Video game Gotham Knights, something you have to know

[Falcon] So we haven’t had a new Batman game in a while,and while this isn’t
exactly the same thing,”Gotham Knights” is here.

Hi folks, it’s Falcon,and today on Gameranx,10 Things You Need to Know About Gotham Knights.

Starting off with number 10, the basics of the game.

Gotham Knights is an open world third-person

action game that comes to us

in the shadow of the legendary
Batman: Arkham series.

And in many ways, it is pretty similar,

but from everything we now know

there’s also some pretty
obvious differences.

So this is an original story.

Batman and Commissioner Gordon, both dead

and it’s up to four
members of the Bat Family

to continue the investigation
that Batman started,

and solve the mystery of
who killed him and why.

Now instead of playing
as a single character

for the entire game, you get the choice

of playing as Nightwing,
Bat-Girl, Robin or Red Hood.

They all have unique play styles

and different move sets,
different traversal powers.

They’re not just like, four
different Batman skins.

Now, instead of being
developed by Rocksteady,

the guys who made the
previous Batman games,

well all except one, it’s being made

by the guys that made the
one that isn’t by them,

WB Games Montreal, who made the,

to be frank, a little bit
underrated, Batman Arkham Origins.

Now, the big thing that I think is

on everyone’s mind when they
hear “Batman is dead” is,

Is Batman actually dead?

We don’t know the answer.

I have suspicions, but the
developers are swearing

up and down that yes, it’s not a fake out.

Bruce Wayne is actually dead.

D-E-A-D, dead, for real.

Now, I take this with a grain
of salt, superhero stuff.

Like, remember how long Tobey Maguire

and Andrew Garfield were swearing

that they weren’t in the
new Spider-Man movie?

Pretty convincingly, might I add.

Or like, let’s go back
to Batman: Arkham Knight

where Rocksteady really
convinced everybody

that the Arkham Knight was
a completely new character.

So, I’m skeptical that he’s actually dead,

but it could go either way.

And number nine, this is
not an Arkham-verse game.

Now it looks similar to the Arkham games,

but WB is confirmed in multiple sources

including their own FAQ

that the game is not
part of the Arkham-verse.

It’s a standalone game,

with its own story, its own characters.

And while there might be some
little hints or Easter eggs,

it’s safe to assume that
the game is supposed to be

in its own continuity, which
yes, is a little confusing

because it’s a game that came out

after Arkham Knight where
Bruce Wayne supposedly died

in the end, but the death was not

under these same
circumstances in this game.

So I think that that’s a
pretty hard piece of evidence,

this is genuinely its own continuity.

Does that mean Batman’s actually dead?

I don’t know.

And number eight is co-op.

And this is one of the major
selling points of this game.

The game supports drop-in-drop-out
two player online co-op

which they’re describing as “seamless”.

Now apparently co-op partners
will be completely untethered.

You can go wherever,

do whatever, with or without your partner.

Now, to make this work with
the game’s experience system,

co-op partners who are
different levels will scale so

that they’re basically an
almost-match, and enemies

will also scale to match
the team’s overall strength.

The game doesn’t limit who
you could play as either,

both players can be the
same hero if they want to,

and you don’t actually have to do co-op.

You can go through the
entire game solo if you want,

or you can sometimes play
with a partner, sometimes not.

The game’s supposed to let
you play however you want to,

unless you want to play local
co-op cuz that ain’t there.

So, almost however you choose to.

Probably the most
interesting thing I found

about this is how the progression works

for both the host and the guests.

If you play through a dungeon
or a crime with a partner

and get ahead of your normal
progress, then when you get

to that part in your own game,
you just get a popup asking

if you wanna replay that
sequence and you can select “no”

and skip it because you already did it.

Now how unlockables and gear progression

work in co-op, no idea.

It all sounds pretty good,

but we’ll also see how it
ends up getting implemented.

And number seven is the
combat and gameplay.

Combat we’ve seen is pretty similar

to the Arkham games so far which,

zero problem with that,
great combat in those games.

