Because WB Games Montreal developed Batman: Arkham Origins, it makes sense that fans may have believed Gotham Knights would exist in the same canon. However, the two are completely separate IPs, and Gotham Knights' latest gameplay presentation highlights the key differences.
Today, Gotham Knights finally offered its first look at Nightwing and Red Hood. But instead of a simple showcase of combat and traversal, Game Director Geoff Ellenor has offered a bit of insight into what Gotham Knights' RPG elements and gear features will look like and how moment-to-moment gameplay will look in Gotham City's open-world.
Gotham Knights' open-world is briefly depicted with a look at two random crime events that players can thwart and resolve, such as an illegal hack or an illegal shipment. The latter of which is shown as a vehicle pursuit that appears similar to the vehicle chases in Marvel’s Spider-Man. Gotham Knights’ newest gameplay presentation also shares a first look at the Belfry, the player’s base of operations where the titular Knights will interact out of costume.
Gotham Knights features a holographic, 3D map that tracks important landmarks, waypoints, faction presence, and criminal activity. For example, the mission detail blurb for The Powers Club describes what the difficulty will be for the player, which is most likely relative to how far they are in the story or how many levels and upgrades they have.
The video shows how upgrades will look in Gotham Knights, where players will need to use “blueprints and crafting materials” at the Belfry’s Workbench to create suits with different appearances, “mod chips,” and stats. There are a plethora of different crafting materials with which players upgrade and craft their inventory, which includes suits, melee weapons, and ranged weapons. Nightwing, for example, is shown to have cryogenic Escrima sticks as his equipped melee weapons, and modular cryogenic darts as his equipped ranged weapon.
Further, the gameplay presentation seems to confirm that Gotham Knights will be single-player or two-player only, as opposed to a recent rumor that suggested four-player capability would be available. Fast-travel is also available in Gotham Knights with a larger glider mechanism called the Fast Bat that seemingly drops players at their desired location. This presentation seems to only skim the surface of what progression could look like in Gotham Knights, but it gives players a lot to digest in the meantime.
Gotham Knights is currently scheduled to release on October 25, 2022, for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.