REVIEW - Gotham Knights finds redemption in its combat, but is ultimately unremarkable
Under the hood.
By Jonathan Garrett
20/10/22
Reviewed on Xbox Series X.
Review copy provided by Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment.
After years in development that led to a smart pivot towards next gen only hardware, Gotham Knights has landed as a competent experience that does not reach the lofty heights of its predecessors. On paper, it should be every bit the co-operative Arkham game that you’d hoped the original trilogy would become; an open world adventure boasting that iconic combat fluidity and a broad cast of classic characters. However, for every impactful brawl or dynamic event, there’s an issue with performance, or a convoluted menu, or a cheesy line of dialogue that takes you out of key moments.
In terms of what works, Red Hood is far and away the most enjoyable character to control. His heavier attacks land with a satisfying weight, while the combat animation, which switches from quick fire jabs, to ranged throws and block breakers, is consistently entertaining. The other three lack a certain sense of differentiation (especially Robin) in terms of movement, but beyond that are just a bit bland. This isn’t helped by some jarringly stilted vocal performances, and an equally bare bones script. It’s tough to pin down exactly what doesn’t work here, but the dialogue simply doesn’t flow naturally and comes off a bit forced.
As for the visuals, the focus on next (current) gen hardware was absolutely the right play. The visuals are extremely detailed, even if the open world is dour and lacks variation. Performance though is far too choppy for a title that defiantly refuses to offer any kind of option for framerate priority. Transitioning between sequences of heavy action and traversal sees noticeable dips, and given the raw capabilities of present console hardware, there is a disappointing lack of optimisation.
This might seem overtly negative, but moment to moment, Gotham Knights has regular redeeming qualities. Upgrading your moveset and experimenting with combos ticks all the right boxes. The structure of going out on patrol, searching for crimes, whilst still moving the main line quest forward, is a nice twist on the traditional “tidy up the map” approach to open world design. I looked forward to revisiting it every time I booted back in.
But the amount of caveats that must be acknowledged make this tough to wholeheartedly recommend. The vehicle handling, UI design, and fiddly controls might not be enough to warrant dismissing this entirely, but those issues do stack up. As it currently stands, Gotham Knights is a decent but frustrating take on a well established formula.
Red Hood is the dude.
WORTH IT?
At the bottom of every game review, we ask the question: Worth it? And the answer is either “Yeah!” or “Nah”, followed by a comment that sums up how we feel. In order to provide more information, we also have “And” or “But”, which follows up our rating with further clarification, additional context for a game we love, or perhaps a redeeming quality for a game we didn’t like.
NAH.
Gotham Knights has far too many issues to give a resounding thumbs up.
BUT
The refinements to combat are welcome, it’s graphically impressive, and there’s fun to be had in co-op.
TARPS?
At the bottom of some of our articles, you’ll see a series of absurd looking images (with equally stupid, in joke laden names). These are the TARP badges, which represent our ‘Totally Accurate Rating Platform’. They allow us to identify specific things, recognise positive or negative aspects of a games design, and generally indulge our consistent silliness with some visual tomfoolery.
