Horrible UI

Somehow, someone on the development team saw the UI for Marvel’s Avengers – already a mucked-up version of Destiny’s equipment screen – and found a way to make it worse. It looks ugly, with multiple items divided into oversized tabs for Suit, Melee and Ranged (with massive text denoting each category) while your hero is shoved to the absolute left of the screen.

No unique icons or anything to distinguish gear either. Head over to the Crafting screen, and you’re met with three tabs for Blueprints, a mess of crafting materials under “Salvage,” and just the entire right side of the screen left empty. When you craft something, guess where it shows you the materials required. On the actual gear itself? Nope, on the bottom left of your screen. It feels like a badly cobbled-together interface, even by mobile game standards.

Grinding

This is an action RPG, so some grinding is expected, right? Unfortunately, Gotham Knights takes this in a mind-numbingly annoying direction. Though you only need to level up one hero – since the rest gain experience alongside them – you must complete 10 street crimes for each Knighthood tree for 40 street crimes overall.

Each is excessively dull as you go to a place, beat up some thugs, gather some evidence, and then beat up some more thugs. Hand-crafted challenges would have been great, but you get this procedurally generated hogwash with little to no imagination. The fact that later subcases require leveling up, otherwise enemies will feel way too tanky, is also annoying. Speaking of which.

Damage Sponge Enemies

As noted above, levels, loot, and all that good stuff is a factor in combat as much as dodging, combos, and abilities. Except the latter is pretty moot since several enemies are damage sponges for no rhyme or reason. The Brutes are perhaps the worst offenders, especially the Gladiator Talon that can fully heal. When you’re just wailing away at an enemy again and again and again as their health bar slowly shrinks, you don’t feel like a superhero or successor to Batman. You feel like a schmuck who should have grinded some more levels.

Boring Loot

The suits are perhaps one of the best parts of the game, and you’d think there would also be some unique weapons to discover or craft. Unfortunately, each Knight’s weapons are the most uninteresting filler, equipped with some perks that do this thing or that and don’t feel exciting to use. It would have been preferable to do away with all this clutter and instead opt for a handful of weapons that the player could earn through treasure hunts or challenge battles.

They could have unique, game-changing perks and abilities, and maybe crafting would add on a random perk or two for more build variety. Unfortunately, “missed opportunities” may as well be Gotham Knights’ subtitle at this point.

The Court of Owls

When the game was first confirmed to feature the Court of Owls as antagonists, there was genuine excitement. After all, it was part of one of the best Batman storylines in comic books to date, and the Bat Family played a pretty sizable role there. How would the video game adapt their mythos and history? Poorly, as it turns out. The entire faction was simply tossed aside in favor of the League of Shadows because….well, why not? No interesting enemy types or bosses, either. Truly a waste.

Three Villain Cases

There’s a lot of talk about Gotham City becoming besieged by crimes once the criminals find out Batman is missing/dead. The Court of Owls is quickly tossed aside in favor of the League of Shadows. But there should be more than enough other villains ready to claim Gotham, right? Well, in Gotham Knights, there are three.

Yes, three other villains to go after in different subcases, namely Harley Quinn, Mister Freeze, and Clayface. Where is Black Mask? What about Carmine Falcone? Penguin does little other than give you some quests, while the Man-Bat is another enemy type you beat up. Bane, Hush, Killer Croc, Mad Hatter, Scarecrow – where are they? Some interesting sequences featuring them would have been nice, even if you don’t outright fight them.

Boring Bosses

Unfortunately, any additional villains would have probably been wasted on Gotham Knights since the bosses are boring. You dodge around, shoot/punch them, and repeat. The sad part is that many of these fights could have been more. Clayface splitting into copies before turning into a larger boss could have opened up some unique challenges, like using stealth to exploit a weakness and beat him down once he shrinks.

Harley Quinn weaponizing her followers could have allowed for a chase sequence through the streets as her minions try to stop you from reaching her. A massive fight against venerable crowds of rioters would have also been interesting. Mister Freeze even gets a cool-looking mech but feels mostly dull to fight since you’re just dodging missiles half the time. The less said about the final two main case bosses, the better.

Locking Abilities

Remember how great gliding felt in the Batman Arkham series? Traversal felt pretty good overall, thanks to the grappling hook mechanics, but being able to chain grapples and glides or dive bomb onto enemies felt amazing. So how does Gotham Knights adhere to that legacy? Why, by locking its unique traversal abilities behind the Knighthood skill tree, which doesn’t even become available until later in the game.

