One beautiful thing about the gaming industry is how two games can be worlds apart and still learn from each other. As gamers too, there’s little doubt that developers look at what works in other games and what doesn’t, even when the game style itself can be so different. There are many examples of this, but perhaps the latest comes way of Gotham Knights.
Announced at DC Fandome, Gotham Knights sees players take control of Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl, or Red Hood as they seek to defend Gotham City from the Court of Owls in the wake of Batman’s supposed death. It’s possible that Batman’s not actually dead and all will come to light when it releases in 2021, but strangely, one confirmed detail seemingly comes way of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. On a surface level, the two are more alike that one might think, as both are popular action RPGs set in long-running franchises, but Gotham Knights has co-op and likely other features Odyssey doesn’t, and vice versa.
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One of the biggest criticisms for Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was its level-gating tactics. Odyssey was very much a game where players had to grind between specific story missions, with an intense grind taking place before unlocking the game’s secret ending and DLC. It was the thorn of the rose, as it were, as Assassin’s Creed Valhalla has stated that this will not happen in it. But Gotham Knights has also confirmed that there won’t be any level-gating in the game.
As a co-op game with some semblance of loot and RPG progression, Gotham Knights having a serious grind would make sense for it. However, it’s not the most popular feature to appear in games, as what defines a looter is a serious but rewarding grind for content. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, however, seems to have just added difficulty for difficulty’s sake at times, and so it’s a good thing that Gotham Knights has learned from this.
Particularly with a co-op partner, very few fans of the franchise want to spend 2-3 hours grinding just to continue the story, with an additional 10 hour grind to complete the endgame. Fans only need to look at Batman: Arkham Knight as a key example. While the game itself wasn’t grindy, per se, players had to 100% the game to unlock Arkham Knight‘s secret ending, which many still debate today. With Gotham Knights not including this, perhaps it’ll find itself in a good place come release.
How that works out does remain up in the air, but this is at least one detail that should make fans happy and excited for Gotham Knights.
Gotham Knights will release in 2021 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
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