Warner Bros. Games has been teasing a Batman reveal for the last year or so. With each cryptic tweet came a puzzle of sorts, although each puzzle felt more like just a piece in a larger puzzle. It was all pretty ominous, and it felt like it was leading up to the ultimate Batman reveal.
With DC’s oddly titled FanDome event, we finally not only got the trailer reveal for the next Bat-centric game, but also a seven-minute gameplay showcase. And boy, was I disappointed.
Playing as the ancillary Bat cabal in the later Batman: Arkham games was an okay way to spice things up. Ultimately, though, the simple two-button, ballet-styled combat made every character feel identical in execution.
And seeing this new trailer, the general story concept admittedly feels fresh and quite dire (Batman’s dead! Like, trust us… he won’t be back later, we swear). However, the combat just looks so samey. I was really hoping that by stepping away from the Arkham franchise, Warner was going to deliver a fresh new take on this combat system. And although it can be argued that each Bat-pal plays differently — and they do look more varied than in previous Arkham team-up sections — it still looks so snap-to-enemy teleport-y in what little they showed in the trailer.
I’m sure I will be in the minority on this, I haven’t scoured the internet for reactions yet. After all, that simple two-button combat made the Arkham series the smash hit that it was. So it stand to reason that this will be well-received by and large.
I will say that I am definitely not a huge fan of the hit points and health bars for the enemies, but hopefully those can be toggled. It will also be interesting to see how they manage the narrative with co-op, as the are usually concessions made to give each player a cut of the the main experience. Mostly, I am concerned about how set pieces will sort of compensate for the fact that there are several potential player combinations they could be serving, if that makes sense.
Obviously, the reveal trailer and gameplay showcase are just tiny snippets of what the full game will have to offer, so it’s still far too early to completely write Gotham Knights off completely. Especially if the game handles the Court of Owls in an interesting way.
I look forward to more info to assuage my initial trepidation. Ultimately, even if Gotham Knights isn’t up my particular Crime Alley, successful comic book games can only open the door for others that might offer more of the very specific things that I’m looking for.
You can check out the reveal trailer below.
