Gotham Knights

The shadow cast by the Arkham games looms heavily over Gotham Knights‘ opening hours, often bleeding into the entire game.

It’s been seven years since Rocksteady released Batman: Arkham Knight, leaving a massive hole for players wishing to take part in the Caped Crusader’s exploits. That shadow extends even further knowing that it has been almost a decade since WB Games Montreal released Batman: Arkham Origins, the developer’s last full game.

Gotham Knights has the cards stacked against it, needing to prove itself a worthwhile entry in the franchise of Batman games while proving WB Games Montreal has the chops to not merely mimic previous successes.

There was little hesitancy on my part leading up to the game’s release. A multiplayer game set in the Batman universe? An opportunity to zoom around the streets and skylines of Gotham while viciously beating up thugs? Moody characters that I could upgrade over the course of the game with loot I earned by exploring every nook and cranny? Sign me up. Certainly, Montreal had a lot to live up to and a carbon copy of the Arkham formula would be fine but why not try something different?

Gotham Knights‘ brilliantly executed opening cutscene hooked me. I watched in awe at a choreographed action scene that set the stage, whetting my appetite for what’s to come. Action-packed and emotional, I had chills running through me that only served to hype up the story.

Yes, for all intents and purposes, Bruce Wayne is dead. Dick Grayson, Barbara Gordon, Jason Todd, and Tim Drake are left to pick up the pieces and figure out what led to this. How does a world contend with not only a dead billionaire but a missing Batman? Throughout the game, Nightwing, Batgirl, Red Hood, and Robin mourn the loss of their mentor and friend, dealing with the trauma of his absence while trying to maintain control of the crime that constantly sweeps Gotham.

The Bat-family’s story is handled with a level of care and attention to detail that I did not expect. The looming mystery of Batman’s death is constantly in the back of the team’s head and likely the player’s. Over the course of the game, the weight of Batman’s influence is palpable. He wasn’t perfect, especially in the eyes of his successors as they attempt to come to terms with what the cowl means to them and the city.

Dialog and interactions between characters is written with heart, as they have a history with each other. The inclusion of Alfred deepens the blow of Batman’s loss. While the Bat-family lost a father figure, Alfred lost a son and confidant. Thankfully, Gotham Knights doesn’t lose itself in melodrama as many of the touching moments are sprinkled throughout the narrative and in specific quests where players explore the backstories of each playable member.

Squaring off against the likes of Harley Quinn, Mr. Freeze, and the Court of Owls is engaging in its own right but credit should be given to Gotham Knights‘ writing. Dialog often has a lot of comic book bravado and quips, yet there are numerous layers at work here. There’s the emotional core of grief, loss, and humanity that often unfolds at the Belfry, the team’s base of operations. Pensive detective work often finds a character muttering to themselves or having multiple team members chime in over comms offering suggestions. Once the Court of Owls comes in to play, sinister notes are introduced that expose Gotham’s ugliest underbelly.

There is a lot for Montreal to juggle here and I commend the work done to keep all the balls in the air. The Arkham games were never a masterclass in deep narrative, instead relying on the world already built by other in the DC Universe. Many of my favorite moments in those games were simple nods or lore drops that made players aware they were in a world packed with history, even if it was a small reference found in a note during a mission.

Players can read emails from Clark Kent or the Teen Titans or other figures of note that go to remind how expansive this universe is and that these characters don’t just exist in the microcosm of Gotham. Just as impressive is the fact that good chunks of the dialog are specific to the character. During one cutscene, a person references Red Hood when talking to Robin and I wondered how that interaction would have gone if I was actually playing as Red Hood. Early on, I realized I would want to play missions multiple times as other characters just to hear the different ways the team spoke to each other.

Gotham Knights contains many threads for players to follow. The main narrative regarding Batman’s death spins into the larger mystery behind the Court of Owls and ramps up quickly once players begin to engage with it. From there, multiple notable faces from the comic’s rogue gallery have secondary narratives that unfold across multiple nights. Expect varying layers of depth for these story beats that may or may not be entirely surprisingly based on how well-versed you are with the source material. With only cursory knowledge of the Court of Owls, I thought the shadowy group was handled well but unsurprisingly kept getting distracted by all the things to do in Gotham, which isn’t a complaint.

