This may prove advantageous for WB Games Montreal, as with four potential protagonists players can choose from, there is surely a lot to display for each to have players interested in one or many of them beforeGotham Knightsreleases.Gotham Knightsis currently in the midst of intermittent character spotlights that highlight each character individually, and other details aboutGotham Knights’ co-op functionalitywas offered recently. But ifGotham Knightstruly wishes for its characters to stand out in-game, it should feature unique, cinematic endings for each.
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Gotham Knights’ Co-op Emphasizes Player Choice
Gotham Knightsseems to want to accentuate player choicein every way imaginable, whether fans decide to play in single-player or co-op. Based upon previous clarifications about what players will and won’t be able to do in single-player and co-op, it was stated that players are able to select whichever playable protagonist they would like at any time duringGotham Knights, or they could choose to only play as one character the whole time.
Likewise, two-player co-op still affords players this leisurely freedom to select who they would like, andGotham Knightseven allows players to select the same character together, roaming Gotham and taking out thugs with two Batgirls if they desire. This could highly favor its post-launch content, which may or may not feature linear or restrictive character pathing.
Because players are not forced to play as any one character at any time, it gives the most freedom toward player choice and allows players to tailor the experience precisely to their character preferences. Some fans will only have an interest in playing Red Hood, for example, while others will surely want to play as each Bat Family crime-fighter throughout the course ofGotham Knights.
This way, players who only want to play as Robin will also not have to sit through sequences that are scripted to feature Nightwing and play as him instead, let alone level him up and collect resources or blueprints for his character. Players can concentrate solely on whom they prefer and spend all their time working toward their progression exclusively.
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Gotham Knights’ Narrative Will Also Need to Be Adaptive
That said, there is no conceivable way that this amount of player choice does not create an effect on howGotham Knights’ narrativehas been designed. Because some players may go an entire playthrough without ever having played as Nightwing, for example, it is possible that the character may be in far fewer cutscenes and cinematics as a result.
This could be mitigated through co-op play, where more characters will be around at once since a Robin and a Red Hood could be accompanying one another anyway, while other characters may still only be seen if players visit the Belfry.Nightwing’s gameplay demonstrationhad a cutscene shared from Dick Grayson’s perspective, but if fans never even pick him as their playable character, it will be interesting to see if that cutscene is completely omitted or if certain characters and dialogue are substituted instead.
If different characters have unique cutscenes and unique interactions throughout the game, this would add a ton of replayability, as many cutscenes and interactions would go unseen on initial runs. Characters speak to one another while out-and-about as well through their comms, and this is likely where players will hear the most from theirBat Family companionswho are not selected.
If different characters can be chosen at will, cutscenes will not be able to stay restricted to scripted characters or dialogue appearing at any one place besides maybe the Belfry. The cutscene fans have seen whereNightwing interrogates the Penguin, for example, could realistically feature any character interrogating him instead. Characters seemingly do not have their own quests or missions depending on who is selected, so cutscenes and story beats like these will need to be fully adaptive if it is truly accentuating player choice in an organic and seamless way.
Unique Character Endings Could Be a Fun Badge of Honor
Because fans can play as any character for any amount of time throughoutGotham Knights, it makes sense that the ending would be scripted in order to accommodate for the fact that not all characters may have been played. The characters that players pick may not be as important themselves as what events happen around them or because of them, and therefore particular character selection may be trivial in terms of the narrative.
For all players currently know,Bruce Wayne’s Batman could be alive and well, potentially held captive by the Court and made a fifth playable protagonist once the events of the main narrative are completed. This would throw a wrench into the Bat Family dynamic that WB Games Montreal is attempting to market, and would make an entire game about the Bat Family learning to cope without Batman redundant. However, if unique character ending cinematics were featured for whichever characters players finished the game as, it would be a nice touch that adds meaning to the characters that they at least decided to end the game with. This could signify character preference and offer players a fun badge of honor or a platform-relevant achievement.
These cinematics could be unlocked by simply ending the game as a certain character, or only after the entire game is played as a single character without having swapped them out for another. Even if it was a single cutscene culminating everything they learned and how they have evolved as a character, cinematics that echoGotham Knights’ character spotlightscould provide a succinct wrap-up on each character and make player choice mean something with regard to their experiences as either Nightwing, Robin, Batgirl, or Red Hood.
Gotham Knightsis scheduled to release on October 25 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.
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