General Gaming Gotham Knights (WB Montreal, 21 October 2022) - Information Thread, update: reviews from OpenCritic posted

[skillzdadirecta]

18 minutes ago, best3444 said:

 

That looks really good. The level of detail they've put into the city.

[Phaseknox]

4 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

That looks really good. The level of detail they've put into the city.

I agree. This was my most anticipated game of the year since third person open world action adventure games are amongst my favorites these days and I really dig Batgirl, but they canceled the last gen console versions of the game so I’m going to have to wait until I get a PS5 to play it. I know that I keep saying this and probably sound like a broken record at this point, but this has legit pissed me off especially since nothing that I’ve seen of the game makes it look like it couldn’t have been done on last gen consoles.

 

I’m almost certain that they canceled the last gen console versions just so that people would think that this is a true current gen game and not a cross-gen game since cross-gen games have negative connotations attached to them even though games like Horizon Forbidden West and God of War: Ragnarok haven’t really been affected negatively for being cross-gen games and I’m almost positive that this game wouldn’t have been either. Oh well, it is what it is and I just have to accept the fact that I won’t be playing this for at least a couple of more years. Thankfully I still have Saints Row to look forward to this year.

[best3444]

@Phaseknox I completely agree with you here. There is absolutely NO reason it shouldn't have released on PS4. I feel bad for ya but you'll eventually play it. Who knows, it may not turn out so great anyway. 

[skillzdadirecta]

 

Interesting...

[best3444]

Interesting is the perfect word. I just have my doubts and the latest videos don't really impress me. I'll wait for user reviews etc before biting.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Release has been moved forward to October 21:

 

 

[best3444]

I liked that trailer. It actually got me excited for this game. I'm still a bit skeptical but I'm thinking this will turn out solid. 

[Phaseknox]

I’m still bitter that they canceled the last gen console versions of the game, because I would have really liked to have played it this October but now I have to wait until I get a PS5 which won’t be until Grand Theft Auto VI comes out.

[SoberChef]

3 hours ago, Phaseknox said:

I’m still bitter that they canceled the last gen console versions of the game, because I would have really liked to have played it this October but now I have to wait until I get a PS5 which won’t be until Grand Theft Auto VI comes out.

 

Get an Xbox Series S then while you wait?

[Brick]

5 hours ago, Phaseknox said:

I’m still bitter that they canceled the last gen console versions of the game, because I would have really liked to have played it this October but now I have to wait until I get a PS5 which won’t be until Grand Theft Auto VI comes out.

 

Yes we know as you've said multiple times now 

 

[best3444]

6 hours ago, SoberChef said:

 

Get an Xbox Series S then while you wait?

 

@Phaseknox yea, grab a Series S. They are pretty readily available even in store and is a very nice option in dipping your toe into next gen. 

[Phaseknox]

11 hours ago, SoberChef said:

Get an Xbox Series S then while you wait?

4 hours ago, best3444 said:

@Phaseknox yea, grab a Series S. They are pretty readily available even in store and is a very nice option in dipping your toe into next gen. 

I’m not interested in an in-between last gen and current gen console which the Xbox Series S is, I want the next console that I get to be a true current gen one without any compromises. I currently have 700+ PS4 games, so I have plenty enough to play until I get a PS5 when Grand Theft Auto VI comes out.

[best3444]

7 minutes ago, Phaseknox said:

I’m not interested in an in-between last gen and current gen console which the Xbox Series S is, I want the next console that I get to be a true current gen one without any compromises. I currently have 700+ PS4 games, so I have plenty enough to play until I get a PS5 when Grand Theft Auto VI comes out.

 

Fair enough. 

[skillzdadirecta]

Two issue prequel comic series announced'

 

How Gotham Knights: Gilded City Sets the Stage for the Video Game - IGN First - IGN

WWW.IGN.COM

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Batman: Gotham Knights - Gilded City is a prequel to the upcoming game, one that introduces a Civil War-era hero known as The Runaway. Learn how the comic book series sets up the game and what exclusive DLC is being included.

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

 

[skillzdadirecta]

 

[skillzdadirecta]

Co-op sounds REALLY cool the way it works.

[best3444]

1 hour ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Co-op sounds REALLY cool the way it works.

 

Yep. Beating a "boss" in co-op then having the option to skip that boss in your own game is brilliant. This is looking very promising. 

[skillzdadirecta]

2 minutes ago, best3444 said:

 

Yep. Beating a "boss" in co-op then having the option to skip that boss in your own game is brilliant. This is looking very promising. 

