Gotham Knights – In the superhero world in general, and the DC comic company in particular, Batman can be said to be one of the most famous names.

Although unrelated, in this review there will still be a comparison between the two game series. This is inevitable when Gotham Knights has many similarities with the Arkham franchise , as well as the fact that WB Games Montréal is responsible for two games of the Arkham series, Batman Arkham City: Armored Edition and Batman Arkham: Origins .

PLOT

Gotham Knights opens with Batman being attacked at his base. The attacker is the leader of the League of Assassins – Ra’s al Ghul.

A fierce battle took place and although Batman gradually exhausted himself physically and mentally, Ra’s al Ghul still showed no signs of weakness because he used Lazarus juice to increase his strength.

Realizing that he had no way to live after this battle, Batman decided to destroy the bat cave himself, leaving his life at risk. The hero of Gotham believes that the assistants he has trained for so long are mature enough to be able to protect the city on his behalf.

And so, four of Batman’s former assistants – Nightwing, Robin, Batgirl, Red Hood – will have to unite together, not only to investigate the death of their late teacher, but also to fill the void left by Bruce Wayne left behind.

YOU WILL LIKE

The character lines are well built

The biggest advantage of Gotham Knights is probably the story that WB Games Montréal wrote.

The first thing to talk about is Batman’s death. Even though he dies in the first 10 minutes of the game, he still plays a driving role in the story. Bruce’s departure is shown to be extremely important through story details, as well as the character’s emotions.

The main characters of the game are built very well, with equal importance, without overshadowing. The two character lines that the writer likes the most are Red Hood/Jason Todd and the butler Alfred.

As a person with a hot-tempered personality, who likes to work independently and believes that most problems can be solved with violence , Jason’s cooperation with team members is “reluctant”. ”, even if it has been familiar to everyone for a long time.

But, as we go deeper into the story, Jason gradually changes. He is more comfortable working with people, and most notably when he uses his life experiences to help his “brother” Robin/Tim Drake deal with the grief of losing Batman.

For Alfred, even though he is not a blood relative, he is Bruce Wayne’s “spiritual father”. His pain at losing his son is delicately portrayed.

Without drinking alcohol to soothe his sorrows or shedding tears, Alfred continued to support the group’s members in their journey to protect justice. Alfred understands that, although he does not want his family members to leave, Gotham City needs them more than him.

The biggest advantage of Gotham Knights is probably the story that WB Games Montréal wrote

Other characters also have their important aspects. Robin/Tim Drake must learn to stand up to become a separate hero, not just Batman’s sidekick. Nightwing/Dick Grayson learns to lead the Gotham Knights , Batgirl/Barbara Gordon remembers Police Commissioner Gordon, who passed away some time before Batman.

These plot elements are well-constructed, giving our characters depth, not just being covers for us to role-play.

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Other small points of praise

The first point is that WB Games Montréal does quite well in creating differences between members of the bat family.

Although they are all disciples of Batman and are just ordinary heroes (except Red Hood), the play styles of the four characters are completely different.

The uniqueness of the characters is not only in the martial arts moves they perform, but also in their approach to combat.

For example, Nightwing, with his agility as well as acrobatic techniques, he will tend to dodge enemy attacks and counterattack to fill his “Momentum” bar. This is a powerful bar that allows players to perform their character’s special techniques.

Meanwhile, with Batgirl, her forte will be direct attacks, causing great damage to one target. This makes Batgirl a suitable character for boss fights.

The game’s upgrade system is also invested in, with a system of moves diverse enough to affect the character’s gameplay.

For example, Red Hood is a specialized ranged character with two guns (that fire rubber bullets), but through a few upgrades, he will have access to several tools (literal and figurative) with which to fight. Fight enemies at close range. However, Red Hood’s close-range combat tactics are also different from other members.

WB Games Montréal does a pretty good job of creating differences between members of the bat family

Next, there is the equipment section of the game. Most of them are just “reskin” (change appearance) with stronger stats, but the designs that the game gives us are also diverse, from the “military” outfits that we often seen in modern hero movies, to classic comic book costumes.

After choosing the outfit, Gotham Knights also gives us the option to replace some of the above parts to “personalize” our hero.

One significant thing is that all equipment is free in the game, there are no microtransaction elements, like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla , or Marvel’s Avenger .

Finally, the game allows us to go online with two people at any time as we like. The amount of enemies that Gotham Knights unleash is quite large, but when the two of them work together, the challenges will be much easier, whether fighting directly or stealthily.

