Gotham Knights goes to a post-Batman world at DC Fandome

The wait is over, as WB Montreal reveals at DC Fandome that they'll be visiting a Gotham without Batman in Gotham Knights.

23

This is the day that comic book fans step into the DC Fandome. The Fandome is the 24-hour event that covers all things DC across all media, which includes gaming. One of the first announcements of the day involved the long-anticipated announcement of what's next for the team at WB Montreal. And as rumored, WB Montreal is revisiting the Batman... sort of. The Batman is no more, but the Gotham Knights are ready to carry on his mission.

Gotham Knights is set in a post-Batman world, where Bruce Wayne is dead. In his place, Nightwing, Batgirl, Robin, and the Red Hood must fill the void and protect Gotham City in his stead. Many of Gotham's heavy-hitting villains, such as Mr. Freeze, will still present a threat. However, the trailer ends with a whole new kind of threat: The Court of Owls, a cabal of villains hell-bent on taking over Gotham.

While this game looks to play in the vein of the other games in the Arkham series, players will not, in fact, be taking on the role of Batman. Instead, they'll be taking on the roles of the rest of the Bat-family, each with their own fighting styles and abilities. While at their core they'll utilize an aspect of Batman's fighting prowess and world-traversing abilities, each of these characters has something unique that they bring to the fight. Batgirl fights with her melee tonfa, Nightwing uses his dual Escrima Sticks, Robin uses his collapsible quarter staff, and Red Hood beats you silly with his fists. Each character can be customized from their individual abilities, to their gear, and even to their suits. They can also team up for double team moves, which includes tandem finishers. To help facilitate this, Gotham Knights will be playable solo or with two-player online co-op.

We mentioned Mr. Freeze and DC Fandome offered a first glimpse at Batgirl and Robin taking on the frigid maniac. The objective is to remove a dangerous disruptor from the roof, but Freeze shows up to trigger a boss battle. They must dodge Freeze's rail gun, which can reach across the screen and cause area-of-effect damage.

While traditional Batman villains like Freeze and the newer-school Court of Owls look to be central to the Gotham Knights story, the team at WB Montreal is teasing that the game's narrative will be bigger than the Court of Owls. While they're not offering any teases as to what that might mean, they do further seem to put this in the Arkham continuity by noting the Belfry as a significant base of operations, which seems to point to Gotham Knights as a follow-up of sorts to Batman: Arkham Knight.

The WB Montreal project had been rumored for several weeks. The teases started showing up earlier this week, eventually teasing a reveal at today's DC Fandome event. This is the first of two major announcements set for today with Rocksteady Studios set to officially unveil their next project later today.

Gotham Knights is set to release in 2021. It will release on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?

From The Chatty
  • reply
    August 22, 2020 10:38 AM

    Ozzie Mejia posted a new article, Gotham Knights goes to a post-Batman world at DC Fandome

    • reply
      August 22, 2020 10:43 AM

      Looks damn good.

      • reply
        August 22, 2020 11:35 AM

        It does! Combat looks fun. I wonder if there’s more to the gameplay though. Too early to assume it’s a more combat heavy Arkham with co-op but that’s all we’ve seen so far.
        Pat Redding knows his shit though.

        • reply
          August 22, 2020 11:37 AM

          It sounds basically a single player game with 2 player co-op it's not the typical game as service that people feared.

          • reply
            August 22, 2020 11:45 AM

            That’s Suicide Squad you’re thinking of with the rumoured GaaS.

    • reply
      August 22, 2020 11:52 AM

      [deleted]

      • reply
        August 22, 2020 12:48 PM

        From what I heard, enemies and bosses scale with your level so it’s not about a grind, it’s about their capabilities and tactics expanding as yours do to keep combat fresh.

        • reply
          August 22, 2020 12:53 PM

          [deleted]

          • reply
            August 22, 2020 12:58 PM

            They will probably just change enemy types/numbers. So at level 1 it might be 3 goons, at level 5 one of them has a weapon/shield. then at level 15 it is 5 goons in the group all with some kind of upgrade like a weapon or shield.

      • reply
        August 22, 2020 7:02 PM

        the partnered fighting in Arkham knight also let you swap and the whole thing was pretty tight and seamless. I’ll bet this will be really polished

    • reply
      August 22, 2020 11:54 AM

      Is this single player or multiplayer?

