Gotham Knights: How Skill Trees Work First

ign.com:

Gotham Knights has an unexpected philosophy at its heart. While it might be a game about four superheroes trying to fill the void left by a murdered Batman, the developers don’t want you to feel like you’re creating four successors. They want you to find a favorite, and turn them into a single new Dark Knight.

"We always understood that there had to be a sense, by the end of the story and by the end of your investment in the hero, that you have in some way transcended the obvious potential of this character in order to become a symbol," says Creative director Patrick Redding.

"This is someone who I believe can fill the vacuum Batman has left behind. So that's such an essential aspect of the fantasy that we felt like there needed to be a moment where that was reflected in the ability tree, where it was reflected in the RPG foundations of the game."

With that overall philosophy in mind, a game mechanic that has you constantly changing and experimenting with new techniques feels apt. Gotham Knights offers a lot of options in that regard, from new superhero suits, to ability-changing gear – but it doesn’t make that idea clearer than in its skill trees. Each character has four ability trees, which offer separate directions in which to specialize your hero.

"The main abilities that you see on the ability tree are abilities that you unlock after you've earned ability points, and that's something that's a natural functional leveling up in this standard RPG way," Redding explains. "You get XP, you level up, you get some ability points. And there's dependencies and prerequisites like you would normally see in an action-RPG, but that is the gating mechanism for those abilities. You're spending points, you're deciding where you want to