Game director Geoff Ellenor takes us through the newest DC game: Gotham Knights in a new 13-minute gameplay preview, as well as sharing news on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the game. The preview features the first two official Robins: Dick Grayson, now Nightwing, and Jason Todd, now Red Hood. Although not included in this specific gameplay, the characters of Batgirl and Tim Drake’s Robin will also be playable.
We start with Nightwing, and Ellenor explains that each character has their own way of getting through Gotham. For our former circus boy, it is with his glider, The Flying Trapeze. He finds some gang members doing crime, and we see that, naturally, Dick’s fighting style is acrobatic. As someone who has been playing the Spider-Man: Miles Morales game, it is a style that feels familiar.
Jason Todd uses “mystical leaps” to get around, powers that come as a result of him being magically resurrected according to Ellenor (Elektra’s impact). It is not something that is in the comics, but I’m not mad at it, though it feels a bit silly. I mean, he can just use a grappling hook, since he can’t exactly magic bullet his way around Gotham (although the idea of it does make me giggle).
Jason has ranged gun attacks and uses those bullets to pierce enemy armor with his “non-lethal” rounds. Because you can team up with other characters to fight crime, we see Todd lining up a finisher attack for Grayson. It is fun to watch just because it’s good to see the Batfam working together. Our main antagonists in this series are the Court of Owls, a wealthy crime family and secret society that carries out assassinations carried out by agents known as Talons. They have ties to some of the oldest families in Gotham and have become a fairly popular reoccurring villain in the comics since their introduction in 2011.
Overall, the gameplay and mechanics are what you would expect from a game like this. If you’ve played the Guardians or Spider-Man games, this is pretty par-for-the-course. It’ll be the story and characters that will really show what makes the game special when it is released.
What about the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One Versions?
Gotham Knights was supposed to launch in 2021, but it was delayed because developers needed “more time to deliver the best possible experience for players,” according to Polygon. Sadly, in that process, the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the came were canceled. A statement from Warner Bros. Games said those two versions were canceled in order “to provide players with the best possible gameplay experience.”
Apparently, what was hampering that experience was the attempt to make the game playable on both old and new hardware, despite how many recent games have come out that did just that, as newer consoles have been difficult to find in stores and sales remain slow. That means that, unless you’ve got a decent gaming PC, your only options to play the game will be on next-gen consoles. Gotham Knights is slated set to arrive on October 25. on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X.
(via Polygon, image: WB Games Montreal/Warner Bros. Games)
