Gotham City in the way you were trained. Only now, Batman is presumed dead, the Batcave is gone, Jim Gordon has passed away, and everyone is looking to take advantage. Including the Court Of Owls, a mystic society that goes all the way back to Gotham's origins which is looking to reclaim its hold on the city now that Batman is gone. Will you be able to keep peace in the city when so many of its residents are basically looking to rule over it with an iron fist?
If you've ever played an Arkham game, this will be familiar territory to you as you're basically working with many of the old mechanics. Gotham Knights puts a new spin on it by adding in a few new items to keep you busy, literally. The team implemented a skill tree that will test your skills, or more to the point, test how well you manage to put in combos. The combat, while amplified and refined in many ways, is basically the same as in the previous games. You can take out a swath of enemies, which they have no shortage of, just by pinballing yourself from one person to the other for two minutes and never take any damage. The skill tree basically adds maneuvers and strategies to that, as well as a training section with a virtual Batman to give you pointers for you to level up. The progression design is, at least in our opinion, designed to keep you occupied and fill multiple hours just to become the crimefighter you know these four people already are.
The idea that Barbra Gordon never talked to Bruce Wayne about his cowl design so she could make herself glide, and only discovered it later when he was gone, is absurd. The idea that Dick Grayson relearned how to be an aerial phenomenon and just forgot certain tricks to being stealthy under Batman seems comical. I get why it's here, you can't make all of these people incredibly powerful from the start; they need to learn as part of the game's storytelling and mechanics. I just wish they didn't make people who trained under the greatest detective appear to be inferior. Bruce would have never tolerated this kind of incompetence, especially if they had to relearn it.
When it comes to character choice and storytelling, that's where the game kinda shines. The game is pushing ahead with the concept that Batman is gone, so now you have your choice of hero who you want to take into the fray. Each character comes with their own traits and personality, almost like you're picking a favorite Ninja Turtle, and you get to explore the same story but through different eyes and dialogue every time. In essence, you have four different roads you can take, even though they're all on the same highway. Gotham Knights gives you an open world as well, so you can explore the city much as you have done in previous games. And there are a lot of side missions and other content to jump into if you're tired of chasing down the main thread.
As it has been in previous games, Gotham Knights will practically run you through an entire cavalcade of the Dark Knight's rogue's gallery. But they are basically the highlight of what is one of the worst tropes I hate about the series, which is the combination of endless pathways and faceless enemies. How many times do we have to go down a hallway to get to a hallway to get to another hallway, through a vent that goes to, you guessed it, a main hub room, which will lead you to four new hallways. All of them filled with 7-12 guys who all shopped at the same Spirit Halloween clearance bin before fighting you. I had a friend sit down next to me and draw out how the maps were on graph paper, and the designs of just simple buildings make absolutely zero sense. No one would design anything like anything here. I can forgive predictable story beats, I can't forgive seeing the same dingy designs every five minutes.
The RPG element to all of this was something I was quite intrigued with, and I really wanted it to work in my favor the way other games allow you to set it up so that you can be a more precise kind of hero. However, it forced me to do the two things I loathe in RPGs: grind for XP and min/max my choices. From the get-go, it's pretty clear that this game will not allow you to level everything up across the board evenly on a single character, let alone across all four of them. So when you pick the kind of fighter you aim for, you're locked into those choices until you raise them up. And that's just the gear you'll be wearing, this doesn't even cover the crafting you'll need to accomplish over time, the mods you can add to your suit, the various challenges you can take on to help out, and the ability lessons you need to take to learn how to do simple things. Its as if the team knew the story was short and devised a way to stretch your time out without having to write much of anything else.
Gotham Knights also has an issue with driving and navigating the city. Driving the Batcycle is a nightmare in this game, and that's coming from someone who eventually switched it to Easy to see if the steering got any better. Not like the Batmobile in Arkham Knight was any better, half the time you drove into a wall because the line pointing the way didn't show up. This feels like an awkward physics lesson in balancing. I eventually gave up on it, and once I had the ability to, I spent the rest of the game ziplining and gliding with Batgirl. I was basically Spider-Man in a Batman game. All of that said, I do feel like I'm playing these characters in Gotham. The design of the city, the personality of the characters, and the vibe it has going for it as a crime-infested waterfront town; it's all great. It just happens to be teathered to some not-so-appealing elements.
Gotham Knights isn't a terrible game, there's a lot to like here. However, it's marred with the idea that it literally sits in the shadow of the series that came before it, with an ineffective main baddie and a plot that you could have seen coming about 20 minutes in. It missed the mark so hard, and that's a shame because this series deserved better. This game was something I thought about at least once a week from the day it was announced until the day I had it in my hands. I enjoyed everything I could get from it as a lifelong Batman fan. But we deserved better than this. I didn't even touch on the co-op element, which only makes getting through the game slightly easier and less time-consuming. Maybe they'll add to it with DLC and expanded content, but who knows what they got planned. Overall, I just wish this was better.
Gotham Knights
7/10
Gotham Knights had the potential to be the next chapter in an already amazing series. But there's a lot to be desired in a game that could have been so much more.
Credits
Publisher
WB Games
Developer
WB Games Montréal
Release Date
October 21, 2022
Reviewed On
Xbox Series X
Also Available On
PC, PS5
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