The Boundless Mediocrity of Gotham Knights 

Get up to 33% Off your Displates here: displate.com/promo/whitelight/?art=63bffdf614a99. Hope you enjoy, everyone. Shadow of Mordor and Need for Speed Unbound coming soon.

I've always imagined Gotham as a very vertical and cramped city. Like, the buildings are competing with the heavens themselves, and during the day, the streets are so chock full of life it's almost overwhelming. But then the encroaching darkness of night hits the city and the criminal element swarms out like rats. That's the Gotham I want to see. Almost a city you could get lost in and never return.

Has anyone also noticed how the Knights are basically the Ninja Turtles in color and personality. It's hilarious.

When I saw red hood bouncing through the air on a Magic trampoline I knew this game was going to be goofy

The batmobile was a tank. The way the camera worked and shaked worked well and made you feel the weight of the car and for that reason, the speed was good. In gotham knights, you have a motorcycle. There is nothing holding it back from going fast. It just needs to be fast.

*It's so goofy to me how the batcycles are so slow but they have that speed effect around the whole screen as if it makes it look like it's going fast 😂*

Everything about Gotham Knights' design just screams that they were planning for a live service structure but hastily shifted gears after Avengers bombed, but since they had gone so far into development with that mindset, the skeleton remains within the UI and resource-based gameplay...

The Court of Owls in this game is a pale echo of their comics counterpart. Drugging the player character and throwing them in a trap filled maze may be the game's best plot beat, but only because they stole it from the Court's first appearance in the comics. When Batman spent a whole issue wandering a white maze, drugged to the gills, going slowly mad as even the normal rules of sequential art break down on the reader. Moreover, the comics were very clear that the Court were an extremely well kept secret. Even Batman, though he knew the rumors, had written them off as a fiction by the time he encountered them. Their veil of secrecy so total, even Batman was convinced it was a dead end. (I mean it was also really secret because, metatextually, they had only just been invented and incorporated in the mythos. But you get my point.) The Talons, too, are given short shrift here. In the comics, each one was a formidable threat unto themselves. With the release of tons of them only done as part of a big storyline climax, to ratchet up the stakes. While they're hardly mooks here, it's weird they're still used as "normal" enemies. Rather than each one comprising a boss fight unto themself, as they probably should. This game obviously liked the Court of Owls as much as readers did back then. But either lacked time, ability, and/or vision to pull them off in a satisfying manner. And then threw away any mystique the faction had in service to its own half-baked plot and gameplay.

15:01 "Your move set is narrower than a bee's dick" is truly a masterpiece of a sentence.

As someone who considers Origins to be my personal favourite game in the Arkham series, this game was such a huge letdown. It still baffles me how this project got approved over the Batman Beyond style Arkham Knight sequel.

15 seconds in and I can't agree more. Guardians of the Galaxy was a surprising hidden gem among the triple A slog. When I played it for the first time, I couldn't help but stare in awe at the fact that I actually enjoyed the dialogue between almost every character, especially the Guardians. They're definitely different from their MCU counterparts, but that actually works in their favor greatly. The Guardians were already my favorite superhero team of all time, and the game absolutely lived up to that

I don't know how, but the old batman games ALWAYS KNEW EXACTLY which enemy i wanted to hit in the middle of the crowd. In any other games of the same style it's a struggle

The problem that I have with the story ending is not that it feels like it's meant for just one of the characters, it's that they made batman come back to life, break his no killing rule, and die again. They completely messed batman up as a character.

The awkwardness in the cutscenes and dialogue was really interesting to point out. I had noticed that there was something "off" with them, but describing them as a strange mistranslation is pretty fitting.

I just played guardians of the Galaxy and I devoured it in 3 days. It was shocking awesome, I liked the story and characters better than the movies. A real accomplishment that likely won't get a sequel unfortunately.

The fact that the plot themes mentioned tie so well into Jason's story, as well as him being a central villain in the previous game where batman also died, as well as his gameplay being the most unique from the core group, makes me feel like this may have been meant to be a red hood game in early/pre production

Speaking of Red Hood, I had built most of my build around his grab moves and takedowns. Almost all of the lategame enemies are immune to these.

