Recent reviews by Rabbit

Gotham Knights should not be tackled expecting an Arkham Knight sequel or anything close to an Arkham game. Instead it should be looked at as its own (flawed) standalone experience.

Arkham games out of the way, there is another issue with Gotham Knights that sticks out: its live service model framework. Although there's no concrete evidence that proves so, the initial gameplay reveal took place around the same time the Avengers video game released. After Avengers turned out to be a commercial flop, it's not so hard to make the inference that the developers/publishers demanded a hard pivot into an open world, narrative-driven, single player experience. While the loot game, overwhelming amount of currencies, and leveling system are puzzling to look at in the final product, they all ultimately serve their purpose. Nothing more, nothing less. I imagine if the developers had more time and were able to further repurpose the game into something more along the lines of Playstation's Spider-man, the game would have gotten a much more positive reception overall.

The same can be said about combat itself. While each of Gotham Knights' four characters all have interesting and unique kits that can be fun to experiment with, some of the enemy design, such as some Talon and Regulator enemies, and open world mission structures, such as the organ theft or bomb defusal crimes, can greatly reduce your enjoyment. For me personally, I opted to play on easy to help mitigate these faults, but not everyone may want to do so. Even still, things like your Knighthood skill tree and momentum abilities are locked behind grinding open world missions and enemies. It wasn't until the latter half of the main story where I felt truly powerful as one of Batman's proteges.

Transitioning from there, the story and characters are where the game really shines. The game takes place well into a very successful Batman's career, where many of his iconic villains have either been defeated, reformed, or rehabilitated. After a fatal altercation with Ra's Al Ghul, it's up to Nightwing, Batgirl, Redhood, and Robin (Tim Drake), to pick up where he left off and protect Gotham in his place. The story is engaging but concise, never overstaying its welcome or rushing things. The Court of Owls and the League of Shadows make for strong villains while mainstays like Harley Quinn, Penguin, and Mr. Freeze take a seat on the sideline. There are also plenty of character moments for our four Knights + Alfred. Nightwing finds himself deep in the leader/mentor position, Batgirl not only has to grieve her adoptive father, but her biological father as well, Red Hood must come to terms with his past and regrets, and Robin, still fresh into his superhero career, is still trying to find his footing while also losing the person that taught him everything he knows. As a Batman fan, the story was the biggest takeaway from me and is honestly worth the price of admission (if it is on sale).

I'm giving this a recommendation only if you're willing to tolerate/look past the unsavory parts of the game to enjoy the story and characters. I personally did not mind the grind at all, in fact, I actually started to like the loot game and progression (it was a lot better than Avengers, but that's a low bar). However, it is an issue that not everyone can overlook.

This is a recommendation, but a very *conditional* recommendation. I still hope that this game gets either DLC or a sequel because I would love to see what other parts of Gotham these characters could investigate and perhaps add more to the roster (Stephanie Brown/Spoiler? Batwoman? Cassandra Cain?). Probably won't happen, but I can dream.


Edit: I forgot to mention how much I crashed when I played. Oh my God, WB. Please patch this, lol

Overall V Rising is a very good survival game. The artstyle is fantastic, combat in the beginning is difficult but rewarding, and crafting and progression,albeit a bit grindy due to the day/night cycle, are very well done.

Unfortunately, if you haven't the time every day to play the game, do not play on any multiplayer servers. Failing to maintain upkeep on your base's blood heart will result in it decaying and eventually, players being able to go into your base and completely ransack it for all your materials and resources. I lost everything that way. This can be easily fixed by playing on your own private server, but when this happened to me, it was an immediate uninstall and refund. Honestly a shame.

While yes this game does have similarities to Overwatch, it is NOT Overwatch. Paladins has a higher MOBA influence with the item shop and distinct lanes in it's maps. This makes flanking and manuvering the map more important and prevents you from simply pushing the objective all of the time. The game's primary game mode "Siege" starts off like King of the Hill and then turns into a payload push toward a team's base. To win you need four points, capping the point, pushing the payload, and defending your base from the payload each earn your team a point. This can lead to some exciting, chaotic, and tense tiebreaker rounds where both teams have three out of four points and must capture the point in order to win.

The game also has a card system. You build a loadout consisting of five cards, each enhancing a champion's abilities or weapon/armor in some way. This can be used to help make a champion suit your playstyle more, which is a very useful feature in the game.

The game does have microtransactions, (it's a free to play game, it has to make money somehow) but it's not too difficult to earn enough money to buy yourself a new champion, skins, emotes, MVP poses, or cards. Unfortunately, all champion skins that can be bought for free are merely recolors, and all the unique skins can only be obtained through crystals (microtransaction currency), exclusive offers, or the game's loot chests. But it's only cosmetic, which balances out fairly I suppose.

Is the game perfect right now? Of course not. The lore in the game is very few to nonexistant right now. Characters are forgettable aside from the ones that you'll play as frequently. There are only two game modes (Siege and Payload). There are way too many DPS champions in the game right now. And not all champions feel balanced yet. Issues that I hope are addressed during this beta.

Paladins is at the very least a MUST try. You don't need a monster computer to play this game so it's very accessible, it's free, and most of all it's fun.