Some Thoughts about Gotham Knights
When Gotham Knights first came out in late 2022, I have to admit that I was not really looking to play it. The idea of a co-op Batman game that did not have you playing as Batman seemed weird. Add in the fact that I came off of Batman: Arkham Knight with a little disappointment, I didn’t have high hopes for this one. About two months after it came out, I picked it up on PlayStation as it was 45% off, but it still didn’t grab me, even after trying some of the co-op with my friend Fourhman. Then it dropped on Game Pass, and I once again picked it up, but this time it clicked.
Some might wonder why it clicked for me at that point. Was it just being on a preferred platform? I don’t think that was it. Instead, I started to dig more into the mechanics and the upgrade system and there, I found my home with Gotham Knights. For me, the upgrades and crafting became the holy grail. I spent hours looking at stat values, mod chips and more to make sure I had the max abilities and stats needed to take down the enemies of Gotham with ease. There was so much here with crafting styles, and performance based suits. It became my constant pull back to Gotham Knights.
Taking those crafted items into the city also bought me more joy. My second trip into Gotham Knights had me paying more attention to the combat and skills that could be used by my character. Instead of button mashing, I found more nuance in my attacks. I started to see the patterns to take down enemies quickly. Even bosses became less of an issue for me. I even found the stealth in the game appealing to take on, as you could gain better XP bonuses for stealth takedowns in combat. I started to use the environment to my advantage. Gotham Knights felt like a completely different game from when I first played it, and I appreciated every minute of it.
Of course, Arkham games of the past have had some fantastic story telling attached to their gameplay and I thought a game like Gotham Knights would lake any substance here. The game was designed around co-op gameplay and it made me think that the narrative would be a second thought. Once again, Gotham Knights surprised and exceeded my expectations on multiple levels. The game lays down some threads to hook you in, but whiplash plot direction changes kept me in suspense. I did play through the game using one single character (Batgirl), which my friend Fourhman thought was a bit weird, but I wanted to see the story from one viewpoint first, and then I could go back and see it from a different perspective. Gotham Knights pulls in popular characters like The Penguin, Mr. Freeze and Harley Quinn. I even got a bit of a history lesson on the Court of Owls, as I had a bit of a blind spot on them, as they came in after I had stopped reading Batman books.
Gotham Knights is such a weird game for me, as it was a title I completely dismissed, but ended up finding it to be one of the more entertaining titles I have played in recent memory. It is a game that many slept on, because of the co-op premise, or the thought that it might be a live service game. You have nothing to fear on either of those points. There is never a threat or push to buy things, and it is a fantastic single player experience. If you have a chance to try it (and it is on both PlayStation Plus Extra and Game Pass right now), do yourself a favor and try it. You will not be disappointed.
