Gotham Knights is a superhero game that doesn’t deliver enough super
- Developer: WB Games Montreal
- Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
- Release date: 21st October 2022
- Genre: Action-Adventure, Open-World, aRPG
- Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC
- Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
- Game Supplied by: Publisher
Gotham Knights Review
Gotham Knights was initially slated to release as a cross-gen title. The decision to change that to only current-gen consoles meant that any development time spent on the older consoles had been lost, and boy do I suspect WB Games Montreal wish they could have used that time all over again.
One of the main focus points before release was the decision to lock gameplay at 30 fps, but it struggles at times to even achieve that. Gotham Knights is also devoid of exciting mechanics and variation. However, is the game broken and unplayable? Heck no. I’m not a huge superhero fan, but I really enjoyed my time playing this game, and that all started with the captivating storyline.
It’s an interesting premise. Batman is dead, alluded to by the imagery of our four protagonists protecting Gotham. An opening sequence of high-quality cinematics alongside events revealed at his funeral propels the player into this world with a bang. It appears that Batman may have known about his upcoming demise, as he leaves a message for his superhero friends. It’s up to Red Hood, Batgirl, Robin and Nightwing to evolve into superheroes as powerful as Batman himself and restore order to Gotham, protecting its citizens from any opportunistic would-be villains from filling the void left open following Batman’s demise.
As the story progressed via clues, collectables and cinematics, I found that I wanted to know more. The tone and pacing as the story unravelled, interspersed with famous series antagonists entering into the journey, meant you were always pushing to find out what happened next. The game’s story does have a definitive ending, but it’s open enough for you to keep wanting to play and to find more loot once you reach the endgame.
It’s not long into the game that you are able to unlock the co-op function that allows you to bring a friend or host online, where people can join you at the point you have reached or you can join others. Co-op is a good way to lessen some of the game’s grind as you will both be earning each other’s EXP and loot in addition to what you gather. This applies even if one of you is off doing a side mission while the other is exploring on the other side of the city. Once the missions are over, you can collect your rewards when you return to the Belfry.
As good as the co-op aspect is, according to the developers it is the core of some of the game’s issues. Not only is this a large-scale open-world game that can be inhabited by two players simultaneously, but there is no tethering, so each player can go wherever they want. Achieving this meant something had to give, and that was the frame rate.
When standing still, Gotham Knights is a very pretty game (the screenshots were all captured from my PS5), and there is even a photo mode to capture moments of beauty. The issue is the game looks significantly different when there is any movement because of the lower frame rate and blurred visuals. For a fast-paced title, with lots of melee combat, this is very noticeable and it’s one of the worst types of game to lock at lower frame rates. Some, however, have suggested the game is broken and unplayable, and that is not at all true; I could accurately move around the screen and perform moves with ease. I’ve gotten used to 60 fps so it does take a bit of getting used to back on 30fps, but after a few minutes of mental adjustment, I never looked back, and soon forgot about it after throwing myself into what the game had to offer.
The playable character models are superb, but the NPCs aren’t as quite as detailed. Environmental detail is excellent, though, especially the game’s lighting. Wet roads are a highlight, realistically reflecting light, textures and weathered surfaces. Aside from that, there really isn’t anything visually special here in Gotham Knights, and you could argue that Arkham Knight, a seven-year-old game on last-gen hardware, looks and plays better than this supposed new-gen title. As harsh as that criticism may be, it doesn’t detract from the fact that Gotham Knights, despite its performance issues, is still eminently playable.
The sound of the game was also a bit of a mixed bag, varying from superb to awful. The voice actors are serviceable, but not very memorable. That may be due to the fact that they weren’t given much narrative to express and expand their characters very much. It’s only when you encounter the villains you meet along the way that it seems like the actors are having fun with the lines they were given. Gunning the Bat Bike sounded more akin to a garden strimmer than revving a powerful one-of-a-kind machine, but the world around you picks up the slack. As you pass people and places on your travels you can hear the distant cracks of gunfire, police sirens, and the splash of tyres and footfalls in puddles. The musical score was also excellent and really ratcheted up the tension for big on-screen moments. I was carried away by the music, and at times it felt like I was in a cinema watching a new Batman film.
It’s the gameplay loop where Gotham Knights really falters, but not because it’s broken; it’s just a repetitive stream of events that soon devolves into a mind-numbing grind. Combat has very few moves, to begin with. Each character has basic light, heavy, light ranged and heavy ranged attacks, and one power move. Even though you have four characters, they all use the same basic move sets for attacks, albeit with different weapons. Although this means each character is instantly familiar in use, they could have provided more variety. This isn’t the biggest issue, however, as there isn’t a large enough variety of enemies to battle against. Most encounters involve a few brutes, a few health sponges, and a lot of grunts.
