Gotham Knights launches today, giving DC fans a chance to try out a game that has received mixed news and reactions during the build to its arrival. One of the biggest issues dissected ahead of its launch was the reveal that it will be locked at 30fps on console. A closer look at the various console versions of Gotham Knights has actually revealed the unpopular 30fps cap might be a little ambitious.
Digital Foundry has tested various visual and performance aspects of Gotham Knights now the game is on the market, paying particular attention to that controversial 30fps cap. The section testing and comparing frame rates begins at around the 14-minute mark of the video below. As you can see, even though Gotham Knights targets 30fps on console, there are a lot of instances where it fails to maintain that.
The biggest offender across PS5 and Xbox Series X|S is when players are traveling around Gotham at speed, usually on a bike. The video demonstrates there are moments the framerate drops as low as 25fps during these moments. The game also struggles to maintain a stable 30fps during close-quarters combat, and even when you're moving quickly on foot, especially when outside.
Maintaining what has already proven to be an unpopular framerate is easier done indoors, but the video highlights an odd anomaly with the Series X version of Gotham Knights. After entering a train station, the game drops as low as 20fps. The same issue was tested on PS5 and Series S and doesn't appear to be a problem. That might mean something in the game triggers the problem on Series X, but it currently remains unclear why the framerate struggles so much in this particular scenario.
Despite the controversy surrounding Gotham Knights' framerate lock and lack of a performance mode, its reviews have been largely positive. There has been a lot of praise for the game's story, and not much mention of the locked fps taking away from that. There's also its four-player co-op mode Heroic Assault to look forward to, launching November 29, 2022.