Gotham Knights

Batman is dead. Four heroes are left to defend Gotham from countless enemies. It's an intriguing start, but Gotham Knights doesn't quite deliver.

Unfortunately, neither Batman nor Gotham Knights trusted them enough to give them a chance to prove themselves and create their own legacy. Moreover, the Knights can't get away from the Bat-shaped shadow of their fallen mentor. Is the Gotham part of Gotham Knights fun? They display a pride flag on the wall in their base. But past conventions overwhelm the new tone. It's clear that Gotham Knights wants to introduce a new generation of heroes. These details add up to an endearing glimpse of a modern Gotham. Well, there certainly isn't a lack of things to do in the city. Each day begins with your Knights checking a detective board at the Belfry, a gargantuan skyscraper located in the heart of Gotham. The Talons, a major foe in the comics, can be easily defeated by a two-step technique explained from the get-go. Standing over the ruins of the Batcave, Robin, Nightwing, Red Hood, and Batgirl are left with a mystery to unravel — one that intertwines familiar villains with the Court of Owls, a secret society of billionaires and people of influence that has been operating from the shadows for centuries. Most of the time, however, I found myself button mashing and spamming each character's unique abilities.

Gotham Knights takes the Arkham blueprint and reimagines it as a loot-brawler, often feeling similar, but where it's different, it's worse.

This version of Gotham is not its best rendition, but it is massive and benefits from the basic video game truth that most everything is better in co-op. Instead, there's little reason to separate, as the peripheral content is so rote that you'll want to only do what's required of you to unlock the next major story beat, nothing more. The Court of Owls, perhaps the biggest and most beloved new addition to the Batman mythos in a long time, fails to live up to the potential of its comic book source material. It lands as hard as intended, and it's compelling to see them pick up the pieces and grow together. It emphasizes the Momentum meter over the actual learned techniques that Batman must've taught the foursome, and seemingly all in the name of being an RPG that demands sturdy enemies who can't be dispatched with the same ease that Batman has shown before. I'd have less of an issue with this number if the final battles within each of them were more diverse or interesting, but they each inevitably devolve into an arena battle against a damage-spongey villain and maybe an intermittent horde of goons. The problem, however, is it fails to evolve as the game goes on. Becoming Gotham City's watchful protector should be a meaningful journey for the characters and the players controlling them, but it rarely amounts to feeling like anything more than busywork. The issue won't be a shortage of them, but rather a lack of intrigue around any of them. Boss battles are where excitement should be expected, but there are too few of them and they lack the variety and ingenuity of past showdowns, even in developer WB Montreal's past Bat-effort. Meanwhile, iconic characters like The Penguin and Lucius Fox are made to be nothing more than immobile quest-givers doling out missions that are more like basic challenges to earn a new suit blueprint or a mess of crafting resources. It is full of icons ranging from main story beats to one-off time trials and challenges, so at first glance this version of Gotham doesn't seem all that different from other versions of it, or other open-world games for that matter.

As a follow-up to the popular Arkham series, this game brings in the Bat Family -- Nightwing, Red Hood, Batgirl and Robin -- to investigate the death of the ...

Despite this, the usual array of collectibles, interesting photo points and other ways to spend your time in the city pop up while on patrol. Then in some cases, the camera is clearly fixed on one spot but the Grapple Gun picks a completely different direction requiring you to cancel the movement and try again. None of the Bat Family really jump off the screen. One sadly lacking aspect of the Bat Family is their lack of character. The outlier is Jason Todd, who goes by Red Hood and played a major role in 2015's Batman: Arkham Knight. Most of the stealth takedowns consist of either attacking from a perch above or creeping up behind enemies, but there's a small window where these takedowns seem to suffer from technical issues. As a follow-up to the popular Arkham series, this game brings in the Bat Family -- Nightwing, Red Hood, Batgirl and Robin -- to investigate the death of the Dark Knight. Stealth was another important aspect of the Arkham series, and Gotham Knights includes segments where going in silently is the ideal approach. Yet most of the time, regardless of your choice of character, you'll just employ the same mix of regular and power attacks while dodging your enemies' blows. As they work on the big case, there are side missions that let you stop criminals from robbing armored cars, prevent kidnappings and generally fight the crime you'd expect to occur on a Gotham night. The Belfry in Wayne Tower acts as the HQ throughout the game. Gotham Knights lets you play as any of the Bat sidekicks as they chase down evidence from their mentor's last case, to figure out why he died.

