Gotham Knights review: Four isn’t always better than one

gotham knights It’s finally here, the latest in a nearly two-decade legacy of third-person action titles that has seen us don the spandex suit of Batman to solve mysteries, beat up thugs, and take on a legendary collection of evil villains. Now, however, Batman is dead. Instead, Gotham Knights puts us in control of four warded bats as they do their best to fit their eight feet into Batman’s comically large shoes.

The background of this attempt? A third person action game in which you, as a member of the team, head to Gotham City to fight crime in typical Batman style. With a cast of characters to help him and Alfred Pennyworth to give him some much-needed advice, he jumps from building to building fighting for good. By doing so, you level up, upgrade your gear, and spend skill points on a variety of skill trees. It is 2022, after all.

To spare you the usual tedious backstory, Gotham Knights is a decent adventure full of mystery, revelations, and equal parts sneaking and nose-busting. Barring a close narrative veering into a devastating car accident in the game’s final hours, the story of leaving Batman and Bruce Wayne behind while discovering what happened to the playboy is told with the appropriate levels of mourning and drama one would expect. . The idea that Batman was Batman and none of the remaining heroes will be the caped crusader is slowly but surely established as they each solve their own problems and band together to take up the torch.

The main beats of the game’s narrative are frozen with interactions between each of the four characters, whether in cutscenes from individual story arcs or email exchanges between the playable cast and a variety of recipients. From my experience, it’s a mixed bag. The solo journey between Gunslinging Red Hood and the relatively newbie Robin is obviously very different, and will matter to you a varying amount depending on your own tastes and preferences.

As for those long strings about who stole Nightwing’s pizza or watching the gang throw a movie night…they’re silly, but they help humanize the characters. For my money, Red Hood, who is a giant, grumpy guy who runs around hitting things and shooting them with his totally non-lethal pistols, was right up my alley, both narratively and in terms of gameplay, but Nightwing, the stealthy Robin, and the Batgirl technique, everyone brings their own unique assets to the table.

That’s a smart move, isn’t it? Having each of the characters represent a single major aspect of the Batman character in previous games comes together after his death. As for the positives, it allows players to really dig into the parts of the game they enjoy and have a full tree of skill options that further enhance that experience. Were you a fan of Arkham Asylum-style stealth, taking out enemies one by one without starting a fight? So Robin seems tailor-made for you.

However, it has a negative effect. Each character can do everything to a decent degree, but no one can do it as well as Batman. I understand the narrative reasoning for this. I make. However, it’s hard to escape the gameplay-based frustrations of having to return to your home base to manually switch into a character that can pack as much punch or run circles around enemies as you could have in Batman. : Arkham Knight nearly a decade ago. Or damn, even Arkham Asylum, which released in 2009.

This is an issue that is likely to be resolved in this game’s ideal setting, online with other friends who can play a role previously accomplished by a singular dark knight in previous Batman titles. However, as a solo player, you really feel the lack of tools at your disposal from time to time. A quick switch option, one that could allow you to switch your character on a whim when you’re not in a fight, could perhaps fix the problem. The skill points you earn as you level up, as well as the gear you craft or find, are shared between your four heroes, so it’s not like you’re depriving yourself of the loot you’ve earned.

Did you know that Gotham Knights only has two-player co-op at the moment? What a disconcerting limitation in a game focused on individual strengths and the collaboration between said characters. This means that even in the ideal situation where you have a friend who can play alongside you, you will still run into situations where you are missing out on the perfect solution. The solution that Batman could have achieved.

While I’m on a bit of a negative note, can I talk about the bat cycle? The bat bike? The BatMX. With Gotham being the dark and dreary city that it is, of course, you’ll be forced to navigate its famously murderous streets and dingy bridges. You have the grappling hook, but not the slide tech that Batman has, so you have to resort to riding the bat bike if you want to get anywhere fast.

Except you’re not going fast, you lumber along the road slick with rain and blood as super-intense speed lines wrap around the edges of the screen like drunks around a kebab van, crowding the corners of your vision and rippling. violently to make you feel like you are driving at a good pace. By the time I unlocked the fast travel points I almost ditched the bike, using it only for Red Hood passes on cops who I was assured wouldn’t die as the bat family doesn’t do that despite how close I shoot . a rubber bullet in someone’s face.

Sitting back and thinking long and hard about Gotham Knights is ultimately a sad endeavor, because whatever brilliance the team behind the game has achieved can be offset by a black mark; a stain that lessens its impact on reflection. Gotham Knights absolutely nails the introduction of certain villains through optional secondary bosses. I won’t spoil who they are, but let me just say that the third act concludes excellently with a challenging final confrontation ripped straight out of the cartoons I grew up with. But the boss is too long, it’s made up of three phases that drag an exciting fight into a bit of hard work.

I could write about how I thought some of the enemy takedowns were violent and explosive, with Robin choking some enemy or Red Hood blasting them at point-blank range against a wall, giving off a cathartic power that goes a long way in making you feel like a genuine army of a hero. But the game runs at 30FPS on PS5, with no performance mode. I know many out there won’t give a fuck, but in my hands, it sucked the soul out of gritting teeth battles. He’s just not responsive enough, with a delay in attacks that I gather is meant to bring illicit feelings of weight behind his attacks, but he often feels like he’s fighting in rough waters. That would be fine if you were fighting Killer Croc, but you’re not.

It is a pity that the last hours are a real roller coaster of quality. No spoilers, of course, but the game throws you a series of twists and reveals that sometimes work really well, while other times had me scratching my head, confused as to what the writers were thinking. This flat ending is reflected in the gameplay, which I can only summarize as an unexceptional final ride through Gotham, a painful challenge of numerous fights that feel more like over-the-top bumps than genuine challenges, and thankfully a final boss fight that achieve just make it all worthwhile for the skin of the game fangs.

As the credits rolled and I was exploring the world, it felt like I was walking, fighting, and fighting my way through a hazy memory of what a brilliant Batman game feels like. Hit some very high highs from time to time, as if you were recalling the best moments with shimmering clarity. The rest, the minutes and hours that weave together major story moments and combat crescendos, are lackluster. They have a vague purpose aside from filling time, and frankly, they didn’t surprise me at all.

Look, if you want to jump and hit people, there are hundreds of other games. If you’re really interested in playing a DC action game, which features a modern and admittedly brave step away from the big black bat, then Gotham Knights is good enough. It’s just that in the shadow of previous Batman titles, in the shadow of Batman himself, it doesn’t impress. disappoint.