Been trying-out Gotham Knights to see, if it is bad as everyone says it is, and it's not bad, it's just that... its mediocre. Were it shines is the story, but in order to get to the story you have to wade through all of this crap that you've got to do (especially in higher difficulty levels were the enemies become bullet sponges). This is the exact same reason why I never finished Mafia 3. And everything is done in the exact same way. Of course, I may be wrong, because I just entered the Court of Owls level (so, maybe 10-20 percent through), but why the hell do I have to again beat the crap out of Penguin's guards in his night-club, if I had done it already? Because, what? Now he has hired some muscle-woman in addition to his normal staff? Almost all of the side missions are identical - beat the crap out of everyone. Difference is, when you level up and did some other side missions, you get different enemy types with different levels. Variety is in treasure hunts only (but, again, I may be wrong, I haven't played that much, just for about 3 or 4 hours) were you have to beat the clock in order to unlock a box of materials. And defuse the bomb missions were you have to use stealth, because if your are spotted, you have maybe 30 seconds or 1 minute to diffuse the bombs. And it's not really generous time frame considering everyone is shooting at you.
Crafting... why this game needs crafting? I have no idea. You do side-content, you get craft materials, you do main missions you get more craft materials and the stats are random. Some may provide you with special stats (immunity or dealing shock, ice, fire damage etc.), some may not. Again, I don't know why it was implemented in this game.
Stealth... heh, you don't need it, actually it hinders more than it helps. Just pick Red Hood (the dude with pistols), stand far away and snipe everyone. Chances are they not gonna even react to you. That's how I beat one level with Mr. Freeze. Seriously, the AI is a joke in this game. Now, I may be inclined to carry-on further, because the story is at least engaging (take that, Arkham Knight, there I've said it; this game has better storyline than Arkham Knight), however, the biggest gripe I have with the game comes from traversal. It is cumbersome. I have yet to remember a Batman game were I said: "Wow, getting from point A to point B sucks ass" (I may have not liked the Batmobile in AK, but for different reasons). It's just not fun to continuously click F, then click Shift to jump in to the air (oh, BTW, you have to click Shift when the prompt tells you to, sooner - it wont register, later it wont register). Also, first time that I've gotten a cramp in my fingers because of this. I am even debating of whether or not I should use the controller next type (if I even want to continue the game that is). You can unlock "upgraded" traversals, were, for example, Red Hood creates some kind of magical jumping spheres, from which he can jump off in the air, but, I, if playing Batgirl, have to unlock glide ability? She has a stupid cape for crying out loud. Baman did not have to unlock anything in his game in terms of simple traversals. What the hell even.
Oh, yeah, the game has detective mode, but it is shit compared to Arkham games. For the most part, I can't see anything at all. I literally had to youtube what the hell to do in Penguin's office, because I could not see the implanted trackers. Why I could not see it? Because unlike in previous Batman games, detective mode does not give you sci-fi x-ray ability, which stays on for an indefinite period. It's more in line of what newer AC games have with Eagle Vision, but even more useless. Not to mention I had to for ten minutes run around Court of Owls office just to randomly guess were that one grey wire is going to, because, surprise, surprise, the detective vision does not help you at all with discerning this. Only when I stood in front of an object and randomly scanned it did it started to show that it has wires going from it. They had good blueprints from the previous games (sure, another studio did those games, but come on) and they decided to invent a wheel.