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Gotham Knights | Review Thread

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Meicyn

Gold Member
FWIW despite being an okay game, still having a lot of fun. It’s hard to explain really, it’s kind of like how the FFXV Comrades multiplayer felt like 7/10 at best, and yet folks still played it anyways. There are a lot of areas in the game that don’t really seem to be utilized, which is a shame. I snagged this screen on the statue of justice which obviously is screenshot bait, shame you don’t actually see criminals doing anything here for maximum irony.

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Game looks really good at moments. Gonna keep playing at least until God of War Ragnarok debuts in a few days. Might come back later for the incoming 4-player horde mode though!
 

SJRB

Gold Member
Man they really fucked up the transmog feature, didn't they? It's basically the exact opposite of what you'd want - it locks down a skin without any form of customization. What is the point then?

There have been two patches over the last week and overall performance seems improved somewhat on PS5.
 

Freeman76

Member
Umm what? Origins was good and should not be compared to this dumpster fire.
Origins was shit, it had a decent story but the rest? You cannot seriously claim origins was decent but slate GK, the issues with both are practically identical. If anything Origins is far worse because they actually managed to fuck the combat up when they had the source code for it from Rocksteady.
 

SJRB

Gold Member
I played Origins on PS3 when it came out and absolutely hated it. There was something about the framerate that made the combat incredibly bad, something about the timing was completely off.

When I replayed it on PC not too long ago I actually had a pretty decent time. There are a lot of good ideas in the game, the execution however was pretty flawed. Atmosphere was aces [snow and christmas, god-tier combo], but the city design was quite bad and annoying to move around. Having snipers on rooftops in the late game with pin-point accuracy really made traversal more annoying than it should ever be. And that massive bridge in the middle to mask loading times was super bad. Interesting to see the same mechanic back in Gotham Knights.

However I liked the story, the portrayal of Bane especially and the game has decent boss fights. I also enjoyed how brutal Batman was. He's very cool and collected in the other games but here he's full of rage and you can really see that during the fights and that was really cool.

All in all it was a step back from the Rocksteady games, which is of course not what you want from a sequel. Which, again, also applies to Gotham Knights.
 

Freeman76

Member
When you finish a day are you missing out entirely on sets of side missions or do they respawn each time? Not sure if i'm leaving too many each night but they are everywhere!
 

SJRB

Gold Member
When you finish a day are you missing out entirely on sets of side missions or do they respawn each time? Not sure if i'm leaving too many each night but they are everywhere!

The pre-meditated crimes [red triangle on the map] are just XP farms, basically. Don't sweat it.

If you go out the next night you get new ones, provided you did a couple of investigations [that's the grey little triangle where you interrogate some thug or just beat them up].
 

The Stig

Banned
Origins was shit, it had a decent story but the rest? You cannot seriously claim origins was decent but slate GK, the issues with both are practically identical. If anything Origins is far worse because they actually managed to fuck the combat up when they had the source code for it from Rocksteady.
I hate to read like the posters defending GK ITT, but you didn't play origins, did you?

It is the weakest arkham game but its still good and absolutely shits on GK from a great height.
 
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.hacked

Member
Beat the game today just playing as red hood. I enjoyed it, got it mainly to play coop but only ended up playing one mission online. Next up new CoD.
 

Neolombax

Member
Finished the game last night. I had fun with it, despite glaring issues. The stealth isn't tight, at all honestly. GK is more of a brawler more than anything. Gear system is really bordering on pointless, but a fun distraction when you don't pick it apart. My Red Hood was shooting ice bullets and causing lightning blasts when punching people by the end. Its absolutely ridiculous but the particle effects are really nice to look at. I just wished there were more combos, fighting enemies got a bit stale doing the same thing over and over again. I think in terms of gameplay, it had very limited amount of player choice on how to approach things.

The story is fine for what it was, I played through the game exclusively as Red Hood, so I don't know how it varies with other characters. I liked the specific villain side missions, I enjoyed the Clayface missions the most. Wished there were more of them. I agree with some reviewers when they said, this game was designed as a GAAS but somehow changed during development to a solo/coop experience. The amount of different currencies for crafting gear, I think it has more than Destiny 2 (not kidding). But the game really gives you TONS of materials, just by stopping a mugging or saving a cop or what not, that it doesn't really become an issue. I heard people were having issues getting the more rare materials to craft legendary type gear, but again, I ask what is the point as there is no endgame as it is not a GAAS type game nor is it an RPG. There is a 4 player content coming so maybe thats it?

