Gotham Knights Review: Shadow of the Bat

A lacklustre outing that doesn't do the Bat family justice.

I’m a comic fan of the 1990s; I prefer Wally West as Flash, Kyle Rayner as Green Lantern, Tim Drake as Robin and Cyborg in the Titans. While Batman is one of my favourite characters, he’s nothing without the sidekicks that help to remind him he’s human — Barbara Gordon as Batgirl and Dick Grayson as Nightwing feel as much a part of my own family as Bruce considers them his. And no one likes Red Hood; we killed off Jason Todd for a reason.

As a huge Bat family fan, I was extremely excited for Gotham Knights. Sadly, a lack of respect for the Bat family — combined with lacklustre and half-baked gameplay systems — means it has incredibly disappointed.

Developed by Batman Arkham Origins‘ Warner Bros Montreal, Gotham Knights is anything but a Batman Arkham game. Batman is dead. It’s no secret, having been plastered all over the pre-release marketing, and just in-case you missed it, a 20-minute opening cutscene really drives it home before you get to play.

Foreseeing his demise, the caped crusader has left the protection of Gotham City to his four proteges: Dick Grayson (Nightwing, also the original Robin), Jason Todd (Red Hood, the second Robin, freshly resurrected after being murdered by the Joker), Barbara Gordon (Batgirl, seemingly healed from a stint as Oracle), and Tim Drake (the third Robin). The four heroes take control of a new base of operations called the Belfry and set out to complete case files left to them by the Bat.

The first problem Gotham Knights encounters is spending far too long setting up the demise of Batman, and in doing so it forgets that it has four different protagonists. My little bracketed character backstories is basically all the information WB Montreal provides to players — likely more, in fact — before you’re expected to pick a character and endlessly fight crime. While there is an ability to play in co-op, it’s not a requirement. So if you don’t choose to team up, you’ll only see the other three members of the Bat family in fleeting cutscenes. When you do, interactions between the four heroes seem faked and forced as a result; any sense of closeness or comradarie is unearned.

In terms of its narrative, Knights is sloppy and meandering. A major villain is introduced, then largely abandoned; additional big players are regulated to side missions, while the spectacular Court of Owls is utterly wasted. The Court works as an incredible foil to Batman and his allies, with strong connections to key characters; a lack of a real central hero in this tale means the organisation is neutered.

What’s positioned would have worked exceptionally well if this was a proper Nightwing story, as an example, or at least as part of a narrative where Warner Bros Montreal forced you into the shoes of one of the four heroes in specific, individual missions. Nothing presented is exciting enough to warrant a replay as a different hero, because every bit of dialogue ends up feeling like mere flavour text. There’s no recognition that you played a portion of the tale as one character or another; you as the real-life avatar get all the credit, seemingly separated from Dick, Jason, Tim or Barbara.

Supporting characters like Lucius Fox and Renee Montoya are similarly superfluous, acting like MMO-style quest givers, devoid of any engaging quests. As part of non-mission Gotham activities, you’re tasked to fly around (literally, in Nightwing’s case — he gets a glider that makes his grappling hook and Batcycle useless) and stop emerging crimes like stick-em-ups or ATM break-ins to gather intel to then stop slightly larger activities like hostage situations or organ theft. In most of those activities, just be sure to leave one final foe alive to grab and interrogate so you can unlock the next activity, be it another side mission or another stop in the main questline. Forget the interrogation, and you’ll need to do it all again to progress the main mission. Rinse and repeat in a wholly repetitious manner for 30 more nights and that’s that.

Fox is particularly frustrating as a quest and challenge generator. All of his actions are tied into Gotham Knights‘ gear and crafting systems. Neither is required.

Gotham Knights throws gear at you with reckless abandon. You’re constantly drowning in new things to equip and use. Everything has a number attached to it, and each is as meaningless as the one before it. With the exception of elemental weapons, you won’t notice the difference between one item and the next; at most, you’ll freeze baddies with one set and burn them with another.

I crafted gear purely to meet Fox’s crafting challenges, getting rewards that I casually ignored just like everything else. I stopped breaking down the gear I wasn’t using because I was constantly earning new things to either just swap out or craft anew, and none of it mattered. I fused mods from old ones simply because there’s an Achievement attached to creating 50 of the damn things.

In fact, the one and only time that any of Gotham Knights‘ numbers meant anything was inside a fight with Clayface. Despite every enemy constantly displaying a level number over their heads, it only ever factored into that one fight. Though I could easily bring Clayface’s health bar to 3-5% of its total value numerous times, I simply could not get him to die as a level 17 Nightwing. After putting the mission aside and returning as the recommended level 23, I got his health bar to around 5-10% and was inexplicably rewarded with a cutscene showing that I beat him. I’m left to assume that cutscene was gated to a player level, and I’m still seething thinking about it. Clayface is the most frustrating of these villain-themed side missions, though Mr Freeze comes close; rather than being engaging as in Arkham, they become DPS-fests as if you’re inside a Destiny Raid.

