WhenBatman: Arkham Shadowlaunches on Meta Quest 3/3S in under a month it won’t for a second be unclear when the game takes place in the Arkhamverse’s scattered franchise. It’s already been clearly stated thatBatman: Arkham Shadowtakes place six months afterArkham Originsand three months afterArkham Origins Blackgate, but hearing Roger Craig Smith’s voice as Batman and seeing the state of certain characters should instantly pinpoint where it takes place anyhow. Likewise, any Easter eggs and lore the game stews in must reflect the conditions of the world around it.
Batman: Arkham Shadowrecently revealed a payphone featurethat will allow players to listen to pre-recorded messages from a wide cast of characters including District Attorney Harvey Dent and Gotham City Police Commissioner Jim Gordon. This will be excellent as it invites other voices to be heard, potentially from characters who play a role in the Arkhamverse but may not have a role to play inShadowspecifically. That said, during an interview with Game Rant, game director Ryan Payton revealed that there’ll be at least two other distinct features that provide similar tidbits of entertaining environmental storytelling: an answering machine and radio stations.
Batman: Arkham Shadow Emulates Arkham Knight’s Answering Machine
Batman doesn’t have a Batcave to retreat to in all ofArkham Knight. Instead, players ascend to Bruce Wayne’s luxurious office space atop Wayne Tower if they want to speak with Lucius Fox—much less rescue him fromThomas Elliot’s Hush—look at a suite of gadgets and a spare Batsuit, or listen to messages that characters such as Lex Luthor or Kate Kane have left for him on an answering machine. As Payton describes,Arkham Shadowhas one of its own and it serves a similar purpose:
“In our Batcave, we have a feature we’re borrowing fromArkham Knightwhich is the answering machine. So, as players progress through the campaign they can hit a button and hear these phone calls, these messages that are left for Bruce Wayne, which get increasingly intense as Bruce has been very preoccupied by his pursuit of the Rat King. That’s been a fun feature we’ve been working on and we are excited for people to dig deeper into it when they play the game.”
The benefit of the answering machine as it pertains to world-building is that, unlike the payphone, for instance, these messages are addressed to Bruce directly. Only time will tell ifShadow’s Batcave is inspired by this office space in general, though it’s unlikely that players can expect to finda dog bowl for Ace.
Batman: Arkham Shadow Features a Take on Arkham City’s Radio Stations
Moreover, radio stations are making a comeback. This is interesting based purely on the means of communication it will be presented through with characters presumably speaking tocolorful Gotham residentsat large, and it possibly points to a nostalgic way that players could be interacting with radio stations in particular.
“Like inCity, we have radio stations for players to tune in to as well. We’ve recorded lots of different radio programming from some really cool actors who I don’t think we’re going to reveal ahead of time. I think we’re just going to allow the players to uncover this as they play the game.
Some deep-cut DC lore in there, and it’s just something for the fans that really enjoyed listening to these different clips withinArkham City. We have a very similar feature like that inArkham Shadow.”
Therefore, with payphones, an answering machine, and radio frequencies to listen in on, there’s sure to be a huge amount of lore, Easter eggs, and references players can derive from all of these unique outlets. When followed up with a question of whetherShadow’s radio feature confirmed the presence of theCryptographic Sequencer gadget from previous games in the franchise—which Batman used to tune in to radio broadcasts—Payton could interestingly neither confirm nor deny it.
