Gotham Knights Review (Custard Nuts)
If you're thinking about buying this because you're under the assumption it is a sequel to the Arkham series, it is NOT, and the Devs stated that prior to release.
This games does NOT exist in the same universe as the Arkham games.
The only game that that will take place in the Arkham Universe is the upcoming title - Suicide Squad kill the Justice League.
That being said, I've found this to be quite enjoyable so far.
It's a mixture between Arkham and Marvel's Avengers. It has Arkham open world crime fighting with detective work, also featuring a rough copy of the combat counter system whilst having the Avenger's crafting gear system and enemies that level through the game as you do, thus making crafting better gear necessary.
The boss battles are a little underwhelming and the controls are a bit clunky at times, but even with that I've been having a good time with this game, the different crimes that you stop can range from Hostage rescue - Car chasing - Bank robberies - Faction trade deals - to Street Thugs beating civilians, and that's just for the Gangs of Gotham, there's still crime scene investigations and police work too.
One thing this game gets so right for me, is there's life in Gotham, there are cars on the roads, trains moving, civilians walking the streets, Gotham really feels like it's alive in this game, and not some empty city with nothing but gangs patrolling the streets.
You play as 1 of 4 characters with different fighting styles and if you're not happy with your character, you can go back to the Hub and change character there, this game can be played solo or with other people. Each character has 16 unlockable costumes that you can Transmogrify onto your current suit and some you can even change colours and individual pieces of.
You also get a Bat-Cycle that you can also customise and unlock additional skins for in-game.
Each character will have different dialog for every cinematic inside of the world, so for instance, Batwoman's dialog with Harley Quinn will be a lot different from Red-Hood's Dialog with Harley Quinn, which adds slightly fresh replay-ability.
I would 100% recommend this game on sale, but please do NOT buy it with the Arkham games in mind, you should not compare this game to that series, they have some similarities in game-play and also some of the things happening in the story seem a bit similar from the Arkham games, but they DON'T exist in the same universe, if you keep that in mind I think you will enjoy this game, go into it with a clear mind.
Edit:
With the game now completed I stand by everything I previously stated about this game, the boss fights are underwhelming but this game overall is pretty enjoyable.
I've seen a few negative reviews stating "NO FOUR PLAYER CO-OP" Which I will give them the benefit of the doubt and say they mean for story mode or free roam, which is True. You can only do Duo co-op in those modes, what people are failing to realise though if they played the game for longer than 10 minutes before writing a brain dead review of "Game no good, game clunky, game not Arkham" is that there 'IS' Four player Co-Op in 1 capacity, as you progress through the game and level up you will unlock 2 Multi-Layered dungeon type modes called 'Heroic Assault', where you will encounter an additional villain from the DC Universe not solely native to Batman. These Dungeons are designed to push you past the level cap of 30, so where you will physically remain at level 30, the gear you receive and craft with far exceed that level and you'll need said gear to reach the later floors of Heroic Assault 2 (the dungeon) Which the game loosely states that it is Endgame content, and they suggest 4 player co-op to tackle these dungeons as opposed to solo, but they do not prevent you from doing it solo if you so wish.
So yes there is Four Player game play.
In conclusion I enjoyed this game it has some flaws but I wouldn't go to the extreme as some people and say "this is the worst game ever made" whether you'll enjoy this or not is subjective, this is my review saying that I enjoyed it, and as always I will say read both positive and negative reviews before you buy the game or not and to only buy it on sale, but I will add Please read legitimate negative reviews that really delve deep into the game and the things they didn't enjoy, and not some neanderthal with their "Game no good, played 4 hours, requested refund".