I have been looking forward to Gotham Knights since the game was originally announced. I loved the idea of being able to play as members of the Bat Family, especially Batgirl. I was hoping for Gotham Knights to be Batman Arkham Knight 2.0. I think many other gamers were thinking the same thing based on comments I had been reading online. As of right now, Gotham Knights is rated 6/10 on Steam and 73% of gamers liked the game. I can only speak for myself in saying that I enjoyed playing through Gotham Knights, but I don’t think the game is as good as I wanted it to be.

Gotham Knights has an incredible opening sequence featuring Batman fighting against Ra’s al Ghul. During the fight, Batman is mortally wounded. With no way out, he sets off the Batcave’s self-destruction sequence, trapping himself and Ra’s in the rubble. The Bat Family (Red Hood, Batgirl, Nightwing, and Robin) come together to become the Gotham Knights with the intent of continuing what Batman started. While following up on one of Batman’s leads, they discover a scientist, Kirk Langstrom, murdered. This sets the Knights on a path of lies and treachery in uncovering The Court of Owls an elite group operating in Gotham. If that wasn’t enough, Talia al Ghul and the League have also been making an appearance. Can The Knights prevent an all-out war that could leave Gotham in ruins?

I already know that this review is going to be biased. I loved playing as Batgirl. She was easily my favorite. If I wasn’t playing as Batgirl, I would alternate between her and Nightwing. I did try to give the other heroes a chance, but Batgirl always remained supreme. I think being able to interchange between each of the Bat Family helped as each of their powers was better equipped for certain combat scenarios. I think one of my favorite powers to unlock later was Batgirl being able to pull up her own drones that would fire on enemies. It was very powerful and I activated that ability a lot.

The combat in Gotham Knights didn’t feel as smooth as it was in Batman Arkham Knight. There were times when the game would glitch during an intense fight scene which was annoying. I would have to grapple away until the game would be better and then try and start over in the fight. I do feel that the characters in Gotham Knights could handle firepower better than Batman Arkham Knight. There was more stealth in the Batman games whereas in Gotham Knights, I could enter a combat scenario even if the enemies were carrying assault weapons. As someone who isn’t a stealthy type of gamer, this worked well for me.

I think the biggest gripe I would have about Gotham Knights is the leveling system. In order for the Bat Family to gain more equipment or powers, there was a need to level up in the game. This got old really quickly. There were times when certain missions, the Bat Family would have to be at a certain level. I would try and play through the level even if I was a little bit below the suggested level and it made a difference. It was much more difficult and intense. I was playing through the game on Medium, as I like the challenge without it being too much. The leveling system was grueling in my opinion and I felt I had to do side quests to level up quicker when really I would have preferred to finish the main story first without interruption. I wish Gotham Knights wasn’t made as an RPG and instead, a story that gets increasingly more difficult as the levels progress.

At this point, I haven’t actually finished the full campaign. I have the last bit with the Man-Bats attacking Gotham. I tried to get past them and it was brutal. The Man-Bats are difficult and there are three of them. Additionally, if the Bat Family uses all their health packs, they don’t get any more unless they go back to their hideout which may reset the progress made, but I’m not 100% sure on that. It was enough that I needed to take a break from the game. I honestly may drop the difficulty mode to get past this section.

I had a fun time playing through Gotham Knights. It wasn’t the Batman Arkham Knight sequel I was looking forward to, but I’m still glad it exists and I enjoyed playing through the game.

I have talked about the Curse of Strahd campaign on my blog before. I have been playing in this campaign since January 2022, so almost a year and a half. Our group changed from meeting every other Thursday to every Thursday to help speed up progress through Curse of Strahd. While this campaign has been ongoing for a while, I still enjoy playing as my character especially since she’s been unlocking blood curses. The pinnacle of Curse of Strahd is when the players finally accept Strahd’s dinner invitation. Our group has been avoiding Strahd for a while, but after finding out some lore for another side quest we were working on, we realized we had no choice but to accept Strahd’s invitation to dinner at Castle Ravenloft.

**Slight Spoilers for Curse of Strahd**

Our group accepted Strahd’s invitation to dinner and was greeted by Strahd’s guard or assistant, Rahadin. As a side note, Rahadin is a pretty evil character and I’m hoping our group has a chance to encounter him and bring him to his demise. Anyway, Rahadin led us to dinner where Strahd gave his imposing villain speech. Suddenly, our group was locked in and I couldn’t help but laugh. Of course, Strahd locks us in his castle, so we can fight for our lives and entertain him. The only good thing about this was the artifact we were looking for is in Castle Ravenloft. Before entering the castle, our group kept throwing out ideas on how to steal this artifact, and now Strahd locking us away gives us the opportunity to do that.

Castle Ravenloft is essentially an adult version of a Scooby-Doo mystery. I faintly remember several Scooby Doo old cartoon episodes where the gang would discover hidden pathways in the mansions they were exploring. One of the first traps was when we went to the prison cells and this pressure plate was activated. Our group was then thrown up toward the upper floors of the castle. I tried to climb out of the box we were in and saw concrete. Thankfully, I was able to head back down, otherwise, I would have taken 8 d10 of bludgeoning damage. Major yikes.

Will our group make it out of Castle Ravenloft? I genuinely don’t know. The fight against Strahd could get ugly and while I already mentioned fighting Rahadin, he will probably be an intense fight. The one thing I will say is that I’m grateful that my character has made it this far because honestly, there were several close calls. No matter what happens, I will be happy with the outcome.

Gen Con is in three months and I’m getting more excited as it gets closer. Event registration is coming up shortly, so I’m looking forward to signing up for demos and other events that Gen Con is hosting. There are so many vendors to see and one that I have had my eye on is Darrington Press. Darrington Press is a subsidiary of Critical Role, so it’s basically Critical Role’s board game publishing company. In Darrington Press‘s most recent announcement, they address that they will be at Gen Con this year.

In watching the announcement, Darrington Press will be at Gen Con as it sounds like they are promoting a new game called Queen by Midnight. Queen by Midnight is a deck-building game where players take on the role of princesses trying to outlast the night and become the new Midnight Queen. The game itself looks stunning. I love the clock design and how the time is set throughout the game. Deck-building games can be a hit or a miss for me, but I think Queen of Midnight has a lot of potentials. I hope that there will be demos of the game either as an event at Gen Con or at the Darrington Press booth.

In the above announcement, Matt Mercer did address that Critical Role isn’t doing a live show this year. Honestly, it makes sense. Critical Role has gotten so big and I don’t think there would be a venue at Indianapolis that would hold everyone who wanted to see their live show. Additionally, that must be a lot of work for the cast to organize and they probably want to promote more of their side gigs which include Darrington Press.

I’m looking forward to seeing Darrington Press at Gen Con. I would love to demo Queen by Midnight as it seems like an interesting concept and the art in the game looks so pretty. I’m counting down the days to Gen Con even though it will be here before I know it.