Announced earlier this year at August’s major DC FanDome event,Gotham Knightsis a newBatmangame set in a fresh universe. Instead of players taking on the famed caped crusader, they instead will assume the role of the Bat Family, seeing Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl, and Red Hood team up to fight back against some of Gotham’s most notorious villains.
While the footage showed off at DC FanDome mostly highlighted the game’s high-octane combat set-pieces and blockbuster battles, it seems there will be more to WB’s long-awaitedBatmangame. Speaking in an interview on the PlayStation Blog back in September,Gotham Knightscreative director Patrick Redding highlighted how investigations will work in the game, claiming that players won’t be annihilating all of Gotham’s biggest foes overnight this time around.
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“Villain Crimes will play out over multiple nights,” Sony Senior Specialist Gillen McAllister summarizes during his recap of his interview with Redding, revealing that the director stated there will be “a series of encounters where the player has to do a certain amount of legwork and detective work to hunt down the villain.” That alone completely separatesGotham Knights’pacing from that of theArkhamtrilogy, providing players with a detective-focused gameplay loop that culminates with a final confrontation akin tothe Mr. Freeze showdownhighlighted in the title’s gameplay reveal.
As for why the team decided to focus on this, Redding claimed: “We want to make you feel all that work you’re investing into protecting Gotham City.” It seems to be a direct response to the criticism of theArkhamgames (particularlyArkham Knight),with fans claiming that the game’s overnight focus was incredibly limiting to the experience.
Many also complained that it was an unrealistic format, especially considering each game in the franchise began to grow longer and expanded its roster of side content as a result. Hearing thatGotham Knightswill be trying a different approachwill be sure to appeal to those who weren’t a fan ofArkham’ssingle-night setting.
As forGotham Knightsitself,the game has been somewhat divisive online so far. Many are happy to be getting a new game set in theBatmanuniverse, especially considering it will feature the Bat Family and cast the long-requested Court of Owls as the central antagonists. However, others were quick to air their concerns over the game’s seemingly RPG-esque mechanics and decision to ditch the classic free-flow combat system first pioneered by Rocksteady inArkham Asylum.It seemsBatmanaficionadoswill get to find out how successfulGotham Knightsis when it debuts next year.
Gotham Knightswill be coming in 2021, for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
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