Warner Montreal inherit Arkham IP and decide to look at Gotham’s cubs and the dreaded Court of Owls
“If you become something more than just a man, if you dedicate yourself to an ideal and if they can’t stop you, then you become something totally different: A legend.” Ra’s al Ghul, Batman Begins
We are in 2015. Rocksteady says goodbye to the IP that it developed from scratch, and that in 2009 not only raised the bar for superhero games to the same levels of perfection as a Bioshock or Uncharted, but also created a school – the system combat for example. After the masterful Batman: Arkham Knight, Warner Interactive entrusts the witness to WB Games Montreal, a studio with experience in the saga after signing the port of Arkham City to Wii U, and taking charge of Arkham Origins, the unjustly forgotten Batman in the remastering of the series to PS4 and that it has the best final bosses of the entire series.
In these 5 years we have been faithfully waiting for the saga to continue, listening in the last 2-3 years many rumors: What if a game with Damian Wayne -Bruce’s son with Talia al Ghul-, what if an Origins 2, what if one based on the Court of Owls …
The Night of the Owls
Batman does not return. Can not. The first trailer of Gotham Knights makes things clear from the beginning starting with a shocking message from Bruce Wayne, warning his ‘family’ about his death … A death that the criminals of Gotham will soon know, and therefore fall over the city.
In Warner’s first IP game in 5 years, it’s surprising that we aren’t going to control Batsy, but Gotham’s ‘cubs’: Robin, Batgirl, Nightwing, and Red Hood. In fact we have an interesting mix: On the one hand the Gotham Knights, who have their own comic that spanned from 2000 to 2006, and in which they focused on the ‘family’: on Alfred Pennyworth, Batgirl, Nightwing, Robin, Oracle , Catwoman, as well as several of the villains.
On the other hand we have the Court of Owls, unveiled yesterday in a teaser that clarified doubts. Without going into much detail, it seems that Gotham Knights will have a plot inspired by the Night of the Owls, considered the first major crossover of DC’s The New 52 era, in which Batman, Dick Grayson, Robin and Batgirl must face off against each other. the plans of this criminal organization. A crossover in which Mr. Freeze even participated, which the game trailer reviews with that fight with Batgirl.
And, for those who do not know it, the Court of Owls is a secret society that has been in Gotham since the American colonial era, in which the United States became the United States. Created by the wonderful duet Scott Snyder in the script and Greg Capullo in the pencils, the Court has not lavished much outside the comics, only in the Gotham series, in the (excellent) animated film Batman Vs Robin, and through a character in the LEGO DC Super Villains game.
Sequel to Arkham Knight?
Something very unlikely, although many details are still to be known, it seems that Gotham Knights will play with its own plot and surely world, since you only have to note that the in-game models of Mister Cold and Bruce Wayne are different. Also, Barbara Gordon is well and turned into Batgirl, something that clashes with how Oracle was in Knight. It seems that Montreal is looking for its space and to grow the saga.
Goodbye to the Batcave
One of the things that Bruce makes clear in the trailer is that the Batcave has been destroyed, so the Gotham Knights must operate from the Belfry, a secondary base of operations left by Batman that in the original Gotham Knights comics came inside. from the Old Wayne Tower and had been built by Tim Drake. Its height makes it ideal for getting in and out of it, but we wonder if, as in the comics, the tower will have a ‘Mud Room’, among other things a virtual training room in which to practice new combos and weapons.
4 heroes, 4 forms of fighting
The gameplay shown begins with Batgirl in the middle of a mission in which Mister Cold is shaking all of Gotham, according to its director “about 12 hours into Batgirl’s character progression.” As a good introductory event, the scripts help to give it spectacularity, and we have to be dodging lightning and ice floes. And the first thing that stands out is the vehicle itself: After 3 games asking for the inclusion of the Batmobile, Rocksteady introduced it to Arkham Knight in an unexpectedly deep way, because we used it to advance, fight, shoot and even do puzzles.
From what the Gotham Knights trailer shows, at least two of the characters will have motorcycles, what is not yet known is if WB Montreal has decided to reduce the weight in the gameplay of the vehicles and that they should not be used as much as the Batmobile , which divided opinions – in our Reviews of Arkham Knight it seemed a success, although so many tank fights could saturate. Of course in the demo it is just a walk and that’s it.
With 4 specific characters, the idea of the study is for the player to personalize them to their liking, depending on how they like one or the other. Robin has that teleportation and what looks like invisibility for ‘Stealth hits and the long stick to keep enemies at bay’; Nightwing prefers a more direct approach; Red Hood uses stun weapons that bring their gameplay closer to gunplay than the rest of the Knights.
Coop to 2 ‘Drop in’
The game director himself confirms that “players can play the entire game alone or in a 2-player cooperative”, and the demo shows us how a user joins a game by managing Robin, in a ‘Drop In’ coop that in the style of LEGO games – also signed by Warner Interactive – allows a player to come and join you in the middle of a singleplayer game.
But no, that there are 4 heroes does not mean that there is a Coop with 4 users, but that it is ‘capped’ at 2 on the screen. To differentiate them and create a more complete experience, each character in the game has their own look, weapons and movements, which translate into completely different combat skills. And therefore, managing each one is a different experience than taking the rest.
Closest camera
We have the points on stage to hook the bat-hook. Batgirl scrolls like this, in the classic way. Robin instead can access the Justice League satellite and use a “short-range teleport” around the stage.
Another detail: the camera: in the Batman Arkham -except for Blackgate-, the camera is placed from behind and close to the character, without revealing the entire body -that is only in combat. In Gotham Knights they seem to have opened the angle a little more, as seen by watching Batgirl walk.
Free Flow not coming back?
We see Batgirl on a ledge execute a jump Takedown on an enemy, as in the Arkham saga, and then enter into combat against several enemies, using new skills such as the bat squad that she invokes to help her in the fight – just like did Christian Bale in Batman Begins. But with only two fights seen in the demo it is difficult to tell if the Free Flow System, the combat system that made the Arkhams great, is back or not, because whoever manages Batgirl prefers to face enemies one by one and not go jumping from one to another.
We do not see the classic hit counter, nor do we see the enemies entering K.O., but we do see a health bar on the enemies as well as a numbered badge, which indicates what level the rival is. Obviously if you are below this it will cost you much more. Also in the demo, just below Batgirl, we have a purple bar divided into 4 zones that seem to allow us to activate special attacks, and that when you use them you can fill it up again by hitting enemies
If you’ve played installments as Knight, those pair attacks will be familiar: at one point in the demo we see Batgirl grab an enemy by the neck for Robin to come and finish him off. It’s the same as Knight’s Dual experience, in which Robin, Nightwing and others came to help us sometimes in the fighting, and by pressing L1 we saw how with Batman we launched an enemy that Robin finished off with a kick and we started to handle it to the.
2021
The demo ends with a three-way showdown between Batgirl, Robin, and Mr. Freeze. According to the game director, “An important element of Gotham Knights is that as the player improves in power and skill, so do their enemies. So facing an enemy like Mister Cold can be something completely different being level 5 or level 15. And not only at a statistical level, but at the level of attack and defense ”.
This adds an RPG component to the combat system, in which it will be important to level to defeat the enemies. Undoubtedly an element implemented for this Knights to bring news to the Arkham universe, although it remains to be seen how it will be implemented.
Gotham Knights, which seems to be looking to inject new life into the Arkham saga, will be ready in 2021, and will be released on PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox ONE, PC and Series X.