Want to glide as Batgirl? Want to hop about in mid-air with Red Hood? Maybe short-range teleport as Robin? You can’t because only Batman gets the big boy moves. Knighthood isn’t a terrible concept, but locking special traversal abilities or Ultimates behind it is lame.

Contextual Jumping

On the surface, the lack of a manual jump button can seem annoying, but it’s not the real problem. The real problem is that various jumping actions, whether leaping down on foes or vaulting over obstacles are all contextual. Sometimes you’ll run into objects that can’t be vaulted because they’re not supposed to be. Other times, you’ll miss that stealth takedown because the contextual controls got a little wonky. Either way, it’s another annoyance to add to the list and turns open-world exploration into a slog.

No Endgame

No endgame in a loot-focused action RPG? No high-level activities to grind for better gear, no Prestige System for minor stat boosts drip-fed to keep you playing? No hidden dungeons with super bosses, raids for multiple players, or two-player-only co-op missions that take advantage of each hero’s unique abilities? No solo missions for each character that are tailor-made for them? And no, the Villain Arc subcases don’t count just because you can finish them after the main story ends.

Heroic Assault, a four-player co-op mode with players fighting through 30 floors of enemies, is coming next month, so maybe that will serve as the endgame for some. It’s crazy how heavily loot is emphasized without any real reason to use it once the game wraps.

Various issues with the UI and localization have also been fixed. An issue preventing friends from joining through invites is also fixed. Compatibility issues with Nvidia Ansel may still be present, and the development team is still investigating it. Stay tuned for updates in the meantime.

Gotham Knights is available for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. You can check out our official review here. Despite a somewhat mixed reception among critics and some players, the action RPG debuted in second place in Gfk’s weekly retail charts for the UK. Learn more about it here.

Gotham Knights PC Patch Notes | 10/26/2022

General:

• Invincible enemies playing a “meditating” animation will no longer appear in crimes.
  Various UI issue fixes.
• Fixed issues caused by graphical settings not being applied properly.
  Various localization fixes.
• Fixed various Keyboard/Mouse specific input issues.

Co-op:

• Fixed an issue that was preventing being able to join friends through invites.

Stability:

• Various crash fixes throughout the title, most notably during the S.T.A.R. Labs “free the scientists” fight and the Harley Quinn Hospital Boss Fight.
• Fixed an AMD specific crash related to shadows.

Known Issues:

• There may be some compatibility issues with Nvidia Ansel that we are still investigating for this patch

Gotham Knights takes placec shortly after the death of Batman. Gotham City is in disarray, and it’s up to the Bat Family to reign in the criminals that are turning the city into their personal playground. Villains in Gotham Knight include series standouts like Mr. Freeze, Harley Quinn, Clayface, and the Court of Owls.

Gameplay in Gotham Knights involves patrolling the open-world streets of Gotham City through five distinct boroughs. Each one of the playable characters has their own traversal abilities, as well as the Batcycle.

The four protagonists will expand their arsenal of gadgets, equipment, and abilities over time. Gotham Knights also features two-player co-op, further supported by co-op takedowns against enemies.

In an update scheduled for November 29, Gotham Knights will be getting the Heroic Assault mode, which allows for up to four player co-op. The mode will be separate from the main story cammpaign, and will feature 30 floors full of specific objectives and enemies.

The Batman Arkham games made great use of the Unreal Engine, and despite Arkham Knight being on the Unreal Engine 3 – the game features some astounding visual quality that holds up to this day. Gotham Knights has shifted to Unreal Engine 4, which has resulted in a direct improvement in many aspects. The PC version features a plethora of visuals options including but not limited to field of view, depth of field, chromatic aberration, ambient occlusion, ray tracing, environmental density, draw distance, and post-processing quality. I guess it goes without saying that the suite of options here is definitely impressive.

We tested the game on a reasonably beefy PC which was composed of a Ryzen 5950x, an RTX 3080Ti with 12GB of memory. The game was installed on an NVMe SSD. We first tested the game on everything switching to their highest possible option at 4K resolution. Unfortunately, performance wasn’t great as we were consistently facing lag in gameplay. You see, the game gives the player different options of TAA and the highest possible setting which is TAA [Gen 5] is very taxing. We switched it over to Gen 4 and performance was much better. However, the lag was still present. As mentioned previously, our PC hardware is reasonably powerful so not being able to max out the game at a stable 60 frames per second is a tad disappointing, although tuning down some of the other settings will likely result in better performance.

Briefly taking a moment to compare Gotham Knights to Rocksteady’s latest, it’s rather obvious that the asset quality has received a noticeable uptick in quality. The polycounts are much higher than before, and it shows if you try to zoom into a character model or try to examine the micro-level details in the environment as well. Of course, this doesn’t mean that Arkham Knight looks bad by any stretch – but it certainly looks a bit dated when compared to its successor.

