‘Gotham Knights’ deserves a reappraisal in light of ‘Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s poorly-received reveal
Gotham Knights landed last October with a thud. It’d been seven long years since we last explored the Batverse in Rocksteady Games’ Arkham Knight and now we were being served a title that appeared to be stuffed with games-as-a-service rubbish, was limited to 30fps on next-gen consoles, had noticeably worse graphics than Rocksteady’s games, multiple performance issues, and didn’t even let you play as Batman.
The game was released to a disappointing Metacritic rating of 68, sales were sluggish, and many figured they should just wait for Arkham developers Rocksteady Studios’ Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
Well, we’ve now seen Rocksteady’s game in action courtesy of the recent State of Play and it’s left players distinctly underwhelmed. Whether it be the battle pass, samey looking ‘shoot the purple weak point’ gunplay, persistent internet connection requirement, or the general malaise around equipment that promises stuff like “+22% damage to Batman-infused enemies”, excitement is low, to say the least.
So, to paraphrase Thanos, “perhaps we treated Gotham Knights a little too harshly”.
Stepping back into Gotham City
That Suicide Squad reveal practically made us give up on the game, and with a lingering urge for some Bat-related gaming action, we figured we’d give it a try on rental. We set our expectations at rock bottom, steeling ourselves for an onslaught of microtransactions, a disappointing plot, wonky graphics, and combat that’s a shadow of the Arkham trilogy.
Now we’ve rolled credits on it, and — whisper it — we think Gotham Knights is actually pretty great and definitely didn’t deserve the mauling it got at launch.
First and foremost, despite pre-launch paranoia, Gotham Knights is first and foremost a single-player experience. You don’t need an internet connection to play, and though multiplayer exists, it’s seamlessly woven into the experience. Player population is a little low, but whenever a random player jumped in to help solve some crimes, it was nice to have a buddy. There’s also no battle pass, no microtransactions, and the game isn’t shy about constantly giving you new outfits that other titles likely would have locked behind a paywall.
The story is also surprisingly engaging. The death of Batman leaves a big hole in Gotham City that no one hero can fill, and the longer you play, you realize each of the four embodies various aspects of the hero. But, though Bruce Wayne is laid to rest in the opening cinematic, he’s still very much a part of the story as an ideal to be lived up to.
On top of all that, post-release patches have smoothed over some of the review gripes, making unlocking abilities easier, rebalancing some of the combat, awarding more upgrade resources, and stamping out most of the launch bugs and glitches.
The flies in the ointment
But Gotham Knights isn’t perfect. The 30fps limit on PlayStation 5 still stings (though we got used to 30fps fairly quickly), the Bat-cycle feels like it’s moving through molasses, and enemies remain very damage spongey. We still can’t get over that 2015’s Arkham Knight‘s Gotham is so much more vibrant and atmospheric than what we got here, underlining the technical wizardry of Rocksteady for putting that out relatively early in the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One’s life.
Kill the Suicide Squad
It’s a dark irony that all the predatory games-as-a-service junk gamers assumed Gotham Knights would have is actually present in Suicide Squad instead. Yes, Gotham Knights has its problems, but at least it isn’t encouraging you to stick your hand in your wallet to buy Nightwing a new set of escrima sticks or to pay to give Batgirl a new hairdo.
So, if you’re left cold by what you’ve seen of Suicide Squad, we encourage you to at least give Gotham Knights a try. It’s now available at a decent discount from most places, though on PC is currently available as part of Humble Bundle’s Türkiye-Syria earthquake relief charity bundle, where you can get it (and 72 other games) for just $30.
We came at Gotham Knights with low expectations but found a concise and fun game brimming with love for DC Comics with only a few easy-to-overlook flaws. Don’t expect to find Arkham Knight 2.0, but there’s a hell of a lot to like in this package.