Batman: Arkham Shadow review for Meta Quest 3

The Arkham series has always been a series I’ve loved. Rocksteady’s rendition of Batman produced some of the most fun open worlds available in any game in my opinion, so I was very interested to see how it could translate into VR. I am happy to say I’m pretty surprised by how well Batman: Arkham Shadow managed to integrate all of the parts you’re used to already from the Arkham games into VR. The combat is great, the graphics are nice, and the story is interesting; the only thing I think Arkham Shadow suffers from is map design. I’ll get into why below.

So the thing I was most surprised by is the way the combat is still the same classic Arkham combat. The counters, combos, and fluidity you’re used to from the Arkham series are all retained in Arkham Shadow. I honestly did not expect this when I got into the game and found it very satisfying. When someone is attacking you, it prompts you to counter on screen by putting your palm out in the direction of the attack. When doing so, you jump over to them and are prompted with a combo necessary to complete the takedown. Same for attacking enemies normally: you punch in their direction and Batman will swiftly fly to them and give a prompt on screen for the necessary hands and directions for your next hits.

I found it infinitely satisfying when getting into combat and flowed between the enemies. My only real complaint is how when you’re fighting, it often feels like enemies attack often enough that it keeps you from getting the opportunity to do the more fun combos available in Arkham Shadow because of the length of the animations. It often felt like they require you to counter enemies so frequently that pure takedowns could be rare. It’s not the worst thing in the world, but I would like to see more opportunities to engage in the fallen enemy attacks. Regardless, it still works very well and I looked forward to the combat every time I was between fights.

Arkham Shadow also retains the stealth function of the Arkham games. You know the parts I’m talking about if you’ve played them: where you’re sitting on top of the gargoyles and statues at the top of the room while the bad guys with guns search for you below. How you deal with the enemies in these situations is personal choice and allows for a lot of creativity in handling. You can drop down on them and knock them out, flying away as his friends come searching. Or you could take the quieter approach and hang from the platform and grab the enemy to pull them up and hang them by their feet to eliminate them. Freedom of approach is the name of the game in these sections of Arkham Shadow, and you’ll find lots of opportunities for creative eliminations.

Also of surprising note to me is the quality of the graphics. On Quest standalone, Arkham Shadow looks very high quality. I honestly didn’t think that the Quest was capable of outputting graphics that look as nice as what Arkham Shadow puts on display. In my time, playing on a Quest 3, I also didn’t really notice any hitch or hiccups in the performance, so they must have put a lot of effort into optimizing performance. The only downside to this is battery life. I think in my time playing Arkham Shadow, I found my Quest 3 dying within less than 70 minutes consistently. The Quest 3’s battery life isn’t the best to begin with, but I’m assuming the graphical fidelity on display in Arkham Shadow must be killing the battery significantly faster. If you play standalone on Quest, expect Arkham Shadow to take you a while to complete just on the fact that you won’t be able to play for very long.

Now, I do have to get my one major complaint out of the way with Arkham Shadow: the map design. It looks great, don’t get me wrong, but what I mean is specifically in the way that good map design is supposed to funnel you into the right way to go. Arkham Shadow is fine with this most of the time, but there were quite a few times where I found myself running in circles going “WHERE AM I SUPPOSED TO GO?!”. Almost exclusively, the answer was “A random vent in a corner of the room”, but usually in these cases, the vent was hidden from immediate sight and would require walking along the walls. Eventually, I got used to this, and would just go straight to looking for a random vent if I didn’t know where to go, but early on, this was very frustrating. On multiple occasions early on, I’d end up running backwards through the level, assuming the path was a different area because the map made it look like my objective was near an area I’d already been, but it was always a hidden vent.

Overall, though, I found Arkham Shadow to be a great game. This one flaw caused frustrations at the beginning, but once I was aware that this is what happens, I found it a lot easier to continue through my playthrough. There’s a lot of fun to be had in Arkham Shadow, so I wouldn’t let this ruin the experience. It’s a great game and as I said before, it’s a great translation of the Arkham games into VR. I think it’s worth playing and if you don’t already have a Quest, a lot of the Quest 3 bundles include Arkham Shadow on purchase. VR is a growing market, so jump in and give Arkham Shadow a shot. You won’t regret it.

Oculus Studios provided us with a Batman: Arkham Shadow Meta Quest 3 code for review purposes.