To access more interesting power moves that will make it easier to defeat the harder enemies and have more fun in combat, you have to complete ten predetermined crime missions which reward you with an ability point. To find more of these predetermined crimes you have to scour the city to find criminals, beat them up and then interrogate them to divulge information. In short, you would have to get through roughly fifteen encounters of the same type, just to get one ability point. For context, unlocking one of Red Wing’s first abilities costs three points, and you soon start to realise levelling up is going to take a while. Considering you’ll need to do this for each of the four characters’ ability trees, that translates into a huge amount of grinding of repetitive encounters.
Then there is the looter element of the game. There is an awful lot of loot, in the form of crafting items, to be found around the world, either by defeating enemies or finding chests to open. The game doesn’t clearly explain which items you have found as whatever you have is symbolised by a tile with various patterns. It was only when I was back in the hub world, trying to upgrade my weapons or kit, that I could tell how many crafting materials I had accumulated, and I still had no real explanation of what they could be used for.
This is exacerbated even more by Gotham Knights’ awful UI. Although there are clear tiles highlighting items, the game doesn’t make clear what that item is going to replace. For example, I tried to upgrade Red Wing’s guns. The way the UI worked, it looked like the aspect I was about to upgrade was the power of the gun as a melee weapon, and that I needed a separate tile to upgrade the gun’s ranged abilities. It turned out to be neither, and I wasted materials finding out. This is only one example, and I was frequently frustrated by the unclear system in place. A bit of trial and error got me through in the end, but I lost valuable resources, and to add insult to injury, I had no idea of where or when I had acquired them in the first place. Consequently, I didn’t know where to go to get the items I needed, so frankly, I just carried on playing the game and forgot about it.
If it were to happen in reality, being a superhero tasked with cleaning up a city full of criminals could sometimes be very mundane and repetitive. In a way, that’s exactly what you get – hard and repetitive work, night after night in Gotham, but I still found satisfaction in this. When you set off from the Belfry to do your night’s work, you can only use the resources you have with you. When you return at the end of each night, you will lose the opportunity to resolve any unfinished crimes, but you get a report of what you have achieved, and as the number of the crimes you have completed per night grew, so did my satisfaction and feeling that my team was actually making a difference.
Each character you play has different weapons and styles in how they use them, but they have their own traits as well. Robin, for example, is skilled in stealth, whilst Red Wing is more of a tank. These differences in gameplay are minimal, to begin with, but get more accentuated as you develop each character’s ability trees. This, however, leads back to the grind to get them.
Another aspect of the gameplay is the ability to scan for clues at crime scenes to work out who did what and follow the lead. These sections were a welcome relief to the monotony of the basic combat as it brings the combat melee gameplay to a stop, as you have to think about the clues you are being presented with to progress. For example, you may have to find a combination to unlock a device with different clues as to what that combination is. Also, after scanning, you might find a trail to a new location you have to follow, but to follow you have to walk slowly and keep your eyes peeled.
The majority of the gameplay is combat, and in this aspect, the game feels like it’s taken a step backwards due to a lack of flair compared to the Batman games that have come before. I remember playing Arkham Asylum, surrounded by foes, darting between enemies to keep my combo meter going for as long as possible. I was doing this in as much style and grace as possible and it made each encounter feel unique and enjoyable. Here in Gotham Knights, however, combat is as satisfying as eating a piece of dry bread. You may need it to survive but you aren’t really gaining any pleasure out of it, as there is nothing particularly exciting or demanding to enjoy. There is no flow or combo meter to worry about, you simply dispatch the enemies however you like. There are challenges assigned to each encounter, such as taking down three enemies via a power move or dispatching enemies silently, but you can usually do so with ease, and there is simply no tension to the combat.
Finally, traversing the game world was, like the rest of it, very underwhelming. Each hero can summon a bat motorbike that, although it has easy controls, never really felt like it was going particularly fast despite the noise it makes. On foot, things are slightly more exciting. A reticule will highlight places that can be reached via a grappling hook. These ledges can at times be a long way away, and it was kind of fun stringing them together. Unlike games like Spider-Man, though, where the art of getting from A to B is just as thrilling as what happens when you get there, Gotham Knights does nothing of the kind. Grapple, rise, walk around, find a new point and so on. Only Batgirl can glide, and that fun aspect is again locked behind, you guessed it, the grind to open up the slot.
There is another game mode, a four-player co-op survival mode called Heroic Assault, which is currently unavailable, but it will allow four players to try and survive through up to thirty waves of enemies. This will be a free update to anyone who owns the game, and it will be a welcome addition.
Summary
Gotham Knights does very little to differentiate itself from other games in the open-world genre. It’s grindy and lacks gameplay variety, with unexciting traversal and stale combat. However, the story was enjoyable, and any game that can be played in co-op is always fun to participate in, especially when friends can experience the entire story together. The 30 fps aspect doesn’t hinder Gotham Knights too much, but it certainly doesn’t enhance it either. Fans of DC, and Batman, in particular, will likely find a way to enjoy this game, but for others, you won’t be missing out on much if you let Gotham Knights pass you by
