Gotham Knights: How Does It Actually Run On Series X And PS5?
"Gotham Knights," the new action co-op game separate from the "Arkham Asylum" universe, has been embroiled in controversy over some of its technical limitations. Now that the review embargo is up, Digital Foundry has released a video showing just how the game actually runs across Xbox Series X|S and PS5. For anyone out of the loop, back when WB Montréal and Warner Bros. Games announced that "Gotham Knights" would no longer be releasing on last-gen hardware due to technical limitations, fans were left seeing red.
More recently, it was revealed that "Gotham Knights" does not feature a performance mode on consoles, something that has become a bit of a staple for the current generation of systems. This means that the game constantly runs at 30 FPS with no option to run at 60 FPS, which fans found upsetting. WB Montréal cited the untethered co-op experience as one of the reasons for this limitation. Now fans are itching to know if the game at least runs well at its locked 30 FPS on consoles. Here's what Digital Foundry discovered.
Gotham Knights can't maintain a stable 30 FPS on consoles
According to Digital Foundry, the game hits a resolution of 4K on both Xbox Series X and PS5, with the Xbox Series S coming in at 1440p. In the video, they said that they ran into zero issues and had no complaints with the visual quality of "Gotham Knights." However, "Gotham Knights" appears unable to maintain its targeted 30 FPS frame rate, dipping below this number regularly.
In the video, Digital Foundry used riding a motorcycle through Gotham as a test of frame rate, with the rate fluctuating between 30 FPS and 25 FPS regularly. The frame-time, which measures the time intervals between frames, also shifts regularly, with the game falling behind and attempting to catch back up with itself. Frame-time is supposed to be consistent, as delivering frames inconsistently makes the game stutter. While the motorcycle sequences were the worst, these issues persisted in combat sequences and while traversing on foot. With inconsistent frame rates and frame-times, across PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, "Gotham Knights" performance leaves much to be desired, especially for a game that doesn't even have a performance mode.