SPOILERS AHEADIt's easy to see the discourse around Gotham Knights and think the game is an absolute disaster, yet that's not 100% the case. It's having a rough launch, no doubt, but Gotham Knights reviews are more mixed than negative. Over on OpenCritic, for example, its Top Critic Average is 70 which is by no means a bad game. Only about 44% of critics actually recommend it though. There are a few reasons for this, but many agree that the story is weak, that there are features that feel incomplete, and so on. Many find Gotham City and the combat fun, if repetitive, and it does have a few saving graces that secured its solid critic average.
However, perhaps where Gotham Knights drops the ball the most is Harley Quinn. Because Gotham Knights is not directly tied to any other DC media like Rocksteady's Arkhamverse, WB Games Montreal had some degree of freedom with its character depictions. Mr. Freeze and Clayface are underwhelming too, but more or less the characters fans know and love. Harley Quinn is not.
Gotham Knights' Harley Quinn is Completely Off-Base
Harley Quinn is met in Blackgate Penitentiary, where players learn she has gone mostly "straight" after a stint with a certain team, no doubt alluding to this Harley Quinn having been in the Suicide Squad at some point. After doing a few tasks for her, players end up chasing evidence across the prison where she makes her mistake. Free on the streets, she begins dealing with the Freaks faction of Gotham Knights, selling them on implants that make them stronger. After a couple of missions, players defeat her, arrest her, and she appreciates how they are succeeding Batman in keeping criminals off the street.
Throughout this, Harley Quinn refers to herself as Dr. Q, and this is fitting because she is not the manic pixie that fans know and love. From the onset, Harley Quinn has an influencer motif that brings her closer to Borderlands 3's Tyreen Calypso in characterization than any other take on Harley Quinn. She is influencing the prisoners in Blackgate, she is influencing the Freaks on the streets, and she is using an online platform to gather formulas and selling them on these implants. As to why is never explained, but what's worse is that Harley Quinn never feels like herself. She is far too calm, her message is too far on point, and she seems far more like a calm and calculated serial killer than anything else. In other words, it's clear that Harley Quinn has a few bats loose, but never in a way she is expected to.
She is far too predictable, her worst actions are nowhere near the zaniness fans expect, and she ultimately feels muted. A tame Harley Quinn does not a Harley Quinn make, and once players close her case file in Gotham Knights, it's perhaps best to ignore that she ever existed in-game or otherwise.
Gotham Knights is available now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X.