Batman: Arkham Shadow puts you in the shoes of a flawed, angry Bruce Wayne. You can perform the same fighting combos and hunt down enemies in Predator mode as in Arkham Asylum, but you're likely to make mistakes from a first-person perspective. It almost makes this Batman: VR live-action roleplaying game feel more authentic, not being the same confident, unwavering hero.
Before the Arkham Shadow presentation at GamescomI was lucky enough to attend a private hands-on session of Batman: Arkham Shadow with developer Camouflaj's Game Director Ryan Payton and Design Director Ryan Darcey, where I played the first hour or so of the game.
Arkham Shadow may not be the first “AAA” Quest 3 game, which could apply to Assassin's Creed Nexus either Wrath of Asgard 2 — but it was immediately clear how Camouflaj took the time to bring the show’s flat-screen roots into VR and made it feel like a natural progression for the series. This isn’t a throwaway VR spinoff.
In other words, true Arkham fans will have to decide if it's worth spending $500 on a Mission 3 To avoid any painful FOMO, because I can tell from the first hour that Arkham Shadow nailed the series' formula and vibe. I'd be surprised if it didn't end up being the best Quest game of 2024 for a lot of people.
Putting on the Batman cowl
My Batman: Arkham Shadow demo skipped the opening cinematics and placed me in the sewers, searching for rumors about the mysterious Rat King. I went through several rounds of enemy combat, a Predator session, and a bunch of in-game tutorials showing how to navigate the world.
Actions that just require mindless button presses in Asylum are more deliberate in VR, such as holding the controls up and out to slide along edges or grabbing the batarang from your chest before aiming and throwing. This slows down the game, and I certainly don't look like Batman in real life, but it's feel Very immersive.
Longtime Arkham fans will appreciate the combat: You sneak up on or charge into a group of enemies, then rack up your XP multiplier by timing your hits and using a variety of gadgets without getting hit. When you hit an enemy, fist or arrow icons will tell you where or in what direction to hit, or else the attack will miss. And instead of button combos for finishers, you grab enemies with both hands and knock them down.
Experience unlocks new gadgets and attack types. Once I leveled up, I briefly got a glimpse of a disorganized skill grid, and the Camouflaj team suggested they're working on making it a bit easier to use in the final version. In theory, though, there are dozens of unlockable skills you'll earn over dozens of hours of campaign time.
Combat in Arkham Shadow feels more realistic and rhythm-focused than previous games, as you must strike with precision, power, and timing to defeat enemies.
Payton told us in a previous interview Arkham Shadow Interview VR rhythm games like Beat Saber and Superhot inspired its combat, and it showed in the demo. Early on, I missed several attacks because I hit with the touch controls too quickly or imprecisely. If you hit hard, Camouflaj rewards you with more points and a colorful flash.
You need to watch for warning indicators when a blind spot attack is approaching and either dodge it or attack to the side as you no longer have an overhead view of the arena.
By the end of the demo, I was able to finish battles without taking damage and with decent combos, prioritizing mobility. I asked the team at Camouflaj how they would keep combat fresh and they hinted that we would see enemy progression similar to the other Arkham games. We'll most likely see armored or larger enemies that you can't take down as easily.
I will say that a couple of the movement and combat tutorials confused me, and the team at Camouflaj had to explain to me what I was doing wrong because the game didn't make it clear. They did say that they hope to make the game's tutorials a bit more obvious by the final release.
Then, of course, you have the Predator sections, where enemies have machine guns and you have to stealthily take them out one by one to win. The demo taught me how to jump off gargoyles, glide down to grab enemies, choke them, and hang them in the air. You can also glide down to hit enemies directly, but this usually alerts nearby enemies and they shoot you.
It's a bit tricky to hunt down enemies in first-person mode and open space, as you can only see a 100º slice of the world at any point; it makes you feel more vulnerable. Out of caution, I didn't try to hide under bars to take them out, and I didn't yet have access to certain gadgets like explosive gel that would add more variety.
