Gotham Knights Diaries Part Nineteen

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 finish Gotham Knights…

After tracking the League of Shadows to the disused Arkham Asylum, a tussle with a Man-Bat had left me unconscious…

Waking in the living quarters area of Belfry, Barbara Gordon’s first concern was whether she could still walk. Alfred Pennyworth assured her that her back was bruised, but otherwise fine before being interrupted by the radio news. Apparently, the others were out trying to keep things from boiling over, as reports of flying creatures were wreaking havoc.

Barbara explained that she had to go back out there, despite her injury, as she didn’t quit the last time. She had to help people, it was who she was, no matter what she called herself. As Barbara strode off confidently, Alfred placed a folder labelled Code Black, which he had been reading from while watching over Barbara, on the bookcase.

After upgrading my equipment, I spent an ability point on Health Regen +, then checked the corkboard. Man-Bats had been spotted at Elliot Center, Wayntech, and the Gotham City General Hospital, so I left to thwart some crimes and find some bat men, as well as find some Batarangs, and I took down one of Gotham’s Most Wanted, Martin Young. The first notable place I went to was to see Charlotte of The Watch, then on to Waynetech.

While it was an overall similar fight to the one at Arkham, with me hucking Batarangs at the Man-Bat, it also summoned some assassins to help out. But, after some punching, I went uptown to see Penguin — I would later return after completing his objectives again. I then made my way to the hospital, where there was a repeat of what happened on the roof of Waynetech.

After resolving all of the crimes in town, I went back down to Elliot Center, lobbed a few Batarangs at a monster, and was done. Belfry called to say that the signal controlling the Man-Bats was coming from the cemetery, so I headed over and found the objective marker was on the Wayne mausoleum. It was curious to me that Bruce Wayne had been buried in his own plot rather than inside the tomb, but upon opening the doors I found a large hole in the floor! It gave way to a larger series of tunnels, which as I followed them and slid down further, grappling over gaps as I went, I was surprised to find that it led directly to the Batcave!

I know that jumping up to a ledge to be confronted by a Tyrannosaurus rex was supposed to be a shock, but it just let me know where we were. Following the obvious path, I passed the Giant Penny, now half buried, and squeezed through a gap. This was the first of many squeezings… I continued to follow slopes and tunnels while confronting assassins, before finally being attacked by another Man-Bat. It fell very easily.

Before grappling up to a ledge, I noticed the giant Joker card that was another of Batman’s trophies, but I wasn’t able to scan it or interact with it… Going further down, leaping over more gaps, and fighting yet more assassins, I almost ran past a chest full of resources which was recessed on a ledge above me.

The assassin attacks came more frequently as I opened another two chests, and found myself in front of a round, stone, temple door. It was partially opened, so of course I squeezed past for the final time, finding myself in a large chamber with a Lazarus Pit inside!

Talia al Ghul was there, now sporting an awesome set of white armour. She was monitoring something that had been lowered into the pit, and seemed unconcerned about my appearance. She began talking about the Lazarus Pit, and how it could be used for more than resurrection and regeneration. It could make a mind pliable to suggestion, the perfect use for creating a general to lead an army. Batgirl turned down the job offer — but Talia just laughed. The contraption attached to the pit activated, and a figure rose from the water, draped in a black cloth. Talia removed the cloth and helped the figure to their feet, revealing Bruce Wayne.

Talia explained that the pits had broken Ra’s al Ghul’s mind, but she had exploited that ability to free Bruce from his oath. He would help them remake the world, and his first test would be to kill Batgirl! He came at me, and while he did land a few good hits, I was able to beat some sense into him. Talia had told him that all four of his proteges had died, and that the real us’s were fake, but came to believe the truth and fought off the brainwashing. He asked for a report, and then to know how long he had been dead for — Batgirl was super vague about that bit even though it had been less than a month, according to my patrol summaries. Bruce was happy that we had found the Court of Owls, and shocked that Jacob Kane had been the leader. Then Talia stabbed him.

He was trying to protect Batgirl, who was squaring up to fight Talia and thus entirely ready for that clumsy attack, but heck who wants to be resurrected like Red Hood was, right?

Bruce shuffled along the ground towards Talia, holding his impalement wound, and very angry at her for coming after his family. She threw back the fact that they were supposed to have had a relationship in the past, so Batgirl told Bruce to stay put and squared up again. The fight literally lasted 17 seconds, because I used my Momentum ability to beat on Talia.

Talia sheathed her sword and laughed, having noticed that someone else had entered the temple, boasting that I had been followed here. It was the Court of Owls, here with their new Voice of the Court! The Voice said that they had been led there by a Man-Bat, not a Batgirl, and that now Talia would die. In response, Talia gathered up her ki and knocked everyone over with an energy wave, before coming at me again, this time with a glaive! This fight lasted eight seconds.

Knowing that she had been defeated, she disappeared in a cloud of vapour and the Court attacked! But I had no more input, just a cutscene to watch as Bruce had made his way up to the fallen Batwing…

Bruce powered up the jet and explained that we should become the knights that Gotham really needed and that he was proud of us. Then he told Batgirl to run, which she begrudgingly did, making an escape up a nearby tunnel. The Voice seemed to think that the day was theirs, until the Batwing’s jets powered up. Bruce announced that the criminals of Gotham never scared him — it was the rich and powerful, who thought that they could have it all. He wasn’t going to let them have the Lazarus pit — and he flew the Batwing into it, the area exploding and killing a bunch of Talons, and any Court member not fast enough to have escaped the blast zone.

