Since the latest Batman Arkham game seven years ago, fans have been wondering what Batman holds in the video game industry. In the newest Batman video game, he’s absent due to his death. 

Oddly enough, this game is not connected to the Batman Arkham series in any way. 

In Gotham Knights, you play as the Bat Family which includes Dick Grayson as Nightwing, Jason Todd as Red Hood, Barbara Gordon as Batgirl, and finally Tim Drake as Robin. This game also heavily emphasizes multiplayer as you and a friend can play through the campaign and watch the streets of Gotham together as any of the four characters in the game. You may even play as the same character. 

  No two characters play the same and they all have different animations and ways of movement. For example, Nightwing has a glider that he can deploy and use to traverse Gotham, Red Hood has a mystical leap that allows him to use a ghostly power. Batgirl can glide like how Batman does and finally, Robin can teleport. 

Nightwing is adept at taking on multiple enemies at a time, Red Hood is proficient at damaging enemies from afar and he is also good at damaging bigger and beefier enemies, Batgirl is great at damaging a singular enemy at a time, and Robin is the stealth specialist among the cast. The combat in the game feels basic but there is some depth in it even if it’s little as timing strikes perfectly or dodging under a small time window.

  The story is as follows: Batman is killed and the Bat Family must take his place as the defender of Gotham City. There are a plethora of villains in the game’s attendance: Man-Bat, Harley Quinn, Mr. Freeze, and Clayface. With a reformed Penguin, there are two factions which have invaded the streets of Gotham: The court of owls, a group of the oldest and wealthiest families in Gotham who will use murder and money to achieve what they want. In addition the  league of shadows, a group of assassins.

The overall performance of the game has gotten better within a few weeks of its launch which is why I was hesitant to make a review this early. However, some of these issues in Gotham Knights are still prevalent and still need to be fixed. Some of these issues are bugs that will freeze your game momentarily, software crashing, and some other small visual glitches. Many of these issues just need a small number of touches from the developers to make this game a little better than it already is. 

For my final verdict, I give this game a 7/10. The game is good and I would go as far as to say it is one of the better superhero video games out there but the only issues are the pricing and the glitches that can ruin the experience. The game is retailed at $60 but it doesn’t feel like it deserves that price tag and feels more so like a $30 to $40 game instead. I would wait for some deals to happen before getting this game. 

Gotham Knights is currently available on Playstation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.