Gotham Knights Review: Is It Better Than The Arkham Games?

Gotham Knights has officially released for PC, PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X/S back in October 21, 2022 and the gaming world has some things to say about it. Even before its release, Gotham Knights has garnered some bad word of mouth. Some would say that it’s just a cheap imitation of the Arkham games, some would say that it’s not enough like the Arkham games, some say that it’s boring and that we need a proper Batman game.

While having another Batman game would be nice, I think we should all set aside any thoughts about the Arkham games and look at it for what it is: a game about the Batfamily. It’s not set in the Arkham universe, it is set in its own universe.

Is The Game Fun?

With that in mind, I want you all to know that this game is fun. For me, it is. I can understand why some people looked at this, played it, and decided to never pick it up again. People have actively gone on social media to say that this game is not worth the full price, and in the state of it, should not be touched at all.

But you may wonder to yourself: Why am I having fun with it then? Well, that’s because I do. I do agree that there are some parts of the game that desperately needs fixing and some polish, but the core gameplay is still fun.

Besides, you’re talking to the guy that has over 656 hours on Marvel’s Avengers on Steam.

Yeah, that Marvel’s Avengers.

So it’s no surprise that despite the flaws of Gotham Knights, I still had a blast with this game. I find it genuinely fun and enjoy this game for what it has to offer. But, I am also critical of the game. Because I am a firm believer that games can be better if we are critical of it.

Before we get to the good parts, I want to talk about the bad side of Gotham Knights. I like to focus on the bad first before we move on and talk about the good.

PC performance is a nightmare.

First off, performance. I play on PC and while I don’t have a monster PC with an RTX 4090 and a 19-13900K processor, I still manage to play some games on my decent rig. I have an RTX 3050 and a I3-10100F. I do plan on upgrading my CPU soon to something that’s decent, but I still run games pretty well with it.

Gotham Knights, however, does not run well, and it makes me happy to find out that I am not the only one having this issue.

The game is very horribly optimized with GPU and CPU usage not being used correctly, leading to some horrible dips in FPS, even on consoles. Console players are already locked at 30 FPS, but having to experience frame drops as well? That is a kick to the balls on top of a slap to the face.

PC players, like me, have to deal with stutters and frame drops all the time. Tweaking the settings doesn’t even help (for me, at least). In Cyberpunk 2077, I can get 50 to 60 FPS at high with DLSS Quality and Ray Tracing off. But for Gotham Knights, I struggle to get a stable 45 just moving around the city. Turning Ray Tracing off helps a lot, but DLSS does not seem to have a performance in the open world.

You can see the performance impact more prominently when you travel through the bridges that connects each island of Gotham. I have seen so many texture pop ins that my game would stutter and freeze so it can load the textures properly. Yes, you read that right. Texture pop ins, in a 2022 game.

Thankfully, the developers realized that the game is experiencing performance issues and are working on getting that sorted out quickly. But this is unacceptable. The game already has beefy system requirements, and the game is still running terribly with those requirements met anyway.

Movement Feels Janky & Weird

Besides performance issues, there are some gameplay elements that needs some fixing. First of all, I had some issues trying to move around in Gotham Knights. From the special traversals to simple parkour. Let’s talk about the special traversals for each Knight.

Nightwing gets a glider, Batgirl gets to use her cape to glide, Red Hood has his magical leap, and Robin has… a satellite he uses to teleport. Out of all four of these, Nightwing and Batgirl’s are the only ones I actually enjoyed. One, because Nightwing gets to fly around infinitely but at the speed of a snail while Batgirl just reminds me of the Arkham games.

Two, it’s because they are simple and practical. Red Hood’s Mystical Leap hurts my eyes whenever I use it. Not only is it too bright, but the effects of the Mystical Leap take up most of the screen. Robin’s traversal isn’t even any better. Sure, you can teleport and adjust where you want to go, but I had more fun using the grappling hook more than Robin’s space teleporter.

It also sucks to use when you have to play the time trial minigames that each character has. Each Knight has a time trial tailored specifically for their special traversals, but half of the time, you’re fighting with the game on where you want to go and where you want to grapple to.

The parkour works great when it wants to. But when it doesn’t, boy is it terrible. I had multiple instances of trying to jump off a roof and onto a railing below, but for some reason, moving your character even slightly in any direction sends them flying. I don’t know if it’s an issue with me, and that I’m the only one experiencing this, but it gets annoying when I can’t even jump down to a perch because my character prefers to defy all laws of physics and go faster than the Batcycle.

The Batcycle Definitely Needs Some Work

Speaking of the Batcycle, it is a great mode of transportation. I don’t know why people want the vehicle from Arkham Knight in Gotham Knights when we have this. That vehicle in Gotham Knights would obliterate any vehicle and any building if it was in this. That was meant for war, the Batcycle is meant for easy traversal around the city.

But, and I am not the only one here, the Batcycle feels slow to use. There are times in the game when you have to use the Batcycle, but it feels slow for some reason. I can’t tell if it’s because of the games bad performance making the Batcycle seem slow, or maybe because the developers didn’t do a good job in making the Batcycle seem like it’s moving fast.

