Gotham Knights Review – Gotham Gallery

Developer WB Games Montréal has so far been best known for its work on DLC for Batman: Arkham Knight and by far the weakest (and most buggy) installment in the Arkham series, Batman: Arkham Origins. In today’s review, Gotham Knights is presented with an interesting twist in the form of a change in the main characters and the implementation of online multiplayer. But will this be enough?

• Platform: PS5 (Revised), Xbox Series X/S, PC
• Publication date: October 21, 2022
• Producer: WB Games Montreal
• Genre: action role playing game
• Czech localization: Not
• Multiplayer: Yes
• Data to download: 42 GB (PS5 version)
• Price: 1499 CZK (couples)

The name of the game may refer to a previous dark knight game, Batman: Arkham Knight. While looks can be deceiving, this is not a Batman game. The death of the world’s best detective at the hands of his nemesis Ra’s al Ghul takes place during the first cutscene after the new game is turned on. However, his allies are determined to investigate Batman’s murder and take on the role of Gotham’s defenders. The new generation of Gotham Knights is made up of a classic portfolio of Batman friends. You can choose between Batgirl, Robin 1 (Nightwing), Robin 2 (Red Hood) and Robin 3 (current Robin model) to control. Each of the superheroes has its own set of powers and combat abilities.

The differences between the individual characters are really striking – so as Batgirl you’ll use her hacking skills and precise tonfa work, while as Red Hood you’ll come into play with his (apparently non-lethal, umm) pistol and fear factor. Robin is chosen by players who prefer stealth, and Nightwing is such a balance of other heroes. The creators managed to make each of the characters truly unique, and they also get pluses for the very simple ability to exchange them in the hub between missions. Collecting experience points and levels together will also be a pleasure. Hero abilities can be upgraded by investing in one of four skill trees. However, one should not expect any serious decisions and diametrically opposed builds. The design is very simple, so developers can mark one of the points on their RPG bingo card.

Green or blue armor?

Of course, the heroes work mostly at night. As such, he spends time between patrols in the bell tower’s hideout under the supervision of Batman’s aide Alfred. This base is used for interacting with characters, training, and upgrading equipment. Yes, one of the somewhat controversial innovations is the implementation of a crafting and mining system. In addition to experience, almost all activities in the game will reward you with a generous supply of materials (standard green, blue, purple and gold quality). One important and absolutely annoying part of the game will be comparing the power levels of individual armors, melee and ranged weapons, and mods that further affect your equipment. All this is similar to the loot system of Diablo or Destiny from Wish, and apparently the only reason is an artificial increase in the complexity of the game. For multi-character players, it’s also worth noting that while materials are common to everyone, armor and weapon blueprints are not. Once you’ve made the armor of your dreams (which will of course have the highest power level of the moment), it’s time to head out on Gotham’s Night Patrol.

Fly around the city at super snail speed

The first thing that catches your eye as a batarang (at least if you play on one of the new consoles) is the smoothness of the game. Really works at a speed of 30 frames per second. Don’t expect any mode of precision, performance, or perhaps ray tracing here. You can turn HDR on and off in visual settings only. Now, in addition to the developers’ excuses about the difficulty of optimizing the game for multiplayer, the settings cannot be changed even when playing in single player mode. At a time when even on consoles the ability to play at 60fps is standard, the return to this “cinematic” experience is truly amazing. Moreover, despite the decent graphics, the title will definitely not come out on top in the poll for the most beautiful game of 2022. It should be noted that the game maintains its fluidity, and, apart from a few stutters (many are visible, for example, during the fast travel animation), it works stably. Steady but slow.

After you sober up from the gameplay, you can start filling in the boilerplate open world content. Get ready to endlessly beat up gangsters, guard police patrols, and clear out crime dens (some of which you’ll enjoy over and over again). To move around the city, you will mainly use the anchor known from the previous parts. Even though it is an efficient tool, it does not speed up movement much. Forget Batman gliding or Spiderman-style web-swinging. The beginning of the game is especially painful here, as the optional missions hide fast travel and enhanced movement options. The second option for moving around the city is a special motorcycle that can be called anywhere on the road by pressing a button. With it, the movement is slightly faster (the game tries to induce this speed with graphical effects on the side of the monitor, unfortunately, without success), but your trip will be spoiled by the sometimes exaggerated GPS effect and the clumsy collision system. After all, you’ll want to spend the minimum amount of time it takes to unlock the next mission in the open world.

Gallery of Gotham

The good news is that the story missions are for the most part quite successful and, together with the soundtrack, give the game the right Batman vibe. However, the main story involving the death of Batman and the fight between the League of Assassins and the Court of Owls over the fate of Gotham oddly takes a backseat to the side missions. As part of your investigation, you will encounter a variety of classic DC villains led by Harley Quinn or Mr. Quinn. To freeze. Each of these lines is absolutely famous and playfully includes many of the main story missions. It will take you about twenty hours to complete the story and side quests.

Since we have already bitten the bad guys, it would be worth mentioning the description of the combat system. It can be described as functional. Do not expect anything crushing from him, you define a strong or fast blow with one button, and a jump with another. Each of the characters also have special attacks that you unlock as you play. Their use (as well as the use of grapples) is somewhat controversial. They have nice animations but they are very long and especially while playing them you are not immortal. Often you will sadly watch as your hero effectively eliminates the enemy, while five others crash into him, and his life drops to zero. Also, the 30 fps limit and cameras that film everything but you definitely don’t help in combat. You can work with it, you can get used to it, but the bar set by the Arkham series remains unchanged.

One of the best features of previous games was undoubtedly the rooms full of enemies that you could stealthily eliminate one by one while watching others panic. For inexplicable reasons, the Gotham Knights abandoned this system entirely. Thus, each encounter will give you the opportunity to destroy no more than a few enemies before the inevitable battle. Also don’t expect puzzles or investigations. If it comes to that, it’s very simple object binding.

One for all and all for one

The big attraction of the game is the ability to play multiplayer. It should be noted here that the developers have succeeded in this. At any time, you have the opportunity to join another player’s game (the creators promise a four-player mode in the future) and fight crime together. The implementation is perfect, you bring your character into the game with their current gear and level (so you can get the new player through the harder part) and stay together until you disconnect again. No matchmaking between missions or activities. There are also no distance restrictions between the characters, so each of them can clear different parts of Gotham. I have to admit that this style of game is a lot of fun to play.