We went to bed last night seeing abysmal review scores for DC's newly released Black Adam and thought, that's what we'll be talking about tomorrow.

And awoke to find reviews for released today / tomorrow (depending on platform) action roleplaying game Gotham Knights in the same region.

IGN have pegged both (Gotham Knights, Black Adam) as 5s.

That seems representative for Black Adam which earned a 53% score from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, but Gotham Knights, has managed a semi-respectable 69% critics score on Metacritic.

Less dire than it appeared initially but still not great.

Gotham Knights

Boring combat.

Story too short and also too predictable.

Exploring the city is fun, solo or co-op.

When crafting new equipment to keep yourself able to tackle harder content, you're forced to make whatever gear the random loot system has given you materials for.

Unable to trade with other players or grind specific materials.

This is bizarre design and also at odds with the promise from developers that different enemy groups drop specific crafting materials.

Performance (on Xbox X|S) is a bit garbage.

Story is the killer here.

Some games with rocky launches manage to come good and that's typically on the strength of story.

Cyberpunk 2077 is enjoying a bit of a renaissance right now and their story was always rock solid.

Slight positive. What IGN praise - city, costumes and co-op - are what we are most looking forward to.

There may be some joy in it for us.

Black Adam

IGN say that it feels like Black Adam was made a few decades ago.

That was our impression of Justice League and we guessed that a misguided attempt to capitalise on 80s nostalgia.

Though in this case he says that Dwayne Johnson came up with the idea fifteen years ago and doesn't seem to have updated it since.

The film is essentially just a string of repetitive, boring action scenes.

Interestingly The Hollywood Reporter detail that DC Films head Walter Hamada has stepped down and they are currently rudderless.

Hamada didn't want to make Black Adam - Johnson went around him - and also wanted to end the influence of Snyder.

Mmmm.

Johnson told the NY Times:

It’s the safer bet to continue to invest in the I.P. that the world knows. The Justice League — Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Aquaman. I understand that. But it took convincing to get the studio to look past the Justice League into the DC universe, and there’s some really cool characters there. You’ve just got to give it a shot and trust the investment.

We strongly agree with Johnson that DC should be looking beyond its over-used core of heroes and despite the middling reviews are still more interested in both of these titles than this year's widely praised Batman film.

But these are two investments don't appear to have paid dividends.

A second Man of Steel film starring Henry Cavill is early in development.

Gotham Knights launches today or early tomorrow depending on platform on PC, Xbox X|S and PlayStation 5.

Black Adam is in cinemas now.

[ Main Image: Black Adam - Dwayne Johnson. Credit: Warner Bros. via IMDb.com. ]

References

IGN (October 19, 2022). Black Adam Review. YouTube.

IGN (October 20, 2022). Gotham Knights Review. YouTube.

Itzkoff. Dave (October 17, 2022). Dwayne Johnson Is Ready to Embrace the Heel Again in ‘Black Adam’. The New York Times.

Kit, Borys (October 17, 2022). DC at a Turning Point: James Gunn Pitches Secret Movie, Dwayne Johnson Flexes His Superman Power (Exclusive). The Hollywood Reporter.

Metacritic. Gotham Knights - Critic Reviews. (viewed October 21, 2022)

Rotten Tomatoes. Black Adam. (viewed October 21, 2022)