Gotham Knights takes a bold narrative swing by killing off Batman, but its strong multiplayer is held back by performance and gameplay issues.

While this is one of Gotham Knight’s most unique selling points, it also lacks features that would have enhanced the experience, like a ping system, shared waypoint markers, and combo attacks and takedowns. Superhero games often just feel like they’re directing the player from fight to fight, but Gotham Knights made me feel like a detective superhero stepping in where the GCPD fails. [caused a stir](https://twitter.com/Wario64/status/1581093863455719424) when it confirmed that Gotham Knights would only run at 30 frames per second on consoles despite being a [current-gen exclusive](https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/gotham-knights-new-gameplay/). Multiplayer works in story missions too, although many interactions in them are limited to the host, but some of the open arenas and stronger enemies take less time to complete when you’re working with someone. Playing normally, I was always flush with resources and mods to craft the best gear, so I didn’t have to spend much time optimizing my character’s build. Still, the narrative is one of the stronger aspects of Gotham Knights. Following his death at the start of the game, it doesn’t take long for the Bat Family of Nightwing, Red Hood, Batgirl, and Robin to learn of his demise and then take on the responsibility of defending Gotham themselves. It’s not as good as the best Batman games from the last decade due to a lack of gameplay ambition and performance issues. As an open-world Batman game that’s not connected to the Arkham series and kills off Batman in the first five minutes, Gotham Knights was always going to be a risky endeavor for Warner Bros. Once I got to know the whole cast, it was exciting to see how this world deviates from what we know and how a faction like the Court of Owls managed to operate under Batman’s nose for so long. Despite the marketing emphasizing the Court of Owls, this is not a one-to-one adaptation of that comic book story. Pile on skepticism surrounding the game’s multiplayer and RPG systems in the

Gotham Knights, a new open-world game set in the Batman universe from WB Games, launches on the PS5, Xbox, and Steam on October 21st.

It’s a testament to both the writers and performers that I felt connected to these heroes and found solace in their building trust and friendship with one another. But I am hesitant to return to or recommend it given the choppy frame rate and sluggish combat. A standout is the writing and performances, as all members of the Bat Family navigate their grief and hardship with fighting crime, dealing with their past together. Characters level up by earning XP by fighting and completing missions but all level up at the same time. Synchronizing character levels encourages you to switch between heroes depending on what mission you want to do: for example, Robin is the best at stealth, Batgirl at hacking, Nightwing at sass, and Red Hood for range. And the excellent writing and performances deserved better combat. There are entire cutscenes dedicated solely to each member dealing with their feelings and a member of the family, who knows them best, helping them come out the other side. Throughout this third-person open-world adventure, players switch between any of the four prior to a mission, battling old enemies — and one new one — of the Dark Knight. Fighting and traversing are the two things you’ll be doing most in the game. In contrast, I found the open world to be quite monotonous, unable to really work out which district I was in from sight alone. While a lot of crimes are procedural and repeat, these are only side activities. All are haunted by the death of their mentor and father figure.

Reviews for Warner Bros. first Batman game since 2015's Arkham Knight dropped today, and they are not reassuring. While a few critics like Gotham Knights ...