YOU WILL HATE

Has not surpassed the shadow of its predecessor game

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, although WB Games Montréal does not have much to do with Rocksteady’s Arkham franchise , comparing the two is inevitable, when this is a game about the sidekick of the most famous hero. DC.

First, let’s talk about combat. Although the character’s movements are not as quick and powerful as when they appeared in Arkham Knight , the writer still “relatively” liked the game’s fighting mechanism.

After getting familiar with how the mechanics of fast dodging, strong hitting, dodging, returning attacks, hitting at the right time and attacking from a distance work, the writer was able to launch quite satisfying combo chains! Combining this with Easy mode, the writer has a playing experience that is almost pure action, without having to “plow”.

The “relative” mentioned above ended when special types of enemies appeared.

Similar to Arkham Knight , in Gotham Knights there are also enemies who are well-trained, have unusual physiques, or carry strange weapons.

But, the special enemies of Gotham Knights are quite poorly designed, and the way to deal with them is not 100% effective and affects the rhythm of the match.

An example of this is an enemy in the image below.

This is a big guy wearing ice-effect gloves. With these big guys, the way to deal with them is to perform a perfectly timed dodge, then launch a heavy counterattack, stunning them, and then unleash a combo.

But the problem here is that their main attack will create an ice field around the body, and if you reflexively jump in to counterattack immediately, of course you will be injured, and the attack rhythm will also be the same. stalled. In the worse case, just after avoiding this guy’s attack, another enemy attacks, causing you to accidentally jump into a “trap”.

This is not unique to the game, but it is indicative of WB Games Montréal’s confusion in designing enemy variations, without understanding how players should be able to defeat them but still maintaining the same rhythm as Arkham Knight did.

After the fight, we must go to the transport.

The main means of transportation for Gotham Knights members is the Batcycle motorbike. This is also an element that the writer likes, because it creates a new image, not a duplicate of the Batmobile car/tank, which is associated with Batman.

Furthermore, with its compact size, the writer does not have to worry about “destroying” Gotham City every time he goes from A to B, especially when Gotham City in this game has the regular presence of residents. .

The downside of the Batcycle is that it doesn’t have any functions other than moving.

WB Games Montréal was confused in designing enemy variations, without understanding how players could defeat them while still maintaining the rhythm of combat like Arkham Knight did

It is true that Arkham Knight is criticized for overusing the Batmobile, but this game also integrates well the transformation of the vehicle into a special assistant for Batman, through combat as well as puzzle solving.

The Batcycle, on the other hand, can only be used for running. It does not have guns for players to deal with enemies fleeing in cars when necessary. It doesn’t even have the function of using nitro to temporarily increase speed.

As a role-playing game, the writer thought he would be able to upgrade the vehicle with the resources he collected, but it turns out, besides the paint color, the Batcycle has nothing to change!

Ultimately, it comes down to the stealth aspect of the game. There’s not much to say other than that it’s simplified.

It seems like this is an attempt to let Robin – the member with special skills related to stealth – shine.

Being caught while sneaking does not have major consequences, because the enemies using guns do not have too much damage, and players who are familiar with the dodge function can easily deal with them.

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It would be better if…

There are some points that the writer believes that if Gotham Knights implemented, the game’s playing experience would be much better.

First, the game does not have a replay function for completed missions. This is a real pity, because WB Games Montréal has programmed the characters to have dialogue and perceive specific situations for each mission. Not to mention that many of the scenes are designed quite well.

Unfortunately, with the quest being impossible to redo, most players won’t be able to experience this.

Second, Gotham Knights also does not have a Challenge section for players to hone their fighting and stealth skills.

Third, although Gotham Knights is a cooperative game (Co-op) , the writer believes that the game should have a team function handled by AI (in case you can’t find a friend to play with or just want to play). play co-op alone).

The reason is that when playing two people, we will be able to perform beautiful combination moves! It’s a pity that these combination moves cannot be performed if we choose to play alone, for whatever reason.

In the end, it is WB Games Montréal that should optimize the game better. As a game that was intended to be released on both PS4/Xbox ONE before canceling these two versions to take advantage of the new hardware’s power, it is difficult to accept that this game can only run… 30fps (frames). /sec) on current generation consoles.

Being an action-heavy game, seeing attacks at 60fps makes for a better experience. This is a factor that many gamers are willing to trade from 4K to 1080p.

Being an action-heavy game, seeing attacks at 60fps makes for a better experience. This is a factor that many gamers are willing to trade for 4K resolution