Gotham Knights Diaries Part Five

This is my exploration of Gotham Knights where I will chronicle my playthrough like a text-based Let’s Play. I’ll point out all of the Easter Eggs that I can spot in the footnotes at the end of each part. Now let’s continue Gotham Knights…

After retrieving a book of “clues” from Harley Quinn, and inadvertently letting her escape prison, I had returned to Belfry to show the others…

After listening to a radio report from Noor Rashid about Oswald Cobblepot, I checked out the book which I’d received from Harley Quinn. The team had had some time to read through it, and while it didn’t always make sense, Barbara Gordon noticed that Harley was tracking everyone who had gotten out of Blackgate due to key witnesses being killed in the same way. The same way that Dr. Langstrom had been. However, Cobblepot had served his sentences, so Jason opined that since he had obviously been hung out to dry, he might talk to us.

I decided to upgrade Robin’s stuff, crafting the Linked Suit, and Linked Slingshot. Alfred then asked if we had any leads on where Quinn might be, and suggested we start by asking the Freaks. First, however, I went through the available training, as well as redoing Timed Strike training as part of my Knighthood challenges. Following that, over near the Batman memorial where his cowl, gauntlet and cape were displayed, Tim Drake’s tablet started reacting to a connection with the Justice League of America satellite. This gave him the idea that he could use its teleportation tech during combat, something called “Slideways”, which I honestly was eager to try out next time I played as Robin.

I swapped to Nightwing and went through his Timed Strike training too, and then checked his emails. The first one was a chain between members of the team, with Dick trying to solve the mystery of who ate his leftover pizza. He “was trained by Batman!” and resolved to find the Pizza Bandit… There was also an email from Clark Kent saying that he was sad that Bruce was dead, but happy that he lived in the first place. A third email was just a news digest from Gotham News Network, but the fourth was from Bridget Clancy, casually mentioning that Superman was in Bludhaven. A final email was from Lucius Fox, saying that he had set up obstacle courses for the new technology that the team were developing — such as the teleporter Robin had just invented.

Exiting Belfry to head out on patrol and visit the Iceberg Lounge, Alfred immediately called me to say that something was going down at S.T.A.R. Labs, so suggested I head over. Much to my annoyance, the premeditated crimes that I had located previously were now missing from my map. However, there were a few options open to me: Citizen Chaos - Bomb Threat, Secret Identity Compromised, and Heist At S.T.A.R. Labs were spread across the city, but first I set out for the closest crime of opportunity to beat up some crooks. I had actually hoped to interrogate one of them, but my combos proved too mighty…

En route to the bomb threat, I passed two goons hassling a police officer, so I beat them up, then stopped at a petrol station to take out several Mob members. Arriving at Robinson Park, I found three people strapped with bombs. Curiously, the Freaks who had taken them hostage weren’t the only people thrashing about to the loud music, there were civilians too…

I managed to knock out the Freaks standing guard over two of the hostages without being spotted, but unfortunately the final bomb was armed when I was spotted. I still managed to free the hostage with 55 seconds remaining, but I had been doing so well, so I was a little annoyed. Apparently, this was the first time that normal people had been pulled into a crime by the Freaks, so Red Hood told me to keep an eye on it if it happened again. Speaking of which, in nearby Gotham Heights there was a mission called Citizen Chaos - Kidnapping in Progress.

While heading to the kidnapping, I stopped a mugging by some Freaks and actually managed to interrogate one of them, discovering intel about a prison transport attack. I then interrogated another group of Freaks doing something that I couldn’t work out, to find out about a criminal in hiding, and beat up yet more Freaks near to the kidnapping. Attempting stealth, I only took out half of them before getting spotted. Also, there were some prescription medications in the back of the van with the slogan “Don’t live your life… ReQ it.”

Not too far away was yet another mission, Citizen Chaos - Armoured Truck, and upon reaching the truck it was just being lasered open. While I hadn’t seen a civilian at the kidnapping, I did see one trying to grab some money from the freshly opened truck, though as I started beating people up they made a run for it. Once the coast was clear, I picked something up from the truck, but I didn’t know what it was, all I was told was that it made the Harley Quinn Case File Investigation available.