Batman's stealth sections felt somewhat simple compared to other first-person stealth games like Dishonored or Vampire: The Masquerade – Justicewhere you have magic abilities and camouflage to spice things up. That’s why I hope Camouflaj adds Predator challenge maps to the game so that it can be replayed after the campaign, like Rocksteady did with Asylum, to add a real challenge factor for long-time fans.
When I asked, the team said they had seriously considered the idea, but were focusing on finishing the campaign first. I have a feeling the decision will depend on how successful the game is with Quest users.
A closed-world Gotham
From what I've seen, Batman: Arkham Shadow has plenty of room for world traversal, but not in the same open-world, free-roaming style as Arkham City or Knight; you'll only be able to climb onto specific rooftops. It's a very on-rails, well-crafted game, which suits the more Asylum-like style and is (arguably) more feasible for the Quest 3's mobile hardware.
That approach allowed Camouflaj to pay close attention to art direction and level design. In that hour alone, I remember seeing little glimpses of world-building, like the sleeping bags of the Rat King's followers embedded in the sewer walls or interactive elements that you or Batman can pick up.
Of course, you'll also find hundreds of collectibles in Arkham Shadow, a more tangible reward for keeping an eye on every nook and cranny. I found some of the Rat King's broadcast radios and looted them, which struck me as something more realistic that Batman cared about than Riddler's trophies.
I asked the team if players would have the opportunity to replay sections to find collectibles they missed and was immediately greeted with a “No Comment” response. Either they didn’t want to say “No” or it’s something they’re still deciding.
Batman: Arkham Shadow's gameplay focuses less on exploration and more on combat, investigation, and interactive cinematics.
Another aspect of Arkham Shadow's more realistic experience is a slight difference in gameplay from previous titles. Camouflaj says the Arkham series is traditionally half exploration, with the other half split between cinematics, combat, Predator encounters, and boss fights. In Shadow, there's less exploration and more time spent in interactive cinematics, as well as a greater emphasis on puzzles and investigations.
I didn't see much mystery in the initial game, but it makes me optimistic, simply because the Arkham games never made Batman live up to his title of “world's greatest detective.” You activated detective vision and followed a line of light to a destination. Arkham Shadow brings back detective vision, but I expect Batman's investigation into the Rat King to involve more thought on the part of the player.
The game brings back Roger Craig Smith (Arkham Origins) as a younger Bruce Wayne and Tara Strong as Harleen Quinzel (not Harley Quinn, yet). Mark Rolston (Deathstroke) now voices Jim Gordon, Troy Baker (Joker) is a new character who I'm assuming is Harvey Dent, and Khary Payton (Killer Croc) now stars as Ratcatcher. Not to be confused with the new Rat King, Ratcatcher is a 1988 DC villain who promises to help Batman in the game's trailer.
The continuity of the voice actors really emphasises the connection to the Arkham series – it won’t feel like a random spin-off like many of the VR franchise-related games. It will be much longer than the PSVR Batman game, which only took a couple of hours to complete, and it will have proper combat.
While I loved the Batman Arkham games when I was younger, I never finished Arkham Knight because the open world and side quests overwhelmed me. That’s true of a lot of games these days, where developers stretch things out to 100+ hours of gameplay with only a bit of main story interspersed with fetch quests. And Rocksteady’s Arkham Knight sequel, Kill the Justice League, didn’t appeal to me either.
That's why Arkham Shadow has me so intrigued and ready to dive into it, once it launches in October. It's a story-driven experience where you (as Batman) become a proper superhero, without a ton of fluff or filler. It's not another rehash of the Batman and Joker battle or other popular comic book stories. And, once again, the combat and predator modes were, at first glance, a blast.
Not every Batman fan will agree with me. Maybe you loved the old Batman games for their massive size and the chance to fight dozens of bosses in the rogues gallery. Maybe you'd rather have Mark Hamill rambling and laughing instead of a new villain. And many of you would rather press buttons on a controller than punch enemies.
For me, Batman: Arkham Shadow is the kind of focused, hands-on experience I've been waiting for as a Batman fan.