In recent months, superhero gaming fans have had a number of Marvel titles to sink their teeth into—Iron Man VR, Marvel’s Avengers and the promise of the upcoming Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales—but DC fans had been left relatively high and dry. That is, until last weekend’s DC FanDome where, among exciting film and comic news came the official announcement of two new gaming titles: Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Since the teams behind the universally acclaimed Arkham series are developing both titles, fans are rightfully excited.
Gotham Knights
Gotham Knights, developed by WB Games Montreal, has been rumoured for a long time, but by receiving an announcement cinematic trailer, along with almost 8 minutes of gameplay, fans finally have some real materials to work with. And, as the plural of its title suggests, this will be markedly different from the team’s Arkham games—most notably because batman is dead.
The cinematic reveals that after Batman’s sudden death, he has left all his resources and responsibilities to his four younger protégés—Batgirl (Barbara Gordan), Robin (Tim Drake), Nightwing (Dick Grayson), and the Red Hood (Jason Todd).
Player’s will be able to take control of all four characters throughout the perspective switching gameplay, which is playable in either single-player or as a two-player online cooperative experience. The characters each bring a unique playstyle to the game; Nightwing with his stealthy acrobatics, Batgirl adopting Batman’s classic playstyle with her signature tonfas, an agile Robin and Red Hood with his guns.
The trailers also display a number of different gameplay styles players will encounter; from riding motorcycles and cautiously navigating trap-rooms, to the more traditional open-world beat-em-up we have seen since 2011s Arkham City.
Although a solid release date is still hiding in the shadows, we know that the game will release in 2021 on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and the Xbox Series X.
Gotham Knights will continue WB Games Motreal’s Batman-themed efforts since 2013’s Arkham Origins, a series they inherited from Rocksteady Studio. But Rocksteady is still hard at work in the DC world, with the upcoming Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
From the team behind the smash hit Batman: Arkham Asylum, fans are excited to see more of Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League after the game’s brief 4-minute announcement trailer.
Although this game comes under the Suicide Squad branch of DC, the team has insisted that it remains interlinked with the studio’s established Arkham-verse.
Here, players will take on a four-person cross-section of the Suicide Squad, consisting of Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang and King Shark as they fight their way through an open-world Metropolis in either single-player action or with up to four-player co-op play. Single-players will be able to hot-switch between the four anti-heroes throughout the title. But all players will make the most of their varied arsenal of guns, grapples, baseball bats, cleavers and, of course, boomerangs.
According to the teaser, the game is set to release in 2022 for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.
With further rumours of Injustice 3, a continuation of the DC fighter series, circulating, it’s clear that the 2020s will hold a lot of excitement for DC gamers—which will be especially good news seeing as it’s already been almost two years since their last release.