Gotham Knights is exactly what it sounds like it is

After a long time WB Games Montreal finally revealed what they've been working on.. and it's a Batman game with everything but the Batman.

In a short gameplay demo that was more interactive corridor walking than real gameplay we see that the crux of the game is being able to play Batgirl, Robin, Red Hood or Nightwing with what appears to be seamless drop in multiplayer (this is pure speculation from what I saw and not like a fact).

All the Batman games were varying shades of good - some were great! - so it's not like this is a bad thing, but after all this time.. it's kind of ..very basic. I'm also convinced that Batman is obviously alive and will show up at some point during the game. There is a tie-in to the massively popular Court of Owls storyline from Batman so you might play as the caped crusader in flashback sequences if nothing else. Guess I was expecting a little more, but hey, I guess I wouldn't mind playing another one of these.

EDIT:

Here is some solid gameplay footage

@humanity:

If it wasn’t for Avengers I wouldn’t be nearly as disappointed but we’re 2 weeks away from a superhero team up action rpg. I like the aesthetics and love the Court of Owls so I’ll buy it for sure but this doesn’t look particularly revolutionary.

Seems like it could be cool. I more than welcome a break from Bruce Wayne who I've become less and less fond of in the past decade or so. At the same time I question just how much they can adapt from Court of Owls without him in it. Obviously must be a different timeline from the Arkham games since Barbara isn't paralyzed and Jason seemingly became the anti-hero Red Hood instead of the villain he plays in Arkham Knight.

@thej6m: Yah definitely it looks like a solid 'nother-one-o'-those and considering we haven't had one in a while it will probably be fun to haunt baddies up from the rafters.

Much more excited than I expected to be. Looks better than Knight by a country mile and they actually put civilians on the streets instead of half-assing some reason to make Gotham filled with nothing but random henchmen. I'm in the "Origins is better than all of Rocksteady's games except Asylum" camp (there are dozens of us, DOZENS!) so giving Warner Montreal a proper big thing of their own not attached at the hip to Rocksteady makes me very happy.

@banefirelord: I liked Knight AND I even liked riding around in the Batmobile. There are 10's of us!

As someone who only just recently got around to playing Knight, I'm a little worn out on Batman. That being said, I think I'll still probably be down for another one of these, although I think it's a bummer they didn't just focus on just one of these four characters.

Also, more games need tonfas. Thanks for the heads-up, Humanity.

Is there a secret Russian Batman?

Batman will be the end boss. Proper dickhead Batman. None of this "Awww, I knew I could count on you guys." nonsense.

Wait, who is the red guy? Is he Deathstroke?

I thought so at first but the bat symbol is throwing me off. Is Deathstroke a good guy now?

I'm really really hoping with all my heart that this means that Rocksteady is now working on a new ip, because i got to tell you making them work on a Batman VR game was a huge waste of great their talents.

@giant_gamer: Jason Todd aka the second Robin (I think). It's funny seeing a " Batman" game where you play a character who shoots people. No need for Arkham or Blackgate Prison if you aren't hauling anyone in.

@giant_gamer: That's Red Hood.

I see numbers flying off bosses, looks good to me!

@giant_gamer: Have you missed the news that they're making a Suicide Squad game? We should have more details tonight.

Good god, when will needless RPG elements be shown the door? Levels and damage numbers don't need to be in every single AAA big budget release, do they? I feel like we are reaching a breaking point with this stuff.

@banefirelord: i did and knowing that makes me really sad. Looks to me that WB are planning to give Gotham games the COD treatment.

Looks alright, i've enjoyed all of these games so far, from what they've shown this one feels like it lacks quite a bit of polish, hopefully that's still to come.
@giant_gamer: They're working on a Suicide Squad game.

A pretty disappointing reveal.

That said, Origins is still a better game than City and Knight.

Asylum is still the best Batman game though.

