So I've put several hours into Gotham Knights on PS 5. The game has gotten a mix of reactions, some good, but from what I've seen, mostly bad. Even before its release it was getting some negative press, mostly because of the 30 fps thing it seems. If I cared about things likes resolution or frame rate, I'd have given up console gaming ages ago and joined the PC master race. I honestly can't even tell the difference while playing the game
Overall, GK is actually pretty fun. It has issues. The stealth feels stripped down compared to previous Arkham games, almost like the devs just didn't care. You will still sneak around a fair bit while playing the game, but it feels like you have much fewer options. There aren't tons of vents everywhere or tons of traps you can use, and the whole terrorizing your enemies from the shadows isn't really a thing anymore. They don't really react to their buddies being taken out with fear like in the previous games. I guess only Batman himself instills fear and you don't play as him in THIS game. It also has some bugs and things that players have reported though I've only encountered one so far that prevented me from completing a mission, but it was just an optional open world side mission so no big loss. The open world missions are just there for XP, resources, and helping you unlock abilities. If you can't complete one there are several others that you can do instead and they all randomly respawn.
The combat is a bit different in some ways from the Arkham games which may bug some people, though it still borrows heavily from the template laid out by those games. There are several cool abilities you can use that you couldn't do in the Arkham games and each playable character actually has their own style and individual upgrade trees. They are not just clones of Batman like in the Arkham games. For example, Red Hood is part grappler and part John Wick while Batgirl has a bunch of upgrades that make her VERY hard to kill including an actual resurrection ability when she is KO-ed, while also being able to call a combat drone into battle. There's no combo counter that you have to keep track of anymore which actually makes combat a bit more relaxed, which I like. It's kind of refreshing to have a modern action game not obsess over keeping up a combo. You just have to focus on killing the bad guys and not dying. Sometimes, simplicity is good.
Keeping with that idea, there are collectibles, but not like fifty thousand of them like the riddler trophies in Arkahm City. They also didn't build 80% of the game around a vehicle like in Arkham Knight. You just have the bat cycle. and it handles like a dream and is much more fun to drive around than the Batmobile in Arkham Knight. You can use it to get around Gotham, at least until you unlock abilities that let you take to the skies instead. You also can chase down stolen vehicles in the open world, standard open world, super hero stuff. Again, it handles beautifully and I was surprised how easily I could weave in and out of traffic avoiding civilians and civilian vehicles, something the game encourages you to do cause you're heroes. You don't actually get penalized for running someone over though. It's literally impossible to kill anyone in a Batman game. I threw an enemy over the edge of a building and he fell like three or four stories. When I scanned him in detective mode I was told that he was "unconscious"
The writing is solid. I like how the game handles the whole death of Batman thing. If the game ends with him staying dead I'll be fine with it. Also, I appreciate the different cut scenes and dialog you get depending on who you play as during story missions. I had some trepidation about some of the voice acting choices in the trailers as well as some of the character models for our heroes when they are unmasked, but after several hours I find the voice acting to be good and I'm used to the character models they chose. Red Hood is a big, beefy dude. I wasn't expecting that, but it works within this game as part of his fighting style in combat is Zangief-like grappler
Detective work actually requires some thinking on your part now, though it's nothing particularly challenging. Still, I just like that it requires any thought from me at all unlike previous games where those parts of the game never made you use your grey matter at all. Detective work is still a minor part of the game though, just like in the Arkham games.
The biggest praise I can give Gotham Knights though is that it does the one thing NONE of the Arkahm games did. It gives us a living, breathing, Gotham City with ACTUAL PEOPLE in it. Unfortunately, that includes many hostile cops since Jim Gordan is no longer around to encourage them to work with team Batman. It's actually kind of a cool detail that whenever you deal with some criminals in the open world, you have to disappear before the cops show up, or just hide somewhere and watch them react to your handiwork when they show up. Some times you will find yourself saving or helping cops, forcing them to acknowledge that maybe these vigilantes aren't so bad after all. I actually enjoy those side missions where you have to help out the cops because they will actually help you out by firing on enemies while you fight them. Gotham is also full of NPCs who react to your heroes (and will periodically be saved by them), kind of like the Infamous series. Also, you really get to explore ALL of Gotham. In fact, finding important landmarks makes up one of the collectibles of the game. Gotham Knights if the first game in the Arkham style where Gotham feels like an actual character in the game.
There is a pronounced new focus on projectiles in this game, particularly if you play as Red Hood. Yes, you can actually use guns in a Batman game, though he seems to use non lethal bullets. I like being able to hop into third person shooter mode when holding down the L2 trigger and just fire away. Now, Red Hood's guns and the projectile weapons of the other characters don't do a ton of damage, as the emphasis is still on melee combat, but they can be useful. Taking pot shots at people from a roof top is fun and when engaging in combat with Red Hood there is a bit of John Wick style gunkata you get to see him use. If like me, you like ranged combat, Red Hood is the best suited for it. His upgrade trees help him excel more in that department than the other characters with upgrades to thing like rate of fire and a damage boost for head shots done in third person mode.
So yeah, GK is a solid 8 from me, and I'm early enough in the game that I haven't even gotten a change to play around with elemental mods for my weapons...oh yeah, you can craft and equip weapons now, as well as weapon mods. As you level up you get access to stronger weapons. Elemental effects are a fun thing you can use in combat and some mods help with that
