Upon release, Gotham Knights received mixed reviews from both players and critics. To say that all reviews are contradictory is to say nothing. Each publication praises and criticizes different things. And yet, there are still elements in games that can be assessed objectively, and among them are the visual component and optimization.
Digital Foundry journalist Oliver McKenzie decided to take on their analysis. This is how the video “Gotham Knights Has Problems Beyond 30FPS – DF Tech Review – All Console Tested” appeared on the publisher’s channel. The review came out before the release of the game and greatly damaged its reputation, because the journalist mercilessly trashes the entire visual of “Knights”.
After completing the game, I am ready to responsibly declare that the video is divided into two parts: slander and very minor claims that are not visible when playing without paying attention to the details.
However, now my words don’t matter and it looks like I’m throwing them around, so I propose to analyze every element of the DF video with screenshots and footage, refuting every claim towards the “Knights”.
Canceling the game for previous generation consoles and 30 frames per second
The developers’ statement about the cancellation of the game for the previous generation of consoles and 30fps PS5 and XBOX S X/S led to a wave of negativity and refunds. It’s hard to blame people for this, because they said this literally a week before the game’s release, when it had already gone gold. However, Oliver McKenzie states that he is surprised by both of these decisions, because the game looks average even by last-gen standards.
I can’t justify the optimization, which is unable to produce the promised stable 30 frames on consoles, and I agree that this is a mistake. But I can justify the low performance with high detail and excellent lighting (about it separately).
The game has a relatively small open world, but from a visual point of view it is well done. The textures are detailed, the lighting is at the level, and a lot of cars, passers-by and random activities load the platforms (more about the naturalness of the world later). Every living thing has artificial intelligence, which also affects productivity. Moreover, the characters themselves are detailed: every costume, hit effect and particle is made at a high level.
Well, the game clearly doesn’t look average for the last generation of consoles.
As evidence, the journalist cites footage of the game in comparison with Arkham Knight
From the Digital Foundry video
Well, I’ll give you my footage, which proves my arguments above.
Characters, enemies and dynamic objects are not included in the lighting
A blatant example of slander. Seeing the DF footage, you can really get the impression that the lighting of people and the environment does not match at all.
From the Digital Foundry video
I hasten to inform you that the footage above is speculation. The journalist apparently relied on a press release or some other unfinished build of the game. After all, throughout my entire playthrough, I have not come across a single example of this. Apparently he encountered a couple of lighting bugs. And what’s funny about this situation is that in the footage that Oliver McKenzie cites below, there are no such problems.
I still bring my footage. But here you will partly have to take my word for it, because I won’t be able to attach a complete walkthrough of the game, where I’ve never encountered anything like this.
Lighting problems
I firmly believe that lighting is one of the main advantages of the game. It’s simply incredible, considering that I played without ray tracing at all.
However, the journalist claims that there are many problems with him, which are glare appearing out of nowhere. It’s stupid to dispute this, because there is recorded footage, but I can’t agree with Oliver, considering that, according to him, this can be seen often.
From the Digital Foundry video
Personally, I have never encountered such problems at all, and if they existed, I overlooked them. I cannot prove their presence or absence.
And yet, based on the full walkthrough, I can say that if this problem exists, then in order to notice it, you need to peer into the locations, which is something the average player does not do. Moreover, this is clearly easy to fix and I can assume that this will happen in the next patch.
Also, when McKenzie praised the game’s interiors (which I completely agree with), he notes the realistic, dark lighting, which once again proves that this is nothing more than a bug.
Comparison with Batman: Arkham Knight
Arkham Knight is rightfully one of the best games in terms of technology. The graphics there look many generations ahead, and the optimization of the final build allows you to run it on not the latest hardware.
Of course, the finale of the https://ladylindacasino.uk/withdrawal/ Arkham series can be called the best relative to the Knights, but there are pitfalls here too. In Batman, the visuals are focused on realism, which he does well, the WB Montreal game has a more cartoonish style, which allows it to implement more fantasy and role-playing elements (particles of the same elemental damage, hang gliders and mystical double jumps).
You can argue forever about what is better: a cartoon or a movie. But the aforementioned detailing and lighting prevent the Knights from slipping into a project that “looks average even for last generation.”.
However, this is not the essence of DF’s claims. Honestly, this section tore me apart the most, because I simply could not believe that such a famous media outlet could appeal to such.
