I have two very bad knees. I have tried just about every kind of bike imaginable. All of them with different geometry. Recumbents were the worst for me. Then Cruisers with a foot forward orientation. Mountain bikes are fine as long as I spin. Road bikes have been the most comfortable across the board. I think it's one of those things that YOU will just have to try.

I would say take into consideration Q-factor and chainstay length. For myself, I notice that my right knee tends to maltrack pretty badly and soon enough get the dull, achy sensation as the patella grinds and makes funny noises.

I'm going to say that crank length makes the biggest difference. It's about the angle your knee is when it is closest to you that makes the difference. If it stops further away, less stress on the knee.
I'm using 165mm cranks on both the road bikes and recumbents. I've even experimented with 145mm cranks, but found them to lack mechanical leverage.

I don't know which one is but I would eliminate the cruiser from the bunch. All the ones I've seen have the knee too bent to allow proper off loading of stress. Think of the knee joint being more stressed the more acute the angle it is made to create. Only thing worse might be a DH mtb with the seat dropped or a bmx.

I ride a hybrid, rigid mtb and road bike and all feel the same because I raise the seat enough for proper leg extension. This creates the least acute angle for the knee. Another solution is to use shorter crank arms as these will also cause the knee to flex less per revolution. Probably the road bike is slightly better for me personally because I tend to focus on higher cadence/lower force cranking with it. My touring mtb is worse because on tours I crank up long hills with a load on it.