GOTHAM KNIGHTS Trailer Introduces the Court of Owls

Until Spider-Man for PS4, the undisputed king of the superhero video game was the Dark Knight himself. Rocksteady’s Arkham trilogy of games set new standards when it came to third-person combat, open-world traversal, and weaving a whole comic book universe into gameplay. In between the second game, Batman: Arkham City and the third game Batman: Arkham Knight, WB Games Montreal gave us a prequel game, Batman: Arkham Origins. While this game wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, it provided some of the series’ best bosses and expanded the Arkham world.

It’s been five long years since the last Arkham game, but WB Games Montreal are back with another entry in the series, which they debuted during their presentation at DC FanDome. It’s called Gotham Knights and it looks incredible.

Here’s the synopsis for Gotham Knights.

Batman is dead. It is now up to the Batman Family–Batgirl, Nightwing, Red Hood and Robin–to protect Gotham City, bring hope to its citizens, discipline to its cops, and fear to its criminals. You must evolve into the new Dark Knight and save Gotham from chaos.

Your legacy begins now. Step into the Knight.

Following the official trailer drop, DC also posted a nearly 8-minute look at some gameplay. The demo shows Batgirl, about 12-hours into her character progression, in the Mr. Freeze storyline.

In it, we follow Batgirl on the Batcycle before she jumps off to fight some bad guys. It’s clear the third-person aesthetic is trying to evoke the Arkham series without fully copying it. This game does not take place in that fictional continuity. Eventually, Batgirl makes her way into a museum that Mr. Freeze has taken over, where we see Robin (in his Red Robin suit, nice) and the game’s director explains each player can approach every encounter in their own style, for their own specific build.

WB Games

The clip ends with Batgirl and Robin coming up to Freeze’s weather machine before a cinematic introduces the man himself. Then we get a look at a boss battle, when we learn that there will be a leveling system for Gotham Knights and that as the player’s stats progress, the villains keep pace.

Prior to the event, the game studio teased that the highly anticipated new game would feature fan-favorite villains the Court of Owls, who appear in the closing moments of the trailer.

The Court of Owls are a criminal organization and secret society in the underbelly of Gotham consisting of some of the city’s most elite citizens. They were the focus of the first New 52 arc for the Caped Crusader, debuting in 2011 from writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo.

So how will they fit into this game? We’ll find out when Gotham Knights comes out in 2021.

Featured Image: WB Games Montreal