Batman: Arkham Shadow is more faithful to the series than you think

By Giovanni Colantonio June 7, 2024 2:28PM

Batman stands near fire in Batman: Arkham Shadow. — Camouflaj

During Summer Game Fest, Meta revealed a new story trailer for Batman: Arkham Shadow. While the clip only delves into story, an accompanying blog post confirms that the gameplay staples of Rocksteady’s Arkham series are all coming to VR.

Batman: Arkham Shadow was announced earlier this spring as a Meta Quest 3 exclusive. Positioned as an official entry in the Arkham game series, the news was met with a mixed reception from critics of VR. Meta has followed up with a blog post detailing exactly how the new game will play, even if it isn’t showing that in action just yet.

Batman: Arkham Shadow (Meta Quest VR) Reveal Teaser

According to the post, Batman: Arkham Shadow will bring the series’ signature freeform combat to VR. Players can punch, dodge, perform takedowns, and more just as they can on console and PC. Players can even sit on a perch and string up unsuspecting enemies, throw their Batarang to extend combos, and break away from enemy sight lines with smoke bombs.

As for traversal, players can zip around Gotham with a Grapnel Gun and glide with Batman’s cape. Stealth, Detective Vision, environmental puzzles, collectibles, and more series staples have all been adapted into VR.

As for its story, Arkham Shadow takes place between Arkham Origins and Arkham Asylum. Players face off against the Rat King, who takes over Gotham on July 4 with the help of a cult. Commissioner Gordon and Harvey Dent are both abducted, as the Rat King looks to get revenge on those who have harmed Gotham in a “Day of Wrath.”

The new trailer at Summer Game Fest isn’t terribly informative, only showing some slick cinematics. It’s still unclear how it’ll all play in VR or what the scope of the project is. Judging on what we know so far, though, it seems like Camouflaj is doing the work to make Arkham Shadow feel like a true mainline entry rather than a VR spinoff.

Batman: Arkham Shadow launches this fall on Meta Quest 3.

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Giovanni Colantonio

Section Editor, Gaming

Giovanni is a writer and video producer focusing on happenings in the video game industry. He has contributed stories to…

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