The world streaming tech also looks similar to Arkham Knight, though that isn’t a surprise since the game isn’t using the cutting-edge Unreal Engine 5 which allows for rendering even larger worlds with smooth LoD swapping. Over on the presentation side of things, the TAA implementation on Gotham Knights looks much better than Arkham Knight – which was also reasonably crisp but the game could show some shimmering artifacts which isn’t the case with this implementation.

Gotham Knights’ strongest suits remain mostly the same as its predecessors. The game features a high level of fidelity for its character models. From the high-quality skin meshes to physically-based materials for costumes and proper physics implementation for capes, Gotham Knights has a lot to love when it comes to gawking at these faithfully recreated superheroes. Combined with cinematic lights that are triggered during select cutscenes, these character models can look really amazing.

Of course, the environments have to be top-notch when it comes to an open-world game like Gotham Knights. Much like the Arkham games that came before, Gotham Knights also doesn’t feature a dynamic time of day since the game is primarily set during nighttime, so a lot of the lighting work can be delegated to pre-calculated baked lighting for some sources of light which is what looks to be happening here as well. This saves up on compute resources, and the game can use the fixed sources of light and their reflections to create an ominous atmosphere that works to great effect in a game such as this one.

Suffice to say, Gotham Knights features an impressive presentation when it comes to its environments. Plenty of light sources cast their reflection on the slick, rain-soaked streets of Gotham City while neon sign boards peppered throughout the landscape come together to create a unique aesthetic that’s really beautiful. Furthermore, playing on a high-end PC would also give you the option to turn on ray-traced reflections – which would obviously allow for dynamic reflections that are more realistic than your normal baked-in reflections or cube-maps or any other implementations that may be featured otherwise.

Gotham Knights features a vast map with plenty of varied locations and elevations, and it doesn’t compromise on the micro-level fidelity that we have come to expect from a AAA game of such a scope. The asset streaming system works very well and showed no signs of LoD swapping or visible pop-in during our experience with the game. Gotham Knights also seems to render solid chunks of the map at once, with some impressive draw distances – though I am personally not sold on the fact that these draw distances or the world streaming system is something that wouldn’t have been possible on last-gen hardware.

The Arkham games also featured similarly expansive open-worlds with plenty of mobility options to traverse these distances quickly, and last-gen hardware was able to handle it all with relative ease. Of course, there might be some other differences with regards to how Gotham Knights handles its asset streaming system or there could have been other complications with regards to different movement abilities for each of the 4 characters – but we didn’t notice any radical changes in the technical makeup that would warrant skipping last-gen hardware entirely.

And this brings us to the post-processing side of things. On top of the impressive asset quality and environmental detail, Gotham Knights uses a bevy of post-processing effects to enhance the visual presentation. The game utilizes an impressive implementation of TAA anti-aliasing, which shows little to no signs of shimmering or image-softening artifacts. It’s easy to mistake it for MSAA, which is something that happens a lot with Naughty Dog games as well.

The game also uses a lot of volumetric fog to establish a sense of atmosphere, and it doubles as a method of masking off details in faraway areas. You will also find light diffusing through these dense particles at various points across the world as well, which also looks really great. Weather effects like rain and snowstorms are also used at times, which look great thanks to its use of high-quality assets. Furthermore, you’ll also come across plenty of explosions, which are all rendered in high detail and are accompanied by a slew of alpha particles. There’s also generous use of depth-of-field and motion blur.

And that’s a general theme with the complete game as well. Gotham Knights is a beautiful-looking game with many strong suits, and on a high-end PC hardware, it will likely blow you away with its vistas. However, the game still runs on Unreal Engine 4 and it’s not something that hasn’t been done before. Part of that could be the developer’s insistence on sticking to Unreal Engine 4 instead of shifting to the newer UE5, but either way – there’s a constant feeling that it could have been so much better since the developers completely skipped last-gen consoles. The Arkham games had always featured cutting-edge visuals, and Gotham Knights continues that trend on a high end PC, albeit with performance issues that need to be resolved post-launch.

With Batman supposedly dead, Robin, Nightwing, Red Hood and Batgirl have to not only work together but also coexist. What’s especially interesting is the image language that influences their designs. Red Hood is blocky, so he’s more tank-like in-game. Batgirl is symmetrical, which fits her more balanced profile while Robin is “lower” but sneakier.

