After nearly five years since Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham Knight, WB Montreal’s Gotham Knights was announced on August 22nd at DC FanDome.
Here’s everything we know about the game so far.
Release Date
No specific date or month has been announced for the release of Gotham Knights. At the moment we only know that the game is set to hit the shelves sometime in 2021.
Platforms
Gotham Knights will be available for purchase on the PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X when it launches.
Trailer
WB released a trailer at DC FanDome that you can watch below
Story
The trailer reveals quite a bit about the story’s premise. Bruce Wayne announces himself as dead to his closest allies.
After Batman’s death, Batgirl, Nightwing, Red Hood, and Robin must rise up as the new protectors of Gotham City. Alas with Batman gone, an expansive, criminal underworld has swept through the streets of Gotham. From the trailer, it seems you’ll have to stop the Court of Owls and possibly Mr. Freeze.
After that, we get a close look at four playable characters: Red Hood, Nightwing, Batgirl, and Robin. Despite the hooded look, it’s Tim Drake’s Robin. Bruce Wayne’s posthumous video mentions the Belfry, a fictional secondary hideout for the Bat-Family operated by Tim Drake and used by DC’s fictional Gotham Knights. This will possibly be used as a hub for players to choose missions and objectives in the final game. We also get a look at The Court of Owls, likely the villains this time around. The screen flashes with a single Talon ( a Court of Owls elite) jump scaring towards the viewer.
Gameplay
From this, we can see that Gotham Knights will feature traversal using the bat-cycle. We can also see that the game will notify you when other players join. These are different costumes than in the announcement trailer, confirming that cosmetics will be available. We can also see levels on each character, confirming more RPG elements and that gameplay might be limited based on level.
When Batgirl defeats an enemy, she acquires items that appear on the left. This may be our first look at a crafting system. It also appears there’s some sort of gear system in play.
The overall game appears similar, but different enough from Rocksteady’s Batman Arkham series. The freeflow system seems to be missing from this iteration of Batman.
Gotham Knights is not connected to the Batman: Arkham series. WB Montréal’s latest title kicks off its own universe.
Fans of the caped crusader can expect to play this title when it hits the shelves in 2021.