Batman: Arkham Shadow review – Dark Knight simulator-Nick Gillett-Entertainment – Metro

Batman: Arkham Shadow- the Dark Knight returns (Oculus Studios)

The Arkham universe continues in VR, and without Rocksteady Studios, as this new Meta Quest exclusive proves to be the ultimate Batman simulator.

With his iconic costume and colourful villains, Batman has always been excellent source material for video games. For a start, he punches a lot of henchmen, which is useful. He doesn’t have any superpowers, so remains unusually vulnerable compared with Wolverine or Superman, and he comes with more than his fair share of gadgets; a video game staple. He’s also a lot easier to take seriously – if that sort of thing is important to you – than a lot of other caped crusaders.

That makes him an ideal candidate for VR. Being Batman feels cool, even more so in brooding Gotham City, with its constant rain and seemingly perpetual nighttime. Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham VR was an impressive tech demo but it wasn’t really a proper game, and it came out nearly a decade ago, making this new foray into virtual Gotham long overdue.

The first bit of good news is that Batman: Arkham Shadow is developed by Camouflaj, the studio behind the mostly good Tony Stark simulator, Iron Man VR. The next is that this is a full game made solely for VR (and Meta Quest). Taking place after the events of Arkham Origins, it deals with the menace of the Rat King – a new villain invented for the game – who’s been whipping the underworld into a frenzy, kidnapping policemen and threatening a Day of Wrath if he’s not stopped.

The rats he commands aren’t the kind that eat cheese, but the organised criminal variety, and naturally your job as Batman is to stop them. Unfortunately, without knowing who the Rat King is, that’s not going to be easy. Starting in the sewers, where a bunch of police officers are being held prisoner, you’re rapidly introduced to the tools of your trade.

Just getting around the place feels good. Your grapple hook lets you winch your way rapidly up to distant ledges or the tops of ladders, while getting back down involves gliding using your cape, grabbing the corners of it at your waist before swinging your arms up to shoulder height. That may sound pretty unwieldy, but its motion sensing is spot-on, making it a consistently useful way to bridge gaps.

The batarang is similarly well engineered. Perfecting the flick of the wrist needed to throw it takes a few attempts, but once you know what you’re doing it’s a cinch to hit distant switches and, unlike Lego Batman, you really do get most of them on your first try. Combined with the sinister, long-eared shadow cast by your cowl, it delivers a powerful sense of being Batman.

Then there’s the fighting, which is surprisingly free-flowing. Forming a fist around the controller you can throw straight punches, left and right crosses, and bring both hands down to deliver a brutal knee to the face. Punches land heavily but you need good situational awareness to avoid getting overwhelmed, as you fling batarangs at distant foes and wail on nearer ones when they get too close.

To start with, thugs get up off the floor after you’ve administered their first beating, ready for another round, but with upgrades, and rewards for unbroken combos you can start putting them down permanently. Earning XP, which increases when you don’t take any damage in battle, lets you upgrade brawling skills, batsuit, detective mode, and more.

That’s right, detective mode makes a reappearance here, working similarly to Rocksteady’s Batman games. By tapping the side of your head, you can switch it on, seeing through walls and people and giving you the ability to track electrical circuits and switches. It also lets you scan crime scenes for fingerprints and useful clues.

Batman: Arkham Shadow- the gang’s all here (Oculus Studios)

The game absolutely earns its status as part of the Arkham series, as even the Predator sections are faithfully recreated in VR. Once again, you can take out a roomful of henchmen by swooping between aerial vantage points, silently dropping down to knock them out, leaving them dangling upside down for their colleagues to puzzle over.

You can also take to underfloor vents, or abandon stealth entirely, gliding down with your cape for a good old double-booted kick to the face, before dropping a smoke bomb and grappling back to the rafters.

Some of those multi-enemy fights get pretty bit sweaty, your constant punching acting as a surreptitious workout, especially if things start to go against you. It means you’ll need to take the odd break, which is handy because although Arkham Shadow is a full length game, Meta Quest headsets are wireless and need to be recharged every couple of hours.

The other practical issue is that the large amount of punching and batarang hurling is capable of causing untold property damage. This is one of the rare games where you’ll want to use the controllers’ wrist straps, and since combinations of punches are thrown forwards, and counters have you striking out to each side, you’ll need to find somewhere a good distance away from your TV, low hanging lampshades, pets, and hapless bystanders.

Sadly, there are also glitches. Batman stops moving or won’t grab his cape, bad guys fail to spawn on a rooftop, or someone clams up mid-speech leaving you stuck in place, forced to reload the last checkpoint or restart the game. When it works it’s marvellous, but occasional bugs are noticeable. Fortunately, it’s not particularly difficult – in normal mode at least – and there are frequent checkpoints, so you rarely lose more than a minute or two’s crime-fighting.

Mixed in with the pugilism and detective mode puzzling there’s a fair amount of VR role-playing, where you chat with other characters – complete with conversational choices – or eavesdrop on them. And there are numerous familiar faces: Commissioner Gordon, Harvey Dent, and Ratcatcher, as well as a pre-Harley Quinn Dr Quinzel and Dr Crane before he becomes Scarecrow.

Whether crawling through vents, lurking on rooftops, or quietly taking out expansive rooms full of bad guys one at a time, the sense of place and person is exquisite. You’re Batman in Gotham City, and this is what you do. Is it worth buying a VR headset just to play it? That’s a question only you can answer but this is certainly one of the best VR games ever made, regardless of whether you’re a fan of the Dark Knight or not.

Formats: Meta Quest 3 (reviewed) and 3S
Price: £38.99
Publisher: Oculus Studios
Developer: Camouflaj
Release Date: 22nd October 2024
Age Rating: 16

Batman: Arkham Shadow- you are the night (Oculus Studios)

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