The team behind Gotham Knights has revealed which comics inspired the upcoming game. For those out of the loop, Gotham Knights is a brand-new video game from Warner Bros. Montreal that lets players take control of Batgirl, Nightwing, Red Hood, and Robin to protect Gotham City from various DC Comics evildoers. When the game begins, Batman is already dead and his allies are left to defend the city from his vengeful foes. Despite the game taking place after Batman’s death, it’s not connected to Batman: Arkham Knight whatsoever. That game ended with Batman seemingly killing himself or faking his death, but the two games take place in different universes. It’s possible that ending inspired the direction WB took for Gotham Knights, but it wasn’t the only inspiration.
When speaking with ComicBook.com’s Chris Killian, Gotham Knights executive producer Fleur Martyr and game director Patrick Redding discussed the comic books that helped inspire the game. Most notably, The Court of Owls storyline inspired the game’s overall storyline, but the team looked closer to determine the directions of the protagonists. Redding noted that the team looked at Batgirl of Burnside, some of the recent solo Red Hood comics, a Detective Comics run that centers around the Belfry, and more.
“The Batgirl of Burnside run certainly informed our treatment of Barbara,” said Redding. “I wanna say some of the recent solo book storylines for Red Hood allowed us to delve into the mystical disciplines of that character which informed some of the game design choices we made. If you want to go down the rabbit hole, there’s a relatively recent run of Detective Comics [within the last 10 years] that focuses on the Belfry and the idea of how do you expand the operations Batman brings to Gotham City to incorporate other heroes and rehabilitate villains. We really liked the vibe of that, it tapped into some of that urban horror we wanted to have present, but also just brought a lot of personalities into the mix. There are a bunch of stories that are similar to that.”
As of right now, we’re still waiting to see exactly how Gotham Knights will be received, but ComicBook came away feeling positively about it after a recent hands-on preview. The team also recently discussed what it was like writing for multiple protagonists and how that changes the various cutscenes in the game. It certainly seems like the team has poured a lot of time and effort into the game from a design perspective, but also through its extensive research.
Gotham Knights releases for Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC on October 21st. Are you excited for the game? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @Cade_Onder.
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