All in all, did not regret the purchase at all. I'm curious to try out the other characters, and there is a new game plus mode that increases player levels to another 10 levels. But I imagine I shall be playing GOW Ragnarok after this.
 

Freeman76

Member
I hate to read like the posters defending GK ITT, but you didn't play origins, did you?

It is the weakest arkham game but its still good and absolutely shits on GK from a great height.
The Arkham series is possibly my favourite trilogy in gaming. I played Origins, it was inferior to the others in every single way. Some aspects are objective obviously, but the poorly designed, empty world, lack of engaging side content, dodgy combat...game was a joke, only the story made it a 6/10

Im not defending GK, it has plenty of its own issues. I dont see how anyone can rate Origins and think GK is a 'dumpster fire' though, its just totally irrational
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Umm what? Origins was good and should not be compared to this dumpster fire.

Origins was about as bang average as a video game gets - yes, this looks demonstrably worse, but if their entire resumé is one very ehh game, the prospects were never that great in the first place.
 

The Stig

Banned
The Arkham series is possibly my favourite trilogy in gaming. I played Origins, it was inferior to the others in every single way. Some aspects are objective obviously, but the poorly designed, empty world, lack of engaging side content, dodgy combat...game was a joke, only the story made it a 6/10

Im not defending GK, it has plenty of its own issues. I dont see how anyone can rate Origins and think GK is a 'dumpster fire' though, its just totally irrational
OK OK. I concede the point. I mean it definitely is the one game in the series I have played the least

i am absolutely NOT dying on this hill lol
 
Origins is the best game for story and atmosphere. The Cold, Cold Heart DLC is the best segment of any of the Arkham games. The only knock against it is the unnecessary plot twist related to the main villain. Arkham Knight is the worst of the lot with its dumb races and repetitive waves of enemy vehicles.

Gotham Knights is ridiculous and at times very fun. It is much worse in design and sloppy in execution, but is the right length for replays with the cast and doesn't overstay its welcome.
 

Freeman76

Member
Traversal is pretty rough unless playing as Batgirl.

Combat wise Robin is my favourite.

Its a wierd game, comparing it to Arkham games its crap in comparison, but as an open world rpg in its own right its actually not bad.

I wish the world felt a bit more lived in, but it still feela great roaming the dark alleys of Gotham, they got the feel right for sure.

Story is OK, at least gives you decent reasons for what you get up to at night.

Felt a bit of a chore unlocking the 4th tree for all characters, but gearing them up was decent.

Overall so far I dont regret buying this, which surprises me. Reminds me of Andromeda in many ways, a game people slated but I put a lot of hours into and enjoyed a lot, flaws and all.
 
i like Gotham Knights more than Arkham Origins or Arkham Knight....sorry

I wish Gotham Knights had the boss fights of Arkham Origins and the driving and melee combat of Arkham Knight.
 
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Certinty

Member
I’m actually enjoying this?

Only a few hours in but the story is a little interesting, the combat is good enough and it’s just fun and addictive?

Open world is dead and the side content seems bad but I mean, it’s still fun.
 

Meicyn

Gold Member
I’m actually enjoying this?

Only a few hours in but the story is a little interesting, the combat is good enough and it’s just fun and addictive?

Open world is dead and the side content seems bad but I mean, it’s still fun.
Yeah, it’s weird. The game is arguably serviceable at best, but there’s something about it that makes you tolerate it more than you normally would. The context sensitive animations for combat that account for four different characters with completely different combat styles is really impressive. The game shows a lot of hard work put into it in many spots and then other aspects feel half-baked.

I’m still having fun with it despite how folks or even myself try to parse it.
 

Certinty

Member
Yeah, it’s weird. The game is arguably serviceable at best, but there’s something about it that makes you tolerate it more than you normally would. The context sensitive animations for combat that account for four different characters with completely different combat styles is really impressive. The game shows a lot of hard work put into it in many spots and then other aspects feel half-baked.

I’m still having fun with it despite how folks or even myself try to parse it.
Definitely feel like this sums up the game best.

When it's good it's shocking really good, I've just done all the villain side missions and they were definitely some of the best side stuff I've played in a good while, even some of the story content is pretty solid to be fair.

