After seven years of no Batman games, WB Games Montréal has finally released 13-minutes of footage from a new one. Sans Batman. And sans a version for Xbox One or a PS4.
The upcoming Bat-family game, Gotham Knights, will only be available on PC, PS5, and Xbox X/S despite previous announcements. “To provide players with the best possible gameplay experience, the game will release on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC and will not be available for PlayStation 4 or Xbox One consoles,” Warner Bros. said in a statement.
The team at WB Montréal finally released some serious game-play footage for the first time since 2020. That means we got an in-game video of Nightwing hanging on his glider, “The Flying Trapeze,” and Red Hood, um, shooting people with “nonlethal rounds that still do…a lot of damage.” So great to have Jason Todd’s Red Hood in the game and not Batman. These characters have distinct fighting styles and attacks, and WB promises that the game can be played solo and co-op.
Gotham Knights is the much-anticipated follow-up to 2015’s Batman Arkham Knight, even if it’s the beginning of a whole new series. Inspired by the “Court Of Owls” arc from the 2011 DC reboot of Batman comics, Gotham Knights eschews the chronology from the four previous Arkham games and Batman entirely, a shame considering some people think he’s the best Batman ever. Instead, the game features Nightwing, Red Hood, Batgirl, and Robin, or three Robins and a Batgirl, to the layperson. Anyone thinking coders got off light by not having to animate capes is wrong. Dead wrong. As dead as Batman is in this game. There’s a whole cut scene where Dick Grayson and Jason Todd talk about visiting his grave.
The footage shows a detailed game that looks like a serious upgrade from Arkham Knight. This is an impressively thorough open-world game that offers players an even more expansive map of Gotham. Perfect for [sigh] Red Hood use Mystic Leap powered by his “own soul energy.” You see, Red Hood is Batman’s second Robin, the deceased Jason Todd, who was resurrected by an assassin cult. Sometimes Batman gets a little too complicated.
Speaking of complicated, the game’s creators also promise a convoluted upgrade system, complete with meaningless numbers, arrows, and “mod chips.” As the old saying goes, “Gear with mod slots is better because mod chips power up gameplay properties.” Oh, did we say “old saying.” We mean, that’s how Geoff Ellenor, game director at WB Montréal, describes it. Unfortunately, it more or less looks like something that players will dread using.
Players will be able to bring “some vigilante justice to the bad people” on October 25, 2022.
[via The Verge]