The essence of one of the complaints is the lack of rain and the presence of puddles, although in Arkham Knight it always rains. Yeah, apparently according to Mackenzie, this completely ruins the atmosphere of Gotham.
From the Digital Foundry video
You can talk about rain and its brevity in the Arkham series forever, but here’s a surprise: THERE IS RAIN IN THE GAME!
Footage from Youtube
I can’t vouch for the fact that he has a dynamic change, it’s quite possible he appears on quests. Well, I’m generally silent about the fact that it can rain during the day and puddles remain overnight.
Oliver goes on to say that the atmospheric effects in Knights are worse developed than in Arkham Knight. The thing is that in the two games they are worked out differently and work for a different atmosphere.
By the way, Oliver also went through it, saying that Gotham is not dark enough, especially in relation to the Rocksteady game. This, Oliver, is one of the main differences between these two projects. These are different universes, different developers and, ultimately, different games.
Knights don’t have to be like the Arkham series.
Where is the atmosphere better?? Dark gothic or neon madness? This is subjective, that’s why I don’t want to get into this. I’ll just say that I personally like both in their own way.
McKenzie mentions that Arkham Knight has a longer draw distance. The explanation can be contained in one sentence. Rocksteady games have blur. This adds a cinematic feel and improves performance. He would look out of place in Knights, due to the same cartoon visuals. That’s why the range is reduced.
The journalist also mentions the poor sales of water, but I’ll be honest: when passing through, you won’t care what kind of water there is. You won’t pay attention to her at all.
I will also challenge Mackenzie’s argument about the lifeless city. The city really, from part, feels like a toy, but not at all because Oliver told us. Cars regularly drive in the city, people walk and address the main characters. Comparison with Arkham Knight is useless here. There are riots in the streets, here is a calm (well, with reservations) city. I think it’s useless to talk about the difference in saturation.
Conclusions
I really don’t know what else you can leave negative reviews for Knights for, other than poor optimization. Yes, some key elements (combat, stealth…) could have been done better, but the game clearly did not deserve the hell that is happening on Metacritic and other aggregators. And certainly – hate for the visuals.
Best comments
On the one hand, of course, the approach “I take someone else’s argument and select a counterargument to it, rather than being toxic” is good. But on the other hand, if you liked the game, then why cross swords with a person who won’t see you, won’t hear you and is generally not aware that you exist? And even if SUDDENLY he stumbles upon this material, then, obviously, he will not answer you in any way.
For me, as a reader, this is bad because if I am not familiar with the material of this Oliver with DF, then instead of some kind of general idea about the game, I get excerpts from scraps. Neither Oliver’s position is fully conveyed to me, nor does the author put forward a sufficient number of counter theses, limiting himself to a simple parry. Besides, it’s not always successful.
Because the first example is not indicative at all. And then begins what I call “advocacy,” because for the thesis: “Lighting does not apply to dynamic bodies,” comrade Oliver has normal footage, but comrade the author only has “here you have to take my word for it, but I haven’t noticed such problems.”.
And what? T.e. they could have been there, but you might not have noticed them, because your eye is not used to critically assessing the picture, clinging to technical details, which the dudes with DF ate the dog? Why did Oliver see the crooked highlights, but for the author of the article “well, it’s not a problem, who will look at them?»
As a result, the post looks very poor, because the author does not have any devastating counterarguments (and the designated Oliver hardly has any reason to directly slander the game). I don’t mean that Gotham Knights is really bad, bad, but what I mean is that if you want to praise the game, it’s okay to highlight its strengths – then do a full review, and not a reaction to individual pieces of someone else’s opinion. Because in this case (according to my feelings) your own screenshots work against you, showing a very mediocre picture against the backdrop of the same Batman, who… how old is he?? Six? Where and with the space in the frame, the work was much more painstaking, and the staging of cutscenes has the right to be called a “staging”, and is not a set of the most standard angles with talking heads, etc.d.
I’ll make a reservation right away that I’m guided by the footage of the game on the Internet, i.e.To. I don’t have a copy of the game.
I will divide my thoughts into three points.
1) To be honest, I didn’t see a counterargument at all in the very first comparison.
An ordinary bucket with spot lighting and a dark corridor in which there are no non-scripts, no complex geometry, no drawing distance, no complex shading. The Arkham Knight shot above from DF looks spectacular not only because of the rain, but also because of the lighting, reflections, complex geometry and a bunch of additional decorative objects. The shown back-footage is empty, and to my taste, it looks something like a game from the early PS4 era with modified lighting and shading from the later PS4\PRO era.
