The Sad Tragedy of Gotham Knights

After years of countless missteps and few success stories, Batman: Arkham Asylum’s 2009 debut reinvigorated licensed video games, its innovative combat and compelling use of Metroidvania elements influencing the next-generation of action games and beyond. The title’s critical acclaim and commercial wins resulted in developer Rocksteady Studios shipping a similarly beloved sequel just two years later. With the industry’s Bat-mania in full effect, publisher WB Games had no intention of slowing the momentum and, as such, tasked a relatively new studio—WB Games Montréal—with building Batman: Arkham Origins.

The 2013 prequel didn’t garner the adulation commanded by previous entries but it did invite the wider DC universe into the Arkham series, most notably teasing the Suicide Squad via a post-credits scene. Such a teaser fueled rumors about the Montréal outfit’s next game for several years; and when news of its cancellation hit, talk of a Damian Wayne-starring Batman adventure took up all the oxygen. Ultimately, the Arkham Origins creator delivered neither project, instead producing something that focalized the Bat-Family—2022’s Gotham Knights.

While the lead up to Gotham Knights’s announcement generated plenty of excitement, the lengthy marketing cycle diluted the anticipation bit by bit. Many players would argue the final product didn’t match the hype at any stage. Technical woes, divisive multiplayer features, and a combat system that discarded the Arkham mechanics left even the most ardent DC fans feeling underwhelmed at best. But within those shortcomings existed echoes of excellence, tender moments with the Caped Crusader’s protégées that hinted at a great Batman experience lying just beyond the margins.

This is the tragedy of Gotham Knights.

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[ivandesiigner]

I think what disappointed me most of this game wasn't the performance or gameplay. it was the overall story, the bat family was fine, not amazing but you can see the developers understood those characters, my problem was with the court of owls, they just didn't use them well, the court of owls in this game are like complete idiots with no intelligence whatsoever, they're supposed to be the most prestigious assassins, politicians, criminals and whatnot that have been undercover for decades, but in this game you just question how they weren't uncovered by how bad the court of owls was in this game.

[TheForever]

I still firmly believe that this game was meant to be some type of coop live service type of game but then was backpaddled at some point during development. Everything from the skill trees, bland open world, random items for crafting and the UI just ooze live service.

[YarugumaSou]

You know what's the biggest tragedy? That this game still respected Batman and sent him off more properly than Suicide Squad ever did.

[Laxhoop]

And it can’t even hold the title of “Worst DC game”, Suicide Squad took that title.

[Silvershire]

I recently tried this game because it was super discounted for Black Friday, and I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t without issues, but I had a good time.

[KingKimwer]

Knew it was gonna flop the second I saw those level numbers next to the enemys' health bars during the gameplay reveal trailer.

[shinobipizza]

I can't WAIT for your video on Concord.

[rebelwolf]

They should’ve done a court of owls game with the nemesis system. That would’ve done so much better

[spidermansjunk]

I actually played it and its not a great game but its also not a horrible game. I enjoyed it and had fun with it. I always saw it as taking place in a different universe.

[amharbinger]

From someone who purchased this game day 1 and played the campaign entirely with all 4 characters, it was clear this was meant to be some live service like Kill the Justice League. The combat challenges were repetitive save the hostage missions with no real execution to the city layout and Gotham felt like a Unity asset they pre-purchased especially when compared to Arkham Knight's layout. It had some cool elements like the hallucination section where the playable character was dealing with their inner trauma but everything felt so basic. Like they made the game because they had too.

[FreyziTheLazy]

I actually bought and played this game a couple of months back (on a BIG discount) and while it wasn't terrible I just couldn't help feeling like it just did everything worse than the Arkham games. Combat, stealth, traversal, exploration, puzzles, set pieces, story, boss fights. All 4 of the Arkham Games did it better and by the end of the game I just wanted to play them instead, so I did and bought them all again on Steam (last played them on PS3 except for Knight).

[acingry]

Gotham knights is mid and empty, but it did give us the best version of the Bat family in recent times (in my humble opinion)

[DayLateGamerWill]

"Best possible gameplay"
>30fps on console

[Katosepe]

I ignored most of the pre-release hype for this since it was throwing red flags all over the place and missed that the villains were the Court of Owls. Such a bummer. I'd been wanting a Batman game where they go up against the Court for quite a while. I still think it'd make a great movie. It's too bad they languished in Gotham Knights.

[georgie]

Bought this game for $5 because batgirl is hot lol

Didn’t regret it 😭

[TeoInteractive]

I hate changes to those healthbars with numbers flying away from enemies. It feels like it's idle-mmo-battler

[dankdayz]

I still play Gotham Knights on occasion. It has it issues but I enjoy playing as the Bat Family.

[ericstone]

Lets go. GVMERS documentary on a Saturday. 🎉🎉🎉

[Swordslinger-hbns]

Now all you need to do is do either a rise and fall of the Batman Arkham games or a tragedy of the horrible Suicide Squad Kill The Justice League game Gvmers.

[gcvek]

@12:00 so what I'm hearing is, the writers couldn't figure out how to write this game after all the events from origins - Knight. But yet there is a wealth of batman mythos they could pull from. Because of continuity restrictions? That just sounds like they don't understand the mythos.