Gotham Knights’ combat is almost entirely oriented around basic encounters, such as premeditated and opportunistic crimes. There will often be a group of ordinary enemies with one or two brute enemies composing each faction gang that appears in Gotham Knights. Boss fights are few-and-far between. Players will come across some mini-bosses in the game’s main narrative, but the bulk of the game’s legitimate boss fights are within case files, which have players pursue and fight Harley Quinn, Mr. Freeze, and Clayface.

Harley is only fought once in her Gotham Knights case file, while Mr. Freeze and Clayface are both fought twice. This may be due to Harley being an ordinary human without any advanced technology or clay powers, but it still shines more of a light on the latter two case files since they last longer and have one more fight to compare. That said, Mr. Freeze’s boss fights implements a lot of the combat fluidity that players practice in regular encounters, whereas Clayface’s boss fights are less involved and more arduous to tackle.

RELATED: Gotham Knights: Batman’s Death Doesn’t Quite Make Sense

Mr. Freeze’s Boss Fights Are a High Point for Gotham Knights’ Combat

gotham_knights_mr_freeze-1

Mr. Freeze’s first boss battle has players fight him one-on-one around the Storm Engine device, which is part of the original showcase for Gotham Knights where gameplay debuted. The fight is more involved than a mini-boss brute fight, where players are actively dodging attacks but also have openings where they can strike back in-between. This creates a fun, formulaic pattern players can telegraph before Gotham Knights’ Mr. Freeze hops onto the Storm Engine and fires a series of area-of-effect attacks in the environment.

This continues until players have whittled Mr. Freeze down completely. The second boss fight is similarly involved, with Mr. Freeze now commandeering a crab mech that looks somewhat like Horizon Forbidden West’s Shell-Walkers. If players wait until the end of the game, when they have likely gained Legendary gear, Mr. Freeze’s boss fights can be a fun challenge that truly takes advantage of each combat mechanic. Still, if players were unsatisfied with how combat is engineered around most mini-bosses, Mr. Freeze is technically more of the same with a bit more flavor.

Clayface’s Boss Fights Undermine Gotham Knights’ Combat

Clayface

Clayface’s first boss battle is nearly identical to a mini-boss encounter, except for the fact that Clayface can infinitely revive his larger self. If players are under-leveled or on Hard difficulty, this turns a potentially interesting fight into another padded slog. Clayface’s first boss battle is akin to Elden Ring’s Godskin Duo fight, though it actually feels daunting to fight the Godskin Duo.

The second boss fight in Clayface’s case file is different, though not necessarily for the better. Players must first activate a series of generators while dodging a massive Clayface, and then have him destroy the turbines they have triggered. A genuinely fun Batcycle chase ensues, making it a shame Gotham Knights did not feature more than two single pursuits via Batcycle, all of which occur in this particular case file. Lastly, players fight the massive Clayface in a small arena.

Clayface looks great while wielding spiked ball and mallet hands, but his attacks are difficult to avoid in this phase and encourage players to strictly keep their distance and fire projectiles until their Momentum abilities have been refueled. Clayface is more of a gimmick boss than anything, but that reduces the game’s combat to feeling basic and underwhelming in this specific case file.

Gotham Knights is available now for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

MORE: Gotham Knights: Every Character’s Ending Cutscene