Batman: Arkham Shadow review: A refreshing return with a new perspective

Batman: Arkham fans around the world have been begging and pleading with Rocksteady to make a new single-player Arkham game, but it turns out that we've been asking the wrong people all along. While WB is busy trying to make the next successful live service game from the shell of the successful franchise, it's the Iron Man VR developers that actually delivered the single-player Batman Arkham game we've been clamoring for.

Batman: Arkham Shadow returns to the series' roots, something I've wanted since Arkham Knight. In many ways, it's identical to the way Ubisoft handled Assassin's Creed Nexus VR when it was released on Quest last year. Instead of a daunting open world, Batman: Arkham Shadow focuses on a key area of the world — Blackgate Prison — and cuts out the unnecessary padding and fluff open world games so often suffer from, as Michael pointed out in his hands-on of the game.

Because of this, Batman: Arkham Shadow feels laser-focused on its intriguing story, which follows The Rat King's rise and the scourge that both The Rats and the corrupt police have brought upon Gotham. It's a story that wedges itself between the events in Arkham Origin and Arkham Asylum, helping to fill in the gaps about what happened to Gordon, Bruce, and Gotham City as a whole.

Batman: Arkham Shadow is a Meta Quest 3 and Meta Quest 3S exclusive game developed by Camouflaj and published by Oculus Studios. It's more than worth noting that this game would not exist without Meta funding it, and Rocksteady was not the primary developer. However, Camouflaj did pull some seasoned Arkham talent onboard, like Bill Green, who was the head designer for all previous Arkham games and helped lead game and level design on Arkham Shadow, as well.

at meta.com

Step into the shoes of the Dark Knight in the glorious return of the Batman Arkham series, now built exclusively for VR.

Buy now at Meta Horizon store or get it free with any new Meta Quest 3 or Quest 3S

New medium, familiar feelings

The transition from flatscreen gaming to VR was a challenge for Camouflaj, but one the studio is specifically primed for. As studio director and founder Ryan Payton told me, Camouflaj isn't one to shy away from pushing the boundaries of what people thought was possible for VR gaming.

In Batman: Arkham Shadow, you'll fight multiple enemies at a time, sneak around in the vents, hop from vantage point to vantage point, glide around using Batman's cape, throw Batarangs to flip switches or disarm enemies, and use plenty of gadgets like the grapple hook to move around quickly and stealthily. These are all things Arkham fans expect from an Arkham-branded game, and every one of them has been lovingly recreated in VR.

But then there's the spatial awareness that you can only feel and understand when wearing a VR headset. Meta has been prominently using "Become the Knight" as the tagline in ads for the game, and while that might sound cliche to those who aren't familiar with VR gaming, there's something truly visceral and personal that happens when you do the literal cowl by wearing a Quest 3.

Suddenly, the monologue that takes place during story sequences becomes your own monologue. Inward thoughts from Bruce Wayne feel personal, and the anger and deception the character of Batman feels turn into your own as your blood pumps and sweat drips down your face.

Finishing a fight against 20 enemies at once feels like you just got out of a back alley brawl, as your muscles will ache, and you'll truly feel like you've just taken out those bad guys in real life.

Likewise, crouching in the vents, grabbing enemies from behind, and zipping between gargoyles elicits feelings that are very different from the flatscreen Arkham games. Sure, there have been plenty of moments throughout the storied franchise where I've felt tense or excited during stealth segments or during combat, but doing all of this yourself instead of mashing buttons on a controller is a very different experience that breathes new life into familiar mechanics.

Case in point, I noticed a trend in reviews for the Arkham series as it progressed from Asylum to City, Origins to Knight, where people commented that some of the mechanics and locations were starting to feel tired. You can only do the same thing so many times before you get tired of it, but people also don't want to deviate too far from something they love.

That's particularly what Arkham Shadow does well. It features the Metroidvania level design from Arkham Asylum with its "hub world" that revolves around Blackgate Prison and certain sections of Arkham City. Much like Asylum, you'll be revisiting places once you've acquired specific gadgets, each of which grants you access to places you weren't able to access previously.

Each gadget is designed to be both familiar and accessible in VR in clever ways. For instance, you'll aim with the Batarang by looking at your target and then physically throwing the tool. It feels a lot like eye-tracking and will be an even better mechanic once that tech is more commonplace.

If I had to levy any complaint against the Metroidvania design in this game, it would be that I often forgot where I needed to go back for secrets. The game's story guides you back through necessary areas via audio cues very well, but I'd love a way to tag a specific part of the map to make a waypoint for when I unlock the explosive gel, for instance. There are plenty of collectibles throughout the game, and as a classic gamer, I love finding and grabbing each one as I go.

Combat for the Beat Saber age

In my first interview with the team at Camouflaj, Batman: Arkham Shadow's combat was described as being heavily influenced by Beat Saber and SUPERHOT VR, two of the best Meta Quest games. Beat Saber's influence can be directly felt in the pseudo-rhythmic nature of the combat and the different movements you'll need to make to feel like Batman.

This isn't Blade & Sorcery or another VR action game where you might find yourself flailing around to cheese the physics system. You'll need to punch in specific directions, hit a certain number of times, and ensure you follow the prompts to complete a combat-specific move.

