Batman: Arkham Shadow
MSRP
$50.00
“Batman: Arkham Shadow isn’t just a great VR game; it’s one of the best Batman games ever.”
Pros
- Excellent story
- Feels like a full Arkham game
- Thrilling combat
- Impressive visuals
Cons
- Visual bugs and crashes
- Finnicky motion controls
I’m zipping through the streets of Gotham pummeling rioters when I hear a classic villain monologue. The Rat King is prattling on about his plan to eliminate the city’s elites, a speech I’ve heard so many times that he’s become white noise. Then suddenly, I’m in his crosshairs. He questions Batman’s role as a just vigilante, painting him as an extension of brutal authoritarianism. What makes Batman different from a crooked cop using excessive force? Suddenly, my beatdowns on cowering goons don’t feel so satisfying.
With Batman: Arkham Shadow, a VR continuation of Rocksteady’s beloved series, developer Camouflaj isn’t just out to create the cool superhero power fantasy that fans have always dreamed of. That would be too easy. Instead, its idea of making players embody Batman involves putting the heavy weight of responsibility on your shoulders. Is being a hero simply about beating the snot out of villains? When is justice just a smokescreen for unchecked violence? You can’t protect your community if you never stop to understand who inhabits it.
Batman: Arkham Shadow rises to its challenging position as an Arkham sequel by telling what may be gaming’s best Batman story. It does that while delivering some best-in-class design that smartly translates almost every piece of its console counterparts to VR. But every superhero has a weakness, and Arkham Shadow’s vulnerabilities come in the form of the kinds of bugs and finicky controls that still show that VR has some demons to fight.
