Batman is dead. Well, probably — that’s what Gotham Knights wants you to think, in any case. And with the Bat broken, Gotham is going to need a new clean-up crew. If only there was a group of powerful people close to Batman who might not take too kindly to his death, and could… oh yeah, there is. And here they are now.
Gotham Knights will see Batgirl (Barbara Gordon), Robin (Tim Drake), Nightwing (Dick Grayson), and Red Hood (Jason Todd) step into the starring roles in poor Bruce’s stead, taking to the streets either solo or in two-player co-op to do a spot of avenging, DC style. We get an even better idea of how that will play out thanks to this gameplay reveal, which dropped alongside the trailer.
There are a few interesting things we can take away from this footage without even having to activate Detective Mode. First and foremost is the clear inclusion of RPG-lite elements, with enemies having visible levels and health bars above their heads, damage numbers pouring off punks as they get clobbered, and players earning XP and currency/loot for takedowns. It’s reminiscent of a lot of modern Ubisoft open world games such as The Division and later Assassin’s Creed games in this regard, or even its comic counterpart, Marvel’s Avengers.
Second, online co-op seems to be a drop-in system, again akin to something like The Division, since we see a pop-up informing us that ‘Robin has joined the session’ just under a minute into the gameplay, when Batgirl is already racing across Gotham. And thirdly, in case it wasn’t already clear, Gotham Knights will tell an original story unrelated to the Arkham series — it can’t be a prequel as Batman didn’t seem especially dead in the Arkham games, and it can’t be a sequel unless Barbara Gordon has made a miraculous recovery from being shot in the spine and paralysed.
Gotham Knights is in development at Warner Bros. Games Montreal, while Arkham dev Rocksteady is busy on the other big DC announcement from this weekend, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. It’s coming to both Xbox Series X and Xbox One next year, so expect to see much more of it in the coming months.