Several major gaming sites reviewed action roleplaying Gotham Knights as so bad you'd think it completely unenjoyable, eg. IGN (5/10) and Gamespot (4/10).

It's not perfect and some of their complaints have merit but having fully (new game plus max level and all achievements) played it ourselves, know it to deserve something more like an 8/10.

Good story, nearly great combat. Mostly but not entirely delivers on developer promises.

Fun.

There aren't many open-world superhero roleplaying games.

Also includes co-op multiplayer, which is a widely appreciated but rare feature in open-world rpgs.

Plus there's an additional co-op mode coming later this month.

Rather than writing our own review, we'll review the reviews.

The most common criticisms of the game fall into three categories - the Arkham games were better, story, and grind / games-as-service elements.

Only one of which we think is valid and even then don't think it sucks as much joy out of the game as others would have you believe.

The Arkham Problem

Many reviewers explicitly compare Gotham Knights to the Arkham series and complain either that one or more games in that series was better in one or more respects.

Or that their expectation of Gotham Knights was for it to evolve one or more elements in that series in some manner which it doesn't.

It is an understandable comparison to make but the developers always said that this was a different game.

Reviewers informing consumers of differences between the two is fair and responsible.

But using any of the Arkham games as a benchmark against which to score Gotham Knights is biased.

Gamespot's review references Arkham repeatedly, beginning in the subtitle:

Gotham Knights takes the Arkham blueprint and reimagines it as a loot-brawler, often feeling similar, but where it's different, it's worse.

Preceding their Gotham Knights review, IGN published a 11 minute video titled:

Why Batman's Arkham Series has one of Gaming's Greatest Combat Systems - Art of the Level

We will tackle combat later.

Story

We enjoyed the game's story and with the twist towards the end - which we won't spoil - found ourselves feeling sorry for our current character.

Being them would suck right now.

It has impact.

Some DC fans criticise the ending for being too predictable.

Because characters in the game behave in accordance with their character.

If they didn't, the complaint would be lack of authenticity.

Challenge or Chore?

This is where we finally come to valid criticisms.

Prior to release the developers told us that the Knights would unlock abilities by completing challenges out in Gotham.

Few would have heard that and imagined what that really meant.

Kill 10 rats.

Not rats in this case but instead of some immersive mission or some other proper challenge, it's just knockout - because nominally our heroes don't kill - X number of opponents, sometimes in a particular manner.

Bit tragic and it's just one example of this chore mentality in Gotham Knights.

Certainly not value adding but the X is never huge and only sucks a small amount of joy out of the game.

Of course the reasoning behind its inclusion is obvious.

Gotham Knights has both optional multiplayer in the base game and a separate, dedicated online mode in Heroic Assaults which arrive at the end of the month.

At a time when the entire entertainment industry is metaverse obsessed and desperately trying to build their own online communities, it makes perfect sense for Warner Bros. to attempt that for DC with this game.

They could have done that without kill 10 rats, but having played many online games, the grind / repetition factor in Gotham Knights is extremely light in comparison.

Which is where Gotham Knights could really resonate.

Pull and hold a big crowd.

Where someone who plays only or primarily single-player games might look at every kill 10 rats and groan, MMO (massively multiplayer online) gamers could look at Gotham Knights and cheer at its light work load.

Combat

How good / bad is it?

From the perspective of just what it takes to beat the game on medium (default) difficulty, it's great.

The Belfry combat tutorials do a fantastic job of teaching you everything and this is one instance where the game's meting out content based on main story progression definitely works.

It's well paced.

From the perspective of what it takes to play perfectly optimally, it's not perfect.

Because of "perfect" dodges.

That's Gotham Knights' attempt at innovation.

With many gamers now enamoured with the souls-like standard of avoiding every hit possible courtesy of this year's gaming juggernaut Elden Ring, Gotham Knights goes against the grain by rewarding players for allowing themselves to be hit.

A "perfect" dodge in Gotham Knights doesn't live up to its name.

Rather it's allowing yourself to be hit several times by the first few attacks in an enemy's attack chain, then dodging the final, biggest hit.

This gives you an opportunity to counter-attack, though they don't call it that.

Perfect dodges are also rewarded with momentum - which is required to execute abilities.

On the topic of momentum, unlike most games with a resource mechanic, momentum doesn't just regenerate on its own.

Characters generate it with perfect dodges and much smaller amounts on each weapon hit.

Timing weapon strikes to every 1 second rewards more.

Why?

Just because.

Nightwing is the only character with passive regeneration (sort of) and some weapons and suits also have momentum regeneration effects.

Again like the kill 10 rats stuff, it feels stupid but doesn't wreck the game.

You can easily complete most content while completely ignoring it.

We say most because the very last main mission includes 5 boss fights where regular weapon attacks don't do much damage and you're supposed to rely on momentum abilities.

You can play that mission as Nightwing.

The game gives also gives all characters a blueprint for legendary weapons with momentum regeneration at max level.

Granted by the non-player character Montoya.

And enough materials to build them from resource caches in Gotham.

Crafting just one will can you through that final mission and that's before you even consider the option of just turning down the difficulty.

Putting aside momentum regeneration and "perfect" dodges, combat is excellent.

Taking them into account it, combat is still very good.

The Heroic Question

The question we can't answer until the end of the month, is how will it factor into the new 4 player co-op Heroic Assaults.

If there's one thing most online gamers would be aware of, it's that group content like this is where you can find extraordinary toxicity even when the content is purely co-operative as in the case of Gotham Knights.

Online games put players on often tedious and repetitive treadmills with rewards being at least partly RNG based.

That strongly encourages a maximum efficiency mindset in some players who may demonstrate zero tolerance for other players not playing absolutely perfectly.

In this case, all that "perfect" dodge and timed strikes jazz to maximize momentum regeneration.

So the good enough in the base game combat may be a pitfall in Heroic Assaults which works against their efforts to build a community.

We'll have a look at those when they arrive in a few weeks.

Gotham Knights is available now on PC (Steam and Epic), Xbox X|S and PlayStation 5.

Their separate 4 player co-op Heroic Assault mode will be added in a free update on November 29.

[ Main Image: Gotham Knights - Batgirl. Credit: Warner Bros. via IMDb.com. ]

References

Delaney, Mark (October 20, 2022) Gotham Knights takes the Arkham blueprint and reimagines it as a loot-brawler, often feeling similar, but where it's different, it's worse. Gamespot.

IGN (October 20, 2022) Why Batman's Arkham Series has one of Gaming's Greatest Combat Systems - Art of the Level. YouTube.

Northup, Travis (October 20, 2022). Gotham Knights Review. IGN.