Gotham Knights Is An Enormous Disappointment?
Gotham Knights reviews are coming in from players and the majority of fans are not pleased with the end result.
This article is more than 2 years old
The first reviews for the recently released Gotham Knights just dropped, and they don’t sound very promising. Some critics like the game, bits of fandom are underwhelmed by its narrative, and others are relieved that they’ve canceled their preorder after it was revealed that the game would miss its Performance Mode and after suspicious reports regarding the game spying on people playing.
According to a report by Kotaku, those seem to be the least of its problems. As it turns out, the game is also having technical issues and framerate drops, among other performance problems. However, the gaming community is used to games having technical issues at launch, and Gotham Knights’ dropping framerates aren’t a novelty. At least it’s playable; Overwatch 2 was unplayable for a whole day post-launch. The game’s drawbacks are tied to its overall story and lack of unique flavoring that would distinguish the Bat-family from their mentor. Sounds a lot like a disappointment after a long wait.
Some have called Gotham Knights nothing but a content checklist, with generic content previously seen and copied over from Rocksteady’s 2015’s Arkham Knight — which recently dropped on Nintendo Switch. However, the latest game isn’t actually comparable to Arkham Knight. While some have criticized the story as bland, others have praised the game’s narrative. But all agreed that the combat gameplay feels like an overly-complicated take on the combat mechanics we’ve previously seen in Arkham Knight, but with incorporated co-op elements.
It might be unfair to compare Gotham Knights to Arkham Knight, but the seven-year-old title raised the bar for Batman-related games so high that we might never actually see a game that fills its shoes. It’s worth noting that the two games aren’t actually related, but they do share a common universe. Unfortunately, where Arkham Knights shined, Gotham Knights fell flat and broke its nose. The previous title had it all: tactics, exploration, puzzles, and an insane arsenal in Batman’s tool belt.
Gotham Knights, on the other hand, focuses primarily on co-op combat elements (though you can solo the game). Unfortunately, it also requires a lot of grinding to progress the story and unlock better gear to increase your character’s survivability. For example, when a certain villain escapes, the game doesn’t offer any insight as to where he went. So, you have to rough up some of their henchmen to find their possible hideouts and where exactly the villain is hiding.
These elements align well with the Batman universe, in which the Caped Crusader hits the streets and finds/beats out the information he needs. However, the thinly stretched combat mechanics make information “acquisition” via melee strikes a chore rather than an enjoyable gaming experience. Not to mention the unnecessary gear crafting and customization systems, which do provide the game with popular content, but in an incoherent manner — Gotham Knights could’ve done better.
To be entirely honest, WB Games made some of the best gaming titles in the past decade, but they also ruined others. Shadow of Mordor was a fantastic game without overly complex systems; Shadow of War (the sequel) was supposed to be a step up. Instead, despite a fantastic narrative, the game’s systems became needlessly complex. Hopefully, the previously announced Wonder Woman game won’t suffer the same fate.
