DEVELOPERS: WB Games Montréal (primary), QLOC S.A., and other support studios

PUBLISHER: WB Games

REVIEWED ON: PlayStation 5 from a copy purchased by the author.

For further context, click HERE to read my first review of Gotham Knights.

I owe WB Games Montréal an apology.

The point in starting what’s now Comic Book Video Games was to see the best in a sub-genre of games that many outright dismiss. When Gotham Knights launched October, a tweet of mine criticizing the way you had to unlock your traversal skills in the game went somewhat viral. I didn’t want something so negative associated with myself to be the thing most people would see when they went to look up my work so I deleted it. I especially didn’t want those who put hours of their life bringing Gotham Knights to market to be brought down by something so slight either.

Recently I went back and reread my review of Gotham Knights and it’s more unkind, not to mention nasty, than constructive criticism of what the game actually is. Again, it’s not what I want to put forward into the world, so I decided that much like Marvel’s Avengers, I wanted to give Gotham Knights another shot. This reevaluation also came about because I’ve seen far more positivity surrounding the game on social media now that we’re months removed from launch. So, with a fresh perspective, I hoped to see something in Gotham Knights that I didn’t before.

When I reviewed Gotham Knights initially, it was on the Xbox Series X. For this re-review, I played through it again on the PlayStation 5 after purchasing it digitally on a sale. I’m not one who can really see any difference between the 2 versions, so to my eyes playing on a non-4K display, they’re identical. As a personal preference, the DualSense controller was much more uncomfortable to use in extended play sessions as I find Sony’s latest input device far too bulky with atrocious battery life. It also hurt my fingers holding down the R2 trigger to drive the Batcycle over long distances.

When I played through Gotham Knights in October, I primarily stuck with Batgirl. This time around though, I experimented with all four members of the Bat Family while mostly focusing on building up Nightwing and I feel this is how this game was truly meant to be experienced. By jumping between heroes, I experienced story beats I completely missed out on my first go around, including a truly touching moment between Jason Todd and Alfred, not to mention emails that are unique to each character. The emails, as simple as they are, are a true highlight as not only do they hint at the broader DC Comics universe, they’re true to how those who knew Bruce Wayne would act in the event of his death. Clark Kent in particular wants nothing more than to know how Dick Grayson is doing and wants to help anyway they can. For those who find themselves visiting a site like this, your inbox is full of Easter Eggs to games like Batman: Vengeance, Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu and Dark Tomorrow if you look hard enough.

How each Knight processes their grief shines here over the war between the Court of Owls and the League of Shadows. Nightwing is coming to terms with being a leader, and Jason Todd is struggling with how to be the best version of himself. Seeing heroes out of costume and interacting with one another is an aspect that needs to be explored more in video games, which is something players got last year in both Gotham Knights and Marvel’s Midnight Suns. Though that being said it would’ve been nice to see more of the team interacting with one another in the field as those instances are very few.

What’s frustrating about Gotham Knights is that there’s so much to see by not sticking with one hero, but there’s no incentive within the game to really play this way. There are great story beats to be mined here, but you have to go out of your way to out of your way to find them. Gotham Knights offers players a lot of freedom, allowing them to not only play the game with four characters, each with their own unique stories, but also with a friend. The complexity of building something like that must’ve been no small undertaking, but perhaps giving the player less freedom would’ve been the better option.

After progressing the story to a certain point where you earn the Knighthood side quest, each Knight has a conversation with Alfred after completing it. What Alfred says is the same in this interaction, but each Knight has their own unique stories. From a time and resource standpoint, this is a lot of work to have to write dialogue for Alfred that fits each, and then hand in 4 scripts that match that beat. It’s something that Diego Rivera also noticed and pointed out in his review of Gotham Knights that he published in February.

What this title truly needed was character specific missions akin to those in Marvel’s Avengers, though building them into a game that can be played co-op at all times assuredly would’ve been no easy feat if possible at all. The Knights have their own strengths, like Robin whose build focuses stealth tactics, so building missions around that would’ve broken up the campaign and given each Bat Family member their due. Even, like Marvel’s Avengers, if a mission had one if not all of the Knights together would’ve been refreshing. From an outside perspective on how the software works, you as a player knows why only one character would head into the final mission, but from a narrative standpoint, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to have Nightwing risking his life while everyone else seemingly kicks their feet up in the Belfry.

