Gotham Knights is a game with good combat mechanics and a story. It takes some time to get used to and unlock the better part of combat. The city of the game is alive but it is being held back by the performance issues. It has both positive and negative points which need to be considered before reaching a conclusion. Performance is an issue and getting 60 FPS at the launch of the game was only a dream. The power of your PC didn’t even matter. It has had some fixes since then which has made the game a lot more playable.
The game has some cool superhero moments. It lets you beat up bad guys even when you are surrounded by a mass of them. There is a lot of grinding to get to the good part and enjoy the game. Players can just go to kick and punch different enemies. So there is video game stuff that is pretty simple. Performance was a major issue and a lot of these issues have been solved. Despite its shortcoming, there is a lot of good. Especially in combat once you reach the better part of it. The upgrades and abilities make the overall combat experience better. All this makes you wonder Is Gotham Knights worth it? Let’s find out.
Plot and Setting (Spoiler Free)
Gotham Knights have a good plot that offers fun gameplay. The story is captivating in the beginning. Batman is dead and his Sidekicks have to pick up where he left off. There is mystery, conspiracy, and detective work in the story. The main campaign revolves around the court of Owls.
The main campaign is not long but it is surrounded by threads of case file missions. These side missions are actually complete side arcs. Side missions follow the story of different bosses from Batman comics such as Harley Quin, Mr. Freeze, and things like that. These side missions are not just fillers and at times they even seem better than main missions.
There are chase sequences, over-the-top cinematics, and moments that can change the open world. Boss battles are good but the bosses can turn into damage sponges. The facial expressions of heroes are not that good even though they are the main characters. Their facial expression seems outdated and does not sit well with modern standards. The presentation of villains is good both in terms of looks and personality. They add more length to the game thanks to all their side stories.
The Gotham City
Gotham is a good setting that looks amazing. There are neon lights in the rich district and financial center. The other side of the city is all jumbled up with claustrophobic back alleys and graffiti on the walls. The distinction of the areas looks cool and shows the conditions of the city through looks. There are different landmarks scattered throughout the city that are unique and imposing.
One of the things that feels weird is the number of civilians in the city. Gotham feels more like a city of criminals with civilians than the other way around. It makes you question how much civilization is left. Spiderman did a better job of city presentation than Gotham Knights. There are pedestrians in the city that will react to your current hero based on who they are. Their comment can be negative or positive.
You can attack the police and the general public. The police will attack you on sight if you don’t escape quickly. There is no police system though. Gotham Knights is tied around the open-world grinding so you will see a lot of open-world activities that give the reward. The grinding system has been made complicated to make it seem like you are doing something. In reality, it is all just rinse and repeat to unlock more stuff.
Side Quests
The main narrative takes 15 hours to complete but side quests are equally interesting. Side quests of Gotham Knights are unique and they are as good as the main quests. Sometimes, side quests can be better than the main quests. It dives into the mind of these criminals and usually has a multi-phase boss fight in the end to test your skill. It provides good loot and you can get a lot of stuff from side content. Side quests will extend the duration of the story beyond the main questline.
Combat
The combat starts with basic melee attacks. As you progress you will see the focus being shifted to higher-level activity. You will get better gear and mod as you progress. In the middle of the game, you will start to get an elemental effect weapon and damage. These abilities let you do damage to a large group of enemies like never before.
Gotham Knights will reward you for skillful play. Perfect dodges, counterattacks and not rushing is rewarded with high damage attack. It wants you to take the combat slow and not rush ahead. As you fight you will fill up a special ability meter. You can use that meter to unleash a powerful AOE (area of effect), a Powerful attack that can intercept enemies, do elemental damage, and more. These attacks can help you take down a large group of enemies flawlessly. Animation of these attacks is also good.
The Super Heroes
Each hero brings something new to the table. The way they move, and react to different situations, their animation and even the way they use grappling hook is different. Robin uses teleportation, Batgril glides, Red Hood uses the Lazarous jump and Nightwing uses a flying jet that can go high and take you anywhere you want.