As someone who didn’t play the game but watched all the different cutscenes, it definitely felt like Jason Todd was the most “canon” option. He’s the most different mechanically and by theme, he bears the burden of being the bat-son that fell most off the path, and thus puts the most pressure on himself to live up to the father he once disappointed. And in the end, finally gets the assurance that even though he isn’t a copy of Batman, he *is* a worthy successor, not *in spite* of his past failures but *because* of them. Because he has the experiences of being a killer he knows more clearly where the line is, and how to notice when he’s getting close to crossing it.

It actually makes sense that if made into a sequel, the titular Arkham Knight who caused a good number of issues in the previous game would evolve to be Gotham Knight after Knightfall was activated. From a misguided fledgling hero who was struck down brutally, fell down into the path of vengeance but then rose above to realise his true potential but only after the death of his mentor. Fits perfectly too. Also makes sense that Red Hood would be the most effective cuz G U N.

The game's story could've been avoided if Batman just looked out a window, considering the Court are so happy to send their members in distinctive owl masks out in public

I remember playing co-op with my sister, and we always found it super awkward whenever the cutscenes would play but only one Knight would show up, and there was no dialogue changes. I'd go in as Batgirl, she'd go in as Red Hood, but then it would be like "Ah, Batgirl come to face me all alone" despite Red Hood supposedly also being there. There was only 2 cutscenes in the *whole* game that actually had both Knight's show up, and it was so jarring to see. The first was when they're escaping the Court of Owls underground hideout, and even then it's as simple as Batgirl holding the door open and Red Hood quickly running past. Then the second one was the Labyrinth scene where they talk through the doors, but it's so awkward and generic that you can basically tell it's not meant to be multiplayer at all.

I love the way you can have a deep analysis of how the various characters don't feel different enough when playing as them, then in the middle of that, refer to them as "Chick, Dick, and Stick" without a pause or change in inflection.

"You hit like a bullet train in this game" as his characters slowly make their way over to enemies who are also moving around like a dead elephant only to hit them with a light punch that has a filter on each hit to make the player feel like they're actually doing something as the 1000HP goes down by 50 every 15 seconds.

28:59 This actually does happen in a Batman comic. The Court keeps him trapped for weeks while the Batfamily searches desperately for him and Batman nearly loses his mind before escaping. In the game they knights are trapped for a few minutes

I kind of get the sense watching this that they probably wanted to have a block/parry system to make it similar to the Arkham games, but "not getting hit" would make the armor system and adding to your HP feel more superfluous. And yeah, they really want that loot system.

No matter how many times I've either read about or had the upgrade system explained to me, I just can't wrap my head around it. It's like I'm having an immune response to bullshit

The Court of Owls is my favorite relatively recent addition to Batman’s rogues gallery, right above Mr Bloom. They’re fascinating, and give us another instance of not just the crime families and street thugs of Gotham being the problem, but the corrupt elite as well, but to an even greater extent this time. A secret organization watching Gotham crumble apart from the shadows, as it burns in the palm of their hand. It would’ve been a way to introduce more of Bruce Wayne into the story of an Arkham game. The Waynes have been rivals to the Court for over a century. Maybe in a rebooted timeline of Arkham, it could’ve been done justice. But it isn’t Arkham. Instead, we focus on the Bat Family, who have gotten nowhere near the amount of screen time as Batman and his villains, and are now working in a rebooted continuity. And beyond the dumb stuff because it’s a game, the Court doesn’t carry that intrigue when applied to the Family. It’s through Batman and Bruce where they truly shine, and it’s a shame they just couldn’t resist using them until we get another game about Batman himself and used it with these characters instead.

I agree with everything in this video except at 19:08. There were teamup takedowns and multiple heroes on screen in arkham knight. The entire movie studios section was just batman and Robin fighting people together.

Very late to the party, but they really should have used the Red Hood DLC from Arkham Knight as a base and built a game around just him. That DLC was so good, and I enjoyed the contrast of just gunning down the bad guys as opposed to tasers and non-killable explosives. Instead, we get “Designed by a Boardroom” Knights. They had gold, and turned it into scrap. And with that Suicide Squad game on the horizon, it looks like they're going to turn that scrap into outright compost.

Imagine if this actually was a sequel to Arkham Knight about Red Hood. I don't see how that could have been anything but an improvement.