“For all its potential, the game falls flat,” [reported NPR](https://www.npr.org/2022/10/20/1130129906/gotham-knights-review). That’s how beholden the good in Gotham Knights is to Rocksteady’s work—but that good is still present, nevertheless. If my gear is good enough to beat the final boss—and it was—then what incentive do I have to keep playing to improve that gear? [checklist](https://ftw.usatoday.com/2022/10/gotham-knights-review-its-content),” while Gamesradar accused it of [not knowing what it wants to be](https://www.gamesradar.com/gotham-knights-review/). Interior areas ran much better, but considering the bulk of the game has you sifting through the city, it was a pain to have to manage frame drops without falling off a perch and alerting an entire group of enemies. Montreal’s Gotham Knights](https://kotaku.com/gotham-knights-release-date-xbox-ps5-arkham-batgirl-1849445834) follows Batgirl, Robin, Nightwing, and Red Hood as they attempt to maintain order amidt the chaos after a terrorist plot by the Court of Owls kills Bruce Wayne. Sure, you can press another button for ranged attacks, but if an enemy is up-close (which is often the case), you really don’t have a lot to work with, even after acquiring upgrades. It’s a multiplayer system that works so smoothly that you won’t notice any complications beyond the chance to beat up some bad guys with a buddy—and that’s as it should be. There’s a compelling game in Gotham Knights, but it’s hidden away behind a messy UX, needless crafting and customization systems, and combat mechanics that have been stretched paper thin to accommodate four heroes. The Metacritic score [currently sits at 69](https://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-5/gotham-knights/critic-reviews), with Digital Foundry’s John Linneman [tweeting](https://twitter.com/dark1x/status/1583055289791655936) that the game doesn’t look nearly as good [as Rocksteady’s seven-year old Arkham Knight](https://t.co/FDjGc3Tv3N). [first Batman game since 2015’s Arkham Knight](https://kotaku.com/gotham-knights-batman-pc-frame-rate-performance-ps5-1849678532) dropped today, and they are not reassuring. Unlike the Arkham games which focused on exploration, stealth puzzles, and a Metroidvania-like arsenal of gadgets, Gotham Knights is primarily combat focused, with players teaming up to grind out missions that progress the story and unlock better gear.

Gotham Knights offers a fun and satisfying gameplay loop, but many features lack the follow-through needed to make a great, cohesive game.

[Gotham Knights' story](https://gamerant.com/gotham-knights-prequel-comic-expand-story/), with the ending feeling like the game was never played at all, and a lot of the story is very slow. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem the rest of the game is held up to the same level and a lot of it doesn't blend like the gameplay. The game only features a handful of boss battles as it is, and this is probably why. Yet, anyone interested in anything more than that is going to face a lot of disappointment with its story beats, gameplay elements, individual features, and many other elements. There's a lot about the game that feels half-baked, from major features like this to small details like Investigations, and these elements bring down what's otherwise a solid title. All the characters end up being a little one-note, unfortunately, and while there is character development, each character tends to retread familiar territory. What happens is that players are able to self-pace their advancement of various side activities, and it's a pleasing way to interact with the world when something as simple as saving one citizen from Players will see major story developments on the map, but to complete activities like premeditated crimes, players have to investigate random crimes, interrogate enemies, and unlock them. At night, players don the cowl as one of the four playable characters and enter a patrol of Gotham City. The city is beautiful, feels alive, and is constantly filled with activity. Batman is dead, Gotham City is in shambles, and players must pick up the pieces as It is a truly fun game, and for many players, it may be easy to overlook many of its shortcomings as a result.

Batman is gone, and the city of Gotham needs new heroes to take control. As sidekicks become big players, which character should you pick?

On the momentum ability front, you can deal a lot of damage with Beatdown or use Drone to summon a drone to damage enemies and heal Batgirl. Alternatively, you can use Cloak to make Robin completely invisible for 10 seconds, giving you an easy way to escape and get stealthy again or a few moments to take out a couple of enemies before the start of the fight. As a result, she’s the best choice if you plan on playing It can be annoying to have to be sent back to a previous checkpoint or lose resources upon death, and playing as Batgirl ensures you’ll never run into that problem when alone. While many of his momentum abilities are more focused on combat than stealth, you can use Bo Spin to get Robin out of a sticky situation and deal some damage along the way. With Vigilante Resolve, she can do it twice, and with Second Wind+, she gains a momentum segment and a 10% critical hit chance buff. Robin can also use to teleport during his Knighthood traversal ability to do a Slideways Takedown that can instantly take down any enemy in sight. Mystical Rounds allows him to shoot a Lazarus Pit-powered attack that deals massive damage to enemies, and Portable Turret lets Red Hood set up a mini-turret that can take on some enemies while you’re fighting someone else. All four of them have very skills, Knighthood traversal abilities, and Momentum Abilities they can use to take on enemies they encounter while patrolling Gotham City. If your ally dies, the Revive Darts skill also gives you a quick way to heal them. Meanwhile, two of his Momentum Abilities, Elemental Shockwave and Whirlwind, do great area-of-effect damage, knocking enemies back and possibly dealing elemental damage to them. Red Hood doesn’t have as definitive of an advantage or use case as the other three heroes; he’s just very strong up close and from afar.

