Gotham Knights: What WENT WRONG?

Gotham Knights (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S) is a divisive game that released to very mixed reactions from critics and fans. Some love it, some hate it. What went wrong? Let’s talk.

[Phantom]

"Health bar" fights are such a blight on modern games. In the arkham games there were so many ways to immediately put down an enemy in a real and satisfying feeling way. It felt like you were knocking goons' heads together, not just depleting an arbitrary health bar

[TM_]

One more iconic thing about first batmobile summon was how rocksteady made it seem cinematically awesome by putting dialogue where batman says to alfred that he's "even-ing the odds" and the batmobile call button appears labeled as "even the odds"

[cloudmonte]

One Achievement of Gotham Knights is that it made me replay Arkham Knight

[folgee]

Once I saw health bars and level numbers for enemies above their heads during their show case a couple years back, I started my doubts.

[shivamvedi]

With smaller studios releasing games like “Evil West” & “A Plague Tale”, this feels like an even bigger disappointment rn.

[williamedwards]

Stealth in Arkham was like a puzzle. And it was a great feeling. If you planned it out right, the enemies would fall like dominoes. And you'd end the sequence standing in the middle of all it, cape flowing. I miss that. I might have to just replay the Arkham games instead of this.

[Throgman]

The thing that made me realize this was a lower effort game was when i cleared a criminal stronghold and saved one guy, waiting the entire time for him to find all 9 of his unconscious buddies and still he went back to his usual path and blurted out generic " I'LL FIND YOU" responses. Where in Arkham, he'd immediately realise that he's the last one and get all frantic and scared as you picked off his buddies. I always loved that.

[vishaalsinghchauhan]

I think stealth is the main issue. Arkham games required meticulous planning sometimes and use of every gadget at disposal and real concentration. It made you feel like batman. Here you sneak around from point to point maybe distract a bit and then knock down.

[RoscoMontana]

I just played Arkham Knight for the first time and I was absolutely SHOCKED that it came out in 2015

[imdavidbaby]

I still play Arkham Knight even now to this day and for a game made 7+ years ago it still holds up to games made today in 2022

[milesgordy]

They say don’t compare to Arkham games but the real problem is they’re comparable to the avengers game

[ffjj]

I feel like it could’ve work if they had stories of each characters based on a trait of Batman/villains. With the final level forcing each character work together with there skills to defeat the Court Of The Owls as a team.
Bat-Girl - Is the one going around to hack computers and collect information. (Penguin/Riddlers)
Nightwing - Focuses on combat stealth and break-in. (Black Mask/Harley Quinn)
Red Hood - Be the fire power. Doing take down mission and junk. (Killer Croc/Clay-Face)
Robin - Is the detective, trying uncover a certain villains secretly supporting Court. Working hard to find their whereabouts of these enemies. (Two-face/Hush)

[fenixspider]

These thugs feel lifeless but in Arkham series the thug were hands down one the best part of the game that I don't think any other game has copied it well, their interaction with each other, their conspiracy theories, their reaction to see Batman coming out of shadows is hilarious.

[SuparNerd]

The bat family struggling to live up to the Batman's legacy. Ironically accurate really.

[MusingsMuses]

I get the feeling some 'genius' lead for this game said "hey, if we have four times the playable characters, we'd only need to make 1/4th the content to keep people happy" cuz this game really feels like 1/4th of an Arkham game.

[tanhongyi]

Stealth in Arkham series is one of the most satisfying aspects of Batman gameplay. Gotham Knights is nothing but just a brawling game instead. One of the crucial details of Arkham's stealth is how the enemies react to a fallen enemy that has been taken out upon discovery : They raise the alarm and every enemy in the area starts moving differently. They start grouping up. They react to other enemies that can be 'heard' engaging Batman. In Gotham Knights, you try to stealth takedown an enemy, and the other patrolling npc walks past the K.O-ed unit like it was nothing(scripted patrols). It looks so dumb that what's even the point of having a stealth takedown in Gotham Knights? I remember the Two-Face bank heist stealth puzzles in Arkham Knight. It was so engaging to plan, execute, demolished your enemies in them. While the successors of the Caped Crusader may not adopt the way how they deal with enemies, the least Gotham Knights could do is show how they inherit some of his traits after being mentored by him.

[gooma]

So crazy watching a reviewer that actually plays the game and finishes it

[TheEdico]

Watching this made me want to replay the arkham games

[passcodex]

If the Arkham games never came out, this game would be awesome. That trilogy set the bar in a very high position. If they just copy and paste Arkham Knight, the overall reception would be better.

[hamptongold]

The Batmobile was apart of Arkham knight and it had a place in the story whereas the bat cycle just felt like the horse from assassins creed and even that had more utility in Valhalla