Gotham Knights - Official Nightwing and Red Hood Gameplay Demo 

Wow, was not expecting Red Hood to have magic double jumps

"He fires nonlethal bullets!" *10 seconds later* "Here's his ability which gives piercing damage!* *10 more seconds later* Nightwing kicks a goon off the fucking building!

I feel like Red Hood's combat relies a bit too much on his guns. The guns should definitely be a core part of his gameplay style but he should also have more melee attacks like kicks or something

I don't think the problem is Nightwing or Red Hood looking slow and clunky, I think it's how little action enemies take. They also look very spread out. Hopefully a higher difficulty fixes it.

the real question is what happens to the goons falling off buildings. Do they "un-alive" or get saved by a last second zip to the wall XD?

It does look very nice but like a lot of people have been saying. The combat is really like clunky and slow. It doesn't feel smooth when Nightwing fights and it should feel like he's super fast and agile and here he's kinda slow and rough moving

This acrobatic combo system has a major problem: excess foot sliding and jarring transitions. If you look at 9:12, it starts with Nightwing sliding forward like 5 feet before jumping into his moon kick. I get it, this has to be done procedurally to "fit" an acrobatic move into any situation. They motion capture a stuntman doing a moon kick, and on the volume he only travelled 1 meter. Now they have to make that animation translate anywhere from 0-5m. But these are the days when you can shoot transitions to tween into your moves which would fix this stuff procedurally. For example, I'd have the stuntman do a moon kick with zero translation, 1M translation, and 2-3M translation using a springboard or trampoline. Then you blend into these depending on the momentum of the player. You could also do stronger multi-directional combat by shooting directional transitions into acrobatic moves, so you're not forcing a tween between a north-facing idle and an east-facing attack, like the moment at 1:27 which just looks odd. These things would make the character feel more grounded. It requiers a few extra days of mocap but this would turn a combo system from "slide-y" to grounded and impactful. Other notes: 2:17 This kick seems so out of character I wonder why they even shot it. My guess is the mocap stuntman wanted to throw it in there (it's a pretty standard trick, every kid tries to show it off at the gym). 2:25 Nightwing's kick and 4:05 Red Hood's front kicks look too similar. They should move very differently. Or else for a moment everyone's a Spartan warrior. 2:48 Red Wing's got the guy in a rear-naked choke, but then he spins him around to do a backhand, a weak pistol-whip (always follow through on the movement when capturing these instead of stopping mid-way), and a taekwondo spin kick. Dude should move like a big dude. Did the same stuntman capture both characters? 4:13 This takedown lacks impact. If the point was to do a "jackhammer"-style beatdown, then they should have kept some frames of animation during the final hit. Instead, the enemy snaps to the ground and you don't get the satisfaction of feeling any impact. 4:35 Nightwing's walk navigation is so stiff. Did they just use the same animation as the combat nav but with a pose layer on top? At 6:10 the P-cap actor's walk was more natural, and so the nav performer should have been instructed better about his gameplay navigation. 5:50 Nav->interact transition needs some help. The settle time should be faster, instead of having so many footsteps at the end. The same thing happens at 9:28 which has 4 footsteps and a foot slide into position. GPMs like this should be captured in bulk from 3 directions with faster lead-outs. Otherwise players might start dreading interacting with objects. 7:04 Why does Nightwing drop into a 3-point stance here, when he just nerfed his landing with his gun? As a player this is so frustrating seeing your acrobatic character drop into a "high-drop" pose when it's technically only a 2-3 foot drop. It really has the feeling of a pose-for-pose's-sake, which doesn't benefit the player. It should have been a simple, no-nonsense landing, like the 20-foot drop at 7:45. At 7:41 this animation is appropriate and satisfying after a long drop. 7:23 Nightwing's head should turn when you turn the camera angle. Instead, he just maintains the idle, uninterested in what the player wants to look at. 8:21 Cool takedown, appropriate for the sneaking mechanic, which overall looks good. 8:32 This takedown doesn't really scream "sneak". A choke with the baton and a bash to the back of the neck would have been cooler. 9:22 Standard lift-and-drop takedown that's been done too many times since 300 came out. 10:19 Background enemy in the middle throws a bad kick. These enemies don't feel dangerous. This is kind of the theme here: the multi-on-one combat lacks danger. Both heroes have long-range attack patterns, while the NPCs pace around until they're within 2 feet to throw haymakers and front kicks. 11:12 The Talon Gladiator feels as un-dangerous as the other characters. He throws a green spitball out of his shield. This could be snazzed up. It would've been way cooler if he had to SCRAPE it off his shield or something. 11:46 Talon flops to the ground like he weighs 120 pounds. 11:54 Talon gets up and his mace has no weight, so it doesn't feel dangerous, and then he taunts AWAY from the player as part of a canned getup animation and THEN turns around. There's no shift in the fight here. No new powers. He could've thrown his shield and gone hog-wild with the mace but he just uses the same move set. 12:23 Unsatisfying end, much like other takedowns and finishers. The enemies just SNAP into a fall and we don't get the satisfaction of an impact. So many opportunities...