Each character has their arc to fulfill, but they won’t be alone. Alfred, the wise butler of Wayne Manor, helps them out by patching their wounds and providing emotional support. Much of these human moments aren’t just relegated to cutscenes. They can also be seen in ambient conversations, even in some of the props around the Belfry.

Gotham Knights is out on October 21st for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC.

You see, Gotham Knights is based around the premise that Batman has died, and the extended Bat family has united in an effort to carry on the legacy of Bruce Wayne as they face the villainous faction that is the Court of Owls. But that interesting plot premise gives rise to more questions than answers, and to that end – we can’t help but ask, Is Batman really dead in Gotham Knights?

According to the developers over at WB Montreal, Batman is dead in Gotham Knights for a fact. Creative director Patrick Redding confirmed this during an interview at this year’s Comic Con that the Batman is in fact “really dead” in Gotham Knights and will remain the same throughout the story. In addition to this, he also confirmed that his archnemesis The Joker wouldn’t be a part of the game as well – though it isn’t confirmed whether he is alive or dead at the moment.

But there are at least two counter-arguments to the developers’ statement – with the first being that this might be a classic case of mismarketing. We have seen multiple instances of developers purposefully misleading the audience into believing something that wouldn’t be a part of the final game in an effort to surprise fans with a shocking twist, and one of the most recent example of such marketing has to be The Last of Us Part 2. Prior to the game’s launch, Naughty Dog even showed off alternate scenes with Joel that wouldn’t be in the final game – so as to make the character’s death hit harder by having an element of surprise with it.

And the second counter-argument to the previous statement is the actual scenario surrounding Batman’s death. According to Gotham Knights’ story, Batman supposedly died during a freak accident in the Batcave that led to him destroying the entire facility along with himself. I’m no detective myself, but doesn’t that sound a bit too weird and too convenient for someone as strong and intelligent as Batman? There’s always the possibility that this might be a cover-up death for our Caped Crusader, and it wouldn’t be the first time he would have done so during his decades-long career as a vigilante hunter. Batman has faked his death multiple times in the comics – such as when he was losing a fight with Superman. By faking his own death, Batman managed to get some time to go underground and build an entire army to defeat the Man of Steel.

Hell, Batman even faked his own death at the end of Batman: Arkham Knight. After having his identity revealed at the hands of Scarecrow, Batman had to activate the Knightfall protocol wherein he destroys the Wayne Manor with himself and Alfred apparently inside to make a show for the journalists surrounding the house. As such, it’s possible that Batman has once again faked his death to accomplish a greater purpose.

And in his apparent absence, Gotham’s Rogues Gallery has once again taken to the streets for a mad grab of power. The Court of Owls is a big organization that uses its highly-trained assassins, The Talons for carrying out its dirty work – and they have taken to Gotham once again to wreak havoc upon its many denizens. Those familiar with Batman’s prior run-ins with the Court of Owls might know that high-ranking members within the villainous organization have had strong connections and relations with the Wayne family. As such, facing those whom his family helped rise to power might have taken a heavy toll on Batman’s already twisted mental state (which has happened in the comics) – so it’s also possible that he faked his death to delegate this work over to his proteges, who are likely to be unaffected by these connections and mental tortures while being really driven to carry Batman’s legacy forwards in his absence.

We also have to consider that Joker doesn’t make an appearance in Gotham Knights as well. We know for a fact that Batman and Joker are inseparable enemies who will fight until the end of time, and if Joker isn’t dead – why isn’t he out there wreaking havoc on the denizens of Gotham City now that his biggest enemy is out of the way? We could theorize that maybe the two of them are fighting somewhere out of Gotham, and duties for keeping the city safe have been delegated to the extended members of the Bat family.

Of course, there’s also the possibility of the DC Extended Universe to consider as well. It could be that Batman is helping out other superheroes from the extended universe like Wonder Woman in a larger conflict, but both of these possibilities seem rather slim because if either of that would be the case – why would Batman pretend that he is indeed dead and even go as far to hide the same from his extended Bat family? It’s highly unlikely, but one worth considering nevertheless.

It’s all fan theories and speculation that we are drawing out based on our limited knowledge of the game, and as for the bottom line – we will have to stick to what WB Montreal has said about Gotham Knights for the time being. That Batman is dead, and he will remain dead throughout the course of the story and wouldn’t make an appearance in any shape or form. But even so, it seems very possible that we will get to know more about this disappearance either throughout the story or through hidden collectibles and lore fragments peppered throughout the city.

