Unleash the Dark Knight: Get Ready to Download Batman: Arkham Shadow

I’m sweating like a wet mouse. Sweat dripped from the tip of my nose, dripping. My back was also sweaty and my forehead was covered in beads of sweat. I should really take a break instead of sitting here stressing out about writing reviews. I was supposed to take a nap after wiping off the sweat and drinking a glass of water. Because, as far as I know, there is no game currently available for any platform or format that is more physically demanding than Meta Quest 3’s just-released Batman: Arkham Shadow exclusive. I would say this is worse than the worst workout ever.

I’m not a VR fanatic. On the contrary. I was too old to be with a plastic helmet on my head waving around my living room like a madman. I want to sit while I play. I want to be able to sit completely still and just move my thumbs, and I want to watch my TCL 98′ without sticking my old head in a VR headset. That said, I really enjoyed Half-Life: ALyx, Astro Bot: Rescue Mission, and Asgard’s Wrath II. Truly fantastic VR experiences, with Beat Saber, Superhot VR, Tetris Effect and Gran Turismo 7 VR demonstrating what the format can deliver if games are developed in the right way by the right people.

Batman: Arkham Shadow should be placed in the same premium pile as the games I mentioned above, largely thanks to the developers’ good taste in tackling the always splendid Batman: Arkham Asylum, which was obviously done absolutely well. The studio behind Iron Man VR (Camouflaj) has created a VR adventure that not only impresses and surprises, but also believes and lays the foundation for the ingenious Arkham Origins and Rocksteady trilogy about DC Comics’ greatest detective. The first game filled this gap.

Here is an announcement:

Players took the lead here after the events of Origins and before Arkham Asylum. Batman is young, relatively inexperienced, but tough as nails, and as he faces the evil Rat King, who intends to cripple Gotham through a cult-like rebellion, it’s up to you to stop the pain and make things right. Jim Gordon has been kidnapped, Blackgate Prison is on fire (at least metaphorically) thanks to the twisted and distraught warden Bolton, and the Scarecrow is more manipulative than ever in this grueling adventure.

It was clear from the start that the main mission of the developers behind Arkham Shadow was to try to emulate Arkham Asylum, transforming the third-person action sections and detective/stealth moments into something that worked from a first-person perspective based on virtual reality. I have to assume that this was the part of development that took the longest to complete, and the end result bears that out, which I think is much better than I dared hope for. Here’s a tight, winning shot of the claustrophobia that might have been a bit much in Rocksteady when it opened Gotham. I like this one. Within the technical limitations of the Meta Quest helmet, Camouflaj moves with an ability that’s hard not to love. The feeling of being Batman is very well realized here, and the feeling of being able to move relatively freely within appropriately sized environments is even better realized despite the game being super linear in nature.

Just like in Arkham Asylum, you can choose your approach based on your playstyle and mood. If you prefer to sneak past enemies, maybe grab one or two on the ceiling and have them hang from the ceiling by strings, that’s fine. If you want to dive head first into every fight and let your fists do the talking, that’s fine too. Structurally, like the first game in the Rocksteady trilogy, this is a three-dimensional Metroidvania where you move around a maze-like game world, collect clues, go back to find things you might have missed, and then move on. The atmosphere is fantastic, the level design is great and the pacing is very well balanced.

Here is an announcement:

Equally good is the combat system, which I previously thought was mediocre at best. Handing out knuckle sandwiches, jumping between different melees, and countering the tough henchmen of the Rat King’s headquarters is both challenging and rewarding, without ever becoming annoying or needlessly complicated, as I generally find this genre VR experience to be. It flows so well that it actually feels like your punches are doing damage and requires you as the player to stand in a room with a lot of surface area while you twist, swing, punch and hammer like a maniac. I won’t say it’s playable while sitting down, and I won’t say you can flip through Arkham Shadow without breaking a sweat. I don’t even think it’s physically possible unless you’re in the best shape you’ve ever been.

The only thing I don’t like about this game is the graphics, even though the design is nice (same here, looks very Arkham Asylum) it looks old. Of course, I understand the hardware limitations that exist, as the Meta Quest is a standalone headset that doesn’t require a computer, but still. Arkham Shadow feels old, which ruined some of the experience for me. Especially compared to Half-Life: Alyx, which feels five or even six years older. In particular, it is the cutscenes and the way in which the various characters move and above all speak that ruin the atmosphere a bit, even if the voice acting is very good (Troy Baker and Elijah Wood did an excellent job in both Two Faces that in Scarecrow, exceptional). .

Ultimately, it’s great to see a truly lavish, well-made, successful blockbuster like this in VR. The format itself requires a large number of these games in the early stages to reach an increasingly larger audience. If you have a Quest headset, you can’t miss the Arkham Shadow.