Stat numbers don’t matter, crafting doesn’t matter, and neither do Gotham’s mini-crimes. Quite early in proceedings, you’ll learn to only do the ones required to progress your actual story, as they’re otherwise meaningless, which also applies to other optional side missions. Once I realised completing Nightwing’s special set of timed glider trials was merely offering up a new paint job for the Batcycle I never used, I stopped bothering with them. The only thing worse than a bloated map is a bloated map full of activities that are bland, repetitive and not worth the effort.

Co-op will allow you to team up with a single friend, which is also rather puzzling considering two heroes remain benched in that state. Gotham Knights shines a spotlight on its four protagonists and then restricts you to 2-player co-op. The host is ultimately in control in those sessions, able to earn story progression alongside character levelling and crafting items through punching and chest collection, while the sucker who has joined their buddy only picks up those latter items. At some times, the host is literally the only person who can progress a mission; on that, Gotham Knights is so full of last-(last-)gen instances where you hold A or X to squeeze between gaps, just so the next bit of the environment can load that I’m surprised this isn’t an Xbox 360 title. Technically it’s very uninspiring as one of the first current-gen exclusives on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S and PC.

There is, of course, new banter that will result in the pairing of two of the Bat family, but it too is sparse. In terms of the impact of co-op on gameplay, it makes things decidedly too easy — you’re still having the same waves of baddies thrown at you as in single-player, but it is far more simple to team up and lay people out. Things are comically unchallenging whilst paired up and can be overly long and frustrating alone; neither is a good indication of proper gameplay tuning.

Combat and stealth mechanics are decidedly different than those inside the Arkham series, though stubbornly retain a similar look and feel in some instances. Nightwing, Batgirl, Robin and Red Hood can take advantage of stealth tactics to either silently or aggressively take down enemies in a single action, though arenas aren’t designed with the precision and care as seen inside Rocksteady’s works. Though the functionality is there, you’re not intended to be a silent predator; instead, prepare yourself to eventually run out of room to be sneaky and then take on wave-after-wave of generic goons.

The idea of free-flow fighting has been removed from Gotham Knights. Inside Arkham, you always feel in control; you have the ability to counter the actions of an enemy at any point, and you can always do so in a fluid, continuous set of movements. While this sequel-but-not encourages the proper timing of strikes, there’s no combo meter and ultimately, no real incentive to do anything but button mash. On-screen indicators still show you when you’re about be hit by a regular or powered-up attack, but they’re not reliable and often come from a position out of view. Enemies will constantly and consistently throw themselves across the environment, out of sight until their strike connects and pulls you out of your rhythm.

A Momentum system provides extra moves, but they need to be earned through successful combat strikes, meaning you mightn’t always have a move in reserve to counter attacks. Poor aiming and targeting systems, again reminiscent of the PS3 generation, mean that some of your ranged and Momentum moves will be off-target, which in the case of the latter means you’ll often whiff on a move you’ve been saving up for. Several Momentum actions can also be disrupted by the attacks of others, though enemies themselves will regularly have frames of invincibility before they launch into their moves. In short, combat isn’t fun; it’s just necessary.

A robust photo mode sure does make things look pretty and is one of Gotham Knights‘ few standout features. As a Batman fan, it’s wonderful to finally be able to place a spotlight (literally, thanks to extensive options) on Dick, Babs, Tim and Jason. I have dozens upon dozens of shots of Nightwing looking absolutely badass now saved in the cloud. Two have made the leap to my phone and PC as shiny new wallpapers. Enjoy a handful of my favourite shots below; maybe it’ll help to ease the pain.

Outside of photo mode, Gotham Knights tries to do many things and does none of them well. You could swap out the Batman roster of heroes and villains for generic spies and end up with the same set of adventures. Everything is designed to be open-world and intricate but nothing ever hits that mark; either WB Montreal needed far more time to develop these concepts or frantically clawed things back to hit this pre-holiday release window. The result is close to disastrous.

A generic romp, Gotham Knights isn’t too buggy — though we encountered big framerate dropouts in co-op and against giant bosses like Mr Freeze — but polish in one particular area doesn’t mean that in others. Those without a real attachment to the Bat family will feel indifferent to what’s presented; most who adore Dick and Babs will simply be disappointed. I’m also a bit terrified for what this lacklustre formula means to Rocksteady’s upcoming Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League, if I’m being truthful.

Gotham Knights is available from tomorrow, 22 October, on Windows PC, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X and PS5.

Gotham Knights was reviewed using two promotional codes on Xbox Series X, both provided by the publisher. Click here to learn more about Stevivor’s scoring scale.

Gotham Knights 21 October 2022 PC PS5 Xbox Series S & X   Buy on Windows PC via Steam Buy on the Microsoft Store Buy on Amazon: PS5, Xbox Series S & X