Batman: Arkham Shadow Review — Grandiose VR blockbuster with performance issues
Read our review of Batman: Arkham Shadow to see if Meta's first exclusive AAA VR blockbuster for Quest 3 and Quest 3S delivers.
About four years ago, Meta knocked on the door of developer studio Camouflaj, fresh off its first superhero experience with Iron Man VR, with an exciting offer: to create a new Batman VR game. And not just any Batman title, but an official entry in the popular Arkham series.
Little did studio founder Ryan Payton know at the time that his Batman: Arkham Shadow would be the first entry in the series in eight years. "It's a great honor for us — but also a little scary," Payton joked at Gamescom.
After four years of intense development, during which the team even worked with well-known Hollywood stars and voice actors, Batman: Arkham Shadow is finally here.
Now the question is: Does the Dark Knight deliver in virtual reality? Our review will tell you.
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Batman Arkham Shadow: Review in a nutshell
Batman: Arkham Shadow is a VR masterpiece that raises the bar for standalone VR headsets. No other VR game currently comes close to the Dark Knight in terms of production values and atmosphere. Only a few performance issues spoil the fun.
- Available for: Meta Quest 3, Meta Quest 3S
- Tested on: Meta Quest 3
- Price: $50 in the Meta Horizon Store
Batman: Arkham Shadow is suitable for you if ...
- you've always wanted to become the Dark Knight in VR
- you are looking for a narrative VR action adventure at AAA level
- you want high production values and an exciting story
Batman: Arkham Shadow is less suitable for you if ...
- you have little interest in DC Comics and the Batman character
- artificial locomotion in VR games doesn't sit well with you
- you are not a fan of motion-intensive VR games
A cinematic treat
In Batman: Arkham Shadow, you take on the role of a young, impetuous Dark Knight who likes to put his head through the wall. The story takes place between Arkham Origins and Arkham Asylum. The latter clearly serves as a playful model for the first Arkham spin-off in VR.
In Gotham, a strange cult has formed around the Rat King, a villain created specifically for Arkham Shadow. The Rat King spreads his propaganda throughout the city, proclaiming a "Day of Wrath" in which the citizens of Gotham will experience something terrible.
The cutscenes in Batman: Arkham Shadow create a cinematic atmosphere. | Image: Camouflaj / Meta
You have only a few days to stop this dubious event and hunt down the Rat King. After trying in vain to track the villain through the sewers of Gotham, a clue leads you to Blackgate Prison. There, as an undercover inmate by day, and as The Dark Knight by night, you must pick up the trail of the mysterious cult leader.
The story of Arkham Shadow is a Batman story as written in a comic book and should captivate fans and newcomers alike. In terms of production, Camouflaj's first entry in the Arkham series is absolutely AAA. The characters are superbly animated, the cutscenes and flashbacks create a cinematic atmosphere, and the voice acting by Troy Baker, Elijah Wood, and Roger Craig Smith as Batman is absolutely top-notch.
Accessible gameplay, well explained
Batman Arkham Shadow is built on four pillars: combat, puzzles, exploration, and story. Camouflaj knows how to weave these four main elements together. Especially in the first part, which also serves as a tutorial and introduction to the story, you will experience more action-heavy moments. The main part of the game alternates between action and detective work.
Before each newly introduced gameplay element, you have the opportunity to briefly switch to a fighting arena and learn the individual moves there. Here, the various punching techniques are demonstrated and the Dark Knight's stealth abilities are well explained.
Balanced mix of action and exploration
There are always sections where you can choose to fight in the open or sneak around in the shadows. You can silently put opponents in headlocks, rappel down from high places and hang them unconscious by their legs, or crawl through shafts and attack your opponents from behind.
You usually solve the puzzle parts with Detective Vision, which highlights important objects in yellow. | Image: Camouflaj / Meta
A continuous expansion of the Bat's arsenal provides a welcome Metroidvania touch. With one or two gadgets, you can later reach previously closed areas. You can quickly jump over obstacles at the touch of a button, the grapple gun helps at higher points, and it becomes particularly elegant when you spread your bat wings and glide through the air. A great feeling for Batman fans!
More gadgets and abilities are added throughout the game, but I don't want to spoil them here.
Clever combat system reminiscent of the original
Batman is not squeamish in his fights, and occasionally, he breaks a bone or two. But there is no blood and no killing. After all, the Dark Knight fights on the side of the good guys.
