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Gotham Knights goes to a post-Batman world at DC Fandome

The wait is over, as WB Montreal reveals at DC Fandome that they'll be visiting a Gotham without Batman in Gotham Knights.

Ozzie Mejia

August 22, 2020 10:38 AM

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This is the day that comic book fans step into the DC Fandome. The Fandome is the 24-hour event that covers all things DC across all media, which includes gaming. One of the first announcements of the day involved the long-anticipated announcement of what's next for the team at WB Montreal. And as rumored, WB Montreal is revisiting the Batman... sort of. The Batman is no more, but the Gotham Knights are ready to carry on his mission.

Gotham Knights is set in a post-Batman world, where Bruce Wayne is dead. In his place, Nightwing, Batgirl, Robin, and the Red Hood must fill the void and protect Gotham City in his stead. Many of Gotham's heavy-hitting villains, such as Mr. Freeze, will still present a threat. However, the trailer ends with a whole new kind of threat: The Court of Owls, a cabal of villains hell-bent on taking over Gotham.

While this game looks to play in the vein of the other games in the Arkham series, players will not, in fact, be taking on the role of Batman. Instead, they'll be taking on the roles of the rest of the Bat-family, each with their own fighting styles and abilities. While at their core they'll utilize an aspect of Batman's fighting prowess and world-traversing abilities, each of these characters has something unique that they bring to the fight. Batgirl fights with her melee tonfa, Nightwing uses his dual Escrima Sticks, Robin uses his collapsible quarter staff, and Red Hood beats you silly with his fists. Each character can be customized from their individual abilities, to their gear, and even to their suits. They can also team up for double team moves, which includes tandem finishers. To help facilitate this, Gotham Knights will be playable solo or with two-player online co-op.

We mentioned Mr. Freeze and DC Fandome offered a first glimpse at Batgirl and Robin taking on the frigid maniac. The objective is to remove a dangerous disruptor from the roof, but Freeze shows up to trigger a boss battle. They must dodge Freeze's rail gun, which can reach across the screen and cause area-of-effect damage.

While traditional Batman villains like Freeze and the newer-school Court of Owls look to be central to the Gotham Knights story, the team at WB Montreal is teasing that the game's narrative will be bigger than the Court of Owls. While they're not offering any teases as to what that might mean, they do further seem to put this in the Arkham continuity by noting the Belfry as a significant base of operations, which seems to point to Gotham Knights as a follow-up of sorts to Batman: Arkham Knight.

The WB Montreal project had been rumored for several weeks. The teases started showing up earlier this week, eventually teasing a reveal at today's DC Fandome event. This is the first of two major announcements set for today with Rocksteady Studios set to officially unveil their next project later today.

Gotham Knights is set to release in 2021. It will release on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?