Welcome to our review of Gotham Knights, the game where you are thrown into Gotham right after Batman gets killed…
Batman is dead. A new expansive, criminal underworld has swept the streets of Gotham City. It is now up to the Batman Family – Batgirl, Nightwing, Red Hood, and Robin – to protect Gotham, bring hope to its citizens, discipline to its cops, and fear to its criminals. From solving mysteries that connect the darkest chapters in the city’s history to defeating notorious villains in epic confrontations.
Gotham Knights is an open-world, action RPG set in the most dynamic and interactive Gotham City yet. Patrol Gotham’s five distinct boroughs in solo or in co-op and drop in on criminal activity wherever you find it. Your legacy begins now. Step into the Knight.
I never imagined I would love this game so much. Plain and simple, Gotham Knights is a true masterpiece in really capturing that superhero feeling, dark and powerful at the same time. I will admit I was more curious to play this game right after all the commotion about this game not supporting 60fps, I even read some comments about people now wanting to skip this game altogether, and let me tell you, I hope you all come to your senses and give this amazing game a try because I am sure you will love it as much as I did.
What really sets it apart, is the dark approach to the demise of Batman and the four knights coming together to find out what is really going on in Gotham. Yes, after a majestic opening sequence where Batman meets his maker, you are introduced to the 4 “heroes” of the game. I use quotes because well, the story takes you away from protecting Gotham in a way that even the game mentions if the inhabitants of Gotham still treat you as a hero.
This is not the only subtle quip that is being made throughout this game, no, several funny lines can be heard if you just spend your time slowly discovering the dark town. From randoms asking to take a selfie and just brutally asking you what you are doing. By using the map, you can find out where the action will be when you are following the storyline and even when you are not. You know… When you are actually defending the people from the freaks or the mob, the 2 main factions in the streets of Gotham at first. Basically, there are several corrupt cops as well, but let us officially consider them not a threat to the people in Gotham.
The map can also be used for very potent fast travel and it lets you forget how tacky some games have introduced this in the past, I am looking at you here, Watch Dogs 1. Let me make another comparison to WD1, the riding of your vehicle, as I played the game as Red Hood, my Batcycle is easy to maneuver and often felt like an upgraded version to get around. Small spoiler, after a few hours into the game, you will even get a better way, one I am sure will be helpful. Oh and try to do a wheelie into an approaching car, you will love it.
And I have not even gotten ’round to talking about the fighting. The fighting is fun, yet this side of the game may not be to everyone’s liking. There are a ton of options to take out an opponent and it might be a lot. From aerial attacks to sneak attacks to finishers to special moves to takedowns, … and that is just a small part of everything. Once you really level up, the options are massive. Maybe this is my only personal downside to the game, I often felt like I was wanting more and faster upgrades. Not that the game was slow, I just wanted more and more and more and I was only playing with Red Hood. Not even trying to do all 4 characters during my storyline gameplay.
The fighting is also what knits the exploring and the story advancing together. From the start, you are obviously trying to figure out what is happening and from sneaking into the morgue to find clues to breaking into Gotham penitentiary to go see Harley Quinn, yes, many of the famous Gotham faces are all present in the game. It gets really funny in my humble opinion when some of the most iconic villains don’t even want to bother with you. All part of the story, but so cool.
Now, let us talk a bit more about the hand to hand combat, depending on the difficulty you pick, this can be extremely easy to quite challenging. But it is mostly always the same principle, a lot of fights only depend on your own versatility. You can go full stealth in battles and decide to just avoid confrontations. Now confrontations, however, are really something else. Like doing an exotic dance, you move from one step to the other and before you get hit yourself, you either swerve to the next opponent or evade.
Fighting can really be such a dance and yes, enemies get upgrades too, so from easy grunts at first to drone-controlling grunts to full-on enemies that are basically tanks. I love ranged attacks against those as a few well-aimed shots can easily take out most generic enemies. Though I must say, a jump assassination is awesome as well.
Gotham Knights is also a really pretty game, I just love standing on top of buildings and looking at the scenery. The buildings and everything, though my favorite is looking across the water and having this distant view of Gotham… It really is beautiful and aside from the occasional weird-looking evidence like the guy in the chest, whose hair looks awkward, there are really no negative comments about this game at all.
If I were to nitpick, my desire to upgrade faster is the only main downside, which is really stupid, but I just always feel like the game needs to go faster, I was just that much into it. Gotham Knights is that nice a game and when I first spoke to Lander about the game, I only had the remark the puzzles were weird, but once you get the idea behind them, they will be all about solving them as soon as possible.
In conclusion, Gotham Knights is a great game and it really gives due credit to the superhero genre. The atmosphere is great and forget about all the negative hype this game got before its release. You are only fooling yourself when you end up skipping this game for such a trivial reason.
9.5/10
Tested on Playstation 5