Alright. My biggest complaint is the traversal. If you can just fly over everything then you're not interacting with the city at all, it just becomes fly in a straight line to your objective. The city of Gotham would be reduced to a glorified loading screen between events. The bike is cool, and maybe Batgirl and Robin will have a different method. I guess I'd just prefer more grappling hooks and parkour, interact with the world itself a bit more.

The mystic leap thing is a little weird tbh, could've used a different take like from the comics with his knife arm glider or a jet pack (or rocket boots if they wanna stick with jumping?) or maybe utilize the Outlaws like they are with Tim and the watch tower and let hood use the infinite door thing (forgot the actual name) from bizzaro when he was smart, allowing him to open a door to anywhere, teleporting. Or they could do like a zip line sort of thing between roofs for hood and/or nightwing from their grapple. Also, if/since they are utilizing the magic aspect of Red Hood, could be cool if he could use his al blades as like an ability or something. Also might be a nitpick or the angles from the few seconds made it look worse than it was, but I think his character model when he was out of costume was a bit too big tbh, ik he's suppose to have the biggest frame of all the robins, but it just seemed a bit much, kinda looking like a tank goon. Maybe it was the clothes fit or the haircut actually, but idk it just felt a little off. Maybe it's just something I need to warm up to. Overall looking decent though for in-progress gameplay, can't wait to see more of the game as they improve it!

it's pretty janky looking but I do appreciate that the characters actually seem pretty distinct gameplay wise not a fan of the loot stuff though

They fight like they're a day from joining a retirement home. Nightwing in street clothes walks like he's wearing the tightest clothes ever and Redhood looks like a human Raphael

Red hood has magic to jump but uses guns. And he legitimately runs around like a guerilla. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

The armor having rarity levels seems like a red flag to me… not too confident in this game’s design

was definitely not expecting that red hood jump

Was super excited when this game got revealed. Now its almost 2 years later and I'm feeling pretty skeptical. Love the nightwing mullet though

8:59 The projected bullet trajectories during combat seem like a nice addition, previously I always just had to guess if an offscreen enemy was about to shoot and break my combo.

The combat really needs to be sped up a bit. I was watching this video at 1.25x and it seemed a lot more fluid than the standard. Ideally between 1.15 to 1.30x faster, for at least the combat animations, would be perfect.

why does the fighting of Nightwing and Redhood from Arkham Knight look and feel waaay more advanced and visually pleasing than this 2022 release game. We shouldn't be regressing, even if it's different studios.

I think the combat looks a little sluggish, if it were sped up a bit I think it’d be perfect. I really appreciate they took away health-bars from the first alpha footage, that is a good sign they are taking our feedback. I hope there is some kind of parry or counter system because it was never used in this. Also hope the stealth has depth that we haven’t gotten to see yet. Otherwise I love what we got today and can’t wait for release.

That emotional dialogue between Red Hood and Night Wing was riveting.

This looks rough, sending thoughts and best wishes to the dev team

Constructive feedback: The way Dick's arms hang by his side whilst he walks around in civil clothes look unnatural, I hope they change that. I'm super looking forward to this game. Can't wait to play as Nightwing!

Red Hood is using non-lethal guns, yet Nightwing kicks guy out of the roof

The story looks interesting and the environment design is great. The problem I see is the Red Hood design and the fact nothing feels special about the game overall.

I think a lot of the animations are gonna need an overhaul. I don’t know why they wouldn’t just use the Arkham engine which literally perfected the Batman combat system. I hope that combat will start to look better as we get closer to release.