Gotham in Knights could have been this Frankenstein amalgam of gothic, artdeco, retro futurism & modern buildings of glass and steel styles. A true mess of differing attempts throughout Gotham's history to save it from it's falling into chaos. A skyline you look up at and it that tells you how many times someone like Batman has tried and failed to save the city and now, it's your turn.

I like that you see Kane in the same suit when you first see him with the mask, as when you see him talking with Alfred

"It's entertaining, but painful if you expect anything more." This is the most accurate summary of the game I've heard. Getting the Platnum for this game was painful indeed.

They should've just fully committed to a redhood game, or at least limit it to 2 player, to have 2 completely separate characters you can play as

Jason taking over after Arkham Knight as an act of redemption would make so much sense

If you thought that this game was bad, get ready for the Suicide Squad game 😂

I knew that this game wasn't for me a long time ago because of the art direction and tone, but it's still sad to see just how badly it turned out. It had some serious potential. Add it to the list of failed games that let everyone down.

This game feels like it wanted to be a Red Hood game but had to accommodate for the 3 other knights. Jason has the most interesting bits of dialogue between most of the villains, especially Talia since she was the one who brought him back, and Jason also probably has the best labyrinth section. This is also combined with the fact that Jason (imo) has the best VA out of the knights. Anyways, fantastic video as always WL! ❤️

Better than Suicide Squad

I get the feeling that most things these days lack passion. For example, when it comes to cinematic universes, the MCU was slowly built up by the Russo brothers through patient storytelling that wove together multiple storylines that would eventually intersect and many events in one movie either affected or outright spawned events in other movies. This took time, effort, care, and PATIENCE. Compare that with the DCEU, who put out Superman's origin story movie out and then immediately cut to Knockoff Civil War (BvS) and you can see that they didn't care about quality so much as they cared about money. It's the same thing with Gotham Knights. The Arkham Series feels like a Batman story because of all the villains they brought, the story they told, the detective elements they wove in, and the fact that Gotham City looks unique. There have been many artistic takes on Gotham and that kaleidoscope of creativity is what makes the city itself a part of the Batman mythos rather than just where it takes place. Then we have Batman. An admirable yet ultimately flawed human being who knows the nature of the war he's fighting and that he will never win yet continues to fight anyway. Each of the Robins represents a potential way Bruce could have been better. Dick is drawn more towards the light and functions as a symbol of hope more than fear, whereas with Bruce it's the other way around. Jason is willing to go where Bruce won't. Bruce has even outright admitted in the comics that Jason can do what he can't. Jason knows where the line is and doesn't kill unnecessarily whereas if Bruce kills once, he knows he will never stop. Tim is like Bruce in all the best ways but he is a better detective and more importantly, he knows the importance of forming bonds and friendships. Whereas Bruce will fight alone until the bitter end, Tim will call for help when he needs it. And whereas Bruce looks for a way to continue fighting the war despite his limited time, Damian seeks to find a way to end the war entirely. Most of the future storylines I've seen involve Damian taking the mantle and going to extreme lengths. Although he doesn't succeed, his goal lies in FIXING Gotham, not just PROTECTING it. And I haven't gotten around to reading the stories of the Batgirls or the other superhero teams like the Birds of Prey or the Teen Titans. But there's limitless potential there. Not only did this game not utilize ANY of that, but they didn't even try to structure the gameplay in a way that melds with the story. It's just generic RPG elements strung together. A serviceable game with no thought to uniqueness or LIFE that makes games unique. Arkham added Detective elements, unique side quests that paid proper respect and tribute to the villains, and immersive stories. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't perfect. But it was clearly about more than just making money off the Batman name. They CARED about doing Batman justice. This game on the other hand, doesn't just fail to live up to the Batman namesake. It DISRESPECTS it.

Apart from the braindead and annoying combat, the technical issues and the meh plot, my biggest issue with the game was simply that I couldn't stand any of the characters. You only briefly touched the weird character interactions, but this was my number one issue throughout the game. I always dreaded having to go back to base because that meant another cutscene full of "quirky" banter and teenage drama.

Playing Gotham Knights is like watching the first Suicide Squad. It's awkwardly edited, with mediocre characters, and half the time you feel like most of the experience has been left on the cutting room floor.

