Batman: Arkham Shadow Review – A Triumphant Return

Batman: Arkham Shadow is a brilliant return for the Dark Knight, and it expertly adapts the series for VR on Quest 3 and Quest 3S. Read on for our full review.

From the first moment you see your pointy ears casting a shadow onto the ground in front of you, Camouflaj invites you to say “I’m Batman.” 2016’s Arkham VR from Rocksteady was disappointingly brief, and it left me wanting a full-length game for a long time. Following Camouflaj’s work on Iron Man VR, it’s immediately clear that Arkham Shadow understands the assignment.

What follows is a compelling tale that’s thoroughly gripped me as a Batman fan, and we find Gotham City besieged by the mysterious Rat King, whose followers threaten to execute them in a “Day of Wrath.” While it’s set before Asylum, Shadow can be played without prior knowledge of the series, though long-term fans may be pleased to find a few references to Origins throughout.

Given how often we’ve seen VR adaptations segmented into a mission-based structure – which I accept works better for some games than others – Arkham Shadow using one continuous campaign works exceptionally well. You’re not simply choosing your mission from some menu, you’re a regular fixture in this world. Beyond some flashback sequences and the opening, there are no breaks in the narrative flow and the story progression is smooth.

You use a laser pointer to select conversation subjects in the menus, which is a bit awkward, but the character interactions are great overall. Directly handing NPCs key items is a small but notable detail that reinforces your sense of presence in this world. That’s driven by a compelling script that keeps up an air of suspense, and each character’s lines are delivered well by a strong voice cast.

You’re soon put to work in the sewers of Gotham, following a lead to find the Rat King’s followers. Between actual rats scurrying away in the distance, moody lighting, and the slow dripping of water, there’s a suitably tense atmosphere that feels lifted out of a comic book. Great sound design and some impressive visuals for Quest 3 further enhance this.

There are moments where you can tell Arkham Shadow is doing its best to maximize performance, which unfortunately means compromising elsewhere. Flat textures were noticeable across a few environments, and hair looks fuzzy on some characters.

Batman stories often excel when he’s working as an investigator, and the famous Detective Mode returns in full glory. Holding your controller next to your headset and clicking the trigger to activate it feels intuitive, which highlights any potential clues, nearby enemies, or interactable objects. Searching for evidence isn’t particularly hard since the relevant objects are clearly highlighted, but this feels natural while maintaining the tone of the flatscreen entries.

The same could be said for Batman’s gadgets, which you’ll gradually unlock as the campaign progresses. Using the explosive gel is as simple as reaching to your waist, grabbing the device, and squeezing the trigger to place it down. Similarly, items like smoke bombs can be conveniently grabbed from your costume’s forearm, and gliding across environments by holding your cape on both sides feels great.

Camouflaj clearly paid close attention to the source material and that’s best exemplified in combat. What’s here feels like Arkham Knight from a first-person perspective, and incapacitating enemies through an inverted takedown – a.k.a., grabbing them from high up and leaving them dangling upside down under a vantage point – feels even better in VR. There’s a good rhythm in combat by mixing button presses which is a little flatscreen derivative with responsive motion controls.

Some moments detract from the immersion slightly, like the UI notifications popping up to say enemies will shortly attack you from a specific direction. Could this have been achieved with more spatial audio cues to signal where an attack is coming from? Still, it’s not a major problem overall. When you’re pulling off satisfying finishers like breaking limbs or pushing them into your knee, this soon becomes an afterthought.

There’s enough enemy variation to keep this interesting. For example, foes holding a stun baton can’t be attacked upfront and need you to jump behind them by pushing the right analog stick forward, followed by pushing them off balance with a punch. Others wielding blades need to be dodged first by physically ducking or moving left or right, followed by a swift counterpunch, while heavier armored enemies can be stunned with a cape twirl. That’s capped off by some great boss battles, which I won’t spoil here but these fights are surprising in scale and difficulty and immensely satisfying to overcome.

There’s plenty to do beyond the main campaign, though that’s largely limited to destroying sets of items. You won’t find any Riddler trophies like in Arkham Knight but the Rat King’s left plenty of radios broadcasting his speeches across the streets for you to destroy. Rat statues and other objects add to this, so it pays to carefully explore.

You’ve also got Challenges that award up to three stars. Combat is a quick rush that’s a great way to train across several rounds, ranking you on aspects like fluid movement, varying your attacks, and not being hit. Timed Predator challenges are also fun and focus on three set goals, like sliding into an enemy and knocking them out while on the floor.

I wish there were more than three challenges each, though Camouflaj confirms it’s providing free updates to the game “over the next few months” with more Challenge Maps. I can’t review what’s not in front of me but other promised post-launch updates, namely a Character Viewer and localized voice acting, are also welcome news.

It’s unfortunate then that I encountered several performance issues during my review that caused hard crashes, most of which were late-game. Camouflaj says they are already fixing my most notable problems with a v1.01 hotfix, which should go live “in a few days.”

Counting the challenges and time spent finding the majority of the Rat King radios and rodent statues, Arkham Shadow took me roughly 12 hours to beat without completely exhausting the side missions. That’s roughly on par with Arkham Asylum while keeping you physically fit as the Dark Knight, and Camouflaj’s title never feels overly long or abruptly cut off.

Batman: Arkham Shadow – Final Verdict

Batman: Arkham Shadow is an impressive entry that feels like the game I’ve been waiting for since 2015. I previously called Assassin’s Creed: Nexus a demonstration of what a full-fledged VR entry can do for a big series, and that rings true once again. This isn’t some quick VR spin-off and I’m impressed by how well Camouflaj captures the mood of Rocksteady’s games.

Arkham Shadow feels faithful to the flatscreen Arkham games while innovating in its own way through VR-specific design. Combat remains familiar yet incredibly satisfying, Detective Mode feels like a natural fit for first-person gameplay and the strong narrative held my interest throughout. With the flatscreen games, you never stepped into the caped crusader’s shoes but with the VR game, I didn’t want it to leave them.

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UploadVR uses a 5-Star rating system for our game reviews – you can read a breakdown of each star rating in our review guidelines.