Rocksteady is in the middle of doling out episodic post-launch content for its live-service entry in the Arkhamverse and it’s abundantly plain how erroneous of a direction the franchise has been steered in lately. Following five-year-old multiplayer shooter trends or not,Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice Leagueheld a decent premise with Task Force Xas its focal point and became divisive regarding how it treated the Justice League it was happy to kill trivially.
TheArkhamgames’ community has been itching for a new game that not only features Batman but actually feels like it belongs to the Arkhamverse canon andBatman: Arkham Shadow, against all odds, is shaping up to be precisely that.Batman: Arkham Shadowis unconventional as a VRArkhamgame, especially since it’s a legitimate installment and not a companion piece like Rocksteady’sBatman: Arkham VRis, but if the Arkhamverse continues to branch out with unique presentations and gameplay genres like 2.5D side-scroller and VR entries the series will be richer for it.
Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate Walked So Batman: Arkham Shadow Could Run
Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgateisn’t a necessary piece of Arkhamverse contentto consume pertaining to narrative events, especially since everything it teases and debuts about ARGUS and a potential Suicide Squad was evidently shelved, even in Rocksteady’s exposition-starvedSuicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. It’s always possible that sequels taking place betweenBlackgateandBatman: Arkham Asylumcould rectify that, though, and that’s whereBatman: Arkham Shadowcomes gliding in.
Shadowisn’t another attempt at a 2.5D adaptation of the Arkhamverse, but it is another divisive entry as it is exclusive to Meta Quest 3.
As a VR game,Shadowhas adequately illustrated how faithfully it is iterating on the Arkhamverse franchise’s key features. This is whatBlackgatehad tried to do, and while its Metroidvania designs are arguably superb it did fumble when it came to rendering freeflow combat and predator encounters as fluidly and impactfully as it needed to.
The standard forArkhamgames is remarkably steep and, while everyArkhamfan has their favorite installment with noArkhamgame being outright better than another (besidesBlackgate, arguably),Shadowis thankfully meeting the mark thus far. If its gameplay is progressively engaging and its story lands successfully,Shadowmay have an opportunity to greenlight future VR sequels and continue pushing the envelope on what anArkhamgame needs to look like.
Batman: Arkham Shadow Should Be an Eye-Opening New Lens for the Arkhamverse’s Cowl
Blackgatewasn’t a successful companion piece toOriginsand remains the only highly malignedArkhamgame, which would suggest that the Arkhamverse’s transition to fixed camera angles is to blame. To this day,Originsdemonstrates that there is still high demand forArkhamgames as action-adventure experienceswith an over-the-shoulder camera. This is especially true of the early reception toShadow’s announcement, where the Arkhamverse community immediately lamented that there is no flatscreen console edition of the game.
Shadow’s gameplay reveal is reassuring as a faithful adaptation of those mechanics, though many would-be players will still need to decide for themselves if they’re willing to purchase a Meta Quest 3 for the platform-exclusive title. It also seems as if the community isn’t opposed toa newArkhamgame developed by a studio other than Rocksteadywith Armature’sBlackgateand Camouflaj’sShadowbeing proof that the franchise doesn’t need to be restricted to its traditional style to represent the Arkhamverse’s beloved formula effectively.
Blackgateis phenomenal for how it depicts the Arkhamverse’s first appearance of Catwoman and the game probably would’ve been received more favorably if it had only refined its combat to be more elaborate. Therefore, Camouflaj is brilliant to have dedicated so much ofShadow’s gameplay reveal trailer and hands-on preview footage on hard-hitting freeflow combos with a mixture of literal punches and batarangs hurled at the Rat King’s masked devotees because it knows what it has accomplished is special.