But yeah, when it's not good it's definitely giving vibes of something that was completely different and just made to be serviceable in the end.

Sort of a shame, I mean, Arkham Origins was great and if WB Montreal set out to make a single player game from the begin and not the GaaS crap this once initially was, this could have actually turned out amazing.

Either way, just glad it's fun and a lot of us are having a good time with it, game gets far too much hate for its own good.
 

SJRB

Gold Member
I keep coming back to this and find myself being bored after like 45 minutes of playtime every single time.

It's just such an unrewarding experience. The skill trees are quite bad, the outfits suck because the transmog system doesn't do what it should do, fighting the same groups of enemies over the same types of crimes gets boring super fast, the main story isn't nearly interesting enough to keep playing, the traversal isn't nearly good enough to warrant casually going around the city meditatively, there's zero incentive for exploration. And last but not least - none of the four characters are fun to play. They all have shortcomings: either mediocre skills or bad outfits or shit voice acting or terrible movement. None of them are truly awesome to play.

Usually I boot up the game [lot of unskippable nonsense at the start of this game by the way, absolutely ridiculous. Stop that shit] and I do one main mission and some premeditated crimes and I'm like "yeah, I'm done for today".

I honestly don't think I'll be putting a lot more time into this unless they release a Batman dlc or something.
 
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Zimmy68

Member
I love it but it has some glaring issues.
The levelling system is odd. I enjoy the combat so I went to farming XP with the street crimes with all the characters.
Now, I'm blowing through the story missions because everyone is 10-15 levels under me.
Some enemy types are infuriating. The drone expert is also a combat expert and can dodge anything these top flight super heroes throw at them.
 

SCB3

Member
I played Origins on PS3 when it came out and absolutely hated it. There was something about the framerate that made the combat incredibly bad, something about the timing was completely off.

When I replayed it on PC not too long ago I actually had a pretty decent time. There are a lot of good ideas in the game, the execution however was pretty flawed. Atmosphere was aces [snow and christmas, god-tier combo], but the city design was quite bad and annoying to move around. Having snipers on rooftops in the late game with pin-point accuracy really made traversal more annoying than it should ever be. And that massive bridge in the middle to mask loading times was super bad. Interesting to see the same mechanic back in Gotham Knights.

However I liked the story, the portrayal of Bane especially and the game has decent boss fights. I also enjoyed how brutal Batman was. He's very cool and collected in the other games but here he's full of rage and you can really see that during the fights and that was really cool.

All in all it was a step back from the Rocksteady games, which is of course not what you want from a sequel. Which, again, also applies to Gotham Knights.
I played the Wii U version of Origins and it was fantastic
 
How bad is the hit to resolution on next gen console after the patch early this month that added DRS to the game?

The game wasnt 60 fps but at least ut had native 4k. Now it no longer has that going for it and from the sounds of it DRS was a quick and lazy way to go about fixing framerate since its not GPU bound to begin with.

Did it lose that next gen sheen? The texture work and distant detail looked great in videos and id imagine thats now taken a step backwards thanks to DRS ...
 

Meicyn

Gold Member
How bad is the hit to resolution on next gen console after the patch early this month that added DRS to the game?

The game wasnt 60 fps but at least ut had native 4k. Now it no longer has that going for it and from the sounds of it DRS was a quick and lazy way to go about fixing framerate since its not GPU bound to begin with.

Did it lose that next gen sheen? The texture work and distant detail looked great in videos and id imagine thats now taken a step backwards thanks to DRS ...
It had native 4K at launch but the framerate would tank down into the teens, it was really bad. Dynamic resolution was a good choice, the game stays mostly at 30 fps with the random drop here and there, but never to the extent pre-patch. If the resolution drops, I’d never notice. But I also sit ten feet away from my 65 inch TV so, I dunno.

I value consistent framerate over resolution though, so bear my bias in mind.
 
Latest update on steam seems to bring performance up to as good as it gets.
Driving around the city is completely smooth for me now, it still loads stuff in at points obviously, but even then it doesn't drop to lower than ~55 fps for me.
RT performance is great too, no stuttering and an average of 40fps while driving, 30 at the lowest.
 
Seriously. I bought the game in the most recent sale (PS5) and the game isn't half as bad as the reviews would have you believe. I actually quite enjoy my time with it. And the 30fps are buttersmooth.
 
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