Over in Bristol was the prison transport being targeted, so I drove to it and found the doors at 68% strength. There were two strong enemies with a handful of Molotov-throwers, so it was touch-and-go for a moment, but I stopped them from breaking it open. Since I was halfway between the hiding criminal and the Secret Identity Compromised mission, I went to hide Bruce Wayne’s secret, grappling up to the top of a building which was covered in cameras. Luckily, there was a deactivation button right beside me, so I was able to easily work my way towards an encrypted server panel and plant some files to confuscate the real identity of Batman.

Nipping into an alleyway, I beat up some goons and interrogated one to get the location of a crime scene which was all the way over in Bowery, so I begrudgingly drove back over that way to find a body in a dumpster. The person had been beaten to death and left in the dumpster with a copy of the draft menu for their new restaurant, as well as a hard drive detailing how the Mob was involved in said endeavour. Thanks to the hard drive, I knew where some of the Mob were, and drove the short distance over. However, they turned out to be underground! I was able to get in and beat them all up, as well as open a crate of crafting materials. There was another criminal hiding on Tricorner, so I set course for that, passing a theatre with the marquee saying “Tonight, Brother Power the Geek”.

At a warehouse I found a bunch of Freaks, along with a civilian being held in a cell. After managing to take down a few of them stealthily, I was accidentally spotted and had to smash faces the normal way and free the civilian. There was also a crate in the room with the cell, so that was nice.

Finally arriving at S.T.A.R. Labs (after confirming via interrogation that there were no other premeditated crimes), I intercepted a call for help saying that the Regulators had occupied the place. There was one on the roof who I took out while Nightwing filled in the others at Belfry. Sneaking in through an opening, I made my way through a ventilation shaft until I spotted an opening into one of the labs where I knocked out two Regulators and opened a crate before entering a server room with a few more goons. Batgirl radioed to say that it’s too bad that she wasn’t there to hack their hacks, and I decided that I’d swap back to her as soon as I could. I knew that hacking was going to happen at some point, but no, I had to play one patrol as everyone…

After knocking out two of them quietly, I was spotted by the rest and had to fight them. Hitting a button on a panel, some shutters opened and I grappled through into a similar room, but this one had a turret guarding the area as well as Regulators. I was able to deactivate the turret without it spotting me, but the goons did. After beating them up, I spotted a memo about how they were unable to sequence the DNA of “subject AC1983”, and that they would have to rely on “the Cadmus angle”.

Moving through the complex, I entered a room labelled Security Hub which had a bunch of Regulators inside. I was spotted almost immediately, but was able to deactivate the camera, so… Yeah, it was still a bad job. Checking out the security cameras, I spotted Mister Freeze icing up the place alongside the Regulators. I zipped up from floor nine to floor 12 and threw a goon over the railing, but I’m sure they probably lived.

As I snuck into a stairwell and found some frozen scientists as well as a few Regulators. From their chatter, they were starting to realise that someone was picking off their buddies, so I picked them off too. Following a trail of Cryogel I entered the Prospective Technologies area in time to see a Regulator showing off their newly stolen drone, not that it slowed me down while I was beating them all up. I opened a crate, then followed the hallway just to almost get crushed by falling ice. Luckily, it opened a maintenance shaft that I was able to squeeze through and make my way into a control room where I knocked out two creeps, followed by two more down the hallway.

There was a huge, frozen hole in the ceiling, so I went up and followed the corridor into the Energy Research Lab. Activating a console, I located some surviving scientists in a sealed chamber moments before Freeze blasted one of them. He had collected a quantity of Cryogel and casually used a console while holding a conversation with me. The Regulators were merely pawns and he had no interest in whatever they were after, he only cared that he had what he had come for. With that, and saying that he didn’t want to waste his valuable time talking to me, he shot the halon system causing the room to start filling with gas which would soon kill the two remaining scientists. One of them indicated a nearby railgun and I made for the control console.

