Gotham Knights Preview – New Details On Alternate Suits, Missions, And The Elseworlds-Like Cooperative Play

How would Gotham City be affected if Batman decided to stop protecting it? Warner Bros. Montreal’s Gotham Knights is a story-based RPG/action/action that starts with Batman’s murder. While criminals seek to profit from Batman’s absence his understudies keep the order. Batgirls, Robin, Nightwing, and Red Hood unite in order to preserve order. However, Nightwing quickly realizes that Gotham has now fallen to the will of the Court of Owls.

Fleur Marty (executive producer of Gotham Knights) and Geoff Ellenor (game director) talked about the experiences that players can look forward to from this experience. Talking about alternate suits, the Batcycle and missions, we also discuss how cooperative play might feel, as if DC’s 52 worlds had collided once again.

In the trailer, we see a variation suit which is very ninja-like. What is the name of this suit and how can players get it?
Geoff Ellanor. As you progress through the story you will get different blueprints which allow you to make various types of equipment and suits. This is just one style that you can craft.

What number of suits does Nightwing own?
Fleur Marty – Each knight has eleven different suits. Geoff pointed out that these are fully-styled styles. You can customize a style with various pieces or different colors.

Geoff: A suit is essentially a silhouette. Consider every suit you make as a particular silhouette. Each one comes with stats, a colorway and an option to change them.

Nightwing was a former ward to Batman and Flying Grayson. The trailer shows that Nightwing’s combat is a combination of both wards. He uses gadgets and brutal attacks as well as some acrobatic moves. What did you want to accomplish with Nightwing’s moveset and traversal, and how can you help me?
Geoff: You hit upon one of the touchstones for us: He’s an acrobat. Nightwing is a bit of a braggart character in the story. He’s dealing with the death of Bruce in his own way, which is mostly by cracking a lot of jokes and not talking about it. He’s one of the characters that is the most capable of doing constant acrobatic stuff. His combat ability is to get up in the air and do more aerial damage. It’s one of the foundations of who he is as a character and how he fights.

Fleur: As for the traversal, we’ve drawn inspiration from the existing comics, but it’s the flying trapeze.

Is Dick Grayson the same age as Bruce in this story? How long did he study under Bruce? Please guide me through this timeline.
Fleur: He’s the oldest of the bunch, and he had left Bruce. They didn’t leave off on the best of terms. He’s back because Batman is dead. That’s the reason he is back. He was his hero. He’s dealing with both the grief and the guilt of where he left things with Bruce before he died.

Does the game start with Batman’s death? What is the introduction cutscene?
Fleur: That’s exactly it. That’s an interesting starting point for us because each of the four [characters]Have a new way to deal with grief and take on the role [of the Bat].

Geoff, They get back together. Red Hood was the one least closely connected to the rest of the characters at the start. Our version of Robin is quite a young character, so his way of dealing with the situation is different than everyone else’s. [The death of Bruce] starts their journey through the game and also sets the tone for a really important aspect of the story, which is how they take on Batman’s job and learn how to get along together.

Are you able to imagine Jason Todd as the Red Hood? Is he alive and well?
Geoff: Geoff is alive and well. He was just murdered. You’ll learn more about that throughout the game and what happened to him. That is, of course, what sets him apart from other knights. As some of the comic interpretations of the Red Hood that we like, he’s kind of a mystic character. He’s been changed by his experiences. That’s part of what he brings to the table and how he expresses himself in his abilities.

We are seeing some clear DNA from the Arkham series of games – such as the flow of combat. Cooperative play is an important new feature. How can it be improved?
Geoff: Invite friends to join your game. You control the matchmaking settings so you can decide if people will show up. It’s possible to play solo. Co-op takesdowns are designed to show the physicality and cooperation of our characters. Really there’s a lot of synergy in how one hero’s ability influences the fight versus another. Nightwing’s strongest sign is this: a lot his abilities revolve around having buffs to help his friends or protecting other people.  

If my main is Nightwing and my friend’s main also happens to be Nightwing, would one of us have to be a different hero, or could we have an Elseworlds situation of two Nightwings together?
Geoff: It’s possible to make it weirder than you like.

Fleur: We’re leaving it up to players. We know some people will want to have different characters, but some won’t care. I don’t want to spoil anything, but there’s a funny moment in the game if you are playing as two of the same character. We’re giving you complete freedom.

Some of the first gameplay videos show the Batcycle heroes roaring down long roads. These shots give the impression that the Arkham Cities are far larger than the rest of the world. Is there any real estate we are looking at?
Geoff: It’s pretty big. I haven’t put one map over the other, but our Gotham is a big place. Zoom calls are often spent on the Batcyle, driving around Gotham. This is the quickest and easiest way to get around Gotham. This makes it feel big.

Fleur: For sure it’s the biggest version of Gotham that has been represented in video games. We value its verticality and density as the most important. There are many layers to it. The Batcycle, a long-range transport mode, is the Batcycle.

The Batcycle is so customizable!
Geoff, We allow you to change the colors for your bike. Many of the Batcycle’s abilities are focused more on the hero. You can use it to jump off and get into combat.

Fleur: Upgrades are not possible for the Batcycle.

Geoff, You have the ability to alter how your computer looks and makes sounds.

What are the colors? Are they linked to the plans? Do you have any luck finding these colors for your bike anywhere in the world?
Fleur: Colorways for suits as well as for bikes are available.

Geoff, We used the same colorway philosophy to make the Batcycle as the suits. The Batcycle could be matched with a suit, so we thought that people would want it. There are many options.

We don’t know much about how missions work yet. What about stories missions and other side activities?
Geoff: The city offers many different activities, which we won’t divulge. It’s possible to find it all by simply moving about. An AR vision that we demonstrated in a gameplay trailer is an excellent way to locate things. As for mission structure, if you are an action/adventure fan, you’ll be familiar with it. The case file is a permanent record of your investigation. You can unlock chapters that will take you to the next chapter by playing through the case file.

Does anything exist that is only for cooperative play? Can you do it all on your own?
Geoff, You absolutely can play it in one person. We don’t have anything that requires you have a friend be present to go into a mission.

Fleur: In co-op, you have the option to play every game.