"Gotham City called, and we have answered. And we will never abandon her."
Hello everyone!
I've also made it a mission of mine to actually get my hands on a console at some point.
I'd DEARLY love to play some of the games I write about!
But I digress.
First of all, I have to make sure to do this game justice.
People seem to be split on the final verdict for this one, just like any other honestly. It feels like the times of being able to just buy a game and play it without the peanut gallery preaching back at you are over, which is kind of sad.
Particularly as this is a good game - maybe not perfect, but it IS good.
Which game am I talking about you may ask? Why, Gotham Knights of course.
I actually don't think I have anything remotely connected to this topic on my blog thus far (besides the funny skit you can find in the game itself), so there won't really be links for you to find down below. At some point, I'll remedy the situation.
But first! Gotham Knights.
Our story throws us right into the deep end without a life raft when we witness Batman fighting none other than Ra's al Ghul, realizing he won't be able to beat him, and taking them both down when he initiates a self-destruct on the Batcave.
His family - the children he kinda sorta adopted and then trained - rush to the demolished Wayne Manor and what's left of the massive crater to dig out his body, mournfully burying him and deciding Gotham will just have to survive with them in his stead.
None of them really understand why Ra's was in Gotham to begin with and what led to the deadly duel until they receive a missive from Harley Quinn, happily incarcerated at Blackgate prison, who seems to have something for Batman (how she got it to them is a mystery, and Dick's rather convinced it had to be by use of a homing pigeon). Incredulous, our heroes head on over there only to land in the middle of rioting.
Nothing new. When you have Gotham, an asylum or a prison, there will be riots.
Harley escapes during said riots, but she does in fact deliver psychological profiles on criminals she'd been working on for Batman, and the future knights recognize a pattern: every single one of them managed to be released after a witness was killed, just like in their current situation where they've been trying to solve Batman's last case, but the guy he was investigating ended up dead.
Only one person ever served his full sentence: the Penguin. So off to his Iceberg Lounge they go, and after they clear some listening devices from his office, he explains that the Court of Owls has been running Gotham for centuries. They aren't just a nursery rhyme to scare kids, either.
The Bats learn this when they find one of their hidey-holes and almost end up dead themselves on a pile of bones that seems to extend back hundreds of years, but luckily the game gives you more than enough skills to survive (and if you're playing as Jason, you're pissed, too).
With Harley wreaking havoc on the city and this Court of Owls nightmare, you'd think that your hands would be full enough, but oh no, there's more. Mr. Freeze is also on the prowl, encasing Gotham in ice as he goes, because while Batman promised him a cure for his condition, their truce is dead now that the Big Guy is dead, too.
So if you don't want Gotham to become the next film set for The Day After Tomorrow, this is a mission that kind of demands you complete it.
Of course it wouldn't be Gotham if more of Batman's enemies didn't surface after his demise, so Clayface pops back up too, except he's been out of the loop for a while after falling into some sort of grinder, and is convinced that time just ... didn't pass. The initial attempt is just to hold on to a piece of Clayface (that happily bops around every once in a while, per Tim) until the final showdown at the Gotham reservoir.
But through all this, you never stop looking for clues about the Court, what their plan is, and what the hell they had to do with Batman's death, since Penguin wouldn't have mentioned it otherwise, and it wouldn't make much sense either.
During the course of the game you explore their influence on Gotham, recognize the city's elite as making up a great part of the Court, that Batman was also investigating them and that Talia al Ghul has something to say about them.
Namely: the Court of Owls is corrupt to its core, and with Ra's dead, the League of Shadows would stop at nothing, once they reorganize themselves, to rip out this corruption.
Any collateral damage, aka Gotham City, doesn't matter to them. Cities can be rebuilt.
But the Bat Family is aghast that so many people could die (even if three quarters of them are criminals) and they realize their starting point for the investigation is all wrong: it didn't start with Batman's death, but his investigation of the Court of Owls, which brought Ra's to town, and Batman being Batman stood in his way so war wouldn't erupt between the two factions.
To top it off, they discover none other than Jacob Kane, Bruce Wayne's uncle, is the Court's leader, and while he protected his nephew and apparently intervened before things came to a head, he won't do the same for his wards.
This leads the Penguin to choose his own miserable life and trick you into getting gassed and tossed into a labyrinth by the Court, which is a disorienting and macabre experience as each character relives some of the most painful moments of their lives upon working their way out of there.
This achieved, however, they double down on arresting Kane for the murder of that scientist from the start of the game, with the help of Detective Montoya, one of the only good cops left in Gotham since Jim Gordon's death, and Judge Moreno, a judge who doesn't fear the Court and wants them off the streets so Gotham can be safe.
