This is without a doubt the biggest frustration fans seem to have with Knight (unless of course you were unfortunate enough to be in the PC crowd), and it's easy to see why. In the run up to Knight's release, Rocksteady were really emphasising the new mechanic of 'dual play' - a feature that enabled players to team up with Batman's allies and tackle a room full of enemies together. This all sounded fantastic in its premise, but fans had no idea that this pivotal feature would only be restricted to a few short sections of the main story. Each and every entry in the Arkham series has featured challenge maps for players to put their skills to the test. They weren't just great for honing skills though, as it allowed fans to use other characters that weren't featured prominently in the campaign to explore each and every aspect of their move-set - preventing the formula from getting stale in the process. Players looking to compete with their friends on the leaderboards whilst listening to frustrated villains on loudspeaker are in for a shock with Knight though, as Rocksteady decided to completely do away with the maps altogether. This proved to be quite the shock as fans were given no indication whatsoever that these sections had been axed, and to make matters worse it looks as though Warner Bros. are planning to sell back the content via DLC. Not only is this unfair on the legions of people who purchased Knight on release day, it makes literally no sense to include more playable characters than ever before and only have them playable in short segments of the story. Batman's allies have also seen a significant reduction in their arsenal as well, with some now being restricted to a meagre three gadgets in total. Surely they can fit more in their utility belts Rocksteady?
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
