Batman: Arkham Shadow's Familiarity Makes It the Perfect Intro to VR
Who knew Gotham could be so comforting?
As a seasoned gamer of 25 years, there aren’t many times when I feel out of my depth playing something new. For the most part, any player with a solid grasp of how to use a controller’s dual analog sticks effectively can get along just fine playing something for the first time (for most games).
This was not the case when booting up the Meta Quest 3 for the first time. Messing with my old roommate’s Oculus in recent years gave me a bit of a leg up navigating menus, actually playing stuff on the new virtual reality (VR) headset was like starting the hobby from square one. Playing Fruit Ninja VR, Beat Saber, the virtual chatroom Meta Horizon Worlds, and Asgard’s Wrath 2, very few of my skills as an enthusiast transferred directly to the immersive format. Even Enhance Games’ Tetris Effect, a fairly straightforward spin on the puzzler classic, was a bit overwhelming with its trance-like barrage of audiovisual noise.
Surprisingly, one game in the bunch did a much better job of easing me into VR — Batman: Arkham Shadow.
Batman: Arkham Shadow is a Meta Quest exclusive for the moment. It even comes for free with the 3 and 3S models of the headset. As you could probably guess from the name, it’s a new entry in Rocksteady’s (and WB Montreal’s) critically acclaimed Arkham series. Arkham Shadow takes place six months after 2013’s Arkham Origins and follows Batman’s pursuit of a mysterious new villain named the Rat King. This version of the Dark Knight is a younger, less experienced vigilante, giving the narrative room to subvert expectations.
Arkham Shadow starts off simple, and that’s a godsend. The game’s default settings lacks vignetting, a soft black border that surrounds the player's view and helps reduce motion sickness. It also maps player movement on the left controller’s analog stick. The disconnect between moving smoothly through a space in the game and standing still in real life immediately made me feel uneasy (the bad kind). The resulting visuals can be overwhelming for VR beginners. (Note for players jumping into the game for the first time: pick the “comfort” difficulty option when prompted on the first boot, and adjust accordingly afterward. Your brain/ eyes/ well-being will thank you for it.)
Once I had my VR sea legs ready to go, however, I was shocked at how easy it was to step into the boots of Batman. A big part of it is how well developer Camouflaj translated all of the series' iconic mechanics into the new format. One of the first things you do as a player is enter a vent shaft. I walked on over, grabbed it just how I’d seen Batman do since 2009’s Arkham Asylum, popped it out, and moved it to the side.
Wrapping one’s head around Batman: Arkham Shadow’s many mechanics is surprisingly easy if you’ve played the other games in the series.
As the game doled out more of its controls, the more I realized how well-prepared I was as an Arkham player. Within minutes of learning the basics of stealth knockouts, throwing punches, and countering hits, and gliding, I found myself pantomiming animations I had seen hundreds of times to great success. And while doing so felt familiar, credit must also be given to the developmental for making such wildly different actions feel fantastic to do in a fully 3D space.
The built-in novelty of using Batman’s non-lethal arsenal adds a level of nerdy joy that makes the game a blast to push through. Pulling smoke bombs and Batarangs out from the suit or using the Batgrapple just as Bruce Wayne would is a novelty that never gets old. Activating detective vision (to solve environmental puzzles and survey pursuing enemies when outnumbered) with the tap of your temple feels as intuitive as it does natural.
The most important part of this exceptional package is how much it perfectly emulates the series it belongs to. This isn’t some Gotham side story with familiar-looking character models. This is a full-fledged new chapter in the series. Voice actor Roger Craig Smith returns to give an excellent performance as the titular hero and absolutely nails the role the second time around. Locations are familiar and have the same Gotham grime on them. There are collectibles to find, Riddler trophies to collect, gated off areas that can only be unlocked with certain Bat gadgets. It’s a video game through and through, one where the VR features don’t feel like fun gimmicks but a genuine extension of the four games that precede it.
Players activate Detective Mode with a simple tap of the temple.
That’s no shade to the other games I’ve played so far. I’m sure the more I get used to using a VR headset, the easier time I’ll have getting acquainted with how they work. But there was something extremely comforting about playing a game I was intimately familiar with, but with a perspective shift. For long-time gamers, especially those who’ve played the mega-popular Batman Arkham games, Arkham Shadow is as perfect an introduction to the world of VR as they’ll ever be.
