Gotham Knights review for Xbox Series

Despite the criticism received lately, Gotham Knights has surprised us for the better.

I think it’s safe to say, and many will agree, that Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham series sets the bar high with its polished, narrative gameplay. That’s why when Warner Bros announced Gotham Knightsdevelopped by WB Montreal Gameswe all lowered the hype a bit knowing they weren’t going to continue this way.

Gotham Knights not related to previous Arkham matchesbut it’s a story of its own. batman is dead and crime in Gotham City gets out of control. Luckily, Gotham knights are there to continue to protect the city where Batman I leave it. We take on the role of Nightwing, Batgirl, Robin and Red Hood as we try to restore justice in Gotham City e investigate Batman’s death.

The heart of Gotham Knights These are the four heroes we talked about. After a spectacular opening scene, the closest friends and allies of Batman they are faced with the task of protecting Gotham without him. Although this game is not a sequel to Arkham Knight, draws heavily from the same comics as the Arkham series. Among the characters we have Jason Todd (Red Riding Hood) who was resurrected by the League of Shadows. He’s a tanky, beefy guy who’s constantly tormented by his death. What Tenemos Nightwing to Dick Grayson, a cheeky but kind hero who went off on his own after an argument with Batman. Batgirl is Barbara Gordon, the daughter of Commissioner Gordon, who recovered from her spinal cord injury after this great comic called Killing Joke. The team is completed by young people Robin is Tim Drakewhich seems to be the most affected by the loss of its leader.

As Batman’s base of operations was destroyed, our heroes will go to a new base called El Refugio. The game is divided into two main sections: the first is planning and upgrading at El Refugio during the day. At night we will dedicate ourselves to patrol, investigate, solve and stop crimes in a huge open world. Much has been said about the game’s frame rate on the new generation of consoles and its developer, Warner Bros Montreal, claims its untethered co-op is the main culprit. Gotham City is a huge and incredibly dense game space. The city is filled with an endless barrage of committed crimes which are part of the side quests of this one.

Regarding the gameplay, the first time we take the controls, we notice that controls look and don’t look like the Arkham series. First, character movement is much smoother, and camera positioning is more like that of a current narrative-themed game. As for the fightswe will have a button to dodge, another to hit melee, another for ranged attacks (each character has a different ranged weapon) and another to grab enemies, which will allow us to throw them or interrogate them.

Next, we break down the game’s characters a bit more:

• Red Riding Hood (Jason Todd): Killed at the hands of the Joker, young Jason Todd is brought back to life by Talia Al Ghoul. Endowed with supernatural powers, this giant is the heart of the team. His playstyle is brutal, using two massive pistols (with non-lethal ammo) as melee weapons, Red Hood is one of the highest damagers of the quartet.

• Barbara Gordon (Batgirl): In the aftermath of The Killing Joke, Gordon deals with his spinal cord injury and continues to mourn his father. Jim Gordon seems long dead in this version of Gotham, and his daughter continues to fight the criminal underworld in his honor. His main weapon is a drone that fires non-lethal ammunition and is great for helping deal with enemies from a distance. She is incredibly fast, using a tonfa as a melee weapon and ranged batarangs. It focuses more on clearing enemy technology and helping heal or buff teammates. My favorite without a doubt.

• Tim Drake (Robin): The most important thing about Tim in this game is that he’s a tech geek even older than Barbara and that she is very sad about the disappearance of Batman. His style of play is based on stealth. Tim is harder to spot and easier to navigate than anyone else in a traffic jam. His melee weapon is a large staff, and for range he has a sling that fires explosive mines.

• Dick Grayson (Nightwing): Dick is back after leaving Gotham and he’s just as acrobatic as ever. His style of play is movement-oriented while using two sticks for melee and a dart launcher for range. His moveset is a great mix of single-target and multi-target attacks.

The most important component of the title is undoubtedly the cooperative. We can enter and exit a friend’s game at any time. Progress is always saved and the game scales you down if you are higher level than the person you are playing with. The host controls the start of missions and fast travel, and when you return to your own game, they’ll ask you if you want to skip or replay any quests you’ve done in co-op. This is undoubtedly the crown jewel of the title.

I’ve seen a lot of graphical comparisons to Arkham Knight on Twitter lately and while the look of this game is still on point, Gotham Knights is a title that enters through the eyes. Hopefully they can patch a performance mode at some point, at least for singleplayer, since the 30 FPS with occasional drops become a great plague for the title. Other than that, the character models and their 15 different outfits are incredibly detailed. Gotham City is huge, with four distinct areas, each with its own aesthetic. The Laser trace, one of the reasons the game runs at 30 FPS, is always on, so the rain is endless. The reflective puddles are a permanent fixture of Gotham’s nightlife and cast high-quality real-time reflections, which are impressive at many times. Some environment textures can be blurry up close, but for the most part the interior areas are impressive. Frame rate was stable for most of the gamewith these point drops in areas where there may be more graphic load.

The soundtrack goes a little more unnoticed, but here a special mention must be made with great dubbing in Spanish made by Warner Bros Europe for Gotham Knights. Among the main voices, we have many that will sound familiar to us from more than one movie or series that we usually watch. We must salute the fact that publishers such as Warner Bros. Games are committed to providing us with Spanish dubbing of such quality in each of their products.

Gotham Knights is a surprisingly fun game despite some major flaws. Gotham City has never been bigger or more beautiful than here. The story ends up being somewhat generic and underwhelming, but the good voice work helps us get into it. Both solo and cooperative, Gotham Knights is a recommendation for all fans of superheroes or open world games.