Gotham Knights boasts a seriously stacked cast of supporting characters all brought to life by an impressive group of voice actors.

While Freeze sadly doesn’t make incredible puns like that one in Gotham Knights, he’s certainly one of the game’s most intimidating villains as well as one of the biggest threats to post-Batman Gotham. Keane has popped up in everything from House of Cards and Ray Donovan to The Gilded Age and Dopesick. You’d probably expect The Penguin to immediately step up and become the crime lord of Gotham now that Batman’s dead, but his role in the game is a bit more complicated than that. Brian Keane certainly assumes the role of Clayface quite nicely in Gotham Knights. Mylène Dinh-Robic’s voice will probably sound very familiar to gamers thanks to her recent appearance in 2021’s Guardians of the Galaxy game as Meredith Quill. In a game all about people stepping up to fill some big shoes, it’s fitting that Talia Al Ghul has a major role to play in Gotham Knights. While Gotham Knight‘s heroes worried that Alfred wouldn’t know what to do with himself without Bruce Wayne in his life, it turns out that he’s more than willing to assume a similar role for Gotham’s new heroes. Red Hood’s path to becoming one of Gotham Knight‘s playable protagonists has been interesting, to say the least. Nightwing has been honing his craft for quite some time, and his skills are certainly being put to the test now that Batman is going. Video game-wise, he most recently played Arokkeh in Horizon Forbidden West and has previously lent voicework to titles like Ghost of Tsushima. Of course, it’s the voices of those characters as much as their faces that really sell how much they belong to be the stars of an unlikely Gotham adventure. While some fans balked at those creative decisions, it’s certainly nice to see Batgirl patrolling the streets of Gotham again.

WB Games Montreal's highly anticipated action role-playing game Gotham Knights is losing steam, even though it hasn't officially released quite yet.

It's been years since fans have ventured inside the world of the Arkham series' Gotham City (though the two are not set in the same universe), and many gamers have fond memories of the previous games. Many gamers across all social media channels claimed they had canceled their pre-orders (and have been for days), with some complaining about the game's price tag, but the majority upset about the frame rate. The demanding PC specs and framerate lock didn't help anything, but now that Gotham Knight reviews have poured in, the sour situation has seemingly deteriorated further.

The Batman of recent films has mostly been a solitary figure, but DC comics fans have a different picture. In the source material, the Dark Knight is just ...

When you get there, the game will give you the option to skip that mission. When you arrive in someone else’s game or vice versa, the world adjusts to accommodate a greater number of players. Depending on what characters you’re playing as, that can include buffs, healing abilities, and combo moves that require both players to execute. What you select determines who can join you; if you want to let friends drop in on you without needing to receive an invite, select “friends” or “friends of friends.” If you want to let anyone at all join, select “public.” If you want to play solo, select “invited players,” and nobody will be able to join you until you send them an invite. That said, you’re free to explore the entire open world together, with no limits on how far you can wander from one another, which is extremely cool. (Ignore the “host heroic assault” option, since that mode isn’t in the game yet.)

From Warner Bros. Games Montreal comes Gotham Knights, a brand-new, open-world, third-person action role-playing game featuring the Batman Family. Players step ...