    • reply
      August 22, 2020 12:03 PM

      So I guess the Court of Owls leaks were half right. Although if the Court of Owls are involved it is quite possible that Batman/Bruce Wayne isn't dead and it was either a clone or Lincoln March that died. And that the Court of Owls have Batman prisoner torturing him in their maze while the bat kids are all out protecting the city and fighting Talons while the Court tries to take over Gotham.

    • reply
      August 22, 2020 12:09 PM

      If the game is a live service like Avengers I won't buy it

      • reply
        August 22, 2020 12:12 PM

        Everything being reported strongly indicates a strong story-line driven game. DLC and season pass and all that nonsense (but WB has learned their lesson from Middle Earth so no loot boxes), but can't see a live service game.

        • reply
          August 22, 2020 12:35 PM

          If it is a full Court of Owls story and since Scott Snyder was apparently involved in the story for the game then it probably is. One of the DLC has to be Bruce in the Maze they also are missing Batwing and Damian as other characters they could introduce for DLC as well

    • reply
      August 22, 2020 12:11 PM

      4k trailer and gameplay.

      https://youtu.be/dCsptWe21uE
      https://youtu.be/Np-QRdUTkSs

      • reply
        August 22, 2020 1:11 PM

        Hmmmm....here's my quick thoughts:

        -It certainly looks nice. Detailed environments, good-looking lighting, slick animations, and decent character models.
        -The Batgirl hair physics look straight-up terrible, though. Hopefully they fix that, LOL.
        -I really, really hate enemies having level numbers and HP bars over their heads. It's a great way to remind you constantly that you're playing a videogame.
        -Apparently enemies and bosses scale with player level. So you can rest assured that the whole game is just one big hamster wheel of numbers getting bigger and bigger. Boring.
        -The player characters are constantly talking out loud, stating the obvious. So many games do this now, and I hate it.

        I don't know... I think I'm just getting too old for this shit. It's clearly a videogame designed to appeal to the mainest of mainstream. I kind of miss the days when videogames were designed to be immersive experiences, as opposed to casino games with flashing lights and spinning numbers to keep you addicted.

      • reply
        August 22, 2020 6:29 PM

        Awesome! Playable red hood too!

    • reply
      August 22, 2020 12:36 PM

      Looks like Tim Drake Robin? Wonder if they will fit Damian in somewhere.

      • reply
        August 22, 2020 12:43 PM

        Batwing and Damian are missing, maybe DLC?

      • reply
        August 22, 2020 7:07 PM

        I believe Talia is dead in the Arkham timeline. Not sure where Damian would come from.

        • reply
          August 22, 2020 7:34 PM

          I can’t tell if this is Arkham timeline

          • reply
            August 23, 2020 4:28 AM

            I believe it is. Bruce blew up the Bat Cave at the end of Arkham Knight.

            • reply
              August 23, 2020 9:13 AM

              he blew up all of Wayne manor too, along with Alfred... who is communicating w batgirl during the GK gameplay footage

        • reply
          August 23, 2020 2:00 AM

          She died but if you go the morgue her body isn't in the locker. And given that their whole thing is immortality it is likely she is alive.

    • reply
      August 22, 2020 1:01 PM

      The four playable characters (either sp or in co-op, mix and match) are Batgirl (Barbara Gordon), Nightwing (Dick Grayson), Red Hood (Jason Todd), and Robin (Tim Drake)


      https://www.ign.com/articles/batman-gotham-knights-co-op-characters-detailed

    • reply
      August 22, 2020 1:51 PM

      I hate that Robin costume. Hope you can change it.

    • reply
      August 22, 2020 1:53 PM

      Im sold, Batman Origins was one of my favorites, so I trust this team can do it again, even if it is years later.

      • reply
        August 22, 2020 7:09 PM

        I agree. Looks way more interesting that Suicide Squad. Especially if they build on the team up stuff from the last Arkham game. That was the best part of that game.

    • reply
      August 22, 2020 4:36 PM

      Cautiously optimistic.

    • reply
      August 22, 2020 5:56 PM

      Could they try any harder to make Red Hood look exactly like Deadpool?

      • reply
        August 23, 2020 2:42 AM

        Deadpool is hardly a unique design. Even in-universe he gets mistaken for Spider-man all the time by the populace. Liefeld's even poked fun at it himself.

    • reply
      August 22, 2020 8:30 PM

      I watched a little preview from IGN that made slightly more optmistic. Could be cool. And those cutscenes appeared to be in game so that's pretty fucking cool; game looks gorgeous.

Hello, Meet Lola