Gotham Knights new details revealed, not ‘Games as a Service’
DC Fandome really brought down the house for DC gamers the world over with their reveal of Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League and Gotham Knights, the latter of which is coming first in 2021.
In an IGN interview with creative director Patrick Redding and senior producer Fleur Marty, we got to learn lots of new details about Gotham Knights, which answers a lot of burning questions regarding the upcoming title.
Nothing really hammers it home than not having Batman’s name in the title, but yes, The Bat and even Commissioner Jim Gordon are confirmed to be out of the picture, resulting in the Bat Family (Consisting of Nightwing, Batgirl, Robin, and Red Hood) to continue Batman’s legacy as Gotham’s protectors.
As being developed by WB Montreal and not Rocksteady, Gotham Knights understandably will not be part of the Arkham Universe and will feature an original story. And with the initial impressions that the game will be a GaaS title, or “Games as a Service”, Marty says that “This is very much not designed as a game-as-service. There is an ability tree, which is different for each of the characters, and then there’s gear that you craft – and so choices that you’re going to be making – but that does not mean that this is a game-as-service.”
Furthermore, Marty reiterates that multiplayer is an option and not a requirement, saying “you can also completely experience in solo if you want to, you’re not going to miss out on anything. If you’re playing single player, you can be offline if you want to. We think that teaming up and living that dynamic duo fantasy can be also a really great experience for players, but we won’t force it on them.”
Gotham Knights will take place in an open world city, completely open from the start, with no level gating according to Redding.
During multiplayer, the same character can be used but WB Montreal aren’t too concerned over the experience being redundant. “Because the characters are so distinct from each other, there’s a bit of asymmetry, a bit of the complimentary skill set and ability set that actually makes teaming up kind of awesome if you happen to have different characters.” Redding continues to say that “if you happen to have two Batgirls, you can also do that. Obviously, the potential of having different Batgirl builds, and how they look different and play differently is really cool too.”
Not only will the skills be different, but Gotham Knights also has cosmetics, with each of the Bat Family having unique suit designs with customizable accessories that will further the personalization of each avatar.
Another thing that will be unique will be the combat. It won’t be exactly similar to the feel of the Arkham games, but Redding has assured us that they “have gone through and iterated on control schemes quite a bit over the course of the whole project, but it’ll be comfortable to people who are familiar with third-person brawler type experiences.” Redding continued by saying “in terms of having both attack and defensive choices, having a range of combo choices, having variations in strike types and attack types, being able to combo in your ranged attacks as well as your melee attacks – all of that is there”
Gotham Knights is scheduled to be released in 2021 for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC.