Gotham Knights hands-on preview: No Batman, no problem
In Gotham Knights, Batman is dead. Like, really dead. Not dead to facilitate a grand return in the final act, or a redemption arc. But proper dead. Six feet in the ground dead. Rest in peace, Bruce Wayne, gone but not forgotten dead. Of course, framing a Batman-inspired story with the demise of the Batman himself is a pretty unorthodox move, even within the bounds of a superhero tale. But, having spent a few hours hands-on with Warner Bros. Games Montreal's incoming action RPG, that unlikely decision gives life to a fresh strait of DC Universe storytelling.
Granted, we've seen flashes of this evolving narrative since Gotham Knights was unveiled at DC FanDome in August 2020 – a handful of subsequent delays have allowed the devs to tease surplus world and story details over the last several months – but getting to grips with its characters first-hand, and fighting its scores of footsoldiers and unhinged antagonists has left me with a new appreciation of what the game hopes to achieve. The eponymous city-saving quartet of Robin, Nightwing, Red Hood, and Batgirl are tasked with filling the shoes of the recently deceased in Gotham Knights – that part is obvious – but it's how these characters adapt to and wrestle with change that really drives their stories.
And it's change that underpins this interpretation of Gotham City in just about every way. In the Caped Crusader's absence, its new heroes are incentivized. Its civilians are terrified. Its criminals tantalized. And its new star of the show, Dr Harley Quinn, now operating independently of The Joker and the Suicide Squad, is gloriously enfranchised.
Gotham Knights devs on why Batman's absence brings out the best in its superheroes
In wider contextual terms, change
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