Also being able to join a freind's game and fully explore Gotham on your own and do your own thing without being tethered is kinda cool. Hopefully the gameplay is as solid as everything else seems to be.

[best3444]

3 hours ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Also being able to join a freind's game and fully explore Gotham on your own and do your own thing without being tethered is kinda cool. Hopefully the gameplay is as solid as everything else seems to be.

 

Yea, that's badass as well. I still feel a bit worried this may not end up being great. I just have that feeling after watching a lot of footage. I hope I'm wrong because the game is so appealing to me.

[skillzdadirecta]

1 hour ago, best3444 said:

 

Yea, that's badass as well. I still feel a bit worried this may not end up being great. I just have that feeling after watching a lot of footage. I hope I'm wrong because the game is so appealing to me.

Yeah the game will live and die on how good the gameplay feels. No hands on previews so far is concerning but I'm getting it day one regardless.

[stepee]

4 minutes ago, best3444 said:

 

Yea, that's badass as well. I still feel a bit worried this may not end up being great. I just have that feeling after watching a lot of footage. I hope I'm wrong because the game is so appealing to me.

 

yeah I loved the Arkham games and hope this will be good but I can’t get a vibe from this at all, could go either way

[skillzdadirecta]

Gotham Knights Preview: The City, Its Villains, and Much More - IGN First - IGN

WWW.IGN.COM

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Our month of IGN First content for Gotham Knights is coming to an end - check out everything you need to know in our enormous hands-off preview.

 

[skillzdadirecta]

[stepee]

Gotham Knights Will Support Ray Tracing on PC With Intel Arc A-Series GPUs

GAMINGBOLT.COM

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System requirements and whether Xbox Series X/S and PS5 versions will support the same are…

 

If nothing else, seems like it’ll be a looker!

 

RT for shadows and reflections.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

A couple of recent trailers:

 

 

 

 

IGN videos:

 

 

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Final hands-on previews:

 

Gotham Knights: The Final Preview - IGN

WWW.IGN.COM

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We went hands on with three hours of Gotham Knights and came away with some conflicting thoughts. Here is our final Gotham Knights preview before it releases on October 21.

 

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On a very basic level, Gotham Knights’ combat is built on the foundation of the Batman: Arkham games. But once you get past the shallow waters, things go in very different directions. Here’s where things will be familiar: You press a direction and the attack button, and your character gracefully spins, leaps, or slides towards the closest enemy for a quick strike that initiates a combo. Enemies will also telegraph their own attack with an icon that appears over them, giving you plenty of time to dodge out of the way to avoid damage. It’s all super smooth, there are a ton of slick animations, and you’re even rewarded for timing your button presses as opposed to just mashing, just like in the Arkham games.

 

And that’s it, that’s where the comparisons end, because everything else feels very different. Gotham Knights is much more abilities-focused, with a meter at the bottom right that governs your ability to use your momentum skills. As you’d imagine, you gain meter by dealing damage and using your dodge to avoid attacks with good timing, and you lose meter by taking damage. Once you fill a bar, you can use one of your eight equippable momentum skills for a variety of different uses: Red Hood has a close range throw that deals a ton of damage to a single target, Robin has a holographic distraction that he can throw down to take some heat off him and the team, Batgirl can toss out a batarang barrage to deal a bunch of piercing damage right in front of her, and Nightwing has a cool acrobatic leap attack that lets him get the jump on an opponent from far away.

 

Fights quickly started to feel very routine, with very similar enemies in every encounter, to the point where I felt like I had to mix up my tactics – not because I was being forced to, but just to try and make things a little more interesting. My favorite character ended up being Red Hood, because he excelled at a hybrid style of both ranged and melee, which felt quite different from what everyone else was able to do. Plus, he had some neat tricks – like being able to grab an enemy, place a bomb on them, and then kick them away so you can explode the bomb with a gunshot.

 

 

 

 

Gotham Knights Hands-On Preview: Almost On Leather Wings - GameSpot

WWW.GAMESPOT.COM

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WB Games Montréal's co-op action puts Batman's proteges in the spotlight for a game that mixes old ideas with new ones.

 

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However, I'd be lying if I didn't also say that I felt like the system also undermines a lot of tried-and-true design principles for something that, while functional, currently feels less satisfying and less intuitive. Take the basic punching and countering for example: In the Batman Arkham games, there was a rhythmic quality to them, to the point where you could feel the timing; you'd know exactly when to hit the button for that perfect follow-up strike and the game would give you feedback to show you were successful--it was explicit about it. Gotham Knights, meanwhile, doesn't have the instinctive feel of Arkham's rhythmic combat and has a hidden combo mechanic. With the counter system of the Arkham games you'd also become so attuned to your surroundings that you could get into a flow state and counter almost as an involuntary reaction to the prompt, and then swiftly move on to the next enemy without breaking your stride. There was a beautiful fluidity and grace to it all.