Sometimes, that's delivering an uppercut followed by a punch to the face for a knockout. Other times, it's knocking an enemy senseless with five straight jabs followed by a shoulder grab and a kick to the face. At all times, this combat feels visceral and authentic, and juggling between enemies is as easy as reaching toward them with a closed fist.

Batman Arkham Shadow combat - YouTube

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Countering enemies is just as easy, but you'll need to properly time the counter instead of simply reaching toward the enemy. A handy gauge appears to let you know an attack is incoming, and a grab toward that direction when the gauge is blue will successfully counter.

As you progress through the game, new enemies will require new tactics to dispatch. After a few hours, you'll be tapping the right stick forward to leap over enemies with stun batons, while you'll need to do a cape swing or explosive gel blast to stun more heavily armored enemies before punching them.

I will say that while this combat is incredibly exciting and rewarding, it's not terribly friendly for folks who like to sit on a couch. That doesn't mean it's not possible, but I often found myself angling my body weirdly when juggling between multiple enemies. I never had this problem when playing the game while standing.

Playing the rest of the game while seated is easy, thanks to the quick height-adjustment option. Just hold down the menu button and it'll set your height to that of Batman's, making you feel tall, dark, and handsome no matter your height or preference for seated or standing positions.

This kind of design is important for all sorts of folks. Whether you need to play seated because you feel nauseous when playing while standing, or you have a disability and cannot physically stand, Arkham Shadow is here for you. If you're not quite Batman's height, the game will make you feel Batman's height and size, transporting you properly into the psyche of the Dark Knight.

I actually found that I enjoyed playing some of the stealth Predator areas more while seated and the game's quick height adjustment made it easy to quickly swap between these two. Likewise, I preferred to physically crouch while sneaking around whereas other players might just want to click in the right stick to toggle between crouching or standing states.

Camouflaj worked to get options in here for all sorts of players and play styles, and it paid off marvelously.

Why is Batman: Arkham Shadow a VR game?

Some players have asked, "Why is this a VR game?" As I covered in the intro, this one was paid for by Meta, so it makes sense that it's a VR-focused game. Rocksteady and WB as a whole have been tone-deaf for the past decade, and the push from major publishers to develop expensive live service games has done nothing but cause problems industry-wide.

Batman: Arkham Shadow is an incredibly well-made, high-quality single-player game that'll take you around 10-15 hours to complete. That's the same length as Arkham Asylum and it includes combat and Predator mode challenges that you can play to either train yourself or just have fun when you're not delving through the main story.

As far as the VR question goes, my best response to that is that being in VR gave Camouflaj the ability to make classic Arkham mechanics feel fresh and new again. Like anything popular and good in the gaming industry, most third-person brawler games have adapted Arkham's combat and it makes Arkham feel more generic than it used to.

Likewise, games like the PlayStation-exclusive Spider-Man series have even aped Arkham's predator stealth mechanics, once again making Arkham feel more generic as the series ages. Batman: Arkham Shadow does an amazing job of feeling like an Arkham game without feeling like it's the same game you played a decade ago, and that's because of what changing perspective does.

Just as a first-person shooter feels palpably different on a TV than a third-person shooter, Batman: Arkham Shadow feels palpably different from Arkham Asylum while still feeling familiar enough to please fans. It also does all the normal stuff a VR games do well — immersion, scale, emotional connection to characters — including interaction with the world at large.

I was surprised to see that some environmental objects weren't interactable, though. You can pick up a newspaper and read it, you can find hidden radios that The Rat King broadcasts on, and you can even pick up memory echoes that bring you back to Bruce Wayne's past in ways that Batman fans will care about. However, you can't pick up most mugs or bottles and smash them, something I think would have been good to do for some of the stealth parts of the game.

It's difficult to pick my favorite moments from the game. Walking around Blackgate Prison gave me "Chronicles of Riddick" vibes, something Payton told me was a big inspiration for the team during development. Hearing the prisoners talk about Batman's latest catch or what the Penguin was doing felt like I was spying in on a conversation I wasn't supposed to hear, and fighting and capturing famed Batman villains felt satisfying in a way I've never felt before.

One of the most clutch mechanics is detective mode, which is activated by holding the controller to the side of your head and pressing the trigger. It's a satisfying mechanic that activates a sort of X-ray vision that makes it easier to figure out what you're supposed to do, especially when buttons and gates are involved.

Some of the dedicated detective sections will have you piecing together clues by scanning objects in a room or area, but you can always scan random objects in the world with detective vision, Metroid Prime style.

A fresh perspective

Does this game evolve the formula in important ways? Definitely. It opens up the series to a new perspective and paves the way for a more open world, one that could be achieved on more powerful hardware that'll inevitably ship with the Meta Quest 4. More importantly, it proves that the series' original developers aren't needed to make something truly great.

If Batman: Arkham Shadow's overall quality and fun factor lead other publishers to trust that storied franchises can be handled by proven developers like Camouflaj, then I consider it a win for any fan who wants more from a series or universe. Arkham Shadow isn't just a win for the Meta Quest platform or VR; it's a win for the industry as a whole. It proves that successful games can branch out to new mediums without ruining the original feel, and that's what really matters to me.