At today’s DC FanDome livestreaming event, WB Montreal announced Gotham Knights, a new combat-focused Batman experience that gives you control of Robin, Batgirl, Nightwing, and Red Hood. In a teaser trailer that is in engine, we see these heroes and vigilantes using their special skill sets and degrees of violence.
The teaser begins with a recorded message from Bruce Wayne, he’s older than he was in the Arkham games, and has a grave message to report. This video being broadcast to his Bat-family means he’s dead, the Batcave is destroyed, and Gotham’s villains know it.
WB Montreal then gave us a look at gameplay that focuses on Batgirl. The demo begins with her on a batcycle roaring down a highway, implying the world is open and can be explored. It looks massive. We then see her use many of the stealth and traversal techniques from the Gotham games to explore an area patrolled by villains. She can grapple up to high beams, use her cape to glide off of them, and sneak around to remain undetected. She is then joined by Red Robin, who appears to be controlled by another player, but that part is just speculation. Batgirl and Red Robin converse throughout the demo, which sees them entering a building frozen over by Mr. Freeze.
This area consists of a few scripted moments, one of which has Batgirl falling onto ice and sliding down it into a building’s interior. The architecture, wealth of detail, and lighting are all reminiscent of the Arkham series.
The demo concludes with Batgirl and Red Robin navigating a thick snowstorm and confronting Freeze in his chamber. They both engage him at once and he rains ice blasts on them. The game looks beautiful and appears to be a true successor to the Arkham series. WB ends the tease with a few shots of the Court of Owls, a secret society that recently became a huge part of the comic book lore, but hasn’t been a part of any of the games. I can’t wait to find out more about this title, which will hit at an unspecified time in 2021. You can see the gameplay footage below: