Warner Bros. paused its Batman plans following the problematic launch of 2015's Arkham Knights. But, after seven years, WB Games Montreal finally got a chance to launch a new Batman game. Unfortunately, Gotham Knights might have been better off released following a few more coats of paint.
There were signs that Gotham Knights would fail expectations. First up, there was the issue with WB Games Montreal delaying the game by a year. Later on, WB Games Montreal removed Gotham Knights from last-gen consoles.
To top it all off, the very demanding PC specs screamed of a very unoptimized game. This corroborated earlier leaks about performance capping on current-gen consoles.
Now that Gotham Knights is out, critics and audiences alike paint it in a very negative light.
Make no mistake, Gotham Knights is not unplayable. Gotham Knight's performance isn't ideal but WB Games Montreal can fix it with a patch or two. The worst thing about Gotham Knights is that everything it touted as its strength ultimately felt flat. Gotham Knights' score on Metacritic is now sitting at anywhere between 66% to 69%. This makes Gotham Knights the worst Batman outing in a long time. Many believe that Rocksteady's seven-year-old Arkham Knight looks and plays better than Gotham Knights, which is inexcusable.
Here's a round-up of the Gotham Knights reviews:
WB Games Montreal obviously needed more time to release Gotham Knights. It doesn't look like a current-gen game. To make things worse, Gotham Knights' co-op gameplay and combat action aren't great. There's little incentive to grind the co-op missions. Although it's fun if you play with another who knows what they're doing and it looks cool when your twin batcycles are running through the city, the novelty quickly wears off when there's little substance behind it.
Ultimately, we can't help but feel like Gotham Knights would've made for a great game if it did not come with the expectations set from being a Batman game.
Because Warner Bros.'s most recent Batman outings are so much better, Gotham Knights is a game that feels cheap. If held up against Arkham, Gotham Knights' movement feel clunky, the stealth mechanics are poorly implemented, and it just feels like it lacks polish.
If you're thinking of buying Gotham Knights right now, don't. If you insist, do temper your expectations. Gotham Knights is best gotten at a slight discount, and even then, it's not a "must buy".
Fingers crossed, Rocksteady Studios are taking notes for next year's Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
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