When it comes to direct combat, Camouflaj has taken the free-flowing combat mechanics of the original Arkham games and translated them perfectly to virtual reality.
When you enter a combat situation, you press the grip button, aim at an opponent, and hit them with a punch motion.
During fights, yellow symbols show you which blows you need to perform. | Image: Camouflaj / Meta
You don't have to move Batman towards the enemy, but he will automatically dash towards the villain. Now you are very close and the game will show you different elements. For example, a golden ring means you need to perform straight punches, arrows mean you have to swing, and multiple circles in a row mean you need to perform a punch combination.
Which hand you use is only important for swings and uppercuts. Here you have to follow the instructions and punch with your left or right fist depending on the arrow. When a blue warning signal with an arrow appears, raise your hands in the appropriate direction to counter the attacker.
Motivating combo point hunt
If you miss and use a swing instead of a punch, your opponent will retaliate and break your combo chain. Getting hit in melee, or with ranged weapons, will also end your streak.
However, if you can get your combo meter up, you can use special attacks, which you can unlock through experience points in the rudimentary skill tree. In turn, you earn experience points for successful combo chains.
In between punches, you can use typical Batman gadgets like Batarrangs and Smoke Bombs. These can be used to disperse large groups of enemies or make a muscleman stagger.
The overlapping controls create a powerful flow to melee combat that won't get boring even after hours of play. Newly learned skills and different types of enemies keep the fights fresh.
The only downside to the combat system is that it can get very tiring in the long run. After all, in Batman Arkham Shadow you don't just press buttons, you actually have to swing your fists.
You should always be careful and make sure you have a large playing area. I've also hit my own hands or headset a few times because some of the hit points are very close together.
Puzzle-solving with Detective Vision
To make sure you don't run out of breath, Batman Arkham Shadow cleverly slows things down between combat sequences, interspersing them with either puzzles or cinematic cutscenes. The puzzles are solved primarily with the Detective Vision. You activate this scanner by holding the controller to your head and pressing the trigger, a neat trick that adds to the immersion.
Detective Vision is also important during stealth missions, as it makes it easier to recognize enemies, important objects or shafts. | Image: Camouflaj / Meta
Use the scanner to switch to a type of thermal imaging that highlights people, weapons, power lines, or switches with high contrast. For example, if a door is locked, you can follow the power line to a switch or find an alternate route through a highlighted shaft.
Detective Vision is also helpful in the stealth passages to get a better idea of the number of enemies. The puzzles are never too hard. This is a good decision, as it could have become tiring in the long run to have to solve difficult puzzles in between the challenging combat.
Gorgeous graphics suffer from performance issues
Graphically and atmospherically, Batman: Arkham Shadow is a stunner, showcasing Quest 3's capabilities like no other VR game to date. Yes, the many narrow corridors in Blackgate Prison and the sewers play into the developers' hands. But they do an excellent job of staging them with light, shadows, reflections, and lots of detail — on a mobile VR headset, mind you!
Batman: Arkham Shadow is graphically and scenically stunning, but occasionally suffers from performance problems. | Image: Camouflaj / Meta
However, Batman: Arkham Shadow is not perfect. There are occasional flat textures and areas with little detail. I also experienced edge flickering, frame rate drops, stuttering, and delays in the soundtrack.
But the game never crashed in just under ten hours. Camouflaj is already working on a hotfix, and patches are expected in the future. Still, such performance issues are even more serious in VR, where stuttering can quickly lead to motion sickness.
My verdict on Batman: Arkham Shadow: A must for VR fans
Anyone who buys a Quest 3 or Quest 3S at the moment will get an absolute VR masterpiece with Batman: Arkham Shadow for free. Camouflaj's entry in the popular Arkham series outshines all previous VR games in terms of presentation. The story of the Rat King is convincing and could have come straight out of a comic book.
The mix of action, exploring and never too difficult detective puzzles works smoothly and Camouflaj has managed to transfer the feeling of the free-flowing fights from the original to VR perfectly. Thanks to the targeted addition of new moves and enemies, the combat system remains fun and varied even in the later stages of the game, even if it can get a little tiring at times.
The only point of criticism is the increasing number of performance issues from about halfway through the game, such as stuttering visuals and sound, as well as frequent edge flickering. If you like action-adventure games and have always wanted to become The Dark Knight, you should definitely pick this up. Aside from Arkham Shadow, there is currently no other standalone VR game with similar production values.
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