Over the course of my month-long coverage of IGN First, we’ve seen a lot about the world and lore of Gotham Knights. Crafting and gear mechanics, suiting and customization options, and more. Game up to this point: How do you play it? I spent about 3 hours at a recent hands-on event and the answer is… complicated. What is at least certain is that Gotham Knights is a very ambitious undertaking, one that feels appropriately large and dense, to the point where even the three-hour guided demo feels like a scratch on the surface. is.
My demo was split into 4 chunks. After playing a tutorial that follows the lead of Batman’s final case, we jumped into a new save and played through the first chapter of Harley Quinn’s multi-part villain arc, followed by some open-world challenges. Relating to Harley’s story and to cap the event, I and my internet own Destin Regary jumped to a late game save where we could face off against Harley in the finale of her arc.
And that leads to one of the main reasons my conclusions from this event are mixed. Gotham Knights is a game focused on building your character, setting and understanding your skills and gear, and developing your own playstyle. I was jumping to different save files and trying different characters, so I couldn’t.
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At a very basic level, Gotham Knights combat builds on the foundation of the Batman: Arkham game. But once you get past the shallows, things take a completely different turn. Pressing the direction and attack buttons will cause your character to gracefully roll, leap, or slide toward the nearest enemy for a quick attack that initiates a combo. Enemies also telegraph their attacks with icons that appear above them, giving them plenty of time to dodge out of the way to avoid damage. It’s all very smooth, with lots of slick animations, and even rewards timed button presses rather than just button presses like in Arkham games.
Because everything else feels very different. Gotham Knights is more ability-focused, with a meter in the bottom right to control your ability to use the Momentum skill. The meter will increase by avoiding, and the meter will be lost by taking damage. When the bar is full, he can use 1 of his 8 Momentum Skills he can equip for different purposes. Red Hood has a close-range throw that deals massive damage to a single target, and Robin has a holographic distraction that can be thrown. Batgirl can throw a Batarang barrage to deal piercing damage right in front of her, and Nightwing has a cool acrobatic leaping attack and can jump on enemies from a distance. over there.
There were also moments when certain athleticism was key to defeating certain types of enemies armed with powerful armored attacks. For example, the Penetration ability defeats armor attacks, so whenever you see an enemy with a red attack warning, whether it’s Batgirl’s Batarang Barrage or Robin’s Staff Spin attack, you’ll be able to use your own Penetration It had to be countered with an attack.
I think all of these are great. Unlock new Momentum Abilities, buy Skills that synergize with them, find and craft new gear, add mods to further enhance certain effects, and unlock new Momentum Abilities when the game actually hits. Your character’s preferred playstyle. My concern is whether the progression – these momentum abilities, gear, and deep wells of customization options – can carry the entire experience. I found it to be not only , but also bland.
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The fights quickly started to become very routine, with very similar enemies in every encounter, and you felt you had to mix up your tactics. Not because it was forced, just trying to make things a little more interesting.My favorite character ended up being Red Hood. Because he excelled in his style of hybrid both ranged and melee. In addition, he had some clever tricks. For example, if you grab an enemy, place a bomb on it, and then kick it away, you can detonate it with your gun.
Other characters also have fun surprises. They generally control the same thing, so it’s easy to move between them, but each has its own combat/stealth focus and playstyle defined by how many points you put into your skill tree. There is. Batgirl can be built to be a single-target DPS machine, a nearly uninterruptible tank that can self-resurrect, or a stealth hacker who can hide herself behind security cameras. Nightwing can build herself up to increase her leaping ability and deal massive critical hits her damage. You can become a slippery acrobat that gains extra dodges and faster momentum meter builds, or build like a team her leader designed for co-op play. Red Hood can lean heavily towards ranged attacks with higher critical chance and more damage, different factions of enemies; You can build your own like so: He could be a true Batman successor by investing in stealth skills, including Arkham game mainstays like Vantage Takedown. Alternatively, you can focus on gadgets and elemental damage. Skill He just glanced at the tree and it’s easy to see that every time you score a skill him point, there’s a lot to get excited about with each character.
Where Gotham Knights Tears Me: Browsing through skill trees, locked athletic abilities, a wide variety of unlockable suits, and doing it all with friends to take on the more challenging stuff I think. Mission, I can’t help but get excited about the idea of what Gotham Knights is.
Beyond combat, Gotham Knights is very impressive. The city of Gotham is truly gorgeous. The various traversal modes such as Motorcycle, Batgirl’s Glide, Nightwing’s Glider, Red Hood’s mysterious airhop, and Robin’s short-range teleportation are all fun in their own way. The Bell Tower looks like a great headquarters filled with optional dialogue that deepens the relationship between the four heroes (you can even play Spy his Hunter!). Co-op feels very well implemented.
The demo focused more on the Harley Quinn subplot, so I didn’t really get a feel for the overall story of Gotham Knights or how the Court of Owls fit into everything, but what I saw I’ve been really into the characters so far. There’s a great dynamic between each of them, and the one that stands out for me is between Red Hood and Nightwing. , finds himself struggling between a lust for violence and a desire to honor Batman’s legacy. There’s a scene where you can really see the pain and anger that the Red Hood struggles to keep under the surface. If you can cram in moments like this, the character will almost certainly be the highlight of the entire experience.
Gotham Knights is not an easy game to demo. I spent some hands-on time not being overly impressed with many aspects of combat, but still found myself interested in playing more. We’ll see how it all wraps up when Gotham Knights releases on PS5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC on his October 21st.
Mitchell Saltzman is IGN’s Editorial Producer.you can find him on twitter @jurassic rabbit