Of course, the finale of the Arkham series can be called the best relative to the Knights, but there are pitfalls here too. In Batman, the visuals are focused on realism, which he does well, the WB Montreal game has a more cartoonish style, which allows it to implement more fantasy and role-playing elements (particles of the same elemental damage, hang gliders and mystical double jumps).
You can argue forever about what is better: a cartoon or a movie. But the aforementioned detailing and lighting prevent the Knights from slipping into a project that “looks average even for last generation.”.
I wouldn’t even pay attention to it. I didn’t notice a bias towards the animation style, rather towards a moderate, rather modest stylization with a slight eye on realism.
3) In general, purely subjective (and based on footage, I repeat!), Gotham Knights seemed to me visually much more meager than the Arkham games and I still wonder why they used ray tracing on the current generation consoles, which is so wasteful of resources, if tracing, in relation to classic rendering, is not their strongest point? (their GPUs can trace at the level of ~2060Super, but classic rendering is ~2080Super – there are at least three articles + videos from DF on the network where they show this very clearly – Valhalla\WatchDogs: Legion\Gears + there is an article and video about Control, which without DLSS brings to its knees many GPUs on the market, including my 2070 Super).
In addition, it seems to me extremely strange to choose the intensity of the city’s content – albeit a calm, but still a night city. And the night city should live a vibrant life. Or am I missing something plot-wise??
At the same time, it’s upsetting that the author was caught by the opinion of some unauthoritative no-name, that he took him for analysis, or is it the case of such an iconic figure of the digital gamer as SonnyK ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Okay, I’ll give you a hint why I’m being a little sarcastic here :3
Forgive me if I’m bashing you in the eyes, but at first glance, and even upon further examination, it is clearly visible that the visual is many times inferior to Batman. I haven’t played the game, but judging by the author’s gifs, it’s really unclear why they can’t even run at 30 fps, if the detail is an order of magnitude lower than in Bets. Again, judging by the author’s GIFs.
I’ll add that I respect the approach chosen in the article: present counterarguments without trying to tear them to pieces and somehow insult the opinion/personality of another author, the results of whose work are being discussed. Respectful treatment and lack of desire to somehow put yourself above.
This is worthy of a big plus in karma. Thanks for this)
P.S.: Unfortunately, in our time it is fashionable to shockingly fight with an opponent, without putting his personality and thoughts in a penny.
Thank you for the alternative view of the game. It was interesting to read)
SonnyK? First time I hear.
Eh, buddy, I haven’t heard of such great people, where have you been all these last years?? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
I poked his channel into a couple of the most popular videos and didn’t even understand what his point was. Regular blogger.
In principle I agree with many things. But still:
To be honest, for this footage I didn’t look for beautiful places around the city at all and decided to jump into a random alley. It’s an irresponsible decision, but I didn’t want to pretend that all of Gotham was perfect. In general, it can be said that it doesn’t infuriate, because most of the time you spend in highly detailed interiors with luxurious lighting.
The cartoon style is visible mainly in the dynamics and adds a comic-like atmosphere.
I agree that the Knights (still subjective) look head and shoulders below Arkham Knight, but in DF, in my opinion, they clearly went too far. Objectively, they are just games in different styles, as I wrote about in the analysis.
And I still agree with the use of tracing. Excellent lighting in and out of the game. A friend played with tracing, the impressions didn’t change much.
Regarding the fullness – Gotham is clearly not a city where life boils at night) And there are plenty of crimes, it’s just that these criminal elements are not at every turn, as in the street riots of the Arkham Knight.
Well, subjectively: the rain in the Arkham series annoyed me. Tired of these particles.
In general, Knights have many advantages that are not related to visuals, but in the context of the article I decided not to mention.
Thanks for the comment)
And this is the same sunnek or dream book, well, in short, the same one.
why can’t they even do it at 30 fps if the detail is an order of magnitude lower than in bat. Again, judging by the author’s GIFs.
In my comment above I explained in more detail the reason for 30fps 😉
Wonderful analysis/review/analysis of another review. I especially liked the fact that the author does not insult the author of the review, that is, Oliver. And I remember watching a video of one dude, where he, after a disclaimer about the fact that he did not want to offend the author, began to insult him as soon as possible.
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