@doctordonkey: Don't overlook that there appear to be crafting materials falling out of these baddies. So not only some leveling and RPG mechanics but also everyones favorite - crafting!

@castiel: I'm warmer on the reveal than you, but otherwise...One of Us, One of Us! We should all get jackets.

@giant_gamer: Yeah, I'm going to try to remain open minded because Rocksteady did make one of my favorite games ever (Asylum), but the rumors I've been hearing about Suicide Squad being some sort of Destinyalike shooter are...not encouraging.

I love the Arkham games(Including Origins too!) and love the Batfamily so I was excited for this....then I saw the damage numbers and the Mr. Freeze fight and got waaaay less excited. I'm still tentatively looking forward to it...but i'm worried it will turn out like shadow of war or an ubisoft game.

Also even though I can't say I love any of the character designs, they sure look a heck of a lot better than the off brand Avengers.

Can't just be me that find that combat music to be incredibly out of place ? (1:50 and 3:55 in the second video for reference)

When I realized the game is going to have xp levels I completely lost interest. Looks like they are going to turn it onto yet another grindy lpot game. Hopefully I'm wrong though.

There is an aspect of this that I love but... Knowing that all of these characters will most likely absolutely just play the same way like they ALWAYS HAVE significantly bums me out.

I worry that the newer users don't know this clip

Glad WB Montreal gets something slightly different to make. Very glad it's not another fucking Arkham game, those have been run into the ground.

Game itself? Eh.

Most interesting moments were seeing civilian cars on the road (though that easily could have been a scripted event smoke and mirrors deal, and people aren't actually on the streets most of the time?) and realizing that with the co-op, the player characters still talk to each other. Having unique dialogue between each pairing of characters would be awesome. Or, worst case scenario, it could be very broad dialogue like 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand (YO BARBARA JUMP OFF THAT BIGASS RAMP)

@theoracleofgame: woof that last bit broke me a little.

And I definitely think the whole civilians thing is smoke and mirrors but I hope I'm wrong.

Medium sad, I reread the Court of Owls and City of Owls arcs yesterday in anticipation.
They were laying the Court of Owls focus on very thick in the pre-reveal marketing, so it's kinda weird to see those story aspects sidelined so hard in the actual reveal. The "yOu gET tO BeCOmE ThE HERo" stuff was also silly.
I was hoping for an atmospheric and story focused Bat Family game with the Court of Owls front and center. But it seems like they might be doing the Gotham's greatest villains thing again.

I really hope this will end up being something more than an open world grindfest with shallow RPG mechanics, Ubisoft's already saturated that market.

damage numbers? crafting materials? Man this is a modern game.

@doctordonkey: Agreed. My excitement went down a little as soon as the numbers started popping off. Maybe it's because I actually played Anthem all the way through, but Anthem kind of scarred me on games like these. I see the combat, then I see her special power pop off with the bat's swirling around her and I just get Anthem vibes. I know Anthem isn't the first of its kind or anything, but I think it made me realize I can get bored of these types of games quickly.

This. Origins was no where near as bad as the critics will like you to believe. Yeah, the game had some bugs in the beginning, but those were fixed with patches. The game itself had the best story, pacing, and arguably the best combat of all the other games.

For me its:

Asylum, Orgins, Knight, and City. City for me was actually the worst of the series.

Looks great for folks who are into that sort of thing. Definitely not my jam. That said, the Suicide Squad trailer totally got my attention. But using B.O.B. is probably cheating.

I dig it. Wonder how the levelling system will play out. At least it sounds more interesting that enemies health / damage simply scaling with your character. And I should probably replay Origins based on what people are saying, but for me its:

Asylum, Knight, Origins, City. City being pretty far down there.

Also count me in the "batmobile was fun" category. Overused as hell but fun.

I was surprised that there didn’t appear to be a combo meter like the previous games (i.e. Get an 8 hit combo to be able to do a special takedown). This seems more built on a super meter? Like do damage to fill up the meter and then spend it on special attacks? Between that and leveled enemies and damage points...well, it’s different.

