Arkham Shadow Holds Origins and Blackgate Dear to Its Heart

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home December 21, 2024 20 Views 7 Min Read
Arkham Shadow Holds Origins and Blackgate Dear to Its Heart

Before Batman: Arkham Shadow, Carmine Falcone was only mentioned while his son, Alberto, is featured in a cutscene where Penguin is beating and toying with him. Thus, it’s a neat full circle moment to have Bruce interact with Carmine a handful of times throughout Shadow (sometimes as Batman, sometimes as Malone) when in Origins he had said he “[doesn’t] need the Falcones in [his] debt.” Plus, with how central Falcone was to the previously established lore of how Harvey Dent became Two-Face, it makes sense that Carmine would play such a pivotal role in Batman: Arkham Shadow, even if it would turn out that he actually had little to do with Harvey becoming half-charred.

It’s full-circle moments like this that make Batman: Arkham Shadow’s multifaceted story so engaging and rewarding. The narrative answers as many questions as it asks—all anyone can ask for in a lore-rich continuity—and doesn’t take its specific place in the timeline for granted. The Arkhamverse’s timeline has always been dodgy at best with only a few clear dates and spans of years depicted, such as notable holidays or Batman clarifying that two years pass between Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham Knight, but it’s no mistake that Shadow can be perceived as a huge love letter to Batman: Arkham Origins and Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate.

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Batman: Arkham Shadow Completes a Blackgate Trilogy Epic

Batman: Arkham Shadow is a perfect sequel to both Batman: Arkham Origins and Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate with characters and lore tethered between all three games, and what’s doubly impressive is that all three games were developed by unique studios and none have the same gameplay genre perspective. These three installments also all retroactively take advantage of their proximity to one another in the continuity’s timeline with three months separating each of them, and as a result each one is rightfully mindful of and faithful to the events that came not long before it.

This is true in many ways, though the most succinct and salient is the logical and immersive choice of characters who appear, which include: Ricky “Loose Lips” LeBlanc, a charismatic goon Batman repeatedly runs into; Blackgate inmates such as the counterfeiter Chucky Berks or the con artist Robert Hanes; Howard Branden (originally a corrupt GCPD SWAT Lieutenant, now a corrupt TYGER CO); Bane’s loyal right hand, Bird; and even the Cold, Cold Heart DLC’s Ferris Boyle. Like Berks and Hanes, many of Shadow’s Blackgate inmates are named, minor antagonists players discover as crime scene Casefile Report suspects in Batman: Arkham Origins, such as the withdrawal-addled Venom addict Andrew Carter whom players sit next to in a court-mandated group therapy session.

These character appearances won’t mean much to anyone who didn’t play Origins or Origins Blackgate, and they may well go over players’ heads if they don’t remember the names of some of the most minor, forgettable characters in those decade-old games. However, they’re a huge treat for anyone who loves the connectivity between Arkham games and are fascinating as players can finally see them once again after previously apprehending them.

Batman: Arkham Shadow Shines a Well-Deserved Bat Signal on Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate

As a companion piece releasing alongside one another, Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate hasn’t earned anywhere near the same limelight that Batman: Arkham Origins has. Origins is somewhat of a cult classic as opposed to having been received as well as Asylum or City before it, and yet today it’s regarded highly as having one of the better stories in the Arkhamverse, let alone some of the best boss fights (even if they are largely derivative of boss fight designs from previous Arkham games).

Origins Blackgate unfortunately has no such adoration, at least not to the same degree, and that’s a shame. Origins Blackgate doesn’t have a sweeping plot aside from the cryptic ambitions of Amanda Waller and ARGUS, but every Arkham game has a gem it can uniquely call theirs and the 2.5D Metroidvania side-scroller gets to say it had the pleasure and privilege of depicting Batman and Catwoman’s first interactions in the Arkhamverse.

Bronze Tiger is introduced in Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate, where he’s unwittingly thrown into an arena and given a boss fight, and seeing him in Blackgate during Shadow is yet another wonderful follow-up.

Shadow is packed to the brim with exciting cameos like these that aren’t in favor of iconic, well-known super-villains—though Joker, Black Mask, and Firefly can be optionally spoken to in solitary confinement—that solidify it as respectful of the games that came before it in the timeline. It also needed to conform to lore established in Asylum, City, and Knight, and does so gracefully while also challenging a lot of the more unclear details parsed throughout the Arkhamverse, such as the particulars of how Harvey Dent received his radical chemical burn.

Batman: Arkham Shadow makes Origins Blackgate’s lore and characters essential to fully understanding and appreciating all the dialogue and characters players will happen upon as Malone and enrich the experience for anyone who adores those two games. Now, a sequel would have its work cut out for it in showcasing the same level of attentiveness and care that Shadow shows Origins and Origins Blackgate.

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