In a recent interview, Gotham Knights developers Geoff Ellenor and Fleur Marty spoke about the upcoming game and revealed a bit about how they tackled one of the game's most prevalent challenges: seamless co-op.
Speaking with CBR, Ellenor and Marty explained that the biggest challenge they faced in designing Gotham Knights was ensuring that it was entertaining as both a co-op and a single player game, and that the shift between the two modes could occur seamlessly. As Marty puts it, "yes, you can be together in missions experiencing the story at the same time, but when you're in the open world, you can be completely separated and tackling different lines."
Because of the open-world structure of Gotham Knights, even when players are cooperating, there's no guarantee that they'll be having the same experience at the same time. While Gotham Knights could take the Elden Ring approach to multiplayer and only allow co-op in specific settings with heavy restrictions, Marty explains that the team wanted the game to be an "untethered co-op experience." The intention with Gotham Knights is to create an experience that's the same no matter how many people are approaching it. Marty also clarifies that the game "has to stand on its own if you're not in co-op."
Gameplay isn't the only thing that makes Gotham Knights' co-op options a difficult problem to tackle. The game also needs to make sense narratively in both co-op and single player. Ellenor explains the dynamic dialogue system intended to make the game's character interactions feel natural and organic: "In a given situation, when you're by yourself, your character is going to say something. When you're with somebody else, you possibly might hear a different line to begin with or at least a different follow-up. Your teammate will react to what you said, and that's a lot of stuff."
Gotham Knights has been in an interesting narrative position since its initial announcement. Despite being developed by WB Games Montréal, the studio behind the Batman: Arkham series, Gotham Knights is unrelated to any of the Arkham games. In the interview, Ellenor comments on the divide between Gotham Knights and Arkham, saying "it's completely its own thing." The game's seamless, dynamic co-op is a part of Gotham Knights' individual identity, and the team seems focused on making it as organic as possible.
Gotham Knights is scheduled to release on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Microsoft Windows on October 25, 2022.
Source: CBR