The place the Bat-family calls home has always been one of the most important characters in the games and across all things Batman. This game is no exception. Thankfully, Gotham Knights is removed from the Arkham-verse so Montreal is able to build upon its own version of Gotham.

Gotham is massive, especially when compared to predecessors. In terms of scale, imagine a pre-Origins Assassin’s Creed game or Grand Theft Auto 5 with just the city parts and not the sprawling back-country. Of course, size isn’t everything in terms of an open world and there are sections of the map that are primarily polygons the player is going to grapple past and never think of again.

Exploration is a strange beast in Gotham Knights because initially, the only method of fast travel is to end the night and go back to the belfry. Players mainly get around by driving around the Batcycle, grappling between points, and running. Interestingly, fast travel is only introduced after a handful of story missions are completed and then doing a side quest that unlocks fast travel points. Just as I lamented the numerous upgrades Batman earned to expedite movement in the Arkham games, I earned a cape glide for Batgirl that unlocked after completing some side objectives.

Gotham Knights tackles its mission structure in a unique way. Unlike the Arkham games that unfolded over the course of a single night, Gotham Knights takes place over multiple nights that end when the player decides it. Each night has a basic structure of primary and secondary story missions, side objectives, and premeditated crimes.

Premeditated crimes are highlighted in red on the map and must be completed that night or they are gone forever. Premeditated crimes are one-off events that occur across the streets of Gotham that change location but not structure. Players will be tasked with stopping a bank robbery, preventing criminals from busting their friend out of a truck, ceasing a hacking operation, and so on. These crimes boil down to taking out a group of enemies in a small area and keeping them from completing an objective.

During bank robberies, players need to attack the crooks running off with cash so they drop the bags. Or attack the ones busting down an armored car. Or hitting the one hacking at a computer.

So why complete these missions despite their repetitive nature? Well, they reward upgrade materials and are often smaller pieces to bigger story missions. Early on, the team is tracking down Harley Quinn but don’t have many leads. To learn more about Harley’s plans, players need to complete variations of these crimes that thankfully don’t disappear. However, side quests and contracts given by other characters require multiple completions of these crimes or other tasks to be completed.

Narratively, the nature of repeat crimes occurring across multiple nights makes sense in the Batman universe. Gotham is constantly plagued by crime and without Batman, it’s understandable that things are going to fall apart a bit. The pressure is on the Bat-family to clean up Gotham and this is simply a nightly task.

Mechanically, premeditated crimes are okay but don’t really further the enjoyment of Gotham Knights, at least when playing solo. Larger set-piece missions are engaging on their own and have narrative built in to further engage the player. But often, premeditated crimes can become extremely hectic for a solo player, especially when players are meant to weave through a dozen plus enemies while preventing some from completing an objective.

Because I like the punishment, I played Gotham Knights on hard and frequently came out of bigger fights by the skin of my teeth. It felt rewarding during main missions but less so during constantly repeating crimes. While that may seem like a complaint, it helped me realize the structure of the game and Montreal’s goals whether intentional or not.

Gotham Knights doesn’t dole out everything to the player at once. Abilities, gear, movement techniques and more are locked away by either time or objective fulfillment. This helps the player become acclimated to all the game has to offer and sink their teeth into the content.

Combat is extremely fluid but not as complex as the Arkham games eventually became. Players deal with basic melee grunts, ranged attackers, and larger enemies that need guards broken. With these basic foes players learn perfect dodges that grant momentum or line up the enemy for a perfect attack that does more damage. Timed strikes do more damage but require the player to press the attack button the moment before the previous strike lands.

Momentum is the key component during fights because it allows players to unleash skill moves specific to each of the four characters. Batgirl has a beatdown attack to do massive single-target damage that can be upgraded so it won’t be interrupted. Nightwing has a pounce ability where he jumps high into the air and kicks an enemy that can be further chained. The better a player does in a fight, the more momentum they gain, making it a crucial component during fights.

Ability points allow players to invest in a character’s skill tree that has a little over a dozen unlockable tiles. There are a few universal skills in each tree that assist in critical damage and other basics but nearly everything else is meant to make each character feel unique. Robin is stealth-focused and has unlocks allowing him to do more stealth damage and hit harder when an enemy isn’t facing him. Red Hood uses guns and brute force and players can unlock skills that make his grabs deadlier than other characters. Each character has a fourth tree that can be unlocked after the requirements are met, granting an extremely powerful momentum skill that acts as a kind of super.

