Gotham Knights is out today for PS5, Xbox Series X and PC. It’s the first Batman-adjacent game we’ve had (LEGO aside) since Batman Arkham Knight. And although the marketing may have led you to believe this game is a little less light on the story than those series of games, you’d be wrong. 

Ciaran reviewed Gotham Knights for us, and I’ve played a handful of hours (some with him in co-op), but the one thing he warned me about the game prior to me pressing play was the length of the opening cutscene. And boy, he wasn’t wrong. “Does this game think it’s Hideo Kojima?” I said to Ciaran later that day after I’d managed to play through the first hour-and-half by myself to unlock co-op play. 

Because Ciaran had given me the heads up, I chucked a stopwatch on, and the time it took me to get hands-on with a character was just over fifteen minutes. A decent chunk of time and a much more lengthy introduction to a game the marketing had led me to believe was going to be a bit lighter on story than previous entries in the Batman games out of WB Games.

So what takes so long for the game’s opening to set up? SPOILERS BELOW, and I’ll let you know.

It’s no secret that Bruce Wayne is dead in Gotham Knights. That’s been a focal point of the story in the trailers in the lead-up to release, but there’s always been a lot of theorizing around it being a red herring or part of the game’s story. Well, it’s not a secret to unravel as the opening cutscene sees Batman battle against Ra’s al Ghul one last time, this time to his death as he brings the Batcave and Wayne Manor down upon himself and Ra’s al Ghul to put a stop to The Demon. The Gotham Knights arrive to see the debris and find Bruce’s body clearly crushed by a giant boulder which they remove to find the lifeless and highly damaged body of Bruce Wayne. 

It’s an effective way to kick off the game and a well-animated fight sequence between Batman and one of his biggest foes. Just make sure you’re strapped in for the entire short film.