A Batman game without a playable Batman is an interesting choice. Does it succeed?
Gotham Knights begins with the death of Batman. An interesting choice for a studio that made some of the best Batman games over the last decade. The 12-minute cutscene shows his demise, how his closest confidants are alerted and the funeral for Bruce Wayne that follow.
Our PC copy of Gotham Knights challenged a new, higher end computer as well. Turning on ray tracing and changing environment density from low to medium caused serious stutter. Frame rate dropped from 60 FPS to high 30’s. Changing these settings back to their original resets made the game playable, but there was another issue - screen tearing. One third of the screen during gameplay would look off, as though it was a second behind the rest. Turning on VSYNC rectified this issue.
Early in the game, you need to explore the city using your grappling hook and motorcycle. In a big open world like Gotham, this can quickly become annoying when you have to travel to the opposite side of the map. Eventually you can unlock fast travel, which makes navigating the city much easier. Initially, the story is convoluted, moving completely away from its initial premise, to the point where it is hard to tell side quests from the main story. Gotham Knights’ writers also assume you know a lot about the Banman universe. If you are unfamiliar with characters or storylines from the comics, you might find yourself doing a quick Google search.