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Edited by Playstayshaun
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Other Essays:    • Video Essays  


Arkham Asylum Review:    • Batman Arkham Asylum: A Horrifying Ma...  
Arkham City Review:    • Batman Arkham City: Almost Perfect  
Arkham Origins Review:    • Batman Arkham Origins: An Identity Cr...  
Arkham Knight Review:    • In Defense of Batman Arkham Knight  

- Chapters -
Intro: 0:00
The Best Part: 1:41
Intro: 2:33
Living in Arkham's Shadow: 4:26
The Knights: 9:28
Knighthood: 42:35
Endgame: 54:18
Why it Failed: 1:02:06
Post-Script: 1:05:55

#gothamknights #batman #arkham

After the colossal success that was the Arkham quadrilogy, we were left in a deafening silence following a controversial, and explosive, swansong. The character of Batman was done proper justice, and his story felt complete. Regardless of your thoughts on some of the villains, or certain creative decisions, it was clear that topping the Arkham franchise, and this interpretation of the character would be a near impossible task. So imagine the reaction when Warner Bros decided to not even try. Instead focusing on the legacy and apprentices the knight left behind. This is the basis of Gotham Knights, and I believe it is a good foundation to build a story, and a new generation of heroes.

While separate from the Arkham timeline, Gotham Knights respects it’s predecessor by building off of some of the major themes left behind in Arkham, like the Joker. And Bruce. Bruce in this story is dead, and it’s left to his sidekicks, Nightwing, Red Hood, Robin, and Batgirl, to pick up their socks and become Gotham's criminals new reason to think twice. But these new knights struggle not in their skill or access to technology, but in reputation. They aren’t feared like their mentor, and are seen as lesser than him. So the team has goals of establishing their reputation and fear, but also filling the boots of their dead father figure.

This is a perfect means of expanding the Batman universe without retreading the steps of the Arkham series, and it parallels the knights living up to Batman's legacy, and the game living up to the Arkham legacy. Unfortunately, while Barbara, Jason, TIm, and Nightwing come into their own by the end of the story, Gotham Knights seem stuck in Year One. A shoddy launch with bugs and performance issues around every corner and the game itself being a grind for the first few hours means Gotham Knights puts its worst foot forward and trips on that first step. For every excellent set piece is a sub 20 frame drop. Every satisfying combo is soured by a visual bug or a dropped input. These issues do not ruin the experience, and if these kinks are ironed out, Gotham Knights would be a worthy successor to the Arkham legacy. But still, Gotham Knights is severely misunderstood.

Welcome to Gotham Knights, and my Gotham Knights review or rather a Gotham Knights critique. This game is Living in Arkham's Shadow. Gotham Knights is Living in Arkhams Shadow because it will always be compared to Batman Arkham. Gotham Knights is still, while not better than Arkham, a good game. That Boy Aqua, won't be engaging in a typical Arkham vs Gotham Knights debate, but rather approaching this with a pure Gotham Knights analysis and finding out why Gotham Knights failed. While the Gotham Knights disaster is sad, I don't entirely fault the game because a lot of Gotham Knights gameplay is in my eyes misrepresented, and many wouldn't want to play the game after the Gotham Knights ending was spoiled across many Gotham Knights walkthrough videos. Also, It's really funny that a lot of you are asking for an "Arkham Knights review", and I even found myself calling the game Arkham Knights on accident. This is another entry in the That Boy Aqua Batman retrospective, and I hope you enjoy this Gotham Knights retrospective that hopes to answer the Gotham Knights puzzle of how and why it failed.