I'm really excited for this, but there are few things that in my opinion could use some additional work: - There's some animation blending jank, there are moments when both Nightwing and Red Hood move kinda weird, end animation abruptly or slide too much to be in the right place for animation - I think that combat could be slightly faster, sometimes it looks great, sometimes it feels really sluggish - that fight with Big Talon Dude especially, it felt somehow anti-climatic because of the slowness - Personally, I don't like how the pick-ups look, especially the green ones (ammunition?). It's a bit too much - Camera when going on Batcycle feels to close

I'm glad Red Hood seems to be using some All-Caste powers. I just hope he gets his All-Blade as an unlock. That would be fun to use.

"crime resolved" im pretty sure that guy's spinal cord is now graham crackers

2:06 and 2:19 "piercing non-lethal bullets" Sounds pretty lethal to me.

Looks really rough around the edges, lots of performance, animation, and combat issues, just looks really janky overall. Hopefully they can fix these issues before launch later this year but it seems like a delay would do this game some good.

Actually starting to get a little interested here. A few concerns though: 1. Please smooth out the combat. The transitions between attacks look a bit heavy and clunky. Needs to flow better. Maybe this is just where you are in the process. 2. The glider for Nightwing is creative, but what is the problem with him getting a wingsuit accessory in his costume? It is a little jarring and pulls me out of the immersion to see the glider randomly show up on screen. 3. I do not know what to say about Red Hood's "Soul Leaps". Just looks awkward. There has to be a better way. I like the grapple. Maybe allow him to use it like Spider-man does web slinging and dual wield? Looking forward to seeing more in the weeks to come.

this game has potential but i think there are some elements to be worked on: -why does the ui feel old?? -nighteing is slow -smoother animation -better graphics. not sayin they are bad but maybe a little polish would make it better -why is there pixelation on red hood' hair and in gameplay? considering this is on next gen they should include more detailed hair -camera angles while nightwing and redhood are gliding or driving is too close -smoother cinematic intro. for example no button interaction for the cinematic to play and that is to make it smoother -better lighting -dim hero light on models. when red hood attacked the guy in the car you can see a white light on him. -change some abilities. for example red hood uses non lethal bullets on ennemies?? no. let him use lethal bullets and include some little violence in the game when shooting someone (for example horizon forbiden west's gore) -why is there glowing ammunition on the floor. change it to something simple. it gave me mobile game ammunition -increase fog I really hope you listen to the feedback from the community and wish the best of luck! A delay is expected but I think this is better than receiving this as the final product. thank you for your showcase today!!!

This game changed a bit since we’ve seen it.

I love Red Hood's "non-lethal piercing rounds" and magic jump circles (they really didn't know how to handle the character, didn't they?! 😄) Also, why is his street clothes design makes him look like mini-Bane?

Like others said, it needs some fine tuning but other than that, it looks pretty cool

I was so hyped for this game when it was announced. Don’t know if I feel the same way now…

Combat looks to be on the slower side and I'm not a fan of the UI looking like it's out of a mobile game. I think the game has a good foundation but does need polish. On the bright side, the story content with the Court of Owls and the new enemy type seems to have the potential to be very entertaining.

the opening gameplay looked rough...Nightwing long distance freeflow combat ripped right from the Arkham series has me worried. Not to mention the terrible dialogue of the team ups shown and as for the "soul jumping" and "fortnite glider" for traversing the city....just uh huh, trying to get hyped for this game but....this trailer has not helped as much as I hoped it would.

Red Hood "mystical jumping abilities" is "Giang Enemy CRAB" all over again.

So they made Red Hood use nonlethal rounds and gave him a magic double jump. How do you do 2 things completely wrong for a character with no real basis on either?

Also could red hood have some fist fighting animations instead of just using his guns all the time?

Combat looks way jankier than Arkham Knight

Nightwing really just said “fuck it” and got a fortnite glider

Combat isn’t bad at all it’s actually different than the free flow style we are used to in Arkham titles that’s all. I think that’s cool it’s very similar but it has to be different in order to make each character feel like they are actually unique in combat think about it. Otherwise you just have 4 Batmen 💀🎱

Have to agree that the combat looks a little slow. I think I’m just too used to Batman moving quickly as the combo meter rises. I do like the different transversals the characters have tho it looks a but off when you see the red hood logo go up and down in the distance.