The core of those game’s “Batman combat” was executing attacks and crowd control with something that felt like a brawler. Curious how all of that will play out.

The non-linear elements sound intriguing. It’s also been a while and I fell off Arkham Knight really fast, so we’ll see I guess.

Gotta say that the Suicide Squad game definitely has me more interested than this. Also, since when is Red Hood part of the Bat-family? Was Batwoman not good enough or something? Also, since this is related to Court of Owls I'm going to assume that is Damian in the Robin suite, in which case I want to stay as far away from this as possible. Also, also, if you are going to do a team game with Damian and Barbara wouldn't Teen Titans make a lot more sense? You would get a lot more variety in abilities. Robin, Batgirl, and Nightwing are all heroes trained by Batman who more or less use Batman's techniques. Why bother giving Robin abilities he doesn't have when there are several members of the Teen Titans who can in fact teleport and turn invisible? And if this isn't Damian then what the hell does anything we've seen have to do with the Court of Owls? I saw no Talon, no mention of a secret, shadowy oligarchy controlling Gotham from the shadows. And without Bruce what connection do these characters have to the court? Damian at least is a Wayne but to my memory none of the other characters present here are directly related to the Court of Owls. I dunno, I always thought the Court of Owls was one of the best additions to the Batman canon in quite a long time and this just doesn't seem to be remotely close to capturing the tone of that story or really the tone of Batman in recent years.

Suicide Squad, meanwhile showed no gameplay but it felt like Suicide Squad at least.

I am not the biggest DC fan but have enjoyed, to different extents, all the of the Arkham games (including Origins). In a way I am more excited about this than Rocksteady's Suicide Squad game, sure thats largely due to the fact that it is coming sooner, but I think it showed pretty well on its own. Seems like they have made some interesting changes to the gameplay, but I guess it remains to be seen if they will be a benefit overall... I am glad they aren't just totally sticking to the formula again.

I was really surprised by the 2022 date for Suicide Squad. It feels like it been already a very long time since Rocksteady's last game. Provided it doesn't slip it will be 7 years since Arkham Knight. I know they did the VR game too but don't know if that was like an all hands on deck thing or kind of a side project.

Sure its just a CG trailer so far, and they are still a long way off release, but I was somewhat put off by all the zombie-ish enemies they were fighting. Again not a huge DC fan so it could be some sort of cool reference/well know enemy that I am just unfamiliar with but it did sour me somewhat.

I liked the look of the characters, the writing and acting (for the trailer at least) seemed good. I do wonder though how they will handle a character like Deadshot in terms of game play... if he "never misses" will he just have a bunch of auto aim??

Before the news of Rocksteady doing a Suicide Squad game leaked I was hoping that, when they said they weren't doing another Batman game, they would be let loose to work on some sort of new IP. I am a bit disappointed that they are still constrained to DC but I have faith that at the very least they will make a fun game... even if I personally don't have any built in love or nostalgia for the universe or the characters.

Of course DPS numbers and loot.....is nothing safe

@raven10: As far as personal connection to the Court goes; Haly's Circus was handing over kid athletes to the Court to be trained as Talons and Dick was supposed to become one. Tim Drake is the Robin in this game.

The last couple of these games weren't so good so I did want a change. Now seeing it be one of these modern GaaS ARPG games.... can't say I am so positive. It totally depends on execution. There's been a lot of bad games like that lately I think but I did think The Division 2 was great lol. Hopefully its more like that.

I'm not really a DC guy past a few things so can't say the characters here excite me at all is probably the big problem. If you can customize them to look cool that'd be a nice start. But you hate to see them not let you play as Batman when that's what everyone wants.