Initially, character skills are meant to benefit the individual player and allow them to fare better in combat as they level up. But soon, skills are unlocked that provide benefits when playing with another person.

Crafting is an interesting addition to the game and one that doesn’t show its true benefit until elemental attacks come into play. After several hours into the game, I began to earn armor that improved a resistance to something like poison or fire. Later on, I unlocked a melee weapon that had freeze build-up on it, meaning that after a few hits an enemy would temporarily freeze in place.

Over the course of the game, players earn random gear or can craft it from components dropped from various enemies or rewarded by completing missions. The system isn’t as involved like in MMOs and the gear drive isn’t as detailed in something like Destiny. However, there comes a point where players aren’t just making a suit that looks cool, they are actively making something that provides significant stat boosts or prevents them from instantly succumbing to a status effect.

Because Montreal shows restraint in the opening hours of Gotham Knights, players are able to take all these systems in slowly. Enemy variety doesn’t begin to drastically change until the story does. Difficulty doesn’t twist and turn until the player chooses to engage with it. Soon I realized it would be foolish to take on every single premeditated crime every single night, especially with limited health packs that I also needed for main missions. The game teaches you its logic even when you don’t expect it to.

Gotham Knights surprisingly caters to the multiplayer experience quite well. I’ve done my best to only address in passing so far because it is both seamless and crucial to the true enjoyment of the game. Yes, you can complete Gotham Knights by yourself but I think you would be missing out on a great deal of fun by doing so.

First off, the game is extremely friendly to jump-in, jump-out cooperation. At one point I got stuck in a mission and sent out an SOS for help. While no one joined, I accidentally went searching for another game and joined a player randomly doing stuff in Gotham. I freaked out because I was at the last section of a story mission and didn’t want to have to repeat everything. With dread, I went back to my game and was right back where I started. Awesome.

Playing with another person will progress the host’s game and their story but also reward you experience for anything you’ve completed, meaning that there is no reason not to join a friend who has just started out or randomly hop into someone else’s game. If you play a story mission you haven’t come across, you have the option to play it out or skip it when you come to that point in your story. It’s a smart system that doesn’t make you regret simply booting up the game and playing with others.

Let me tell you, fighting off dozens of foes with two people flitting around the streets of Gotham is awesome. Beating up one guy only to do a somersault kick over to a baddie your partner was working on and then pummel them together is a great feeling. After playing with a friend, I began to understand why premeditated crimes were packed with so many enemies and why they felt especially hectic solo.

Gotham Knights really embraces cooperative play because there is a synergy with abilities and gear if you and your teammate plan ahead. Take on Mr. Freeze missions with both players wearing cold-resistant gear and using flame build-up weapons makes things a surprising breeze.

Multiplayer also feeds back into the game’s narrative because this is a team of four heroes attempting to fill in the gaps that Batman left behind. Where Batman could possibly tackle all this by himself, it might make sense that Batgirl and Robin need to team up for a night to clear crime out of Gotham for 12 hours.

A small gripe that I had with multiplayer was that during the most hectic actions scenes or when both players were racing on the Batcycle at separate ends of the map, the framerate would dip a bit. It never reached unplayable levels, only a point where it was merely noticeable.

The city itself is beautiful and moody to take in. The tallest buildings of Gotham emit glowing lights that are captured by the surrounding fog, turning them into mini-landmarks. Animations for combat are badass and fluid to the point where I was shocked that Montreal gave each character their own unique animation or breaking an audio-recording bug they found. It feels strange to say that a game with such a big budget has such a surprising amount of detail but here we are. In reality, players have another “Batman” game with excellent voice acting, visuals, and combat. It might not be what you recognize but the spirit and dedication are the same.

Gotham Knights may not be the Arkham follow-up players were expecting. Yet it is an admirable addition to the Batman universe, striving to forge a path of its own. Multiplayer fuels the experience, allowing for seamless crimefighting with a friend. Growing pains may exist with loot, crafting, and progression but it balances out in harder difficulties that reward calculated play and thoughtful tactics. While some may be lost without Bats, this family has found a way to survive.