Gotham Knights

Gotham Knights didn’t wow me with its overly familiar objectives, combat, and activities, but it didn’t leave me sour. It’s fun to control some new heroes as they brood over Gotham from its building overhangs and uncover hidden plots against its people. Those heroes are right to wonder if they’re living up to a vaunted legacy. And even if they’re not quite up to snuff, Gotham has enough baddies to punch to make for a good time, whoever you are.

Gotham Knights is a game that we've had fun with, but it's also frustrated us. Its main story is entertaining, the few secondary villains are a great attraction, it is full of references that DC fans will fall in love with, and the construction of the superheroes and the relationship between them is one of the best points of the title. However, it wants to be two things at once, without being brilliant at either of them.

While it is kept back by plain side activities and poor grinding mechanisms, Gotham Knights does manage to win over the player through its well told main story, the interesting gameplay variation between the four characters and its highly entertaining co-op mode.

Gotham Knights has a few interesting things going on. It’s just not enough to elevate it to the level of previous Batman games. Now, sure, technically speaking, this isn’t truly a Batman game, as the focus is on his legacy of proteges. But the Arkham series of games has elevated expectations quite high, and while Gotham Knights didn’t hit them, it has moments where it does feel like something interesting is brewing. With more to do in the city, and an easier method of switching characters, perhaps this could be the start of something greater.

A worthwhile entry into the DC/Batman game series, Gotham Knights can be a fun experience in single-player or co-op with its strengths lying in variety and its four-Knight team. However, its confusing UI, repetitive stripped-back combat, and lack of stealth options leave it unable to reach the glorious heights of the Arkham games.

We had placed a lot of hope in this Gotham Knights. The adventure was pleasant but too imperfect, interesting but not legendary enough; especially for a license around the Dark Knight, even without him in the title role. Too bad then. It is therefore high time for him to come back, and in the most beautiful way.

You can't deny Gotham Knights is a spectacle, provides high octane action, and an interesting storyline. It doesn't work great all the way through, but not every game has to be a complex, mindblowing experience. Sometimes accessibility is where all the fun is.

Gotham Knights continues the legacy of the Arkham Saga with a standalone adventure filled with action, mystery, drama, and emotional moments; but one that fails to carry its weight. The beginnings of Nightwing, Batgirl, Robin and Red Hood are not perfect, but there is still hope.

Gotham Knights' insistence on being a modern open world RPG leads to some gameplay issues and painfully generic mechanics, but there's a lot of fun to be had here nonetheless, and an engaging story to experience. It may not be Arkham, but it's good enough in its own right.

Gotham Knights does a spectacular job of creating a world that’s fun to explore and learn more about, but not without its technical faults.

Did Batman’s mentees manage to carry on without him? They did, buy he would’ve coped better. Gotham Knights has its moments, but its not as fun as Rocksteady’s gems and fails to hit the visual quality I expect from a PS5 game despite running at 30 fps. WB Games Montréal delivered a decent title that satisfies the hunger for adventures set in the DC Universe, but I had the feeling the developers didn’t even try to beat the Arkham series.

With Gotham Knights WB Games Montreal delivers a pretty decent and enjoyable action game with structural and balance issues that result in a mere distant echo of Rocksteady's Arkham series.

Warner Bros. Montreal took a giant risk with Gotham Knights. Not only did the studio choose to forgo using one of the world’s most famous heroes, but also the top-rated Arkham series. What we have with Gotham Knights is an original setup filled with a great central cast and an intriguing tale of young sidekicks uncovering Gotham’s dark secrets and becoming knights themselves.

Gotham Knights is the type of game you so dearly want to love, but time and time again it gives you a reason not to. What Warner Bros. Games Montreal has here is an excellent story with top-notch cutscene direction and a fun combat system, with too many needless and confusing mechanics bolted on top. If you can look past them, there's a genuinely great game here. We recommend trying your best to do so; you'll find a compelling narrative on the other side.

A production that hits the hearts of comic fans as unerringly as Arrow's arrow is overshadowed by an extremely flat combat system, inappropriate design decisions and outdated technology.

The outer layers of Gotham Knights present quite well and will keep you entertained for hours, but there’s something rotting at the core that holds the game back from ever being anything great.

Gotham Knights obviously suffers from its difficult development, which buries a thoroughly fun core under many problems.

The game is not bad and serves you a lot. You want a hero? You have four. Want big missions? Usually you have about three going at once. You want side missions? You've got a city full of them. Which doesn't mean it's a great game. Just good and solid. [Issue#323]

Don’t expect a successor to Arkham, slavish to the memory of Rocksteady’s games. This 6 isn’t that. It is a good game in its own right, despite some mistakes. [Issue#21, p.74]

Gotham Knights is worth playing for its story and characters, but its RPG stylings feel counterintuitive and clunky compared to the Arkham games.

