Batman: Arkham Shadow Review (Quest)
Summary: Batman: Arkham Shadow is a real achievement for the team at Camouflaj and a milestone in VR superhero games. With a reach story, challenging yet seamlessly coordinated combat, and decent stealth scenarios, Batman: Arkham Shadow is the perfect place to feel truly in the cape crusader’s cowls.
4.4
The Ultimate Batman VR Experience
Let’s be honest; Batman: Arkham Shadow’s reveal was a disappointment for most gamers. Hearing the rumors about a new full-fledged Batman Arkham title being in development and being hit with the cold hard reality that it’s a VR-only game is disappointing for the 96% of gamers who don’t play VR games. But after accepting the sad truth comes the practical question: is it a good game?
I believe good VR games are defined by the techniques they use to overcome the medium’s limitations. That’s why since the very first day Batman: Arkham Shadow was announced, I was wondering how the team at Camouflaj is going to bring the mantle of the cape crusader to Quest 3 headsets and honestly, I am surprised by the results! Batman: Arkham Shadow follows the same gameplay principles as the other Batman Arkham installments. Players control Batman albeit this time from a first-person perspective and need to fight outlaws, corrupt security forces and inmates at Blackgate prison on their quest to stop Rat King and his cult from wreaking havoc in Gotham City.
Experiencing action beat ’em up tiles in VR is not a comfortable experience for most people due to the motion sickness that comes with spending too much time moving around in VR. This is the kind of medium limitation I was talking about. Yet, the fighting sequences in Batman: Arkham Shadow are unbelievably smooth. Looking at a target and reaching towards it while holding the trigger buttons -which recreates the gesture of a fisted hand in most VR games- allows the players to jump toward enemies and engage in hand-to-hand combat. While engaged in hand-to-hand combat, players need to throw a series of QTE-like punches. Since the punches are hand-specific, the combat in the game is not randomly throwing a punch and players need to use both hands in specific orders to finish a combo successfully.
Other enemies can attack players from the sides and this is where the famous multi-directional counterattacks in the series are recreated in Batman: Arkham Shadow. Raising hands towards the sides acts as counterattacks that stun the enemies, putting them at the center of Batman’s attention, and allowing players to start engaging the next target. Thus, the seamless hand-to-hand combat in the series known as “FreeFlow” is returned once more in Batman: Arkham Shadow, making sure combat and target acquisition is done almost flawlessly. Perhaps the only issue in combat is when ranged enemies start shooting at Batman while he is engaged in the QTE phase of combat. In that situation, only the dodge button can be used which is assigned to clicking the left thumbstick while holding it in a direction away from the incoming fire. Imagine doing that in a VR headset in less than a second!
Batman’s gadgets and special moves are also available in combat. Batrang can be grabbed from Batman’s chest akin to Matt Reeves’s The Batman and thrown at a target. Explosive gel gun is holstered at the right side of the hip and can be shot at enemies in close proximity. Batclaw can disarm enemies or bring them closer for a knockdown by pressing A. Holding the trigger buttons and swiping your hands from your hips toward your chest acts as the famous cape stun and primes enemies for a satisfying beatdown. Smoke bombs can be grabbed and thrown from the side of the left arm, leaving enemies confused and ready for an instant takedown. Batman can leap over enemies by pushing right thumbstick towards them, knocking them down with an aerial slam and if all that is not enough, special combo takedowns -and later gadget upgrades- are also activated when the combo reaches 10x to take care of stubborn targets such as heavies or shield-bearing enemies faster.
Enemy variation also adds more depth to the combat; just like other installments in the series. Heavies should first be stunned using the cape before taking any hits, ranged enemies can be disoriented using batarang or batclaw. Enemies wielding knives should be dodged and countered by leaning away from their swipes, and guards with stun batons or shields have to be dealt with using an aerial slam. To make a long story short, Batman: Arkham Shadow allows the players to perform all the cool Batman moves from the series as easily and efficiently as possible without breaking the flow of the combat, becoming confusing, or feeling too easy. The combat in the game keeps the perfect balance between remaining challenging throughout the experience while making the players feel like the caped crusader, as humanly as possible. That’s why when you finish your first fight in a perfect flow, you hear your ego uttering: I am Batman!
The same goes for the stealth part of the game. Players can use vantage points and grates to sneak up on enemies and take them down silently. Some iconic takedowns such as inverted and explosive gel takedowns are also available but due to the first-person nature of the game, they don’t look as cool as they used to in other Batman Arkham titles. Using gadgets is also far less prominent in the stealth scenarios as only the famous Disruptor function for disabling enemy firearms is used frequently. It is pretty clear that the devs’ focus was mostly on translating the combat aspects of the series for the VR headsets and the stealth part has a minimalistic approach.
Batman: Arkham Shadow is a full-fledged entry in the series when it comes to its story as well. The events of the game take place between Arkham Origins and Arkham Asylum and not only provides an in-depth look at the mutual history of Bruce Wayne and Harvey Dent, but also act as the origin story for infamous villains such as Harley Quinn, Scarecrow, Two-Face, and The Ventriloquist. Of course, the narrative of the game is not perfect since it makes the players experience parts of the game as Batman and parts of it as his new persona Matches who is a convicted felon in Blackgate. While The Batman phase of the game is more action-oriented, taking the mantle of Matches is where the “world’s greatest detective” starts his work, going through Blackgate prison and finding evidence pointing to Rat King’s identity. It should be added that the detective side of the game is not limited to Matches and players can also find collectibles and other puzzles similar to those of The Riddler from previous installments in Batman: Arkham Shadow as well. Being Batman in VR adds more depth to these aspects of the game as some more physical challenges are now introduced such as hanging down from a ledge with one hand while throwing Batrang at a target with the other hand. At the end of the day, the narrative-oriented detective side of the game in Matches’ shoes is not as exciting and Batman-ish as the other half of the story.
Batman: Arkham Shadow is the ultimate Batman VR experience; far better than the VR title made by Rocksteady themselves! It is a real achievement for the team at Camouflaj and a milestone in VR superhero games. With a rich story, challenging yet seamlessly coordinated combat, and decent stealth scenarios, Batman: Arkham Shadow is the perfect place to feel truly in the cape crusader’s cowls.
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