Synopsis: Batman is dead. It is now up to the Batman Family — Batgirl, Nightwing, Red Hood, and Robin — to protect Gotham.

Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Reviewed on: Xbox Series X
Also available for: PlayStation 5, PC

Cast: Stephen Oyoung, America Young, Sloane Morgan Siegel, Christopher Sean, Donald Chang, Marios Gavrills, Michael Antonakos, Mylene Dinh-Robic, Gildart Jackson, Elias Toufexis, Kriziaa Bajos, Kari Wahlgren

Developer: WB Games Montréal
Director: Patrick Redding

Let me take you back to a Halloween 2019 tweet. A teaser for a yet-to-be-announced Batman game sent the internet into a buzz with a simple woodland bird, an owl. The Court of Owls storyline is beloved among comic book fans. Hype was built with the knowledge that the video game industry was finally breaking ground within this legendary narrative. Then the studio went somewhat radio silent on the project. Jump forward to 2022 and finally, fans across the world get to experience the Court of Owls in their mysterious glory thanks to WB Games Montréal’s Gotham Knights. Sort of.

Gotham Knights sends Nightwing, Red Hood, Batgirl and Robin into the dark streets of Gotham in the wake of the death of Bruce Wayne, tasked with solving his last case and building a new Gotham without Batman (which is set up by the opening 14-minute cutscene). In a world post the Arkham series, this was an exciting undertaking, being able to explore these characters in a world that has matured with Batman in it rather than the generic origin story. WB Games shows respect to the player’s understanding of the world, not needing to over-explain or rehash each character’s connection to the world and the caped crusader himself. Building up to this release, I had been excited to explore this world and the story that would be told within it. The Court of Owls storyline is one of Batman’s best, filled with mystery and intrigue that builds on the robust cast of characters within the Batman world, but with this comes large expectations and shoes to fill for WB Games.

In many ways, Gotham Knights fails to live up to the mantle of the Court of Owls; much of the mystery falls flat before the Court is relegated to a secondary group within the story halfway through the main case file. The Court of Owls is largely faceless, and the primary face or voice of the Court is revealed to be a largely unimportant and obvious reveal, while what remains to conclude the story is mainly predictable and uninspired.

Though the main case file is largely a misstep, the Side Case Files are filled with character. Each case file is centred on one of three villains as you investigate and tackle the plans of each of them. Each mission takes place incrementally throughout the storyline, largely spaced out by the game’s levelling system. These missions feel a lot more filled out and have plenty to explore, filled with character interactions with the villain and Easter eggs to find throughout each location.

The Arkham series has truly laid the bedrock foundation for the gameplay of Gotham Knights, but WB Games Montréal approaches this with more RPG systems that do make the exploration and combat of the game feel more robust than they ever have been by the game’s close. The first point for each player will be to decide which character’s style suits their play style. Nightwing is acrobatic in combat, Red Hood excels in ranged combat, Batgirl can hack various devices worldwide, and Robin is the stealth specialist. Each character comes with a varied set of abilities and skill trees that further their play style and really does make each experience feel unique. Each character can tackle the same problem in very different ways, and players are able to switch characters between nights back at the Belfry, the team’s new headquarters. The problem with the system is that once I had settled on my preferred character (Nightwing is just the perfect himbo, right?) I had little to no reason to swap between the characters other than experiencing the small cutscene stories scattered as objectives throughout the world for each character.

This view of the characters has a flow-on effect on the story, which is the greatest weakness of Gotham Knights. Throughout the trailers and media build-up for the game, it showed a focus on this new team of characters and how they are going to be coming into their own as a team, but this does not really appear within the game itself. Besides the opening cutscene and the moments spent in the Belfry, players will see very little of the other characters. Throughout missions, characters interact via the intercom system, but you get the sense that the other three characters are essentially just sitting back in the Belfry doing research or twiddling their thumbs. There are no moments of teamwork or in-world interactions with the other characters. Even with the heavily featured co-op for the game, only the host player’s character is featured during cutscenes and important moments. This stops this feeling of teamwork and makes Gotham Knights about the singular Knight the player has chosen to experience the story with. By the end of the main case file, I felt like this had been Nightwing’s story rather than the team’s story, finishing with a classic Batman-style monologue and symbol based on which character you finished the game playing as.

All four characters level at the same rate even when you have not used them before, which means picking up the character randomly should be easy. The main problem comes from gear. You could have a level 25 character with level 1 equipment, but if you do not have enough crafting mats to create appropriate gear, you will be unable to use it against the level of the enemies found within Gotham. This is made even harder by how punishing death can be. When dying within the open world of Gotham, players are punished by a loss of crafting mats, which is not a problem as crafting mats are abundant within the world, apart from the legendary materials. At level 20, I had a Legendary Suit that I could craft; legendary items can level with the player and include special perks. The suit required 124 of the legendary material, and I had only 122. Looking back, I could remember I had died twice within the open world, both times losing the legendary material. To make matters worse, Gotham Knights removes crafting schematics that are too low level for your character, so once I had reached a couple more levels above 20, the Legendary suit was gone, and I was not lucky enough to receive another.

Each time you leave the Belfry, a new night begins; Gotham is filled with crimes to be completed, as well as collectibles from Batarangs to hidden caches, as well as the time trials on the Batcycle or the special traversal tool each character gets throughout the Knighthood trial. For Nightwing, that is a glider; for Robin, a teleportation device, for example. These devices are nice additions, but they do not solve the issues with the traversal. Despite the extensive training, the characters feel clunky as they try to make their way through the streets of Gotham. It can be awkward to jump between platforms and railings, which often leads me to land awkwardly among a group of enemies I was hoping to take out one by one. Other than the parkour, the classic grapple gun returns but with issues much akin to the parkour. Grappling can both be overpowered but also a hindrance. One room that was designed to sneak through I purely skipped by grappling from one side to another, but at the same time, I found myself overshooting buildings or hitting ledges I was not aiming for, which made moving through the world feel clunky and far from the fluid movement these heroes deserve.

The open world is populated by several gangs that create crimes throughout Gotham, and each night is populated with events for the player to complete. If they are not completed before you return to the Belfry, they reset, and a new set of crimes appear. These crimes are often fun and, with the later stages of the game having a wide variety of options for combat, it feels fluid in ways that the game fails to capture elsewhere. In this writer’s opinion, I believe the combat of Gotham Knights surpasses the heights of the Arkham series; starting pretty simple, but the addition of abilities and skill trees allows players to build their own patterns and combos to take down the freaks and mobsters.

Gotham Knights took on the high expectation of its audience by taking on the Court of Owls storyline. Though it flounders under the weight throughout the playtime, it is still a great Batman experience that does explore the loss of Batman and what it means for the world going forward. I’m excited to see WB Games Montréal continue to build Gotham into a city of new discovery, learning from the lessons faced throughout Gotham Knights. Players new and old to the Batman experience will enjoy their time in DC’s city of gloom but will be left wanting more and turning to their comic books to remember the glory of the Court of Owls.

(Gotham Knights code provided for review)