Batman: Arkham Shadow Review – Become the Night (Quest 3)

Batman: Arkham Shadow is the latest game by Camouflaj, and a very ambitious one at that. With a somewhat loose relation to the acclaimed Arkham trilogy, this Quest exclusive is a well-done Batman experience that any fans of the Caped Crusader would do well to experience themselves. Above all, this title succeeds in clearing the bar for VR titles: to feel like a proper game, rather than a VR gimmick.

What we have here is a stealth/combat game in the Batman universe. And what is more, it translates the Arkham trilogy experience remarkably well for a VR game. Sure, you are not hanging upside down from a gargoyle, and you are not necessarily flying from one thug to the next when you achieve a combo, but considering the physical exertion from the Arkham Shadow experience, Camouflaj did an excellent job at balancing the classic Arkham feel with VR.

Batman: Arkham Shadow is available now on the Meta Quest store for $49.99 USD.

Story – Good Old Detective Work

The story in Batman: Arkham Shadow is probably the element that strays the furthest from the other Arkham games, especially the main trilogy. This is to be expected, since that trilogy is a pretty solid story told in three parts. Camouflaj does manage, however, to tell a more than decent story immersed into a proper Gotham with key characters, voice performances, and a proper detective story and plot.

Monarch Theater, an iconic Gotham location

We are presented with an ongoing insurrection going on in the streets of Gotham, orchestrated by an unknown figure called The Rat King, leader of The Rats. You’ll be making your way through the streets of Gotham, clearing out the rats in your quest to find their leader, meeting several key characters from Batman’s early days, such as Harvey Dent before turning into Two Face, as well as Harley and Scarecrow before they turn into villains. And of course, it wouldn’t be a Batman game without Gordon and Alfred, at least.

Batman: Arkham Shadow presents an interesting story that justifies the moment-to-moment experience of being this young, sometimes too reactive Batman, with a noir and gothic taste that characterizes the franchise. Without the Batman element, you would still have a pretty solid detective game in your hands.

Gameplay – Arkham Action in VR

The make it or break it of the VR experience, creating compelling gameplay that, as I said before, doesn’t feel gimmicky is really the bar to beat for most VR games that are not aiming to be a rhythm game. Batman: Arkham Shadow does manage to feel like a fighting game, a stealth game, and an exploration/puzzle game. 

It retains a lot of the gameplay mechanics of the original Arkham trilogy such as the counter mechanics and the predator stages. Naturally, a lot of the more intensive and flashy moments of the Arkham trilogy basic gameplay loop are missing or altered in a way or another, since they would be jarring on a VR experience, but the ones that remain do make it feel like a comparable experience when in VR. 

Coming straight out of Arkham Knight and into Arkham Shadow, I was able to appreciate the mechanics that got transferred over, and I was gladly surprised by how well they worked. As mentioned before, the counters have the same (or strikingly similar) blue icon over the attackers head, you can bring your hand up to your visor and activate the Detective Vision, bring your hand to your chest and pull out a batarang, throw smoke bombs when spotted or as a diversion, stalk your prey from up above or from the crates on the floor, etc… 

Arkham players should feel right at home

The game is so faithful to the Arkham trilogy, in fact, that the first time I had an armored enemy in front of me, I instinctually knew to hit him first with the cape and then do a beatdown without a tutorial ever popping up about it.

If anything, my only real gripe with the VR experience is that it sometimes doesn’t show in Detective Vision which thugs are talking and sometimes it does. It’s a minor thing but it’s one of the features I liked a lot from the Arkham trilogy because it helped with the immersion.

The game can be beaten in 12-15 hours or more if you are into exploring and finding all the secrets and nooks and crannies. This means that you will have to pause here and there to recharge your headset, or if you get lightheaded from the fighting.

One-on-one combat

There are some older reviews that talk about stuttering and performance issues. My experience with the current version of the game running on a Meta Quest 3 was almost entirely seamless. The only stuttering I had was while trying to cast to my Chromecast (although that probably has to do with the Chromecast itself being and old one).

Other than that, once I had to pause the game and turn on the passthrough and when I went back into the game, it automatically dropped me from the ledge I was on, causing the enemies to spot me, so be sure not to click out of the game while you are perched in a Predator Stage.

VR Fighting

Those of you that are experienced with the Arkham series know how detailed and fleshed out the combat can be. Combat in Arkham Shadow is both simplified and harder in some aspects. It takes a few tries to get used to the prompts, specially the counters when attacked from someone outside your field of vision. 

The ideal way to play this game when it comes to combat is standing up in a room where you can spin around freely. Of course, if you are unable to stand, you can still play it sitting down, but I found combat much more enjoyable on my feet. 

The fights are punchy and exciting, sometimes feel downright dangerous and frustrating when they get 2 or 3 punches in, but that only adds to the excitement of it all. There is a lot of satisfaction to be had from beating your first group of 5+ thugs. 

VR Stealth

Predator stages and scores are still a thing in Arkham Shadow, and you’ll be able to plan out your attack from the heights of a gargoyle and subdue enemies when surprised from behind. There are also still cinematic moments like breaking through a breakable wall directly into an attack on an unsuspecting enemy, surprising groups of enemies by dropping in unexpectedly or simply stealthing your way around all of them and picking them out one by one.

Title Screen

It takes some time to get used to the enemies lines of sight and where you are easily spotted and where you are not, but once it clicks, you can breeze your way through most predator stages with no major problem. 

Graphics and Sound – Better Experienced in Person

The Gotham in Arkham Shadow is, as it typically is, gloomy and dark. It’s also not as detailed as in Arkham knight, and the graphics themselves more closely resemble Arkham Asylum, but considering is all running on the tiny headset strapped to your head, it’s rather impressive. 

I don’t need photorealistic graphics, especially in VR, to enjoy a game, as demonstrated on other reviews, and I rather consider if the Graphic style matches the vibe the game is going for. The graphic style in Arkham Shadow does fit the vibe of the experience.

Camouflaj manages to create an implied city past the streets where you are actively fighting and exploring, helping with the immersion. And that’s just the most important aspect of it: Do the graphics and Sound design help with the VR immersion? I would say they do.

Batman: Arkham Shadow was reviewed on Meta Quest 3, with a key provided by Meta.