But, there are some pretty
noteworthy differences.

There isn’t just a single
punch button anymore.

There’s a light and a heavy attack button,

range attacks, and a dodge move.

You do your dodge right,
you initiate a perfect dodge

which opens up the enemy for
a damage and counter attack.

There’s also a momentum bar which charges

as you build a combo.

When the meter fills,

you can spend it on various
unlockable cool-down abilities,

kind of like God of
war, or dare we say it,

a “Souls”-like.

I wouldn’t classify this as a “Souls”-like

just to be completely clear.

But there’s a lot of variety
in the momentum attacks.

There’s this simple area-of-effect blast,

you can summon drones,

there’s like, a heavy
damaging beat-down attack,

interrupting moves, stuff like that.

Now you got some action RPG elements.

There’s another RPG
mechanic getting implemented

that we’ve seen a whole
lot of over the last while,

which is crafting.

Purpose is still kind
of vague at the moment,

but it looks like this is how you

build new gear and costumes.

You collect various bits of loot

I would assume this is how you spend it,

but the whole system’s
kind of a big question mark

at the moment.

So we will have to kind of wait

and see exactly how
this all fits together.

And number six is the villains.

The Batman games,

of course you’re gonna wanna
know what the villains are.

In the various trailers,

we’ve seen a few major villain groups,

but it’s pretty obvious
they’re leaving some surprises

for us in the final game.

We do know about Mr. Freeze,

a new take on Harley Quinn
who’s a little older,

maybe a little more dangerous,

Clayface, who seems to be spawning

like, a whole gang of
zombie-like clay monsters.

And then also the Court of Owls,

who seem to be the primary
villains of the game.

A relatively new group of villains created

by Scott Snyder in either
Batman, the New 52 issue

two or three, depending on who you ask.

The Court of Owls are
like, a secret collective

of rich Gotham families who
secretly control the city

and use these assassins
called “Talons” to dispose

of their enemies.

They kind of remind me

of Dishonored for whatever
reason, in aesthetic.

Those are the main bad guys,

but we see Penguin,

Kirk Langstrom, aka
Man-Bat, get a mention,

got a pig-masked guy in
the “Villains” trailer.

His name is Professor Pyg, P-Y-G.

I’m pretty sure he’s just
a random goon, though.

We don’t know if Joker’s
gonna be in the game.

Have no idea.

It is a separate continuity,

so Joker’s death from Arkham
City, it didn’t happen here.

So, I mean, it’s possible.

I don’t know if it’s gonna
happen, but it’s possible.

We do know Mark Hamill loves working.

However, the devs have claimed that Joker

is not in the game.

I got no idea though,
I’m sure they’re holding

off on revealing at least
a few bad guys though.

And number five is skill trees.

Unlike the upgrades of the Arkham series,

Gotham Knights has a more
traditional skill tree

system similar to the ones
found in games like Borderlands.

Each character has four skill trees

they can put points into.

Unlocks new momentum
abilities, new skills,

or does more mundane things like

increase their passive damage,

health-critical hit chances.

Three of the skill trees

for each character unlock normally,

but the fourth called “Knighthood”

seems to only appear after
a certain major story event.

And instead of unlocking skills

from this tree with experience,

you have to complete challenges
to unlock these abilities.

Some of the best abilities
are apparently locked

behind the Knighthood tree,

particularly new traversal
abilities like gliding

for Batgirl, or special
abilities and certain ultimates.

Now thankfully, you can switch
characters whenever you want.

Your progression remains the same.

So if you select a new
character, you still have access,

same amount of skill points
as every other character

because they clearly want you to play

around with the different heroes.

And I think that that’s a good idea

– [Enemy] Got us a masky
mask here! (electric zapping)

(glass breaking)

And number four is Gotham’s
day and night cycle.

According to developers,
this is the biggest version

of Gotham ever in a video game.

They also claim it is the most dynamic

and interactive one yet, which is bold.

There’s five distinct boroughs to explore.

