Before we jump the gun and say what everyone is thinking, it’s only fair to give both Batman: Arkham Knight and Gotham Knights a thorough analysis before deciding which is better. To give WB Games Montreal their credit, they never intended to make a fully single-player experience with Gotham Knights.

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The introduction of multiple characters and co-op multiplayer is a first for Gotham’s valiant heroes, and many aspects of the game take a hit in order to pull this off. With that said, Gotham Knights simply does not hold a candle to Rocksteady's triumphant finale - here are some of the reasons why.

Beware: There are minor spoilers for both games below.

7 Gotham City - Batman: Arkham Knight

Arkham Knight’s evacuated and downtrodden version of Gotham is still jaw-droppingly gorgeous years after its initial release. It’s much larger than Rocksteady’s previous iterations of Gotham, with three distinctly different islands and districts to explore. Each corner is densely packed with atmospheric detail, while the lighting, textures, and weather effects are all magnificent.

In addition to the random encounters Batman can have with the thugs littering the streets, Arkham Knight has a lot of meaningful side quests and activities that contain references to the wider DC universe. Traversing through Gotham has never felt better, whether you're using Batman’s improved grapple hook and gliding mechanics or behind the wheel of his intimidatingly hefty tank-like Batmobile.

Gotham Knights’ Gotham City, on the other hand, is disappointing in comparison. Gliding, teleporting, or mystically leaping across the city’s rooftops is more or less ok, but things take a turn for the worse when you get to street level. On the ground, everything feels empty and lifeless, lacking character compared to the superior Gotham in Arkham Knight. There are some cool hidden areas, side activities, and crimes to foil in Gotham Knights’ large map, but they often feel repetitive after a short while. Arkham Knight’s Gotham is definitely superior in every way.

6 Story - Batman: Arkham Knight

Comparing the story of both games is a little unfair, as Rocksteady’s Arkham Knight tied up their fantastic trilogy with an eventful and satisfying ending. After the shocking and surprisingly tragic conclusion of Batman: Arkham City, Scarecrow launches an attack on Gotham, causing a city-wide evacuation. With the absence of the Joker, Batman must battle his demons and regain his purpose, all while trying to save Gotham city once again. Just as with previous games, the story is extremely eventful and engaging, with a returning star-studded voice cast and appearances of some of the most memorable characters in the Batverse.

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WB Games Montreal is telling a completely new story within the Gotham Universe. With this in mind, they did an admirable job. Your mileage may vary, but on the whole, the story in Gotham Knights was a welcome surprise, considering that Batman isn’t even in the game. Batman’s band of fan-favorite sidekicks are interesting, well voice-acted, and often have entertaining and engaging interactions with each other. Despite this, the story doesn’t pay off in the same way that Arkham Knight does, making Rocksteady’s game the clear winner here.

5 Combat - Batman: Arkham Knight

With Arkham Knight, Rocksteady perfected the series’ influential and iconic free-flow combat by allowing you to hit prone enemies without breaking your precious combo streak. The overall pacing and flow are much more fluid and refined than in their previous games. With an improved high-tech Batsuit, more gadgets at your disposal, and the use of the Batmobile in various combat encounters, there was a myriad of ways you could (non-lethally) eliminate Batman’s enemies. It’s clear why the series has influenced so many other action games that came after it, and it’s the best the caped crusader has felt while beating up bad guys.

In regard to combat, Gotham Knights really dropped the Batarang here. WB Games Montreal decided to follow an RPG progression path focused on gaining loot and swapping out your gear for different abilities and perks. Unfortunately, you can never quite get the exact build you are looking for without a tedious grind.

The combat itself is a dumbed-down version of what came before, and it often boils down to taking out enemies in the same repetitive fashion - it lacks the same dynamic and flowing rhythm of the Arkham series. Despite having multiple characters to play with, the abilities and gadgets you could use in previous games are blocked off by each character’s individual skill tree, even though The Dark Knight himself could do it all pretty much from the get-go in Arkham Knight.

4 Playable Characters - Gotham Knights

Multiple characters were first introduced to the Arkham series way back in Arkham City, where you could control select characters in their own individual DLC and experiment with them in challenge maps. Arkham knight introduced a ‘Dual Play’ feature in which you could ‘tag in’ one of his trusty companions for a bout of combined ass-kicking.

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Gotham Knights takes this even further - the ability to pick and choose which bat sidekick to roam around Gotham is the foundation on which the entire game is built. You can change your character in the central Belfry hub area before you head out for an eventful night of crime fighting and thug beating. Robin, Red Hood, Batgirl, and Nightwing are all different and distinct from each other, and each brings interesting abilities and gadgets to traversal and combat.

When comparing base experiences, Gotham Knights does the whole multiple-protagonist thing a lot better than Arkham Knight, offering more content, tailored missions, upgrade paths, and gameplay options.

3 Co-Op Multiplayer - Gotham Knights

It’s a little unfair to compare the two games in this regard, as Arkham Knight had no multiplayer whatsoever and was a single-player experience only. This allowed Rocksteady to fully focus on the conclusion to their masterful trilogy without having to worry about balancing combat and world exploration with multiple players.

If there was ever a reason to pick Gotham Knights over Rocksteady’s farewell to Batman with Arkham Knight, it’d be because you want to explore Gotham City and fight bad guys with a buddy. It’s clear after roaming around Gotham with another acrobatically inclined caped crusader that this was how Gotham Knights was intended to be played. The disappointing combat is improved when playing off each other’s builds and movesets, and it’s generally a lot of fun to explore the entire map with two players.

2 Performance - Batman: Arkham Knight

Just before release, WB Games Montreal stated that Gotham Knights could only hit a max frame rate cap of 30 fps, even for next-gen consoles. Not being able to hit a stable 60 fps is a pretty big deal, and it’s a shame the game couldn’t reach this expected benchmark. In all fairness, its map is the largest of any Batman game, and its focus on multiplayer has definitely played a role in tanking the game’s performance significantly. Nevertheless, this is still a disappointment for many fans.

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On the other hand, Arkham Knight was released with its own performance issues on PC at launch. It was poorly optimized for the platform and often led to frame dips and general performance drops. Thankfully these issues have since been more or less fixed, and the game now runs smoothly for both PC and consoles. Here’s hoping Gotham Knights will soon receive the same treatment.

1 Overall Winner - Batman: Arkham Knight

So, in a statement that will surprise absolutely no one, Arkham Knight is undoubtedly the better game when compared with Gotham Knights. It has an undeniably better story, a more fully realized Gotham City, better DC villains and characters, a superior combat system, and a more stable performance.

That’s not to say that Gotham Knights is a complete abomination of a game - its multiple protagonists and option for co-op multiplayer make it worth experiencing for Batman fans, and WB Games Montreal should definitely be praised for trying to bring Batman’s gaming adventures somewhere new. It just doesn’t measure up to the vastly superior experience that Arkham Knight offers.

Next: Changes To Make Gotham Knights Go From Good To Great