Gotham Knights (2022) / YMMV

Awesome Moments:
- The opening cutscene depicting the final battle between Batman and Ra's al Ghul. The Dark Knight and the Head of the Demon, two men at the peak of physical and mental conditioning, in an all-out, knock-out drag down duel where they throw everything they've got at each other. It finally ends with a mortally wounded Bruce defiantly self-destructing the cave.
- The climax of the Blackgate mission, where Harley, having strung the selected hero along for info on Langstrom's murder, sends them into a frenzied chase through a prison riot after a balloon tied to the dossier she’s prepared. The cherry on top of this unique, energetic set piece? An energetic, punk-flavored cover of "Livin' La Vida Loca" ^note plays as the hero tangles with a mob of escaped inmates and corrupt guards.
Common Knowledge: Some players who are aware of Kate Kane, but might not be as familiar with her comics, assume that the Catherine Kane in this game is an older version of Kate with an altered first name. This is despite having a different hair color and being married to what would be her own father. Catherine Kane is Kate's stepmother; Kate exists in this universe despite not appearing.
Enjoy the Story, Skip the Game: Generally speaking, the game has received a fair bit of praise for the story campaign. A well-done story about the various members of the Bat-Family coming together to protect Gotham after Bruce's death; it features four playable characters that all feel distinct from one another not just in gameplay but also in terms of writing, and a host of iconic Batman villains. However, the padded open-world gameplay and poorly optimized performance has turned some people off from the game.
Fandom Rivalry:
- Fans of this game have already developed one with fans of the Batman: Arkham Series, with the former looking forward to the game due to its increased focus on the Bat-Family and the latter being disappointed that the game has no connection to the Arkham games, on top of having no involvement from Rocksteady. This also extends to Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, given that game is developed by Rocksteady and is confirmed to be part of the Arkhamverse. This only intensified when Kill the Justice League game came out, since fans and even many detractors of this game feel it had a far better sendoff for Batman than the Kill the Justice League did.
- A somewhat one-sided one with Gotham Knights (2023) due to using the same name and post-Batman premise, leading to confusion about if they were related.
Fridge Brilliance: Why do the Knights doubt the Court's existence when they've already dealt with similar organizations like the League of Shadows and the Order of St. Dumas? That's just it: after so many years of uncovering every corrupt shadowy figure in Gotham and two different ancient orders, it would be understandable for them to think that by now they've uncovered all of the secret societies there are to find in the city.
- It's mentioned in the character page that Tim is referred to as such by Alfred and Jacob Kane, whereas they refer to Dick as Richard, raising doubt on if Tim's full name is Timothy as in the comics, or just as Tim; one Belfry conversation has Nightwing refer to him as "Timothy Jackson Drake". However it is likely, given the formal nature of both men and the fact that the term Dick primarily has a more vulgar meaning in the modern age, that they are simply uncomfortable with using that name, having no such issues with Tim.
Good Bad Bugs: Unlike the Arkham series (which kept enemies from falling off ledges during rooftop combat with Edge Gravity, and automatically strung them upside down if they were pulled off), there is absolutely nothing preventing the player in this game from sending a mook plummeting headlong to the ground — even when scaling the Kane Industries tower, easily one of the tallest buildings in Gotham. Players have jokingly carried over a meme from the Arkham franchise to explain it, saying that Alfred alters all of the Knights' AR interfaces to tell them enemies they've used lethal force on are just "unconscious".
Heartwarming Moment:
- The Bat Family earns its name, as all of its members love and support each other, and they find ways to grieve together, and have fun together despite the death of Batman.
- Tim wants to join Pride in costume, and the Bat Family want to come too.
- During the midgame, Lucius Fox is assaulted by the League of Shadows, with the player character needing to rescue him before the assassins bring down his force field. That's not heartwarming. What is heartwarming is that while shielded, Lucius is shown giving medical aid to a member of his security team who was injured in the attack. The guy is shown to be still alive at the end of the scene.
- Reading Jason's emails shows that he's taking therapy to get over the fact that he was killed once.
- Alfred assures Jason that, despite everything, Bruce would be proud of who he's become. The normally gruff Jason, clearly touched by Alfred's words, breaks down in Manly Tears and embraces the butler.