And unlike the Arkham games,

there are civilians occupying this Gotham.

For once, you get to explore Gotham when

it’s relatively normal,
instead of being taken over

by like an evil army or in
the middle of a snowstorm.

Progression in the open world
works differently here, too.

Instead of the story taking
place over a single night,

it occurs over multiple nights.

The bulk of the gameplay
happens at night when

the heroes are suited up
and going out on patrol.

Random street crimes don’t
get repeated if you fail,

unlike the major story missions.

But when you return to the Belfry,

the Gotham Knight’s main
base, it becomes daytime,

and when you choose to go out again,

it becomes night again,

and all the crimes in the city reset.

The city’s supposed to
change pretty drastically

over the course of these several days.

Like, there’s major events where

Mr. Freeze’s attack changes things,

Harley Quinn takes over
the asylum apparently.

And these change the open world
in pretty significant ways,

but things can also go
back to normal apparently.

So, major events that
happen on certain nights,

but things go back to the status quo

on a different night, which
sounds very interesting.

I’m not, exactly sure how much

of an impact it’s going to have,

but I’m also curious to
see how it works out.

And number three, the traversal mechanics

are actually pretty cool.

For one, one of the most significant ways

that each Knight is different
from the other three

is the traversal mechanics.

Now, each character does get
a Bat-cycle to drive around,

and does get a grappling hook,

because of course they would.

But apart from that,

everybody has different
ways to get around the city.

With Nightwing you have a glider.

Yes, it does look a lot like
Breath of the Wild in Gotham

but the Red Hood gets
this weird mystical step

ability to jump through the air.

There’s also a vehicle
that’s used for fast travel,

which is pretty handy.

Some of the character-specific
movement powers

are kind of odd,

particularly Robin’s, I
guess, teleportation-thing?

But I’ll reserve judgment
until I get the hands

on the game to test it all out.

It looks interesting though.

And number two is collectibles.

Everybody remembers the
many, many Riddler trophies

in the previous Batman games,

and you’re wondering if
they’re back for this one.

They aren’t.

There are apparently
all unique collectibles,

like hidden Batarangs,
Gotham street art, landmarks.

I don’t know exactly
if that’s all there is,

but those are at least
categorically some of them.

But it’s nice that there’s
only a hundred rather

than several hundred, cuz’ if you’re sick

of all the trophy hunting
from the previous games,

I mean there’s some, but
like, it’s not going wear out

its welcome like the Riddler trophies.

On the flip side,

if you really loved
hunting Riddler trophies,

it’s more basic this time around.

It’s not like collecting is
gone, but it’s not the same.

And finally at number one,

the game is coming out on October 21st.

This is four days earlier than
the original release date.

It is only coming to the next gen systems.

So PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC.

So no PS4,

no Xbox One.

It does look a little bit
better than the Arkham games,

we do see some next generation effects,

so I get it, polygon counts’
pretty high from the looks.

It’s gonna be released on
PC, on both Steam and Epic.

So if you’re thinking, “I
only have one of these”,

“I don’t want to get another one”,

then don’t worry because you’re good.

Overall, I think it
looks like a good game.

I don’t know that they’ve really hyped it

in the way that they could have,

because frankly I have
been wanting to jump back

into this type of a game
from these developers,

whether it be Rocksteady
or WB Games Montreal.

Like, all of the Arkham games
are good in their own right,

and the style of game is
particularly enjoyable,

so it’s nice to see that here.

As well as some diversification

of some of the gameplay elements.

I am excited to play it, to be frank.

I don’t know if they’re
gonna drop some big, like,

bombshell between now and release

to really ratchet up the hype.

It’s quite possible,

but as it stands, it
just straightforwardly

looks like we’re gonna get a pretty good

Batman: Arkham-style game that takes place

in at least a Batman universe.

So for me, it seems like
this is probably a solid bet

on a pretty darn good game.

That’s all for today.

Leave us a comment, let
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I’m Falcon, you can follow
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