Gotham Knights has been marketed a bit oddly. Is it a co-op-only game? No. But it’s certainly been designed around playing with a friend. But how, then, does co-op in Gotham Knights work?

You’ll have to play through around 60-90 minutes before you can join friends’ games or have them join yours. It’s basically the first two main missions you’ll have to complete by yourself, but once past this point, you can play through the entire game with a friend in co-op.

Now, this is where things do start to get a bit weird with Gotham Knights. Although there are four characters, you can only play with one friend. And when a friend joins your game, you can do everything together, from main quests to side activities and explore Gotham in tandem. However, whenever a cutscene begins, only your character will appear in them, and your friend won’t exist. 

Gotham Knights is a bit different to the Batman Arkham series in that it’s an RPG where you’ll level up, unlock abilities and even craft gear. If you have a friend who’s completed the game, join yours as soon as they can, your enemies will scale, and their power will as well. Meaning that enemies will be a bit tougher for you, but they won’t be one-punching them either. They will still have access to all their unlocked powers and gear; however, it’s just the overall power that will be scaled down. 

The co-op is drop-in, and drop-out as well so you can have friends dropping into your game and leaving as they please. It won’t disrupt your game.

You can set your games’ privacy to friends only, invite-only, or open, allowing anyone to click ‘quick play’ and jump into your game with you. At any point, if someone starts griefing you, there is a quick way to boot them. 

If you wish you could play with three friends at the same time, ‘Heroic Assault’ is a free mode being added on November 30th in which you’ll compete in arena fights in a four-player co-op as you fight to climb a tower. 

In our review for Gotham Knights, Ciaran said:

“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.”