In the closing cutscene, Batgirl narrated that the Court had all but disappeared, and that Talia and the majority of her forces had left Gotham. The team had been back to below the Batcave and found what was left of the Batwing — Batman was well and truly gone now. Back at Belfry, Barbara transmitted a message of Batgirl in an all-black costume, interrupting communications across the city. She explained that the Court of Owls may be out of sight for now, but that she would work tirelessly to drag them into the light, as the people of Gotham deserved to live their lives free of fear…

Returning to Belfry, my Night 24 patrol summary said that I had stopped 13 crimes, completed 13 bonus objectives, and rescued one cop and eight citizens. That involved defeating 198 enemies, 14 of which were silent takedowns.

While the city remained open for me to patrol, there were a few emails to check, and a special scene for Tim Drake. Barbara had an email from Wonder Woman, again talking about the Heroic Assault, and confirming that Starro had arrived beneath Gotham thanks to a Relativity Beam Unit, and Harley Quinn cryptically saying that she would see us “sooner than you think” as she thanked us for getting rid of the Court. Dick Grayson had an email from the Wayne Animal Shelter thanking for a huge donation.

A photograph of the group, along with Bruce, had been hung (crookedly) next to the Batman memorial. As Tim looked at it, we saw a scene from some time ago, with Bruce recording his final message — except he was interrupted by the gang who were waiting for him so that they could eat dinner. He had been at it for a while, trying to record for every eventuality, and Tim read out one of the, “In the event of my death at the hands of Crazy Quilt”. Unable to guilty Bruce into joining them, Jason Todd yanked on the Batsuit cape that he was wearing, making him stand up. Finally acquiescing, Bruce recorded one final thing; a smile and the words “You’re always looking out for me.”

FOOTNOTES

The last time is another of the three or four mentions about Barb’s time as Oracle, which saw her as the wheelchair-bound information and tech guru of the superhuman community.
Code Black was what triggered when Batman blew up the Batcave at the start of the game.
The Tyrannosaurus rex has been around in Batman comics since Batman #35 in 1946. In a nice touch, the game version shares its origin as a gift from Murray Hart's theme park known as Dinosaur Island.
The Giant Penny is another Batcave constant, this one from World's Finest #30 in 1947, after Batman stopped both Penny Plunderer and Two-Face from stealing it. Ironic that he’d nick it himself for his cave…
The giant Joker card is another constant since 1946, this time from Detective Comics #114. Very strange that it wasn’t scannable or interactable, since the other two things were.
Batman’s oath is a weird one, because he swore an oath on the night that his parents were killed, to prevent such crimes from ever happening again. But that doesn’t really tie into him leading an army of assassins…
Relativity Beam Unit is an alternate name for the Justice League Teleporter.
Crazy Quilt first appeared in 1946 and, despite himself, has appeared in various incarnations of Batman media. He wears a helmet that creates bright colours, due to eyesight issues, that’s it.

FINAL THOUGHTS

It took me about 28 hours to reach the credits, which is honestly more than I thought it would be. Gotham Knights was clearly made with a ton of love for the franchise (if not the characters), and it has to rank among the better superhero games.

That’s not to say that the game is without fault, as there was some poor characterisation at points that really stood out. When Tim was at his lowest, everyone ignored him while throughout they tended to treat him like a child — you can’t act like he’s a kid and then leave him to process his grief without support! Dick Grayson is one of DC Comics premier detectives, and yet confronted by Tim’s grief he decided to literally look the other way. Further, he looked away to pay attention to the Batcomputer which he had proven over the previous hours that he would have been unable to use even if Barbara hadn’t been currently using it! Later, both Dick and Jason just watched the Clayface portion escape, as if they hadn’t been within an arm’s reach of the canister.

Okay, maybe the idiots didn’t want to grab the canister because Tim was responsible for it or something. Except for the fact that in all but two or three cutscenes, someone will be holding an item which would then be passed to or taken by at least one other person. I’m guessing the cutscene director learned from TV directors: always keep the actors or camera moving.

While overall I liked how the game looked, I had some trouble with pop-in textures sometimes not popping, Batgirl’s cape moving around to her front during a cutscene, and Clayface when he went liquid just looked awful. While I hate it when people say this sort of thing, “wet” Clayface looked like he belonged on the PlayStation 2.

My final gripe is with how quickly you get around the place. The Batcycle is the fastest way, I calculated it to have a top speed of about 50mph (~75kph), while Nightwing’s glider and the grapple move at 32mph (~51 kph). Honestly, I never got around to trying out Red Hood’s traversal, Robin’s has a countdown timer effectively slowing it overall, and Batgirl moves faster running… However, even the Batcycle never actually feels fast.

While overall the music is decent, I couldn’t help but feel like it was scored by composer Blake Neely. Honestly, I was a little upset when I didn’t see their name, since I would have sworn that the Batcycle music was from an episode of Arrow.

If you’ve enjoyed what you’ve read, I do recommend checking out Gotham Knights. Two certain other optional co-op superhero games didn’t take me 28 hours to hit the end credits, one of them I didn’t even manage to hit 20 hours completing free expansion updates! If this gets a sequel, I’ll be one of the people asking for it. Maybe they’ll actually say “Joker” in the next one, instead of dancing around it and just not letting you scan the giant card with his face on it.