Gotham Knights – The Best Superhero Game You’re Not Playing

Batman is dead, killed by his longtime foe Ra’s al-Ghul. The city is in chaos with the loss of their defender. Commissioner Gordon is dead and the Gotham City Police are in the pocket of the mob. The Penguin has gone straight. Mr. Freeze is on a rampage. Harley Quinn has some nefarious plan in mind. Mindless shards of Clayface have been spotted. The League of Shadows is lurking about, the Court of Owls is on the move, and Batman’s last case, the murder of a Professor Langstrom, is still unsolved.

It’s bad times in Old Gotham, and Gotham has to rely upon the only protectors it has left; the Gotham Knights — Robin, Batgirl, Nightwing and Red Hood.

Gotham Knights is a solo or co-op open world-ish RPG. I use “ish” here because the activities in the open world change each night depending upon the information gathered the previous night, as well as the plot that proceeds during the daytime chapters in The Belfry, the home base for the Knights and Bruce Wayne’s butler Alfred, who is the surprisingly capable fifth member of the team.

The Belfry is where the characters catch up and discuss the cases and their own, personal issues. Batgirl (Barbara Gordon/Oracle) is dealing with the loss of her father, Commissioner Gordon, in her own way. Red Hood (Jason Todd) has just come back from the dead, courtesy of the Lazarus Pits, and that experience deeply troubles him. Nightwing (Dick Grayson) is both the heir apparent to the Wayne name and fortune and the de facto leader of the Knights and is tasked with keeping the unlikely group headed in the right direction. Robin (Tim Drake), the third to use that name, is still trying to find his place in the crew as he finds out the truth of the heroes beneath the masks.

The player can also, while in the Belfry, change which character they take on patrol. There is no point to switching between them once the one that best fits their playstyle is chosen, and in fact the various elite gear that drops when finishing story missions and given to the current character means it is very hard for a behind character to catch up.

Lastly, for some reason, The Belfry has a completely playable original version of the arcade game Spy Hunter (a personal favorite) upstairs.

Nightwing excels in acrobatics and melee combat; Red Hood is focused more on range. Batgirl is an expert hacker, and Robin is a master of stealth.

Investigations in the Belfry can unlock missions that can be taken on during the nightly patrol. As the game progresses, other contacts can begin to offer additional mission types. Interrogating criminals on the streets can earn clues for still more. Stopping random crimes drops stuff needed to craft new suits and weapons — and some of the best gear requires stopping very specific sorts of crimes. I’m currently desperately seeking new Court of Owls criminals so I can make some poison resist gear. Damn Talons.

As well as basic crimefighting, Gotham at night has a bunch of other stuff going on. Seeking out Batman’s caches starts timed parkour runs across Gotham. Lucien Fox wants to teach you how to use your cape for gliding. Dinah Lance wants to race Batcycles. There’s pages of a mysterious tome scattered around the city. Hijacked ambulances with cryo-stored organs to deliver to desperate patients. Street art to find. Historical monuments to find. Lost Batarangs to be collected. All the extra cruft you’ve come to expect from open world games — Gotham Knights has. For better or worse.

So let’s get into some details.

Acting

The game is fully animated and voice acted. And it is done really well. Each character’s personality — the Knights, Alfred’s, Penguin’s, Harley’s — every one you meet — comes out strongly. Left idle in the Belfry too long, and the characters will even start goofing around 🙂

Character Customization

There’s a dozen styles to unlock, and as many color schemes. Additionally, once unlocked, each of the cowl, chest, legs, boots, gloves and emblem can be independently changed, as well as pre-built outfits. The characters outside of their costumes are as they are, but when you’re on patrol, you can look your nastiest.

You can additionally change the color scheme of the Batcycle if that’s more your style. Each character has their own customizations.

Gear

Gear can be crafted from random stuff and faction-specific stuff; you may want a couple different suits available when going after certain enemies. Mr. Freeze freezes, the Court of Owls uses poison, Harley uses explosives, etc.

Gear can also be modded. Mods drop when stopping criminals, and they can be fused to become more powerful. This can be useful when setting up gear to inflict status ailments, or just to increase crit rates and damage.

Fighting

Fighting is fairly basic, with only a few combos. Just whaling on one enemy at a time will lead to certain doom, so fights are a mixture of striking from above or at range, moving in for some melee and using perfect evades and perfect strikes to smoothly combo from one enemy to the next, then smoke bombing out when the enemies get too thick to pick better targets.

Most enemies are simple goons, but there’s typically at least one and sometimes as many as three tough variants that require “Momentum” moves to take down. Momentum builds when fighting and defeating enemies, and is key to taking down groups or breaking through the defenses of the tough mobs.

It all leads to a very fluid flowing combat.

Difficulty level

You can choose to play the game from the easiest “Story” mode to ultra-difficult modes. Additionally, in certain open world investigation puzzles, after a certain amount of time, the game will just offer you the solution. You can also adjust settings that give you the answer immediately any time. Gotham Knights is as hard or as easy as you want it to be.

Worth playing?

Other reviews say this doesn’t measure up against the gritty intensity and combat of Arkham Asylum and Arkham Nights. And nor do the villains.

I guess I just have to say that I haven’t played either of those games very long. I didn’t really get into Arkham Asylum. But this game dragged me in. Maybe the fighting is a little simpler than in the Batman game, but I’m fine with it.

If you’re a DC universe fan, you’re going to see new takes on old Batman names. And you’re not going to see some others — where’s Joker or Riddler, for instance? (It was pointed out by a friend that they even removed all of Joker’s Amusement Mile). Why isn’t Selina Kyle morning Bruce Wayne?

But, you don’t often see Harley Quinn emphasize her psychiatrist backstory as much as she does here. The Penguin really does seem to have left his criminal life behind to focus on his nightclub, the Iceberg Lounge. Clayface seems to fully embrace the overacting, dramatic character he plays in the Harley Quinn cartoon. (And, as in the cartoon, Mr. Freeze’s wife Nora is thawed out, and wants nothing to do with him).

The game casually drops Easter eggs anyone who has played DC Universe Online for any length of time will grab onto. I imagine these things actually come from the comics, but there’s way too many comics to keep track of.

The overworld collections wear a little thin after a time. I think they can probably largely be skipped. I did finish the Batman cache runs and received some experience and crafting materials from it. But some others, I know I will need to turn to a walkthrough to finish.

It comes down to: if you like Batman and open world games, you should play this game. If you have friends who like those same things, you can co-op with them, and it is not obtrusive if you don’t, like the Marvel Avengers game was.

Almost every fight has a wide variety of ways to approach it, using stealth, environmental hazards, range or just mixing it up, up close and personal. The big attacks are well telegraphed in plenty of time to counter.

For me, it was what I wanted. A patrol can be as long or as not as is convenient, and if you mess up a mission, it can probably be done again another night.

I’m in no hurry to see the end of the game, though I will have to pause it when Tactics Ogre Reborn arrives. That game comes first.

TL;DR

Gotham Knights is a solid open world action RPG with a great cast, interesting setting and plenty to do. However, it may not be as intense or as difficult as some players want.