Voice Acting Is Top Notch… When It Wants To Be

One thing that I would like to point out that I am very on the fence about is the voice acting in this game. All the characters have different voice actors this time around. We don’t have Kevin Conroy as Batman, Tara Strong as Harley Quinn, or Martin Jarvis as Alfred. Every single character that you know from the Arkham games have a different voice now.

There are some strong performances from Stephen Oyoung as Jason Todd (Red Hood) and Christopher Sean as Dick Grayson (Nightwing). Even Batman’s new voice actor Michael Antonakos has skyrocketed to my top 10 best Batman voice actors, despite his brief appearance in the game.

But despite the strong performances, there are moments in the game where the voice acting seems to be weak. Most of the times, it’s the weird pauses in-between the dialogues. Either that, or it’s the script that seems weird. I don’t really find them all bad, but there are serious moments in the game that made me snort because the delivery or the pacing of the cutscene seemed weird.

The UI Needs A Serious Rework

Moving on to more bad parts of the game, I want to talk about the UI. Look at the image above. You see it? If I tell you that this is a screenshot from a mobile game, would you believe it? Because I would. The UI is horrendous to look at. It genuinely looks like a high quality mobile game than a triple A game.

That doesn’t really mean that the functions of the UI is bad. It works great. But I would much prefer that they would fix it a little, make it less cluttered. The same thing also happened for Marvel’s Avengers on launch. It had horrible UI that was fixed. A year later. But besides the UI, it functions well.

Customization Is, Unfortunately, Limited When Using Transmogs

Another negative that really bothered me, but it might be a bit of a nitpick, is the fact that transmogs are not customizable. Now hear me out, because this is something that genuinely bothered me as someone who loves customization. In the game, you can change suits. Changing suits means you can change the look of your suits along your stats.

Here, you can customize said suit into whatever you want. You can change the color, the pieces of your suit like the cowl, the symbol etc. Then when you get a new suit with better stats, you can change that as well. The thing about that is once you have a suit that you don’t like the look of, but would rather keep the stats, transmogs step in and you can change the look of your suit.

However, you cannot customize it. Whatever transmog you select will be what the suit will look like. You cannot customize the color, the cowl, the gloves, anything. Why limit your customization? Why can’t you allow your players to select a transmog and let them customize it the way they want it to look? It doesn’t make sense to offer this level of customization, only to just limit it when it comes to transmogs.

Despite The Flaws, Gotham Is Still Beautiful

Now I know I’ve been dunking on this game hard, despite my proclamation that I love this game. Which I do! But I also want the developers to know that there are issues with the game. Thankfully, I’m done talking about my issues with the game. Now, I want to talk about the good parts, starting with the characters and the city.

The city is gorgeous, by the way. It is the Gotham City that I have always wanted to explore. While Arkham Knight offered a great visual art style of Gotham City, Gotham Knights offers the whole Gotham City to the players. You get to see the city live and breathe as civilians are simply going on with their nights, despite a robbery happening just a couple of blocks away.

The city feels a little empty at times, but that emptiness gives Gotham character. This is a city where crime is rampant 24/7 now that Batman is gone. Of course, people would stay indoors at night. Now that the Batman is gone, who will keep them safe?

Batman & His Family

Well, Batman’s family of course. The Batfam takes over as the protectors of Gotham City now that Batman is gone, and I do love this iteration of the Batfam. The interactions between the family brings me joy just seeing them like this. Not only are they actually depicted like they are siblings, but they also help each other too.

Each character has their own arc as the game progresses where we get to see the character development of each Knight. I don’t want to say too much because this needs to be something that you have to experience it yourself.

Gameplay Is Fun & I Will Stand By It

“But what about the gameplay?” you may be asking. If you are coming in here expecting Arkham combat, then you have come to the wrong game. The combat is unforgiving. Initially, I was a little confused when playing the game. I still had Arkham Knight fresh on my mind and I was getting hit left and right.

After a while, I was able to get the combat system down and it made me realize how easy the Arkham games’ combat is. In the Arkham games, you can easily hit someone from across the room with a flying kick that apparently defies all laws of physics. In Gotham Knights, you have to dodge attacks left and right. You cannot counter, you cannot hit enemies from across the room, and you cannot use gadgets all the time.

Gotham Knights challenges you in ways the Arkham games does not. Does that make Gotham Knights good? Honestly? I like the combat of Gotham Knights. If I want to be an overpowered, walking suit of armor, I can play the Arkham games whenever. But if I want a challenge, one that requires quick thinking, then I play Gotham Knights.

What I Hope For The Future Of This Game

Despite me dunking on this game a lot, I genuinely do love this game. It is the Batfamily game that I have always wanted, and it is what Marvel’s Avengers should have been from the beginning. It is in no way a perfect game. The game still has a lot to work on in terms of performance and bugs. But from what I played, the game is pretty great.

I do hope that Batman and other members of the Batfam like Cassandra Cain, Katherine Kane, Jean-Paul Valley, and Luke Fox become playable some day as DLC. Marvel’s Avengers offers free DLC in terms of story and characters, but they charge for skins. I hope that Gotham Knights will eventually go that route and offer free DLC characters down the road, but that’s unlikely.

My Final Rating & Recommendation

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