There’s a sequence early on in Batman: Arkham Shadow where the caped crusader discovers someone very close to him is in danger, and he totally loses it. Shadow acts as a prequel to Rocksteady’s Arkham trilogy and sequel to Arkham Origins, so we’re dealing with a younger, more volatile version of Batman here, and it shows. After fighting your way through waves of standard baddies, you find yourself running down an alley, at night, in the rain, unleashing hell on anyone who dares get in your way.
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I Can’t Get Over How Much Batman: Arkham Shadow Feels Like A Real Arkham Game
Arkham Shadow is nothing like the last Arkham VR game.
There’s a lot of moments in Arkham Shadow that made a big impression on me, but this is when I realized studio Camoflaj had stumbled onto something truly special. As Batman’s rage consumes him he becomes more unrestrained and dangerous. It isn’t long before the random goons that would be giving him a hard time are instead his victims. They try to flee, they beg him to stop, but he – or rather, you – won’t. You’re breaking arms and legs like they’re twigs. You’re a freight train of desperation. When it was finally over I stood there in the rain, catching my breath and looking down at my hands. It’s one of the most provocative experiences I’ve ever had in VR, and it’s the closest I’ve ever felt to being Batman.
Arkham Asylum Vibes
Like most people, I adore the Arkham games. Unlike most people, I place Arkham Asylum head and shoulders above all others, including City. I love the Metroidvania of it all. The intimacy of the experience and how you first feel lost and overwhelmed until you eventually learn the ins and outs of the world and become its master. I love the item progression and the way the world opens up as you collect new tools, bringing new dimensions to familiar places. It’s the Arkham game I’ve returned to the most, and I’ve always been disappointed that the series shifted to open-world and left its Metroidvania sensibilities behind. Arkham Shadow brings the Arkham Asylum level design back, plus so much more.
It took me around 15 hours to complete my first playthrough of Shadow, and I was constantly blown away by how well Camouflaj captured every single thing that makes Arkham games so seminal The writing, the characterization, the atmosphere, and most importantly: the gameplay – it’s all there, and it’s all authentically Arkham.
While early reviews reported a fair amount of bugs, I played on the most recent patch and found very few to speak of. This week’s update, v1.3, adds New Game Plus with a new epilogue, as well as Endless Combat and Endless Predator modes.
Of course, a lot had to be translated in the shift from third to first person and from pancake to VR (we’re calling regular games pancakes now). While there’s a learning curve to some actions and the occasional VR wonkiness, the translation is smoother than anyone could have expected.
Arkham Asylum established a style of rhythmic combat that has been replicated countless times since, and Shadow adapts it beautifully while accounting for all the specific challenges of VR. To achieve that cadenced flow state that lets you dance around the battlefield and outmaneuver a dozen enemies at the same time, Camouflaj has invented a few clever little tricks. For example, to continue a long stream of combos you’ll need to deliver specific kinds of punches at specific moments. After lunging at an enemy with a quick jab, he’ll be open to a follow-up attack that flashes on the screen.
This could be left hook, right hook, several more quick jabs, or a big ol’ haymaker to the jaw. Sometimes you’ll knock an enemy off balance and grab their leg as they fall backward, then give it a chop with your other arm to make it bend the wrong way. You’re given a split second in time to read the cue and execute in order to keep your combo going. It’s a brilliant way to flesh out the classic Arkham combo system without it becoming a nauseating experience of dashing all around the arena in VR.
When an enemy attacks from behind you’ll see a warning flash on the left or right side of your HUD. All you have to do is stick your arm straight out and you’ll automatically spin around and counter the attack. When it comes to combat, it feels like Camouflaj thought of everything.
Of course, you have your gadgets too. They can help spice up your combos for a better score, and come in handy when the fights grow more complex later on. My favorite technique is stunning large enemies with Batman’s cape. In the old games you’d just press a button and watch Batman swing his cape, but in VR you actually reach back and grab your cape then swing your arm around. You’ll also grab the ends of your cape when you jump off a building to glide. Arkham Shadow injects as much physicality as possible into the controls, and though it’s exhausting, it’s a total blast.
Gadgets are even more useful in the Predator sections, which are as one-to-one with the classic Arkham stealth encounters as you can get in VR. Hanging from Gargoyles to grab baddies never gets old, and I loved sneaking around in vents to pop out on an unsuspecting goon just as much as I always have. And when things don’t go your way, a quick smoke bomb will let you grapple to safety.
I have to admit that these sections feel clunkier than combat. You have little use for the thumbsticks when fighting, other than to dodge bullets, but you have to use the sticks to navigate in stealth missions constantly. It’s always going to be a little immersion-breaking when you have to move your feet without moving your feet, but Shadow does the best it can given the current limitations of VR.
The third pillar of Arkham games is exploration, and as I mentioned before, Shadow has Asylum-quality level design. The space expands as you progress, and familiar rooms are reused in clever ways so that it never really feels like your retreading old ground. Instead of Riddler trophies there are a variety of rat-themed collectibles to find and puzzles to solve, and many of them will take considerable thought and careful sleuthing to find. If you’re into collectibles and Batman lore, there’s plenty of good stuff here.
There are also a small handful of boss fights. Most are lousy but one is pretty great. It almost makes up for the lousy ones, but not quite.
Arkham Shadow takes one big swing with Batman’s alter ego, and I don’t mean Bruce Wayne. In order to infiltrate Blackgates criminal network Batman takes on the secret criminal identity of Matches Malone, a name comic fans will be delighted to hear. These story-driven segments can make you feel a little powerless without Batman’s tool belt, but they’re an important part of the narrative that let you explore the prison in fundamentally different ways.
This is so much more than a VR spin-off like so many early virtual reality games, including Rocksteady’s own Batman: Arkham VR. It deserves to sit in the canon alongside Origins, Asylum, City, and Knight.
That aside, it’s one of the best VR games you can play on the Quest 3. The only concession you have to make is that it looks like a VR game, but honestly, that’s just fine for a series that hasn’t had a new entry in a decade. Arkham Asylum is the one I regularly come back to for a replay, but I suspect Arkham Shadows will be taking its place from now on.
4.5/5
Batman: Arkham Shadow
- Released
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October 21, 2024
- ESRB
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T For Teen // Violence, Mild Blood, Language
- Developer(s)
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Camouflaj
- A true Arkham game in every way.
- Has a sense of gritty realism you can only get in VR.
- Most boss fights are forgettable.
- Predator missions are kind of clunky to maneuver around in.