Much to my frustration, goons began flooding into the room, so I had to beat up a whole bunch of people while trying to activate various controls which took me literally two minutes. The scientists were still alive when the railgun fired, blasting a hole in the wall, and they escaped the room. One of them explained that the amount of Cryogel which Freeze had taken was enough to drain all of the thermal energy in the city three times over, and with that I left. First Harley, now Mister Freeze, the crime board back at Belfry was getting busy…

Before going to see Penguin, I checked out a secret cache from Batman, marked on the map. It scanned me and three emitters lit up on the building across from me with a time limit, so I had to move quickly to unlock the cache itself. It unlocked an audio log, though I put off listening to it figuring that I should collect a few and listen to a batch of them.

The Iceberg Lounge was close by, so I landed on the roof and entered through the skylight. In the first room were display cases containing the U.S. Master Tax Guide, a Cobblepot Coin, a sceptre and sword cane, Clock King’s hat, a trick umbrella, a boomerang, and a sword in the style of an Ancient Roman gladius. Just outside the door was a goon who I knocked out, and while I’d like to say that I took down everyone else silently, I don’t like to lie to you. In a storeroom (found via ventilation shaft) I found a crate and some crates labelled Black Lightning.

Once the way was clear, I broke into Penguin’s office and he casually told me that the door was custom sandalwood, and would be a pain to repair. Before I could get too far into threatening him, he indicated that this was all being recorded and would go viral if I assaulted him. I asked who was giving the “get out of jail free” cards, but since I wasn’t Batman he had no intention of answering my questions — I wasn’t worth his time. Around the office were: a chess board with a cheat move, three deactivated guns from the 1800s, another trick umbrella, a photo of his great-grandfather Mayor Cobblepot from the 1930s, and the book Ornithology of the Southern Hemisphere written by Richard Grey Jr.

Annoyed about the second of Batman’s villains telling me that I wasn’t worth their time, I headed for the exit. Passing by a chest, I opened it, then turned to the security monitors though they held little interest. There was, however, a ban list with Bruce Wayne’s name and photo at the top for “inappropriate behavior”.

Returning to Belfry, my patrol summary said that I had stopped seven crimes, completed three bonus objectives, and rescued one cop and six citizens. That involved defeating 165 enemies, 28 of which were silent takedowns…

FOOTNOTES

Justice League of America has, at various points, had a space station (which they call a satellite) as their base of operations. Access is gained via teleporter.
Clark Kent is Superman, not sure I need to explain this character from 1938.
Bridget Clancy played a role in the first ongoing Nightwing title as his apartment’s superintendent. However, she hasn’t been seen since 2006.
Lucius Fox has been Batman’s confidant for decades and basically runs parts of Wayne Enterprises, including the R&D department.
S.T.A.R. Labs, which stands for Science and Technology Advanced Research Laboratories, has appeared across the DC universe since 1971, usually used for whenever a superhero needs something analysed by disposable characters. It was also the base of operations for the titular character in The Flash TV show.
Brother Power, the Geek had a two-issue run in 1968, and the titular character has appeared in less than a dozen comics since.
AC1983 is a reference to Action Comics which had its first issue in 1938 which starred Superman.
Cadmus Labs is the organisation responsible for creating Connor Kent AKA Superboy, the one member of Young Justice who didn’t email Robin in Part Four. Now we know why, it seems that he hasn’t been cloned yet.
Clock King is a somewhat inept supervillain who has no powers, created in 1960.
Trick umbrellas were the gadgets which Penguin relied upon in the comics for stabbing, gassing, and flying (among many others), for about 40 years. They’ve somewhat fallen out of vogue in recent times.
The boomerang, when examined, makes a mention of Captain Boomerang, a Flash rogue, so it’s clearly supposed to be one of his. I wish I’d come as Robin, to see if he references the fact that the Captain and Robin’s father killed each other in 2004…
The gladius is probably a reference to Maxie Zeus, a crime lord created in 1979 who believes that he is the Greek god, but has no powers.
Black Lightning is a superhero created in 1977 who is perpetually semi-retired and yet constantly brought into Batman’s messes.
Richard Grey Jr is the superhero known as Black Condor, created in 1940.