Gotham Knights fails to meet the expectations set by the Arkham series, and even though there is huge potential and material to work with, the end products is subpar in almost every aspect.

Gotham Knights strings together weird design choices. Whether it be the open world, the combat system or even the co-op: it's all just not fleshed out enough. The potential is there for those willing to dig deeper into this batsoup. But it shouldn't be necessary to dig this deep for highlights. Gotham Knights is the superhero game we deserve yet need.

Gotham Knights isn’t really broken, it simply falls short of what has come before. Superhero games come with lofty expectations these days, and it’s unlikely this entry will meet them for most players. It’s safely skippable for now, but maybe check it out once it arrives on your favourite subscription service.

Ultimately, I enjoyed Gotham Knights for what it was – a basic superhero game that provides players with plenty to do. It will not live up to the standard of the height of the Batman: Arkham series, but it's still a fun game, especially if you want to just tune out and beat up some nameless thugs. There is plenty of room for improvement in Gotham Knights, but this game provides a solid enough foundation for future installments, and I enjoyed a game that looked at the wider Batman family rather than focusing on just one character.

If the Arkham games are Christopher Nolan levels of invention and genius then Gotham Knights is hanging out down in the DC Extended Universe with Zak Snyder and Aquaman. Set your expectations accordingly and there’s enjoyable entertainment to be had.

Gotham Knights is one of those games with a lot of potential that is spoiled by a bunch of questionable game design choices. Without being fundamentally bad, Gotham Knights leaves us with the sensation of an abandoned service game that could have been promising if it was assumed. A game fun to play in cooperation that will remain in the shadow of Batman Arkham.

Simultaneously better and worse than you’d expect, with some fun co-op and detective elements but weak combat and muddled storytelling.

Look, if you want to jump around and punch people, there are hundreds of other games. If you’re really keen to play a DC action game, featuring a modern and admittedly brave step away from the big black bat, then Gotham Knights is fine enough. It’s just that in the shadow of former Batman titles, in the shadow of Batman himself, it doesn’t impress. It disappoints.

Between a legacy it can't quite shake and a jumble of borrowed mechanics that fit neither the format nor the fantasy, Gotham Knights simply isn't it. [Issue#379, p.114]

As the latest burger off the production line, Gotham Knights is fine. It ticks all the boxes, name-drops all the right characters, has the right voice actors, and is a big, expensive project that looks and plays like it should. At the end of the day, though, you’re still eating a greasy burger with no nutritional value whatsoever. While it’s fine to say “yeah but sometimes that’s fun,” there is a point where we need to acknowledge that this is all some people eat. That’s not healthy and I, for one, am sick of superhero nonsense being such a vacuum of talent producing such mindless output, when the games industry (and Hollywood) could be doing so much more.

Because its gameplay is already dramatically simplified compared to that of the Arkham series, Gotham Knights fails to fill the cowl.

An average city action that can't be broken even by competent fights and an interesting story with a unique villain. Gotham Knights is a time killer with boring activities in a pathetically dead city, terrible controls, wasted potential and a lackluster graphical presentation. The game feels like the work of tie-breakers who have to look up the word "fun" in the dictionary.

Gotham Knights wants you to sympathize with Red Hood, but the game doesn’t do enough to contextualize his existential crisis, and we never see him evolve. He’s just the same angry brute doing the same thing over and over again, mashing that square button like the rest of us...Terrible combat, unnecessary RPG systems, a half-baked ending, and miserable Jason Todd leave very little to enjoy in Gotham Knights. Surely this is not what Bruce Wayne wanted for Gotham.

There's a compelling game in Gotham Knights, but it's hidden away behind a messy UX, needless crafting and customization systems, and combat mechanics that have been stretched paper thin to accommodate four heroes. I do believe that WB Games Montreal is capable of greatness, but this isn't the game that Gotham deserves after the death of Bruce Wayne, and it's not the one it needs right now following Rocksteady's retreat to Metropolis for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.

Gotham Knights ends up being a pretty mediocre experience. The combat is decent, but not varied or tight enough. The story has its ups and downs, with a couple of very strange choices. The visuals are good, but the performance is not up to par, with severe frame drops happening too often.

We can only recommend the game to extreme fans of the Batman/Gotham universe as well as people who have this as their first PlayStation 5 game because once you start any other game and see 60fps with good controls, Gotham Knights will be instantly forgotten.

Gotham Knights is a messy, directionless open-world RPG that doesn’t know what it wants to be. Its lack of identity means that, just like its heroes, it fails to step out of the shadows and truly shine.

There are plenty of moments in Gotham Knights that make for a good time - the camaraderie between the heroes is enjoyable, and the city itself looks great. However, the combat is too basic and monotonous to stand on its own, and the story struggles to get going before it falls apart.