- Every one of the Knights gets emails from various other superhero friends offering their condolences and support but also a willingness to keep their distances while the Bat Family recovers. While the game concerns just Batman characters the greater DC universe and the relationships between its heroes is on full display. Additionally to this a news article mentions Superman being seen in Blüdhaven, suggesting Clark is making sure Dick's city is looked after while he's busy on Gotham.
He's Just Hiding: Many fans don't believe Bruce Wayne/Batman is actually dead like the trailers suggest, given that he's one of DC's most famous heroes. Many theorized that he is faking his death and going into hiding in order to stop the Court of Owls. Turns out he did die. And even his resurrection is temporary.
I Knew It!:
- Practically everyone called that Batman would eventually return. What they didn't call, however, was he Came Back Wrong and ultimately gets killed off again.
- Some correctly predicted the Voice of the Court was Colonel Jacob Kane based on the military medals on his suit.
Magnificent Bitch: Dr. Harleen Quinzel, better known as Harley Quinn, is a supervillain operating in Gotham City and a former lover of the Joker. After hearing rumors of Batman's death, she sends the Knights a video showing the book of profiles containing evidence of a centuries-long conspiracy she put together for him at Blackgate. She then orchestrates a prison riot in order to escape. Adopting the persona "Dr. Q", she hosts seminars and podcasts meant to exploit the emotionally vulnerable and hosts an event at the Monarch Theater to show off her new implant to the crowd, convincing them to buy their own implants while hiding the fact they remove inhibitions to allow mind control. After the hero battles through multiple riots to reach Harley Quinn, she reveals the remote she is using to control those with her implants and engages in a battle where she makes use of both her devotees and an electrified hammer. The hero manages to disarm Harley of her mind control remote and breaks it, freeing the devotees of her control before managing to subdue Harley herself. While being arrested, Harley initially accuses the Knights of cheating, before complimenting them on getting better at apprehending criminals and accepting her defeat.
Memetic Mutation: Batgirl’s Cake^Explanation
Narm: From the mission where Mr. Freeze first appears, when a Regulator drone master also appears for the first time, we get this absolute gem of a line:
"Here it is! Homey Pigeon and the Marvelous Pew Pew!"
Nightmare Fuel: The entire labyrinth scene. What's more, there's a custom scene of what's haunting each character the most: Dick losing his parents, Barbara worrying she wasn't close enough to her father before he died, Jason's actions after he was resurrected, and Tim doubting that if he was truly a worth successor to Robin.
Scrappy Mechanic: The Knighthood system. All of the characters' advanced movement options (such as Batgirl's glide and Robin's teleport) as well as portions of their skill trees are locked behind the Knighthood system, and must be unlocked by stopping 10 premeditated crimes and completing Timed Hit training. This can take a couple of hours, and needs to be done for every single character if you don't want them to be severely gimped. It was so unpopular that it was reduced from 10 Premeditated Crimes per character down to 4 shortly after launch.
- The ability to switch between characters is hampered by the need to constantly switch to level-appropriate gear, as well as the fact that traversal ability and special attacks all need to be unlocked separately for each character which can be time consuming.
Signature Scene: The opening scene of Batman's Last Stand against Ra's al Ghul is by far the most well-known part of the game, largely due to its excellent fight scenes culminating in Batman's Taking You with Me as his Dying Moment of Awesome. The scene only gains more prominence after the release of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, with many considers it as a much better send-off for Batman compared to his highly divisive demise in Kill the Justice League.
So Okay, It's Average: How most feel about the game. It's not regarded to be bad and it's agreed that there are good elements present in it, such as the story and the gameplay variety the playable Gotham Knights provide, but performance and polish issues aside, many find the overall gameplay and world to be serviceable at best and boring at worst, especially when compared to the Batman: Arkham Series.
Special Effect Failure: There's a bug in some cutscenes where, if Jason is wearing a hoodie, its drawstrings will not have proper physics applied, leaving them poking straight outward parallel to the ground.
Spiritual Successor: It's not uncommon for people to jokingly call this a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video game due to the character line up, their associated colors, and a few other factors. This TikTok goes into more detail on it.
Spoiled by the Format: Most players knew to expect some kind of battle with Man-Bat just from Kirk Langstrom's murder being the first thing the player looks into.
Tainted by the Preview:
- Many are disappointed that the game is taking place in a separate continuity instead of being part of the Batman: Arkham Series, with many arguing that the ending of Batman: Arkham Knight, in which Bruce is implied to have blown himself up inside the manor could've been a good segue to the events of this game.