The absolute worst part of Knights for me was never the game itself... it was the haunting, the lingering ghost of what the game COULD have been, that even though I very modestly enjoyed the game a very minuscule amount, for the very tiny amount I played, would never leave me alone. As a massive, hardcore fan of Batman and the Arkham series alike, someone who had waited two console generations for a possible co-op game, or the ability to play as one of these core Bat-family members, the reveal was a dream come true, but the step back in fighting physics and timing to a more arcade feel, the move to RPG-style damage soak enemies and floating combos, the live-service adjacent loot and clearly just barely-removed in time MTX mechanics... it was a colossal disappointment to me. I found a small, gleaming amount of joy in the game; there were parts in my playtime that were familiar, and cast a shadow impressively close to the shape of the game I so desired. It was a bit painful to see, and the whys and hows of the road the game took to end up there even more so. I'm glad it does improve, of course, and I'm also very happy to see someone who makes such in-depth content actually cover the whole game, including its sparse highlights and relatively low high points. But it's just not for me... no matter how much fun there might be to scrape out of this game, it would be like watching the dissection of a loved on, and seeing the parts of these characters I liked pieced apart and put back in wrong.

The conclusion was so unbelievably underwhelming. They frame the story from the very beginning as the knights learning to take the mantle on and protect the city without the help of their overarching father figure and veteran to the cause. Throughout the entire game you are trying to prove yourself as a worthy replacement for the bat, just for in the end , at the most trying moment batman is revived only to sacrifice himself again for your sake. Without him, the knights would not have survived. Bruce almost singlehandly destroys the pit. What was the point of anything the knights did. Not even to mention how they MURDERED my boy. I've never seen Tim depicted worse than this. This is the same kid that was on par with the bat himself in terms of detective ability, and would take on the mantle of batman after his death. In this game Tim is a nerdy, shy, classic "hacker" character tropes. Feeling like a little brother being tagged along more than an valuable addition to the team. This trope became so unbearable I couldn't even finish the game as my favorite character, I had to switch to Nightwing. Insanely disappointed by this game.

if whitelight made a video on such a recent game, i have hope that one day he will make a video essay on the beauty of ghost of tsushima.

Something I never understood is why so many developers seem to actively prevent fast traversal. It has to be intentional bc it is so common; it's one of my biggest issues with the glut of open world games.

I've never really thought about how Peter or Miles swing through New York in the Spider-Man games as it feels engaging. I wouldn't be shocked if their actual speed wasn't much more than the batcycle it's just that the traversal style is more engaging. The only details I noticed was that Miles is a lot more unsteady and less confident in how he moves. I'm kinda looking forward to see if he moves through the city more fluidly in the sequel.

After the absolute trainwreck that was Suicide Squad Kill the JL, I've come to appreciate this game a lot more.

The one thing I did notice while I 100% this game with Red Hood.He was definitely supposed to be the main character before they decided to add the others onto the game.

You’re such an amazing writer. It’s actually kind of crazy that you’re in the video game critiquing business but I’m happy for it

I love seeing you and That Boy Aqua play together, I love both your channels reviews and seeing how your reviews differ is so interesting

The people trained by Batman… not immediately putting the fear of God into Penguin is the most character assassination this game could of done

God I miss you when you're between videos. I don't care particularly about the game, but I watched and loved every minute because of your staggeringly impressive writing and stone cold delivery. The way you segue from topic to topic, flowing through the many concepts you want to talk about without a moment of slow pacing blows my mind.

Holy fuck finnaly, I 100% this game for its few pleasures then I broke down like no other game. I had waited years for this experience and they acted like they didn’t care…

Do you know what's the main all the Arkham games have in common? The city or the Asylum is always in chaos so there is actually shit to do in the city pretty much anytime. But in Gotham Knights, the city seems like a almost perfect city with minimal to no violence

It would be better if every character had their own missions. Like, the split and each one goes to a place and you can choose which one you follow, so it would feel like the story doesn't depends entirely of the player and the knights are really working together while increasing replayability

Thanks for the reminder that Arkhman Knight is still ludicrously gorgeous!

Maan, if I got a dollar every time someone mentioned Equilibrium today I'd get 2 dollars, which isn't much but it is still strange it happened twice.

Suicide Squad is its shitual successor.