 

By comparison, Gotham Knights feels more rigid, and lacks that elegance that would allow the characters of the Arkham series to feel like an extension of you as opposed to a thing you're puppeteering on a screen. I noticed myself constantly glancing at a bar and at icons in a corner of a screen, when I wanted to just focus on the action. The perfect dodge mechanic, meanwhile, certainly works. It lets you get out of the way of incoming strikes and retaliate, while giving you a decent chunk of Momentum to work towards that final flourish. But it also felt like it, ironically, slowed the momentum of my assault. There's a whole disjointed feeling to it that I can't help but liken to looter-shooter games where you're sinking clips of ammo into enemies and biding your time until an ability becomes available to use. In those games, however, the unique properties of guns make that process a little more engaging, but the same can't be said of Gotham Knight's melee attacks: a punch is a punch and a kick is a kick, at least in the slice of the game I played.

 

 

 

 

Why Gotham Knights Created an Older, Wiser, More Dangerous Harley Quinn - IGN

WWW.IGN.COM

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Gotham Knights' Harley Quinn is a unique take on the classic character, an older, wiser, more frightening individual, entering the "third act" of her supervillain career. We spoke to the developers to find out how and why they made this new Harley.

 

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This isn’t the Harley Quinn you know.

 

As Gotham Knights creative director Patrick Redding puts it: “She is coming not from a place of, ‘Oh, I’ve got to be zany. I'm your manic pixie.’ She doesn't need to be the manic pixie anymore. She has gotten to a point where she knows who she is. She has a very clear sense of what her identity is, and she's going to present herself in this much stronger, developed supervillain way.”

 

Gotham Knights’ Harley Quinn is a very interesting case study in how to adapt a beloved comic book character. Her look, her voice, and her brand of villainy are immediately recognisable – but her story, and her reason to be is fundamentally altered. It came out of a general philosophy for villains that guided Warner Bros. Games Montréal throughout the design process:

 

“All of the villains that we've included in Gotham Knights were chosen for a few reasons,” explains Redding. “One, we knew we wanted recognizable members of the rogues gallery, but we also wanted specific villains who had an interesting relationship with Batman, where once you took Batman out of the picture, it would cause that character to question, ‘Well, what's my function now? In a world where I don't have my main nemesis, what do I do next?’”

 

 

 

Gotham Knights hands-on preview: No Batman, no problem | GamesRadar+

WWW.GAMESRADAR.COM

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Embracing change is as important to Gotham Knights as the death of the Caped Crusader

 

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In its quieter moments, Gotham Knights' environments bleed charisma, serving regular nods to wider DC lore – not least inside the Knights' Belfry HQ, where players can activate missions, catch up on their progress, and switch characters freely – with pacing between its detective-style, clue-hunting set-pieces and all-out warfare well-balanced. Assuming control of the smack-talking, muscle-bound Red Hood from the outset, I first find myself caught up in a crime scene, tasked with infiltrating Gotham University in search of intel related to Batman's final case. The professor I'm searching for, it turns out, is dead, seemingly murdered – but I do manage to swipe a hard drive and make for the exit. 

 

Once outside, a gang of baseball bat-wielding 'Freaks', working under the direction of Harley Quinn, have torched a van and seem generally very upset. I crack my knuckles and get to work, pinballing between enemies while combining melee and heavy melee attacks with ambush and silent takedowns. Before long, with the old building now burning down around us, I'm inside the smoky halls of the university, battling hordes of Freaks and saving the lives of unwitting hostages in a mix of tight and open spaces. After laying dozens of faceless foes flat, a big lad eventually emerges from the flames, carrying a huge shield and dragging a mace and chain across the concrete floor, and it takes a flurry of guard-breaking power attacks, and ranged gunfire – ranged offense being Red Hood's speciality – to topple him. With moments to spare, I escape the smoldering campus, and, miles from the Belfry, decide to tap up on the D-Pad to call the Bat Cycle. I then speed home through the hustle and bustle of Gotham whose streets are now slick with rain.

 

 

 

Gotham Knights has more than a Batman problem

WWW.EUROGAMER.NET

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Our preview of Gotham Knights, which is missing a bit of magic.

