It may be reasonably difficult for Gotham Knights fans to stifle their expectations in relation to the Batman: Arkham series. Gotham Knights has an unfortunate weight to bear as one of the first DC-related titles post-Batman: Arkham, but its latest gameplay demonstration shows its unique footprint as a new IP.Gotham Knights' Nightwing and Red Hood presentation depicts how open-world traversal is approached for each character, where Nightwing uses a Flying Trapeze glider and Red Hood uses a supernatural, mystic leap. But it was in this demonstration that fans had their first look at Gotham City’s open-world in Gotham Knights and how it will look visually as players thwart crime. However, in the wake of Gotham Knights being exclusive to next-gen consoles, fans are upset about the graphical disparity that they perceive between Gotham Knights and Batman: Arkham Knight.Fans such as Twitter user marlisjun are sharing images comparing Gotham Knights to Batman: Arkham Knight that either express their displeasure, or simply appraise the latter for how impressive it looks to this day. In particular, fans are concerned that Gotham Knights’ next-gen console exclusivity will not have a great enough benefit to players in terms of the graphical fidelity it could achieve as a result. Fans believe Batman: Arkham Knight looks better than Gotham Knights in its current state. Further, Batman: Arkham Knight released in June 2015, which makes it seven years old.
In comparison to one another, Gotham Knights’ open-world Gotham does currently lack the same vibrancy and color. However, it should be considered that Gotham Knights is not a finished game at this point and more polish could be applied to it to make it worthy of its next-gen console exclusivity by the time it launches this October. Rather, some fans like Twitter user mutasimfadalla are also concerned with other aspects of the demonstration that they saw, such as combat.
Fellow user loverboymedia argues that Batman: Arkham Knight’s visuals have aged well and are not representative of a typical last-gen game from seven years ago. Gotham City's neon and rain-soaked streets are immersive with detail throughout its entire skyline from island-to-island, whether players are grapple-boosting and soaring high above its architecture or accelerating in the Batmobile and swerving around tight corners.
Five months is certainly not a long time for development, and it is unclear how much more polished Gotham Knights will get before it releases. But most fans are still incredibly excited for Gotham Knights and are pleased with its visuals and co-op gameplay.
Gotham Knights is currently scheduled to release on October 25 for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S.