One of the most recognizable characters in DC not being a part of this adventure feels like a downer at first, but that’s also a blessing in disguise. After all, we have been playing as the Batman for a long time in the Arkham series. Sure, there were sections that allowed players to assume the role of Catwoman or Robin or even Harley Quinn – they were few and far between. With Gotham Knights, however – players will be able to fully explore the strength and abilities of these characters as they make their way to defeating Gotham’s league of criminals and continue the legacy of Batman as a team of misfits.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

The Batman series makes its video game return this year with Gotham Knights but it’s without the Dark Knight (if you believe WB Games Montreal, that is). Players will have the Batman family instead with Batgirl, Nightwing, Red Hood and Robin available. Each has their own gear and progression but managing them should be easy, even if you choose to stick to one hero.

Speaking to GamesRadar, executive producer Fleur Marty and creative director Patrick Redding confirmed that characters will be leveled automatically as the story progresses. “Since the story progression is shared between all the characters, it also makes sense that you don’t have to level them up from scratch every time you want to switch. It also stays very coherent in terms of our narrative.

“Since the other members of the Batman family are always present in some way in the background, while you’re out in the world fighting crime or unraveling the mystery, they don’t stay inactive. So it makes sense that they are also progressing and getting stronger.”

Despite concerns about how the co-op element will affect the story, Redding noted that this actually fits the dynamic duo aspect of the Batman franchise. “The two-player dynamic fits the fantasy and the Gotham City setting. The ‘duo’ or team-up is such a central feature of the universe that there’s a literal shorthand for it in the comics, animation, film, and TV versions.” Along with combat, level design has been designed to facilitate two players.

Despite drop-in/drop-out co-op, one can play the entire game solo without any issues. You’re not even locked out from certain heroes either – if you want to tackle missions with two Batgirls or two Robins, have at it. Gotham Knights is out later this year but doesn’t have a release date. It’s currently in development for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PS4, Xbox One and PC.

Despite the massive success of the Arkham series, it was put on ice for over half a decade. Last year, the Batman license re-emerged in the gaming world with Gotham Knights. While it does not continue the Arkham canon, it looks to be have similar presentation and action. There’s some clear differences, however, such as a level-system and more focus on progression and equipment. It also seems the combat will be different to some degree to fit to the new co-op option.

Speaking with GamesRadar, Executive Producer Fleur Marty spoke in length about the game. While a lot of it was things that’s been talking about in the past, he did say that while Knights does share DNA with the Arkham titles (WB Montreal was the developer on Arkham Origins), it has been redesigned around the new co-op function.

“We have entirely redesigned the combat system in order for it to work well in co-op,” she said. “Of course, we’re still a brawler, and some of the mechanics won’t feel totally alien for people who played and enjoyed the Arkham series, but it is in many ways very different.”

Marty doesn’t go into specifics about what exactly that means, but later says that while the game has four playable characters, the co-op is with two in mind. One would imagine that probably means there’s lots of duo attacks. We got a few glimpses of that when the game was originally revealed, and we will probably get a more in-depth look before Gotham Knights releases later this year.

We are one day away from the DC FanDome event that will see announcements, panels, trailers and more regarding various adaptations of DC properties. It’s there that we will finally see the next Batman game that has been teased for what feels like forever by WB Games Montreal. In the meantime, they have given a very small teaser to wet your appetite.

If you’ve been following, there’s been something of a pseudo-ARG going on with the game, which internet detectives have been following, with one piece of information pointing to Batgirl as a potential character in the game. Now, the last teaser has been uncovered on the r3dak3d YouTube, which you can see below. It’s only 16 seconds long and only shows a piece of what one assumes to be Gotham (the game in question is rumored to be subtitled Gotham Knights).

The game has long been teased by the company, which has also come after several projects the company was working on was seemingly scrapped. We’ll see what this thing looks like tomorrow at DC FanDome.

So, this Batman game supposedly coming from WB Montreal? What the hell, right? I can’t recall a game that has been so rumored and so teased, yet there’s not been an iota of anything official that has been revealed or announced about it. If rumors are to be believed, apparently both WB Montreal and Rocksteady saw canceled projects, but a new Batman game from WB Montreal is still coming. Well, here’s another rumor for you to throw in the rumor mill.

The Editor of Gamereactor dedicated an article to various different titles that are slated to come soon that have yet to be announced. He mentioned that the Batman game’s announcement would be coming up in the ‘new few months,’ and people would be surprised because it was going to release ‘sooner than you might think.’

For what it’s worth, it does match up with what Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier said not long ago about how WB Interactive planned to do a conference where they would finally, for the love of God, reveal this damn thing before E3 was canceled. Of course, take this rumor with a grain of salt and all, especially for this game that has been so rumored to come at some many different times. Is it finally time for the Dark Knight to rise again? Who knows.