Superheroes are different and each becomes more unique with progress. They become more powerful as you use them. Earlier combat relies on melee but later you get a special ability. Mod and skill trees can massively change the playstyle of each character. Nightwing is acrobatic, Red Hood is slow but brutal, Robin has fast attacks with abilities of deception, and Batgirl is a relentless punching machine. Combat is simple and slow unless you upgrade characters.
Stealth and Enemies
AI of enemies is bad and it is evident through the stealth of the game. Distracting one enemy with something will flock all the enemies to the same area. Sometimes you will take down an enemy while another is looking at you and will not be aware of what happened. Bad AI makes stealth easy but at times it can make the game hard as well. Enemies can break formation which can mess up a perfect plan, forcing you to change tactics.
It seems like the Gotham Knights was built around CO-OP which makes stealth problematic. There are no cool hiding places like the Arkham series. Most of the time stealth is about crouch-walking and defeating enemies. Stealth takedown and animations are good and that’s the only good thing about stealth. Combat and stealth could have been more fun if there was less grind.
Progression Is An Issue
Progression for each character is different and each character has to be progressed separately. Even their transversal is locked behind progression. Unless you play with a character, you will not even be able to use their transversal abilities. Abilities for each character have to be unlocked separately.
It is a huge issue since without abilities all characters are nearly the same. By the time you unlock all abilities for one character, the main campaign of the game will almost be at the end. So you would need to play different activities or start a new game plus as another character. Gotham Knights is not that interesting to be played in a new game plus mode over and over just to unlock the abilities of all characters.
General Gameplay
Gotham Knights is good to some extent but its performance is not that good. There have been some updates that have fixed some of the issues. You are still going to run into some issues and it depends on how much tolerance you have for such issues. Progression has some issues as explained earlier. If you are sticking to a single character then progression can be good. Doing more damage in a cool way through different abilities is also part of the progression. UI is not that good and some changes through updates have made it a little better.
Players can level up by doing activities out in the city. It will give them access to the skill tree and new abilities. Find different activities such as bank robbery and other things to intercept. In the beginning, it feels like crime fighting. Later on, it becomes a chore as you do it over and over to unlock new abilities.
Unlocking abilities for each character is even more brutal since progression is separate for each character. You can level up by doing different activities in the city. It will let you access the skill tree and unlock new abilities. These activities will get boring as they are highly repeatable.
Open World and CO-OP
You will see different illegal activities happening in the world that you can intercept. Some of these activities will evolve as the main narrative progresses. If criminals get their hands on some weapon or technology you will see them using it in the city. These new weapons will make them more dangerous in the street.
Skins are good and some of them are more customizable than others. There are a lot of skins in the game that you can unlock as you progress. Cutscenes are filled with emotional exchanges between different characters. The moment-to-moment stuff in the game is fun and interesting.
The CO-OP of the game is good and does not feel like a letdown. Gotham Knights is challenging so CO-OP can help a lot in making it easier. Bosses are damage sponges and having an extra ally to deal with them can make it a lot more fun. At times it even feels like the game is built around CO-OP as mentioned earlier. It is a straightforward CO-OP experience with not much of an issue.
Verdict
Gotham Knights is a good game but it had some serious performance issues. It was one of the most technically broken games at launch. Though a lot of the issues have been solved through updates it is still not as good as it needs to be. The premise is good but it did not execute the idea of Batman’s death to the extent that it could. It is a story of four sidekicks starting from where Batman left off. Though the way that story is shown is good. It is not a game with a bad story but it could have done better.
Combat is good and each character feels unique. Though in the beginning, each character is the same, they feel different later on as you progress. The separation of progression for each character is a letdown as it is not a looter shooter with a high repeatability value. There are main missions and then a lot of open-world activities. The game has a lot of loot and an RPG system that does not really matter. Gotham Knights is a superhero game with a lot of repeatable activities that can turn the experience sour.
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