So, buy it if you’re a fan of the Bat Family. There’s also the trusty Batcycle — a reasonable way to get around if you happen to be at ground level, like some sort of plebe. Unfortunately, it’s extremely twitchy, and the grapnel gun that allows us to latch onto buildings and catapult us across Gotham doesn’t always go where you aim the camera. Most of the game involves doling out justice with our fists, and leveling our heroes isn’t just a way to become more powerful: It’s part of our emotional arc, to become a hero that can fill Batman’s bat-boots. There are only minor differences between the gangs and hoodlums that need taking down (and the dialog from gangs and passersby can be repetitive or even ridiculous). (See The voice of Batgirl in our What we didn’t like section below.) The game begins with the death of Batman, along with the destruction of the Batcave. We get to know the people behind the cowls, and they’re all fun to hang out with — even Red Hood, who is more self-aware than you would expect from a bruiser like him. Thanks to help from our augmented reality (AR) tech, we uncover clues that ultimately lead us to our shadowy nemeses, the Court of Owls. Gotham Knights is a brand-new, open-world, third-person action role-playing game featuring the Batman Family. We got our hands on a PS5 copy of the game ahead of its launch date, have sunk two dozen hours into gameplay so far, and even checked out its co-op mode with PS5 gamer and ZensPath 4 Button podcaster [Jeremy Powers](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/zenspath-4-button-podcast/id684071828). Players step into the roles of Batgirl, Nightwing, Red Hood and Robin, a new guard of trained DC Super Heroes who must rise up as the protectors of Gotham City in the wake of Batman’s death.

Gotham Knights is the rare modern open-world game that doesn't let you fast travel around its setting, Gotham City. Here's how to unlock fast travel.

That makes scanning some drones pretty tedious, as you basically have to follow their lazy, looping flight paths until they stop for a rest. Fox has developed a mech-like wing suit that can ferry you around the city in seconds, but of course, things can’t be quite that easy. Fox aided Batman by providing him with gadgets and R&D, and he’s eager to do the same for the Bat-family now.

As a follow-up to the popular Arkham series, this game brings in the Bat Family -- Nightwing, Batgirl, Red Hood and Robin -- to investigate the death of the ...

Despite this, the usual array of collectibles, interesting photo points and other ways to spend your time in the city pop up while on patrol. Then in some cases, the camera is clearly fixed on one spot but the Grapple Gun picks a completely different direction requiring you to cancel the movement and try again. Every character rides it the same way, and it moves like a tank when turning. None of the Bat Family really jump off the screen. One sadly lacking aspect of the Bat Family is their lack of character. The outlier is Jason Todd, who goes by Red Hood and played a major role in 2015's Batman: Arkham Knight. As a follow-up to the popular Arkham series, this game brings in the Bat Family -- Nightwing, Batgirl, Red Hood and Robin -- to investigate the death of the Dark Knight. Most of the stealth takedowns consist of either attacking from a perch above or creeping up behind enemies, but there's a small window where these takedowns seem to suffer from technical issues. Stealth was another important aspect of the Arkham series, and Gotham Knights includes segments where going in silently is the ideal approach. As they work on the big case, there are side missions that let you stop criminals from robbing armored cars, prevent kidnappings and generally fight the crime you'd expect to occur on a Gotham night. The Belfry in Wayne Tower acts as the HQ throughout the game. Gotham Knights lets you play as any of the Bat sidekicks as they chase down evidence from their mentor's last case, to figure out why he died.

Compared to Rocksteady's Arkham trilogy, Gotham Knights feels like a pale imitation that falls flat at every turn.

The issue is that Gotham Knights doesn't hold a candle to any of these games. Gotham Knights isn't a new entry in the Arkham series, of course. This is a third-person brawler set in the Batman universe that visually resembles the trio of best-selling, critically beloved titles that came before it. Aslyum, City and Knight fully immerse you in the Batman fantasy, successfully crafting a depiction of the caped crusader that was deadly, capable and - perhaps best of all - human. [Ed detailed in his review earlier this week](https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/gotham-knights-review), Gotham Knights is a bit of a disappointing dud. Rocksteady's trio of Batman-em-ups are essential superhero games, titles that redefined the genre and provided a template that still feels contemporary to this day.

Completing Knighthood and unlocking the best traversal abilities is tricky in Gotham Knights, but this guide shows you exactly what to do.

You then have to interact with Batman’s mask and you’ll gain access to whichever traversal ability corresponds to a particular character. These appear in locations all around the Belfry, so walk towards them, interact with them, and you’ll get a short cutscene. Under the Advanced Training menu, you’ll see a Timed Strikes tutorial, which requires you to perform five standard and heavy Timed Strikes attacks. You’ll probably come across these naturally as you grind for XP and gear. Doing so will unlock a Premeditated Crime, which will appear on the next night’s patrol. Here’s what you need to know.