Gotham Knights is about long-term growth, "not one story set over one night"

(Image credit: Warner Bros. Games)

Gotham Knights will give its heroes more time to develop than the hectic Arkham games.

The Arkham series took place almost exclusively across one very long night for Batman (one night per game, that is, it wasn't that mean to poor Bruce). Batman's suit would assemble cuts, dents, and other damage, and one way or another the story would end by dawn - even if you'd spent a few hundred hours collecting all those damn Riddler trophies.

While Gotham Knights builds on the fundamentals of Arkham, it doesn't share a fictional universe. A longer in-game timeline gives its four young heroes more chances to develop, both narratively as they grapple with a post-Batman world, and mechanically as players build out each hero's upgrade path.

"It's not one story set over one night, but really about the mid to long term growth of the hero," creative director Patrick Redding told PlayStation Blog. "The game affords players a huge amount of growth and a huge amount of goal setting in an open world environment that they need to protect, that they need to go back to again and again.

"It's that idea of how this new guard of younger heroes - that are not Bruce Wayne, are not Batman - approach the problem of equipping and training themselves up, preparing and adapting for that next major threat, that next major menace that they're going to need to combat?" 

Redding says you'll be able to experience more of the city throughout that time. You'll encounter more of the normal citizens of Gotham, the criminal factions that prey on them, the Gotham police, and many familiar faces from Batman's assortment of enemies. You'll do some detective work one night to find out what the villains are plotting, then you'll foil their plans the next. Superhero life goes on.

"We want to make you feel all that work you're investing into protecting Gotham City," outlines Redding. "Regardless of whether you're dealing with a small street gang on a corner somewhere or dealing with a major supervillain like Mister Freeze."

You can play all of Gotham Knights on your own or in co-op if you prefer.

Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.

Read more
Batman Arkham
After Suicide Squad's $200 million flop, Rocksteady's reportedly back to working on the Batman games that made it a household name
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
Is Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League canon to Arkham?
A close-up of Coen during the trailer for The Blood of Dawnwalker.
The Witcher 3 director's new vampire RPG gives you the freedom "to kill off a lot of NPCs, and a lot of them can be really important NPCs"
Henry in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 has turned me into a Bohemian Batman who murders bandits in their sleep, and it's all because of some dead sheep
Blood of Dawnwalker protagonist
Ex-CDPR devs explain how new open-world vampire RPG Blood of Dawnwalker handles its time-limited story, and I'm getting big Persona vibes: "It doesn't require you to rush"
Batman looking over the city during Batman: Arkham City, one of the best PS3 games.
The PS2 Batman Begins game was considered such a "disaster" that Christopher Nolan turned down a Dark Knight-inspired game
Latest in RPG
Fighting a dragon with a sword and shield in Skyrim
Former Skyrim dev says "a lot of the great stuff" in the RPG came from the devs having "quite a bit of freedom" to create what they wanted, even if it wasn't "on schedule"
Pillars of Eternity
10 years later, in a post-Baldur's Gate 3 and Avowed world, Obsidian is giving its own throwback CRPG Pillars of Eternity a turn-based combat mode
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2
Reclaiming their crown, pacifist Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 player beats the whole RPG as "Merciful Henry": 1,741 strikes blocked, 472 knockouts, and zero kills
Top-down screenshot of Monsterpatch, showing a grid-based town with Pokemon-like creatures, GBC graphics and vegetations sprinkled about.
This cozy RPG promises a Pokemon and Stardew Valley mashup with "limitless customization," 208 monsters, and more, so no wonder its Kickstarter was funded in just 16 minutes
Dragon Age: The Veilguard art showing the RPG's companions grouped together
Dragon Age: The Veilguard director is leading an unannounced game for Wizards of the Coast, which recently hinted at more Baldur's Gate
A large, muscly bloke eating noodles at a bar while two people point pistols at him from behind in Cyberpunk 2077.
The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 developer enters into partnership with Pokemon Go owner to create a new game "set within one of CD Projekt's IPs"
Latest in News
Mario & Luigi: Brothership trailer still
"They are really feelin' the pressure": Former Nintendo staff think today's Direct, just 6 days before the Switch 2 Direct is a "bad idea strategically"
channing tatum gambit in deadpool and wolverine
Marvel fans are hoping Channing Tatum's Gambit return in Avengers: Doomsday will be different from Deadpool and Wolverine
Final Fantasy 16 protagonist Clive uses magic in closeup screenshot
Despite fans begging for Tifa, Final Fantasy 16's Clive is "significantly more popular" than any other Tekken guest fighter
Spider-Man 4
There might be an obvious reason why Tom Holland's Spider-Man wasn't announced for Avengers: Doomsday
Patrick Stewart in X-Men
Marvel fans are already theorizing how Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, and James Marsden's X-Men will be integrated into Avengers: Doomsday
Daredevil: Born Again episode 6
Daredevil's Charlie Cox isn't in the Avengers: Doomsday cast list – but Marvel fans have an idea about how he might still show up