Standing Behind Gotham Knights
My name is Jase Taylor, I am a staff writer here at GameGrin, it's my job to assist in covering reviews, previews, news, and articles.
Reviewing a game has a lot of elements to it. It's not just supposed to be a matter of personal opinion, but also — and more so — how a game measures up to certain standards. Unfortunately, it's common for personal opinions to govern any given review. My work is no exception. Readers need to consider this when looking at a review. Those that engage in this kind of writing try to inform others based on their experience and conduct themselves honestly when doing so. But stripping away opinionism is difficult. Like most sites, we at GameGrin have a review ethics page. We give our final review scores not based on how we feel, but rather on if the game qualifies for what that score means to the site.
However, I am not just someone who reviews games. I am a gamer, and I’ve been playing videogames for over 20 years at this point. How the industry's practices have changed during that time has not escaped my notice, and I consider that knowledge when putting a game through review. It is for all these reasons that I am shocked by the low scores for the recently released Gotham Knights. In my review, I wrote the following.
"As with any AAA game these days, optimisation of game textures and features is something that needs to be done in the coming days by WB Games Montreal."
Like the reviewers from IGN, Polygon, PC Gamer, and Gamespot (who all gave negative reviews), I wrote my review using a pre-launch version of the game. Obviously, this means the version I played was not going to be the version that launched on release day — due to the common practice of day-one patches. What is so striking, however, is that other reviewers seemed to forget that the technical issues they may have experienced would not go unaddressed by WB Games Montreal. It was not at all surprising that a day one patch dropped along with the game's release, and yet the game was frequently hammered by reviewers for bad framerate and game crashes.
Already, before and after videos are being uploaded to YouTube showing FPS and stability improvements to Gotham Knights. Anyone who knows me knows I detest YouTubers but hey you can’t deny they influence the community.
Perhaps the other reviewers' issues with the game were not technical. It is possible: the game has recently been under fire via social media for an announcement that console versions would be locked at 30FPS. Disastrously, several pre-order copies of the game were also sent out early. This unfortunately led to a confusing pre-release impression by the general public, as videos made their way online. Could public opinion have swayed the reviewers' scores? Well, let's take a look and maybe you will start to understand my frustration.
Travis Northup was the reviewer for IGN covering Gotham Knights. He used a pre-launch code to conduct his review on the Xbox Series X. With the 30FPS lock in place for the console version, and without the day one patch, Travis’s experience on the technical side was predictably bad. I have to believe an experienced reviewer would know that in today's world a day-one patch was going to happen for a title like this. Throughout his review, he also talks about the story, its characters, and combat gameplay.
His interpretation of the story is that it is predictable. He specifically mentions this in the review's conclusion. Personally, I would ask, does every game need to have an M. Night Shyamalan moment? See how opinion has started to govern the review? Travis continues by praising the personalities of the characters, and bashing what he felt was “simple and underwhelming” combat.
Comparisons to the Batman Arkham series are also found all throughout the review. But shouldn't a game be considered for what it is, and not by what others have done or wanted it to be? Gotham Knights is not related storywise to the Batman Arkham series, nor is it made by the same developer.
The final rating IGN gave Gotham Knights on Xbox Series X was 5/10. If we explore their website we can quickly find that a rating of five on IGN means the following.
Additionally, Gamespot's Mark Delany rated Gotham Knights a 4/10 on Xbox Series X. Which translates simply to “poor” on their website.
By comparison, I rated the game at 8.5/10 on PC (the highest I have ever given). Our website's review ethics page explains that an 8—8.5 rating means the following.
Does Gotham Knights have issues — sure? I lambasted the cumbersome nature of playing it with mouse and keyboard vs controller, I even mentioned blurry textures that required optimisation, and tweaks I needed to make to get a decent FPS. I also discussed the restrictive feel to the opening segments of the game. But are the issues numerous enough that the game should be considered bad? And am I really going to go after the game because its story doesn't have a twist? Nope, and I won't do that. Gotham Knights is not another Cyberpunk 2077 type-event (cue end of the world montage). Presently the game is rated higher on Metacritic for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X than it is on PC. This makes no sense given that the controversy around the game (the 30FPS lock) only affects console versions.
Whether this is due to the technical issues of the game (before the day-one patch), reviewers hearing about the controversy from Executive Producer Fleur Marty's statement and deciding to rate it based on public opinion, or the reviewers honestly not enjoying the experience is anyone's guess. For my part, I stand behind my Gotham Knights review knowing that the game can only get better now that it has been released.
A full list of the day-one patch notes is currently unavailable. However, you can check out the following links for information on key changes that have been made. So far there is only confirmation that the day-one patch has arrived on PC and PlayStation 5. If true then there is likely a separate patch for the Xbox Series X on the way.
-Updated (28/10/2022)-
WB Games Montreal has made its official patch notes for both PC and consoles available to the public, though this does not include notes for the day-one patch it does show how they are working on further stability and performance tweaks to the game. You can read the patch notes here.
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