I enjoyed experiencing the story of Gotham Knights far more this time around, in fact, I found myself actively wanting to play it more so than my initial playthrough. As my feeling on Gotham Knights would soften, however, I was reminded of many of the problems I had with it back in October with much of that coming down to the size of the map and navigating it. I will stand firmly by my judgment that Gotham City could be anywhere, and navigating it is a chore. The open world is far too big, and the way it’s divided into multiple land masses linked by bridges causes the Batcycle to pick the most roundabout route to get anywhere. The Knighthood movement skills help a little, but not much, and once you get fast travel, you might as well park the Batcycle in the Belfry and put a cover on it.

I understand the need for WB Games Montréal to differentiate themselves from the Arkham games, but so much enjoyment in that stellar franchise was found from using the glider and eventually the Batmobile to get around. For all its faults, the Batmobile in Batman: Arkham Knight was a versatile machine that could be used to get around, fight, and solve puzzles. The Batcycle doesn’t get any upgrades, and it’s only really used creatively in the side-mission with Clayface that’s optional. Furthermore, the abilities the heroes get to move about are simply not fun to use.

Robin’s teleport is cumbersome, Batgirl’s gliding is just a lesser take on the Arkham series, Red Hood weightlessly hops about and Nightwing’s Fortnite glider is just downright silly but is the most useful of the bunch. As already mentioned, I mostly stuck with Nightwing this go around, and honestly could steer the glider that he’s dangling off of with hand. My brain also kept thinking about a villain like Bane breaking one of his arms and not being able to use it or simply getting tired and falling to his death. When completing the movement challenges where you have to maneuver quickly around rings, it was mostly a pain as Nightwing’s dangling body took up most of the screen real estate. As someone who has finished Superman on the N64 on hard, I in all honesty found navigating rings there easier.

In trying to complete these challenges, I came up against another annoying hiccup in Gotham Knights, that being only being able to swap characters at your home base. I would complete one with Nightwing, and then say, want to try another with Robin. So I had to return to the Belfry, swap characters, and then go out again. It had me longing for something like LEGO DC Super-Villains where you just hold a button and then someone else pops out.

This isn’t just limited to juggling characters, but also how mission chains work. If you want to do all the Batcycle races, you have to reset your patrol each time. In most open world games, a new one would normally just populate as you beat each of them until they’re all done. It’s just another way Gotham Knights incentives picking a lane and staying in it when it should try to do the opposite.

Many, like myself, went into this trying to fit a square peg into an Arkham hole when it came to fighting enemies, and by fully embracing the RPG elements, I had more fun pounding on the various gangs that littered the streets of Gotham. Actually, I don’t know if it had to do with the character, but I found the game easier by doing this. In fact, I was over levelled for main story missions and walked over the last boss barely using a health kit.

Even if you embrace what Gotham Knights‘ systems, it’s still hard not to miss the snappy punches Batman had in the Arkham games. The loot grind is also still not the carrot-and-stick reward system it could be. You’re swapping out gear far too much to get used to a costume you like, and in the open world portions you simply don’t feel that powerful even as you approach owning legendary equipment. You can enter a story mission meant for levels 7-10 at level 15 and down thugs in 2 hits without breaking a sweat, but those same enemies will still soak up your hits like a dry sponge at your same level on the streets of Gotham as they match your level.

I meant for this to be a short, breezy piece that looked at Gotham Knights from a more positive angle. I do think higher of this game, and, dare say I like it, but I still can’t gloss over many of Gotham Knights bizarre choices. Video games take a lot longer to make now, and it’s doubtful given its reception out of the gate that Gotham Knights 2 is deep in development. In a different era, where for example titles like Assassin’s Creed laid the groundwork for the exceptional Assassin’s Creed II that dealt with all of the originals flaws, a theoretical sequel to this concept would be an intriguing proposition. Gotham Knights is far from perfect, but if you dismissed it because a review like mine swayed you away from it, consider giving it a shot and look for what it is instead of what it isn’t. Who knows, you might find yourself pleasantly surprised.

Gotham Knights is available now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X and PC.