 

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In Gotham Knights, Batman is dead. "Like, dead-dead," as WB Montreal put it during our preview, and in his place comes four sub-heroes: Robin, Batgirl, Nightwing and Red Hood. These are, barring any surprises, who you will play as in Gotham Knights. I played as three of them in the preview - Batgirl and Red Hood in early game scenarios, and Robin for a late-game mission and boss fight - and I can now say with confidence that they are… fine.

 

It's faint praise, and I'm loath to be too harsh on Gotham Knights when we're still a few weeks away from launch. But at the moment it's underwhelming, and underwhelming in terms of real substance, rather than technical performance - it looks nice enough and ran without any hiccups while we played over streaming platform Parsec.

 

What's missing is a sense of conviction. The setup sees you making a base of the Belfrey, a clock tower hideout that'll be familiar to series fans, where you can mooch about and briefly chat with the other characters, swap between them, and launch missions or an exploration of the open world of Gotham City. Gotham looks quite good, but also a little muted next to the Gotham of Rocksteady's Arkham games - especially Arkham Knight - where that glorious, gothic maximalism is replaced with more of a mediumalism. The city's deep blacks seem more like faded browns, the rain doesn't fall as hard, there's no sense of sharpness, rankness, no distinctive air of criminal filth and grime, and with a kind of unnerving clarity to it all, like an old game that's been visually "remastered" by an AI, its atmosphere lost without its textured fog.

 

 

 

Gotham Knights Preview - Hands-On Impressions And Key Takeaways - Game Informer

WWW.GAMEINFORMER.COM

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I spend two hours as four crimefighters in Gotham City.

 

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The game has a single melee attack button used to execute simple combos. Gotham Knights feel less snappy than the rapid-paced, combo-driven rhythm of the Arkham games, mainly due to the elaborate animations accompanying each assault. It was off-putting at first, but I gradually fell into the game’s more straightforward approach, though I would like a bit more weight behind the offense. 

 

A ranged attack lobs projectile weapons, such as firing Red Hood’s pistols or throwing Batgirl’s Batarangs. Holding down the melee or ranged button unleashes a more powerful variation of each assault; Batgirl unleashes a shotgun-like spread of projectiles, for example. 

 

Mixing these up in combos while dodging incoming assaults builds momentum, a meter segmented into two bars. Spending these meters activates a character's special ability, which each Knight can have several equipped. Earning special moves by successfully nailing basic attacks reminds me of the psychology of fighting games like Street Fighter, and I think the formula translates well to a third-person action game. Robin’s portal teleport is one of my favorites, allowing him to open a rift that transports distant enemies towards him. Nightwing can drop a healing device that restores himself and a co-op partner. 

 

 

 

Gotham Knights Leaves Its Players and Heroes in Batman's Shadow | Den of Geek

WWW.DENOFGEEK.COM

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Is Gotham Knights the next great Batman game, or will it simply leave you thinking about Arkham? Here's our preview of the upcoming action title.

 

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Gotham Knights retains many of the core elements of Arkham’s combat (dodges, switching between targets, and dealing with “heavies”), but it tries to spice up that old Arkham system by introducing a few new ideas. For instance, the game pretty much drops the “counter” mechanic that has come to define Arkham-like combat. You can still pull off perfect dodge maneuvers, but you won’t be hitting a button at the sight of an incoming attack prompt in order to keep a combo going. You’ll instead be relying on a series of more athletic dodges to get out of harm’s way and swap targets.

 

More importantly, Gotham Knights emphasize “RPG-lite” mechanics that directly influence the game’s combat. For instance, each hero is able to unlock a series of special moves that can be executed whenever you’ve filled your “Momentum Bar.” The basic idea is that the game encourages you to use dodges and simple attacks to generate some flow and feed the momentum bar. When you’ve filled the bar enough, you can utilize devastating abilities that often help end fights while showcasing the unique attributes of your chosen hero. For instance, Batgirl relies on drones, Red Hood uses his pistols, etc. Each character is also equipped with unique ranged, melee, and special moves (as well as different starting stats) designed to emphasize those same attributes.

 

It’s a fine idea on paper, and it occasionally works well. The few characters I played during my time with the demo each boasted relatively unique abilities that were certainly effective and relatively satisfying to execute. In some ways, it’s nice to know that the work you put into building and mastering your characters is regularly reflected via those special attacks. 

 

The problem is that the game’s combat isn’t very satisfying. Arkham’s combat may have gotten repetitive from time to time, but again, there was a rhythm to the thing that made it so much fun. Bouncing between enemies and making them instantly regret trying to attack you not only put you in that “zen zone” typically reserved for games like Tetris; it made you feel like Batman. 