The fact that after so long all they have to show is a CG trailer with no gameplay makes me wonder how many versions of this game have been trashed and completely rebuilt along the way. I got a Borderlands vibe from that trailer which was...unexpected. Also Killer Shark being the 4th character is a weird and neat pick.

@banefirelord: I loved Asylum when it came out, but it doesn't hold up very well. I was never a fan of Arkham City. To me, it was hugely disappointing. I played Origins late because one, it looked like more City, and two, it wasn't being received well. I played it through (in 2014 I think) and I really liked it. Up to that point, I thought it had the best story of the Arkham games and the best music. I wasn't super excited about Arkham Knight since it was coming after City and so my faith in Rocksteady was wavering but ended up thinking it was the best Arkham game. The story is great for the most part, the soundtrack is great, the setting does what City should have, and it was just more fun Arkham gameplay. I even enjoyed the batmobile stuff just fine. It also has an incredible selection of suits throughout the history of Batman. Oh, and even though it's an Unreal Engine 3 game, it's still one of the best looking games this gen. I wish it was enhanced on PS4 Pro and Xbox One X.

So to be clear, this is not another Arkham game. It isn't set in the same universe, which makes sense as to why it's different.

Interesting. So Batman is "dead" in two different video game universes now?

Also, wasn't the multiplayer mode that absolutely nobody ever touched (want to say it was jokers versus hockey pad batmans) named gotham knights? I feel I could google that but... eh.

Looks pretty fun overall. I really dig the art direction here - dark and very colorful. I have zero interest in co-op in this kind of game, though. And the added RPG elements I could do without.

And man, the voice acting and dialogue sure seems terrible. It sounds like those commercials for toys where children voice the characters.

@panfoot: Yah that was really surprising. Everyone at that FanDome event delivered the goods - there were movie trailers, gameplay, previews.. Yet after years of radio silence all Rocksteady has to show was a CG trailer and a 2022 release date? Makes me wonder when they actually started work on this thing.

As someone who (sort of) cares about the story in these games, it seems backwards to me? In terms of, Gotham Knights seems like it's 90% in the Arkham universe, picking up where Knight ended, but it isn't. There are enough differences where you can't fudge it, either. Meanwhile, Suicide Squad is in the Arkham universe despite the Justice League, and other superheroes in general, never really coming up in those games. So Batman is "dead" in Gotham Knights, in a manner very similar to Arkham Knight, but in Suicide Squad he's openly alive so he can be on the Justice League? I guess it doesn't really matter. Enemy levels and damage numbers don't excite me, but hey, Nightwing.

That feels like a whole lot of rose tinted glasses going on there. I played all of them at least two times and everything about City (for example) is worlds better than Asylum was. The only advantage Asylum had over City was a new combat system that looked cool. Knight had (as to be expected) the most fun/refined gameplay and was in general way better than people give it credit for. Origins had a cool(ish) storyline but even the storyline of Knight wasn't bad. It would just have been better if they had not fallen back to Joker as a villain. Scarecrow had so much potential until they did the Joker bait'n'switch.

This looks fun. I'm down for a coop Batman game.

@2headedninja: I think it really depends what you want out of it

Asylum had less nuanced combat and less varied environments. But it was a very tight game with REALLY good metroidvania style progression that didn't just feel like "you know Bruce, you could have just put on your other belt and have saved us a few hours".

I PROBABLY prefer City but a lot of the open world stuff felt like a distraction. Particularly things like Azrael. In a lot of ways I think it benefited a lot from me REALLY disliking Origins (choke points between zones) and Knight (fuck the tank. I truly hate that tank) making the padding traversal and radiant-ish quests to unlock side quests annoying.

@panfoot: friend of the site Ron Funches has been voicing King Shark on that popular (and surprisingly good) Harley Quinn cartoon. That character's stock is at a peak right now. He makes all the sense.

So long as I don’t have to play Pac-Man with tanks through dimly lit streets, I’m down for more Batman. Fuuuuuck Arkham Knight, though.