- Gameplay-wise, even though the developers have repeatedly emphasized that Gotham Knights is not a Live Service game, the gameplay preview released in May 2022 put some people off with a look at character progression that stirred up many memories of Marvel's Avengers with its emphasis on multiple different upgrade currencies.
- The Nightwing and Red Hood gameplay footage released caused some further angst, as many found the gameplay looked slow and clunky compared to the Arkham series' highly regarded quick-paced combat. Also not helping matters was showing the unique "traversal powers" each character will possess, which in Nightwing's case is a large Fort Nite-style disappearing glider, while Red Hood has mystical-powered infinite double-jumps allowing him to effective fly by jumping on air. Reactions to these have been pretty critical, as many would have been fine with the two simply lacking a glider cape like the other two.
- When announced, many took issue with Barbara Gordon being the game's Batgirl, primarily due to the wording of her bio entry playing into clichés about disabilities in fiction being something that they need to overcome with harder training. Mitigating matters, the developers responded and altered her backstory and made efforts to better represent her disability, including doing research into spinal injuries to figure out her limitations and what she would realistically need to be doing to operate the way she is. Even still, many were still annoyed that the game is featuring the three primary Robins but only features Barbara without the other two Batgirls (Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown) present, continuing another trend of DC erasing the two in adaptations.
- The revelation that the console versions of the game will only run at 30 FPS without any performance mode option available blindsided many players, who are unhappy that major video game releases like this one are still running exclusively below 60 FPS even on ninth-generation consoles. Some players were especially unhappy with the fact that this was revealed (via the game's official Discord server) just a week before the game's release, accusing WBIE of attempting to hide this until the last minute, with some threatening to cancel their pre-orders unless the game is delayed (which won't happen by then since it's too close to release to change anything) or if the developers promise to add a performance mode in an update. The developers also revealed the PC system requirements around this time as well, which were quite high, and brought further accusations that the game was poorly optimized. When the game was finally released, it had trouble hitting its 30 FPS target on consoles, which added further proof of poor optimization.
Tearjerker:
- Barbara (as Batgirl) and Renee Montoya visiting Jim Gordon's statue.
- There's no mistake this time. Bruce Wayne is dead. After his revival and regaining his mind, Bruce tells his proteges how proud he is of them and how much it means to watch them surpass him. Denouncing the Court of Owls, he informs them he will not let them have the Lazarus Pit, just before flying his jet right into it with a last explosion, smiling before the end. After such a long fight, saving Gotham many times over....the original Batman is gone.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
- Despite featuring Jacob Kane as the CEO of Kane Industries and the Voice of the Court of Owls and Catherine Kane as the Commissioner of the GCPD, Kate Kane is left out almost completely and isn't mentioned aside from a single voicemail. She is not seen attending her cousin's funeral or reacting to her father's involvement in the Court of Owls, despite the fact that in a similar storyline from the comics where he was an antagonist, she was one of the heroes who helped to stop him. And with her father dead by the end of the game's story, any sequels will be unable to properly flesh out their relationship.
- Similarly, despite confirmation that the Justice League, Outsiders, and Titans are active and in full contact with the Bats, Superman Stays Out of Gotham is in full effect and their friends and allies never get to do a Big Damn Heroes moment.
Tough Act to Follow: While not set in the same continuity, comparisons to the much-loved Batman: Arkham Series was inevitable.
Unexpected Character:
- An early gameplay trailer mentioned Commissioner Kane and a newspaper called Jacob Kane the CEO of Kane Industries, so the general assumption was that it was Kate Kane. No one expected Commissioner Kane to be Kate's stepmother Catherine.
- No one was expecting Bernard, Tim's male love interest from the comics, to be mentioned by name as Tim's active partner given how both the character and the relationship started in 2021^note.
- The added gameplay mode "Heroic Assault" surprised people by bringing in Starro as its principal villain, especially since he's usually a Justice League-level threat rather than Batman villain.
WTH, Costuming Department?
- Jason is classically portrayed as a◊ pretty boy◊ underneath the mask, so making him look like your average meathead was quickly mocked by fans.
- Batgirl's costume has attracted derision by giving her a permanent wedgie, especially since nice butts are a staple of Nightwing instead.

YMMV / Gotham Knights (2022)

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