 

While Gotham Knights’ combat features attacks and abilities unique to each character, it’s not especially satisfying to fight as any of them, and I can’t say I truly felt like any of them because of that drawback. Most fights in the game boil down to pulling off a series of basic attacks until you’re able to toss out a special or two. A few battles (like the Harley Quinn boss fight) introduce some welcome wrinkles, but those ideas implemented to add variety to the game ultimately add very little variety. 

 

 

 

Gotham Knights isn’t trying to be an Arkham game, and that’s its greatest strength | VGC

WWW.VIDEOGAMESCHRONICLE.COM

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Batman is dead. What now? That’s the question at the heart of Gotham Knights, the newest game from WB Montreal. With “The World’s Greatest Detective,” gone, his proteges have united to look after Gotham in his absence.

 

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Gotham is absolutely breathtaking and ripe for exploring. The characters are distinct and all play off each other well. From what we’ve seen of the story, including some brilliant teases at just who might be behind the story at large, we’re excited to get back to it.

 

There is something about the combat that leaves us wanting, however. This may be where the comparison feels the harshest, as although this game isn’t trying to do the Arkham combat, in the few hours we played, we weren’t quite able to dislodge the notion of pressing “Y” when an enemy attacks us in order to counter them. 

 

Gotham Knights impressed us in our limited time with it, and made us desperate to prowl the rooftops of Gotham once again. It’s not Arkham, but it’s really not trying to be, which is the game’s greatest strength, but that doesn’t change the fact that in the eyes of many, the game has an almost untouchable gaming legacy to follow.

 

 

 

 

 

[thedarkstark]

6.5/10 bargain bin game, book it.

[5timechamp]

the overall design of characters and world just dont mesh well…

It doesnt look as an overwhelming improvement over Knight…

its going to take big time positive reviews for me to buy into this one… hopefully the good aspects of Arkham Origins exist here at least

[Keyser_Soze]

Every time this thread is bumped I think everyone forgets this is a game that is coming out. It's so anti hype even Phase can't get behind it.

[skillzdadirecta]

I already have it preordered 

 

[Phaseknox]

1 hour ago, Keyser_Soze said:

Every time this thread is bumped I think everyone forgets this is a game that is coming out. It's so anti hype even Phase can't get behind it.

I would be behind it if it was coming to PS4. A lot of gameplay previews for it say that it doesn’t look as good as Batman: Arkham Knight, and based on comparison videos it doesn’t yet the developer claims that it’s too advanced for last gen consoles despite it originally starting development on them. They just don’t want people to think of it as a cross-gen game despite it clearly looking like one, because cross-gen games have negative connotations attached to them. It could easily look, perform and run fine on last gen consoles, they just canceled those versions for marketing purposes so people think that it’s taking full advantage of current gen consoles without the last gen consoles holding it back in any way.

[Keyser_Soze]

29 minutes ago, Phaseknox said:

I would be behind it if it was coming to PS4. A lot of gameplay previews for it say that it doesn’t look as good as Batman: Arkham Knight, and based on comparison videos it doesn’t yet the developer claims that it’s too advanced for last gen consoles despite it originally starting development on them. They just don’t want people to think of it as a cross-gen game despite it clearly looking like one, because cross-gen games have negative connotations attached to them. It could easily look, perform and run fine on last gen consoles, they just canceled those versions for marketing purposes so people think that it’s taking full advantage of current gen consoles without the last gen consoles holding it back in any way.

 

Or maybe this is their best effort in getting it to run and look this well and somehow they couldn't get a game that looks like this to run on a last gen console

[skillzdadirecta]

17 hours ago, Phaseknox said:

I would be behind it if it was coming to PS4. A lot of gameplay previews for it say that it doesn’t look as good as Batman: Arkham Knight, and based on comparison videos it doesn’t yet the developer claims that it’s too advanced for last gen consoles despite it originally starting development on them. They just don’t want people to think of it as a cross-gen game despite it clearly looking like one, because cross-gen games have negative connotations attached to them. It could easily look, perform and run fine on last gen consoles, they just canceled those versions for marketing purposes so people think that it’s taking full advantage of current gen consoles without the last gen consoles holding it back in any way.

i don't know, it may not look as good as Arkham Knight but it looks pretty damn good in the videos I've seen. I watched one of the preview vids on you tube on my TV and the gameplay looked really good. Also the game has untethered drop in co-op. So other players can drop into your game world but be off on their own doing their own thing. I don't know of any last gen games that could do that on last gen systems. State of Decay 2 had drop in co-op but you could only go so far away from the host as the guest player. Sometimes, it's not just graphics that determine whether or not a game can work on 8 year old hardware.