You guys didn't learn anything from Rocksteady

It looks like a giant leap backwards from Arkham.

"They're not dead... they're just napping."

I really love everything shown today, except Red Hood's traversal. It's just weird to look at when the rest of the Batfamily uses gadgets and other tech to get around. Still excited nonetheless! Edit: I made a comment saying Red Hood isn’t a magic user and people have pointed out he sort of is. Sorry about that, I don’t really keep up with Red Hood comics, but thanks to those for letting me know.

Why do I feel like the flow of this gameplay is different to what we got with the batgirl and robin gameplay

Non-lethal rounds for Red Hood... Isn't it a part of his character that he doesn't give a F about no killing rules? Come on devs, don't chicken out like this. If Arkham Knight had him kill the goons, you can have it like that here too.

Nightwing fighting the first two enemies like he's practicing for the pacer test

“Red Hood fires non-lethal rounds” Ghost Of Batman: *APPROVES*

"Mystical Leap" Bruh what the fuck am I seeing?

So how does Co op work? Is every single moment of the game always gonna have a second character accessible? For instance what happens during that powers club mission when Nightwing was by himself

DLC will be Cassandra Cain flying around in Clayface Kinton cloud and Stephanie Brown hitchhiking off Tim Drake Whirly Bat

While I think this game looks and plays freaking awesome, I don't feel the freeflow combat system is being utilized a lot here, or maybe it feels slower-paced, the freeflow combat system was the best parts of the Batman Arkham games, as it allowed me to make an awesome variety of stylish, fast-paced, martial arts and melee gadget attack combos and takedowns. WB games Montreals last batman game, Arkham Origins, was still done very well, but on here, I do not know if it will be great, because i'm not sensing the arkham DNA on here, unless they are trying something different. Red Hood's combat looks promising even though it could use more close-range attack combo animations like around 3 or 5 hits. That is merely my only complaint witht the game, nevertheless, it looks great, keep up the good work!

There is no Gotham without Batman.

Man I’m getting Avengers game vibes here. Gonna wait a year after it comes out for patches

I'm really hoping for unique Dragon Age style banter for all the possible duos. Another neat thing would be if the more important enemies like bosses and mini-bosses have different dialogue depending on which heroes are in the fight.

Combat gameplay looks very clunky. I hope they fix it before launch. Also I notched the combat is 95% the same as it has been for all Arkham games. I expected more from a game that has been in the works for years and delayed multiple times.

looks like a very rough Arkham game

i like how the guy who already died once keeps getting his shtT rocked

Red Hood's guns fire non-lethal bullets. Ah, good. Wouldn't want to hurt anyone. Meanwhile, Nightwing is kicking dudes off of the tops of buildings.

Mystical leap powered by soul energy? Yeah no, keep that away from Jason please.

Why is Red Hood magic

“So what is it that lets me jump in the air you ask? IT’S MY SOUL!” -Red Hood

Look at those guys, nonlethally falling off skyscrapers!

Gotham Knights & Hogwarts Legacy were the two games I was looking most forward to this year. Sad that they cancelled the PS4 version.

There are definitely going to be microtrans actions

The core problem is the floatiness of the combat. Impacts manage to look and sound heavy yet somehow still feel hollow, as if nothing truly connects. This is directly opposite the Arkham trilogy fights. One of the biggest draws, especially over several Assassin's Creed titles, had always been how intimate every block, hit and counter came across.

In the last five years, we’ve had Breath of the wild, red dead 2, and now elden ring. Maybe it’s just me, but these Ubisoft style games just don’t cut it anymore.

This is exactly what a proper TMNT could look and act like.

This game looks pretty interesting. Gotham looks really cool, and I wish that was the kind of Gotham we were getting in Arkham Knight. The combat is hard to judge from just video but it looks decent but still a step down from the freeflow combat. Animations are rough in a few areas. I understand why they are deviating so heavily from the Arkham formula but I cant help but miss it. I'll keep an open mind on this for now.

Did you really need that Fortnite glider for Nightwing and the weird mythical soul energy jump for Red Hood? You already showed that you can get around just fine with the grapling hook and bike alone.

The way the running animation looks for both of the characters makes it look like there wearing too much armour

Oh man I'm really hoping this turns out good, also hope they arent attaching gear appearance with costume appearance.