I can imagine a good version of this game: Starting with each character taking over one area of Gotham each. Have Jason do the League plot, have Tim do the Court of Owls plot, Dick could get the Harley plot and Barbara the Mr. Freeze (who get's who isn't that important), the important part it every Mission, interaction and side quest is tailored to each member of The Bat Family. Then e.g. open up the world in the postgame.

Nothing better than grabbing some food and clocking a new Whitelight upload... you sir are better than any dessert

When I had first seen combat in this game, it completely soured my hype. It reminded me too much of the weird, barely reactive empty cans of monster that were the enemies in Avengers. It didn’t look as bad as Avengers was, but it gave me that same feeling. So I decided not to get it day one. I’m so glad now that I didn’t.

I played Gotham Knights, and I can confirm that this video was much more entertaining than the 4 hours I spent playing it.

I had hoped the Studio that made Arkham Origins would just do what they did last time, take the Arkham Knight Engine and make a new game with it. I expected free flow combat and awesome traversal and a great story like Origins. The fighting and traversal were the biggest letdowns. It was my fault for spending the years up to its release thinking it would be a Arkham clone...

Oh wow, the mention that Red Hood is really the only hero the ending and all its themes and motifs is such a brilliant take. It also makes sense mechanically? I wasnt able to play it for long, but Barbra, Nightwing and Robin all felt waaaay to similar to each other all being the same variation of a Batman style character, meanwhile Redhood was the only one that felt like he was a different 'class' with his ranged playstyle offering great differentiation. I have a feeling that this game was designed from the ground up as a bat family game, but they just never figured out each character should have been very different from each other to add to a feeling of the family each covering a part of batmans skillset. My gameplay would have been: Redhood is the ranged assist, able to engage the fight quite well from all ranges and proc status effects on core targets, Robin would be a better stealth specialist, able to quickly assassinate targets and use tools to avoid being focused and maybe even slip back into stealth during fights, Barbara could be a single target brawler, who would be an all rounder but have a focus on dealing with heavies, and Nightwing functions as a flexible support tank, able to control the fight and keep the heat away from his allies.

My biggest issue with Gotham Knights’s story is how it has just one of the knights go out and do the things while the other three hang around the belfry. I think they should have all been going around dealing with crime and investigating the Court of Owls and stuff. Also, I think there should have been parts in the campaign where all four knights are involved especially in the final battle at the Lazarus Pit and in the ending cutscene where they make a broadcast to Gotham.

i recently got the Arkham games and although I've only beaten Aslyum so far, its upgrade system was so much more engaging than this. and i know WB probably forced the devs to tack on the looter system "because it's popular right now", but Asylum's simple XP system connected to all aspects of the game in a really balanced way, and i really like it due to that. you can get some XP for each enemy, but doing combos and really utilizing the combat system gives you even more. Finding Riddler Trophies also gives points, and even later on some of the story-specific stuff also gives points (alongside boss fights giving a large amount of points after each phase). In addition, you heal after combat based on the amount of points you get (seems to have a good ratio of points-to-health, so you basically never need to do 3 battles to recover from 1 or what have you) it's simple, yet elegant and functional - and for the 20 upgrades you can unlock, it's perfect.

"Despite the bukkake of wind effects and motion blur." - Whitelight 2023

Can we talk about how weird all the knights walk?

Your content has gotten me through some rough times. Thanks and keep up the good work.

When developing the Arkham games, Rocksteady had a philosophy that any particularly cool character moments would be playable sequences instead of just cutscenes. It's not just "show, don't tell," but "play, don't show." They wanted players to feel like Batman, and the best way to do so is to play Batman - plus, being an active rather than a passive participant in the story means we're more likely to pay attention to the story. And for Gotham Knights, WB Montreal decided that the first ten minutes of this game would be a cutscene - no playability, no interesting tutorial, no engagement with what's going on, just passive observation and waiting for some kind of button prompt. We have no reason to care.

