Have you heard the news? Batman is dead. The untimely demise of the Dark Knight creates a multitude of questions, with the most obvious being, 'Who will step up to become Gotham's unflinching protector in his stead?' WB Games Montréal's Gotham Knights casts Batgirl, Robin, Red Hood, and Nightwing as its playable protagonists to answer that question. But the more interesting implications of Batman's death are outside the moonlit rooftops and crime-ridden streets he swore to protect, and inside the halls of the studio bringing Gotham Knights to life.

From the very outset, Gotham Knights has been a confusing prospect. It's developed by a studio that previously worked on Arkham Origins, a Batman game set in the same universe as Rocksteady's Arkham Asylum, City, and Knight. It looks a lot like those games and, narratively, seems to pick up where they left off, with the implied death of Bruce Wayne/Batman in the Knightfall ending. Its gameplay is built on the foundation of the Arkham games and its unique hook--a Bat-family team-up--is an idea explored in several of Arkham Knight's DLCs. But, despite all these links, Gotham Knights is not connected to the Arkham games in any way. Instead, it exists in its own distinct universe and is presented as something entirely new.

WB Games Montréal then faces the unenviable task of convincing people that their new Batman game is, in fact, not a Batman game in the way you think--despite what it may look like. This idea was pervasive in the few hours I played Gotham Knights, and as a result, I came away uncertain about some aspects of it while intrigued by others. At the very least, Gotham Knights is messing with the status quo, which was at the core of the idea for the game.