Gotham Knights is easily one of the more controversial video game releases to come out in quite some time. The response to the announcement of this title was pretty lukewarm from the get-go, and the pre-launch news about it didn’t really help things either. As a result, there are many people who might enjoy some aspects of Gotham Knights… but there are some issues that definitely detract from the overall experience.
That being said, Gotham Knights can still be an entertaining game on its own. The game might not be greater than the sum of its parts, but the parts that really shine definitely help make the title memorable in its own way. Hopefully the following changes can be incorporated into Gotham Knights to make this experience worthy of being called one of the better superhero games.
10/10 The addition of Performance mode on consoles
One of the biggest controversies Gotham Knights faced was the lack of a 60fps performance mode on consoles. This was a deal breaker if you wanted action gameplay to be improved with a smoother framerate.
Given that so many other games have this option (with titles like God of War: Ragnarok having a 120fps mode), it’s easy to see why Gotham Knights’ lack of it was so disappointing. Hopefully a patch below would take care of that.
9/10 Make knighthood less of a hassle
Knighthood should have been an interesting mechanic that showcased the four protagonists as protectors of Gotham. Instead, it became a crunchy mess that you’ll hate having to go through over and over again for each character.
The requirements to earn knighthood are completing ten crimes, fighting three mini-bosses, and completing the timed strike training with each aspiring hero. Suffice it to say that spending more than three hours with each character just to unlock their unique traversal option can indeed be quite a hassle.
8/10 Decreasing the health of enemies
While unfortunate, Gotham Knights is bound to be compared to the Batman Arkham titles as they share so much of the same DNA. While combat in Gotham Knights has a ton of new additions, the simple act of knocking down enemies comes with a massive problem.
Put simply, even the simplest of enemies just have too much health. Attempting to attack enemies that are just a level or two higher than your chosen hero can be a downright chore, and steps should be taken to reduce enemy health to make the fight more exciting.
7/10 Possible improvement of the game’s environmental design
Of all the changes mentioned in this list, this is easily the most difficult to integrate. After all, there is hardly a case where a development team has changed the aesthetics of their open-world game so drastically.
However, there’s no denying that Gotham Knights has been widely criticized for its lackluster world design. Compared to the city’s sombre and gothic architecture in the Arkham games, Gotham Knights’ take on the city is quite disappointing and a major negative for the overall experience.
6/10 Make the boss fights more memorable
Boss fights are one of the biggest parts of any video game that has to be absolutely perfect. The Arkham games had their fair share of poor boss fights, but there were a few standouts that you would remember to this day.
In comparison, the bosses in Gotham Knights aren’t nearly as memorable. Most of these fights are against massive health sponges that barely offer an attack window, forcing you to play so defensively that these fights become lengthy and boring brawls.
5/10 Breathe more life into Gotham City
Gotham Knights’ open world has issues that go beyond the lackluster art design. It seems Gotham City’s nightlife is utterly barren considering how empty the world can feel at times.
There are many ways the open world can feel more alive. Even adding a group of jerks around the world does a great job of making the city feel more populated and hopefully the game could incorporate that while also increasing the number of civilians and cars in Gotham.
4/10 Overhaul of the game’s loot and gear system
One of the most frustrating parts of Gothan Knights is the relentless gear micromanagement. Loot is everywhere and the vast majority of pickups aren’t even worth it, with a select few being level-matched to each character, with decent stats, and also of higher rarity.
There’s just something really weird about having to worry about elemental resistances and such in a game about superheroes. The fact that your gear has mod slots, which are also pretty boring and don’t really require thinking about picking the highest numbered one, makes for tedious work rather than actually letting players carefully choose what to gear.
3/10 Improvement of the monotonous and uninteresting user interface
Swapping out gear in this game would still have been a little pleasant if the UI was at least reasonably decent to look at. Unfortunately, the game seems to have let you down in this regard as well.
Everything from the large and blocky font to the lack of any artistic flair in the UI really detracts from the experience. Many games have released updates that change their UI, and one can only hope that Gotham Knights will do the same over time.
2/10 Optimizing the game’s performance on consoles
It’s one thing for Gotham Knights to be stuck at 30 FPS on consoles. However, it’s a very different ballgame if the game doesn’t maintain a steady framerate on those platforms either!
It’s clear that the game faces optimization issues across the board. Luckily patches and the like will fix this issue so there probably won’t be a complaint for too long.
1/10 Make brutes less of a chore to fight
Brutes are a common enemy that you would be fairly familiar with if you’ve played the Batman Arkham games. While the Brutes present a decent challenge in these titles, these enemies are downright irritating in Gotham Knights.
Just like the bosses, these brutes can only be attacked in a very small window and force players to dodge far too often. The fact that they have little variation in their attack patterns makes them even more irritating in battle.
Lois Nauri 
Alucader Verisme 
Baron Mayuri 