Promotional poster for Gotham Knights consisting of Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl, and Red Hood. | Photo / Where Consumers Come First Tech
The World’s Greatest Detective is dead. Killed by the moral opposite of himself, Ra’s al Ghul, the criminal underground of Gotham runs wild as the caped vigilante’s presence is gone along with the death of GCPD Commissioner Jim Gordon. The only saving grace left for the crime-ridden city is the Gotham Knights.
In the new thrilling videogame, Nightwing (Dick Grayson), Batgirl (Barbra Gordon), Red Hood (Jason Todd) and Robin (Tim Drake) take up the mantle of being the protectors of Gotham City. WB Games Montréal and QLOC’s action role-playing game is a spiritual sequel to the two-time Game of the Year Award winning Batman: Arkham series. The previous game in the series, made by Rocksteady, ended in Batman’s identity being revealed and him initiating protocol Knightmare, which blew up Wayne Manor and himself.
The last game, Arkham Knight, came out in 2015, so it has been over five years since we got to play in Gotham City and see some of our favorite heroes and villains. Gotham Knights does a fantastic job at keeping with the core of the Batfamily story while still giving the characters a chance to come into their own.
As a player, you can choose to play as Nightwing, Batgirl, Red Hood or Robin, but don’t worry about mulling over who to play for too long, as you can easily change who you play. You can stay with Red Hood all game or change the character depending on the mission. All you have to do is find the suit stands in the Belfry, the clock tower and HQ, then select which character you want to play.
The game takes about 16 hours to finish the main story, but if you are a completionist and want to finish all the side missions along with the main story it will take you about 44 hours. The length to complete is around the same as the Arkham Series, so fans should be used to the story’s pace.
The developers have done a fantastic job of incorporating characters seen before and villains player have fought against while also bringing in new concepts that have barely been used in media besides comics. The big one is a fan favorite, The Court of Owls. The wealthiest people in Gotham pull the strings in an underground elitist club and have their protector, The Talon, go after those they see as being in their way.
While the game is fun and has a fantastic story, the almost perfect combat Batman games have been known for seems to be gone. There’s no dodge, just a melee, and you cannot jump, so it definitely does take a bit to learn the controls, which is not good depending on how fast you play the game.
Overall, I would give the game a 7/10. It’s a good game, but it definitely has room for improvement if they want to make it into a series.
The game has two versions, the standard edition, which is $69.99, and a deluxe version which is $89.99 but comes with a plethora of extra stuff. Gotham Knights is available for Xbox X and S, PlayStation 5, and PC.
You can buy it anywhere that sells games or through their website, which will send you to direct links to purchase the game.