Love how you just casually threw in that "Illegal downloads" during your list of big time crimes

tim's stealth is so good whitelight forgets him many time

I just can't take your endless, constant, never-ending flood of words anymore. The flow is so constant - without a single little pause, and makes no room for contemplation or space to think about the validity or 'reasonability' of what you're actually saying and presenting. Each sentence goes into the next without as much of a hint of them being separate and worthwhile on their own. I think I've never come across anyone so enamored by their own writing and sound of their own voice. It's dizzying, nauseating, and often makes me wanna shout at you to tell you to shut up - just for a second or two; just enough to get a tiny bit of breathing space to be able to take it all in. What I see is also backed up the comments. Not in as you'll see other comments like mine, but the fact that hardly anyone actually goes on to discuss anything being said in the video in any meaningful and or substantial way. Almost everything they say are obviously things they had on their minds before coming to this vid.

First vid of yours I've seen! Brilliant structuring of arguments and supporting evidence, and your voiceover work is fantastic. Looking forwards to seeing more!

“Nightwing can fortnite glide” that killed me 😂😂

I had the same thoughts about the combat playing this game as I did playing Dying Light 2, HOW DID THEY MANAGE TO REGRESS? It makes absolutely no sense, how can someone get worse with experience?

One thing Gotham Knights succeeded in, the original Arkham make me FEEL more like Batman now than ever.

"enemy design made me want to uninstall my organs", pure gold

This guys critique is brilliant. I think that’s the best part of the game. I get to enjoy supreme sassiness and humour about a lazy game. 😂 I’m dying

Now that's what I call an in-depth review. If I didn't have anything better to do, I'd play it.

This game is so mind numbingly boring and mid that I can't even finish watching an hour long essay about it. Made it about 32 minutes.

One thing about DC that always bugged me about the Bat-Universe: Why do normal people feel the need to play dress up to solve crimes? Batgirl: Why the costume? Nightwing? Same. Robin: Same. I get it for Batman, (for the most part), but the rest of them, just why?

this game is defined by one sentence, "its a product of its time" and we live in shit times

I was actually expecting the Arkham Knight review, but this will do until then. Luckily I saw Gotham Knights at my friends place and decided it's not worth my time and this review just confirmed it for me. Thank you. Great video as always. Can't wait for Arkham Knight review :)

I love how Jason looks here. Goes with the whole moved on from being the nimble and agile Robin to more like a beefy powerhouse like Batman. Plus he also looks like a brother who came back from military.

Imo, Gotham Knights should've been an Afterstory to the Arkham Trilogy. In my story, five years have passed since Selena has gone missing in pursuit of Bruce Wayne's whereabouts. In her stead, she left Holly Robinson, her adoptive daughter, an inheritance; the Bat-Family. Underneath the ruins of Wayne Manor, she trained alongside Robin and Nightwing to become Batgirl. After a string of murders pinpoints towards Red Hood as the prime suspect, Holly must use all her training to uncover the truth.

Always a lovely treat to see a new Whitelight video in my subscription box. I really enjoyed the videos on the Arkham series, so I’m very much looking forward to this!

I noticed that little Mafia 2 insert there. Another one of my favourite games because of the immersion, dialogue and time period. It had a lot of content cut but still manages to stand out among later Mafia games. I’d love to see you review it in detail one day.

there's a sense of unity one feels when one goes to play back a certain part of a video only to see that it is the most replayed

Regarding the owl shadow puzzle: trying to solve the puzzle by looking at the shadow on the wall is a misdirection. The solution is turn on AR and line up the gears under each puzzle pieces.

The Court's torture chamber was actually a big part of their debut in comics... including the mind-altering gas

In movies like The Batman: Gotham is a city suffocated by its gothic art deco design, the shadows envelop the inhabitants. In Gotham Knights, the city looks like a CW show.

I think they should add a endgame reward where you can call up flash and he would give you a piggyback ride, it would really fix that annoying highway time waste

250 enemies waves to get a reskined boss fight at the end lol

No parry system is the biggest offence.. it was my fav part of batman, landing in the middle of enemies and destroying them one by one w/o any offensive attack.

13:33 So glad you brought up Equilibrium, thats exactly what I thought of.

only played GOTG last year because of ps plus and it turned out to be an absolutely solid game, really hoping there'll be a sequel

“It’s bitch made compared to the bat mobile” lmaoo i love unexpected cursing from such a calm voice 🤣 it always makes me laugh from how off guard it catches me

The reason why you’re one of the few essay channels I like is that you can state your opinions while still being fairly objective.