{"id":50668,"date":"2020-09-01T06:00:12","date_gmt":"2020-09-01T10:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=50668"},"modified":"2020-08-31T20:43:28","modified_gmt":"2020-09-01T00:43:28","slug":"gotham-knights-batman-is-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=50668","title":{"rendered":"Gotham Knights: Batman is Dead"},"content":{"rendered":"

The trailer for the upcoming Gotham Knights<\/a> dropped last week. It leads off with a video of Bruce Wayne saying, “If you’re watching this, I’m dead.” As of this writing, there are about 11,000 comments on that video and the vast majority of them are some variation of, “Yeah suuure he is. I’ll believe it when we see the body.”<\/p>\n

But while I’m sure everyone is correct and the most profitable superhero of all time<\/a> is still alive, I think it’s safe to say that the Batman I loved – The ARKHAM Batman<\/a> – is super<\/b>-dead.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Batman isn’t Dead, ARKHAM is Dead.<\/h3>\n

If you're watching this, it means I've faked my own death. Again.<\/div>
If you're watching this, it means I've faked my own death. Again.<\/div><\/p>\n

Because of this, I’m going to spend the rest of this article pointlessly arguing with the world. I don’t expect anything to come of this. This column isn’t analysis, it’s catharsisI hope, anyway. We’ll see how I feel when I get to the end.<\/span>. It’s driving me completely crazy to hear the masses cheering as Warner Brothers takes all of the mistakes of Batman: Arkham Knight<\/i> and multiplies them a hundred fold.<\/p>\n

But Shamus! This isn’t an Arkham game! It’s not made by Rocksteady and it’s not connected to the Arkham storyline!<\/b><\/p>\n

Yes, I know. I don’t actually care what timeline we’re in or which convoluted parallel Earth this thing takes place on. Whatever. I’m here for the gameplay, and what Gotham Knights showed us is a mockery of everything the Arkham games were trying to do in a mechanical sense.<\/p>\n

Moreover, it’s not like Warner Brothers is going to maintain two competing Batman franchises at the same time. If they’re making this, then nobody is making anything along the lines of Arkham.<\/p>\n

Shamus, didn’t you hear? <\/b>Rocksteady is making a suicide Squad game<\/b><\/a>! That’s the team that made the original Arkham games. You should be happy!<\/b><\/p>\n

Man, this is a really weird reboot of Shark Boy and Lava Girl.<\/div>
Man, this is a really weird reboot of Shark Boy and Lava Girl.<\/div><\/p>\n

I suppose it’s theoretically<\/b> possible that the Suicide Squad game could contain what I loved about Arkham. Based on the previews, Squad certainly looks more promising than Gotham Knights<\/em>. But all we have to go on is a cinematic trailer, and all I learned from it is that it’s going to be a huge open world with tons of playable characters. One, I’m looking at how Marvel’s Avengers is shaping up<\/a>I know it’s annoying when I link to a video. If I knew of a good reliable source for this sort of thing in prose, I’d link to that instead. If you have any suggestions for sites, please drop a link in the comments.<\/span> to be an obnoxious, grasping, cynical, bland, lazy, duplicitousClaim: “New characters will be free!” Reality: New characters each have their OWN seasonal battlepass. That’s not “Free”. That’s ten bucks. Per character. Per season. This isn’t a consumer-friendly game for the fans, this is actually a new low<\/b>.<\/span>, and repetitive. It’s a full-price AAA game with the monetization scheme of a lazy mobile title. Sure, it’s possible we’ll get a good game from Suicide Squad<\/i>, but the exact opposite is also possible. Going by recent trends, the latter is more likely.<\/p>\n

Also, I really despised what an unfocused, bloated mess Arkham Knight turned out to be<\/a>. The world was too big, and covered in too many Ubisoft-style map markers. The huge cast of Suicide Squad is making me suspect that Rocksteady is going to be doubling down on all of their earlier mistakes.<\/p>\n

But, ok. I grudgingly admit that there’s still a non-zero chance that Suicide could be great. But Gotham Knights? Barring some massive overhaul between now and release, this promises to be a grindy monstrosity.<\/p>\n

Note that WB also released a gameplay demo with developer commentary:
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