As was teased yesterday, the new Gotham Knights gameplay trailer is all about Nightwing and Red Hood. The 13-minute video walks players through the game, showing off the moves both characters have in addition to giving a greater look at its overall systems.
The video opens with Game Director Geoff Ellenor introducing the title before transitioning to a moody, tone-setting sequence. It then cuts to Nightwing and his jet-powered glider called The Flying Trapeze, a reference to his history as a trapeze artist. He then drops down on a couple of thugs and beats them up using various melee and ranged abilities in a way that only somewhat resembles the Arkham games (which this game is not connected to). According to Ellenor, Nightwing is a more acrobatic type of fighter, which can be seen in how he slides around the battlefield. He’s also got access to elemental abilities like a freezing wave that can lock up an enemy and temporarily take them out of the fight.
Red Hood then jumps in to help, albeit in an unexpected manner. Since he was resurrected by an assassin cult, he can jump on air using his “soul energy,” a style of movement that is far outside of any previous title in the other Batman games. Red Hood fights with his guns, blasting out nonlethal rounds to dole out damage using gun fu. Many of his powers seem to revolve around weapons, as he can throw a sticky grenade on a foe and then shoot it to detonate it.
The gameplay showcase then jumped to Red Hood on the Batcycle, which all four playable characters can access. He can be seen dodging obstacles while chasing an enemy vehicle and shooting when there’s an opening.
It then slows down and takes viewers to the Belfry, the home base. Players can check on missions or craft and equip new items and gear. It is a role-playing game and that means there is plenty of progression. All of the pieces of armor seemed to have different stats and rarity levels like many RPGs. It’s not unlike Marvel’s Avengers, but the gear does at least change the character’s appearance in this game. They also appeared to have different shaders that would allow users to change the color of each set of gear.
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Stealth is also one of its gameplay pillars. Nightwing infiltrated an enemy stronghold and sneakily took down each guard and those animations will be different for the four characters. There are also ambush strikes that are faster but make more noise and sound a little like the loud takedowns in the latter Arkham games. Detective Vision comes back in some form, as the characters get access to AR vision that can help solve puzzles, but it isn’t as intrusive as Detective Vision.
The demo had a few other tidbits of information, like how open-world activities have their own sets of rules and optional objectives, the way users can fast travel using the Fast Bat, and that the user interface is customizable. However, there still seems to be a lot more to reveal about Gotham Knights, especially since there are two characters Warner Bros. has yet to show more of. Given that it shows up in the trailer for the event and the fact that the game’s Twitter account retweeted the tweet containing it, it’s likely that Gotham Knights will pop back up at Summer Game Fest in June with more to reveal.