Gotta say, I expected Red Hood to sound more tired/bitter, given how his life and death and return were like. XD Overall, still optimistic, I hope y'all stick the landing with this game! :)

Man that soul energy thing is dumb af. Part of the appeal of the bat family is that they fight super powered enemies without superpowers and can hold their own through training and tech. Just pulling a magic double jump out your ass just doesn’t sit right.

This looks so fun but I hope they change Nightwing's walk cycle when he's in The Belfry. He looks a little awkward with his arms stuck out to the side.

I don't like how Red Rood does travel. Destroy's the imagination. Otherwise hurray.

So that's how a game set in batman's universe made by ubisoft would look like

I feel like this game needs more time tbh there’s a lot of things that could be improved

I will say a reason it looks clunky and slow is because the devs are showing off each attack animation in its own light. So, when its release and when users can play, we get to see how fast we can really attack. Still the game looks amazing though. In every aspect.

The level RPG scheme is something to be avoided, being something extremely annoying in games as it forces the player to waste time on xp farming, in my opinion it should not be used.

The game is looking really good and the story is sounding well written from what we have seen. I think a lot of people are forgetting the game play is a work in progress. Plus the main issue seem to be that the combat isn't as polished as arkham. My guess is they are just trying to get the combat in the game first then polish it up the speed and flow. My only issue is the model for red hood, they have the right idea as he is the bulkiest and tallest robin, but he looks way older than dick,a s well, the proportion he has to nightwing makes it more apparent. Those are only small things which can easily be fixed later before release. Overall very hyped for the game!

Red Hood resurrected by an assassin cult = Batman being resurrected by an assassin cult

I hope that those armors can be transmogged/glamoured to look like other armors sets.

So excited for this game. I loved the interaction between Dick and Jason talking about Bruce's death. I hope we get lots of character driven conversations between the Bat-Family like this that go beyond surface level. Also, poor Alfred just sitting there grieving in the background @4:35 :'( I think the traversing mechanic for Red Hood is actually pretty creative. I know a lot of people aren't liking it because it's too magic-y, but I mean Jason was brought back to life by a magical pit in Switzerland and Tim can literally boom-tube using satellites so idk... In the context of this game universe it doesn't seem that far-fetched to me lol. The combat looks fun, and I'm glad you can go about situations in different ways. I do wish the aminations for the hits had a bit more of a satisfying point of impact though. Jason's guns seem a little lack luster, but it did look like you could switch between guns and melee for him so that's cool. Also, if we get an Agent 37 skin for Nightwing I'll be so happy!

I would strongly recommend removing the loot aspects of this game. I don't want crucial upgrades to armour locked behind chance. Have the upgrades be applied naturally like the Arkham games, make it part of the story, is that such a leap?

Just delay it, bro. It needs more time in the oven. Like...a lot more. You're making a Hungry Man dinner and the meatloaf's still frozen.

Is there an in world reason why thugs are on top of a building? How did they get there? Also, if Red Hood is shooting guys with rubber bullets they aren't reacting too much. I think a regular guy getting hit by a rubber bullet should at least suffer a knock down.

Still needs a little bit of work with some animations and combat but it looks promising still. Let's hope they can take some of this feedback from the fans and make changes before release. My biggest disappointment is they removed counter attacks entirely from the arkham games. Also red hood runs like he has shit in his pants 🤷🏻‍♂️

It looks like a nice game but i don’t like the character design for jason, he’s a lil too bulky and he has longer hair in the comics. And the combat is kinda slow.

I like that Red Hood shoots people and it acts like a punch.

Doesn’t seem like countering attacks is as important as previous games. I see what looks like counter/dodge prompts during combat but the heroes seemingly just keep attacking right through them.

Unbelievably excited for Gotham Knights! It's been so long since we've had a chance to dive into the DC Universe like this.

A lot of this seems very overwhelming for this kind of game. The loot system (which I don't think was the best choice for this audience of people), the abundance of different interfaces that can be on the screen at one time, the variety of unique stats that players will have to explore and choose from. It seems like this game is falling down a similar rabbit hole as Marvel's Avengers, and that is not a good sign. I really want to buy and enjoy this game, but there needs to be quite a bit of tweaks, changes, and makeovers to convince me, unfortunately.

5:06 Nightwing/Dick Grayson needs to work on his ape-like posture otherwise he'll get a hunch back.

4:38 - me walking out of the gym after one push up