At first glance, WB Montreal’s Gotham Knights’ 2020 reveal trailer saw Bruce Wayne seemingly die in an explosion at Wayne Manner, leaving his former protégés Nightwing, Batgirl, Red Hood, and the Tim Drake version of Robin to protect the titular Gotham City from various supervillains and other sinister forces - including a secret society known as the Court Of Owls. Gotham Knights also appears to have a very similar gameplay style to the Batman: Arkham franchise, with the heroes using stealth, rhythm-like combos, and high-tech gadgets to sneak through enemy strongholds and take down foes.
Despite the similarities, WB Montreal has stated that Gotham Knights will serve as a full continuity reboot to the Batman: Arkham series, which the developer previously worked on in the form of 2013’s Batman: Arkham Origins. There are plenty of differences and discrepancies in what has been revealed for Gotham Knights so far to establish itself as a separate storyline from the Arkham games, even beyond the obvious changes in character designs and tweaks to the classic Arkham gameplay formula.
Rocksteady’s continuity ended with Barbera Gordon still paralyzed from an injury at the hands of the Joker, while in Gotham Knights she has recovered and resumed her old mantle of Batgirl - though this plot development has drawn a fair bit of controversy due to how WB Montreal seems to have handled it. Meanwhile, Gotham Knight’s take on Red Hood seems to be on much better with the rest of the Bat Family than he was in Batman: Arkham Knight, and Gotham Knight's Red Hood will have new magical abilities that he didn’t show off in Rocksteady’s universe.
The Stories Of Batman: Arkham & Gotham Knights Needed To Diverge
There are plenty of other differences between Gotham Knights and the Batman: Arkham series that came before it, and Warner Bros. Games Montreal Creative Director Patrick Redding recently explained why his team chose to wipe the slate clean in an interview on the official Gotham Knights Discord channel (via series of Batman: Arkham games. “We wanted to be able to interpret and adapt the characters – that’s both the heroes and their rogues’ gallery – in new ways that would a new player experience and progression,” Redding explained. “We wanted to be able to write the history of these characters with an original story without being tied to a particular continuity or feature set.”
The well-crafted universe that Rocksteady created in the excellent Batman: Arkham games will continue in next year’s Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, which will shift the spotlight to the villains of Task Force X as they are tasked with eliminating the rogue of the Justice League after they are taken over by longtime Superman foe Brainiac. However, Gotham Knights will feature a brand-new DC universe that will allow WB Montreal to craft its own unique spin on the legendary Batman mythos. Comic book fans will be able to dive into this new version of the Bat Family when Gotham Knights launches on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S this October.
Source: The Direct
