Gotham Knights director teased details of additional members of Batman's rogues' gallery making their appearance in the game.
In an exclusive interview with CBR's Sam Stone, director Patrick Redding revealed fans could expect more classic villains in the game than previously disclosed. When asked what the villains symbolize to the Bat Family, Redding carefully explained, "I can say we've only really spoken about one particular member of the Batman rogues gallery -- Mr. Freeze, who was featured in our debut. There are going to be some additional revelations about that in the coming weeks."
Not only can fans expect to face more popular villains from the comics, but Redding teased an existential crisis of sorts for them, similar to that faced by Bruce Wayne's proteges after Batman's death. "What I can tell you broadly is all of the villains that we chose to include have a very specific history and relationship with Batman above and beyond just the adversarial aspect of it," Redding said. "And like our heroes, these are villains that are now having to reassess what their function is, where they sit in the ecosystem when their main adversary isn't around anymore." Redding closed with an intriguing question: "How are they going to redefine themselves?"
Although more classic rogues from Batman's long list of adversaries in the comics seem likely to appear in the title, the primary antagonists are the fan-favorite Court of Owls. They've yet to be explored in a game, making Gotham Knights a debut for them to new audiences. The Court of Owls are a secret society and organized crime group which appeared in the 2011 Batman comics run by writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo. Despite taking inspiration from the comics, the developers previously noted that they would not base the storyline on that particular series.
Redding's description of the villains seems in line with previous comments about the depth and detail of writing teased in the game. WB Games Montréal narrative director Montréal Lemay previously spoke on how the team wrote Gotham Knights as four different stories, with who players choose to play during different levels and cutscenes impacting the gameplay. The developers also described Gotham City as its own character, growing and changing throughout the game as Nightwing, Batgirl, Red Hood and Robin try to protect it and find their way after the death of their mentor.
Initially planned for a 2021 release, Gotham Knights launches on Oct. 25 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.
Source: CBR