Highlights

  • Gotham Knights 2 should focus on giving each hero more stylish and fun traversal methods that fit with the source material and feel fluid to use.
  • The next installment of Gotham Knights should prioritize telling an original story that focuses on the Gotham Knights themselves, rather than relying heavily on Bruce Wayne.
  • The combat and gear progression systems in Gotham Knights were clunky and slowed down the pace, so the sequel should emphasize fluid combat and reduce the emphasis on grinding for gear.

The superhero video game landscape has seen its fair share of successes and failures over the last few years. While licensed superhero tie-ins were a dime a dozen for decades, Batman: Arkham Asylum proved that superhero games could be so much more than that, and a decade later, Marvel seemingly agreed, beginning the excellent Marvel's Spider-Man series. But for every hit like Arkham and Spider-Man, there are another handful of misses like Gotham Knights.

Released toward the end of last year, Gotham Knights had no shortage of issues when it first launched. While it may have been unfairly compared to the Arkham series long before players even got their hands on it, the final product didn't do much to justify its own existence, ending up striking the worst possible balance between trying to do something new and exciting, and trying to imitate Arkham's successes. But Gotham Knights wasn't all bad, and a sequel would have the potential to be great so long as it rectifies a few big issues.

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More Lore-Accurate Traversal Methods for Each Hero

One of the most infamous issues surrounding Gotham Knights was the game's four traversal methods, one for each playable hero. While Batgirl got the cape glide and grapnel from the Arkham series, the remaining three Gotham Knights received some pretty out-there traversal options, most of which fans hated. Nightwing was given a glider, whose clunky design quickly sparked now-infamous comparisons to Fortnite's own gliders.

Red Hood was given the ability to leap through the air, bouncing on magical platforms, and Robin was given the ability to teleport a few meters in front of him, which many fans felt was just too slow and awkward to use while traversing the city. In a potential Gotham Knights 2, each hero needs to be given traversal methods that not only look stylish, but feel fun and fluid to use while actually fitting properly with the source material's lore.

Focus on Telling an Original Story About the Gotham Knights

Another huge issue that fans had with Gotham Knights was its lackluster story. Opening on the death of Bruce Wayne at the hands of Ra's al Ghul, Gotham Knights revolves around the Court of Owls and their attempted corruption of Gotham City. Unfortunately, the central mystery that drives much of Gotham Knights' plot is incredibly predictable, and the game's overreliance on putting Bruce Wayne at the center of the story only serves to make the titular Knights feel secondary in comparison.

Put Less of an Emphasis on Gear and More on Fluid Combat

One of the best aspects of the Batman: Arkham series is its innovative Freeflow combat system, a system that's essentially informed every other third-person action game that's come after it. In comparison to Arkham's fast, but methodical combat, Gotham Knights looks incredibly clunky and slow, with its heavy movement and attack animations slowing the pace down dramatically. This pacing really isn't helped by the game's terrible gear progression system, requiring players to grind away at side activities in order to earn new weapons and armor that add just the slightest fraction of damage and health.

Take Players Out of Gotham City

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Gotham City is one of the most iconic locations in comic book history, but it's a setting that fans have seen a million times over now. While there have only been a few truly great video game representations of Gotham City, Gotham Knights' didn't do much to stand out from the crowd, and to many Arkham fans it was just another area that paled in comparison. To truly stand out, the next Gotham Knights should players somewhere new, such as Nightwing's old Bludhaven stomping grounds.

Give Players Some Lesser-Known Villains to Fight

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Another common criticism of Gotham Knights was that the game didn't really bring anything new to the table when it came to villains. Mr. Freeze, Harley Quinn, Ra's al Ghul, and Clayface are all villains that fans have seen time and time again in Batman media, and Gotham Knights didn't do much to make its own version of the characters stand out from the crowd. If a Gotham Knights 2 were to ever happen, it should focus more on lesser-known villains, specifically taken from each hero's personal rogue's gallery.