This might have even worked - particularly because getting Kane out of the way would potentially slow down the Court's manufacturing of enemies called Talons, that are basically revived corpses using a Lazarus Pit substitute, and then later on live volunteers because ... Gotham's insane, that's why.
But Kane's shot through with an arrow before he can be delivered to justice, and turns out Talia al Ghul has been leading everyone on a merry dance all this time, lying that the League had no leader, and using the Bat Family to lure the Court out into war with her own assassins.
The Bat Family discover huge siphons of energy that lead them to the defunct Arkham Asylum (where it all began, essentially), only to discover Talia's modified the original scientist's formula to create Man-Bats. However, she didn't use a Lazarus Pit substitute, but an actual Lazarus Pit, which leads to the shocking discovery that one of those things has to be somewhere under Gotham.
And where, you ask?
Under the Batcave.
Naturally.
Not only that, but Talia's committed the ultimate sin and stolen Bruce Wayne's body to bring him back to life, only the Lazarus Pit can definitely mess with your mind (just ask Jason) and he's under her control, attacking his wards thinking they're his enemies. But Talia underestimates the love that this chosen family forged between them, and Bruce's strength of mind, which eventually helps him break the control and not kill whoever he's fighting at the time (if it weren't a video game I'm reasonably sure single file would NOT work against Batman, all four of them together would've had to do it).
Then it's time to beat the crud out of Talia herself while the Court of Owls arrives with an even more theatrically inclined speaker than Jacob Kane was. They, like the League, want the Lazarus Pit, which is a big no, thank you from the Bat Family, but even they might have been overwhelmed by the number of Talons set against them if not for our hearts breaking a second time.
Because while this is going on, Bruce climbs up to the Batwing, and sacrifices himself by sending it straight into the Lazarus Pit for another big boom in what's already a crater.
And, yes, he's definitely dead, by his own choice, again, for a second time in a row. WHY DID YOU HAVE TO DO THIS TO US, GAME?!?
In the wake of that action, both the League and the Court withdraw into the shadows, but our heroes address Gotham and promise to fight for her for as long as they draw breath. Batman may be gone, but the Gotham Knights remain, and they will keep the city safe.
BOOM!
Listen, even though this isn't considered canon (probably because of Batman's pretty decisive and final death, which I'm convinced could have been avoided, but it IS ballsy of them not to choose that direction) I still think the storytelling in this game is on another level.
Not only do you get to witness the progression of four individuals learning to work as a team and making their way out of grief after the loss of their leader, but it's a little glimpse into what a family like this one actually looks like. At the base of operations, the Belfry, you witness a ton of cinematic shots as well as random conversations that pop up if you linger there during the day (such as Jason taking up pottery and Barbara doing yoga) that flesh the characters out more.
The main mission is high-stakes and, while covering a pretty well-known section of the Batman lore, it does it in a rather innovative way and is a breath of fresh air, if you ask me.
Plus, it's interesting to watch the criminals Batman worked so tirelessly to put away react to his death, because most of them hold a grudging respect for him even if he did beat them. See, unlike a lot of superheroes that people dream up today, Batman has worked against and sometimes with the villains he was sent into the ring with. As evidenced by Penguin and Harley Quinn, not to mention Mr. Freeze, he wasn't just regarded as the man who put them away, but a man of morals and dedication.
The Gotham Knights still have a ways to go before they get to that point themselves, but they have a pretty solid foundation to lean back on (and while they drove Bruce up the wall, he loved them enough to probably leave them vast amounts of his personal fortune, if I'm to guess from some shots you get in the game).
I can't really comment on game mechanics and how it flows, but the combat looks fun to me, individualized to each character, and you can switch between them each time you're at the Belfry so that you can build your own style that suits you the most.
So overall, this is a solid game, and I actually think it feels like a nice successor to the Arkham series, even though the developers have said it isn't, but it certainly has that flare, in my opinion. I might review those on here at some point as well, because Gotham Knights reminded me I have a distinct fondness for Batman, myself.
BUT, my personal suggestion? Try the game out, if you have a chance. And let it breathe - don't just rush through the main mission alone. This is meant to be played with all the side content so you can discover what it means to be one of the Knights, what their personal stories are, and how that contributes to the overall narrative arc.
Besides, how else will you laugh when Montoya thinks Alfred is Batman when the heroes unmask themselves to establish trust?
Above all else, just enjoy it. It's supposed to be fun!
xx
*images and video not mine
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