For a while, it seemed like mixed reality technology might surpass virtual reality as the technology to finally breakthrough.
Whereas VR has been the technology of the future for decades, mixed reality — which combines real-world vision with digital elements — only emerged in the '90s and it quickly seemed to capture the public's imagination in a way VR never could.
The idea of spatial computing seemed to excite far more than the virtual realms had managed to — especially after Apple, perhaps over-excitedly, dove into the market with both feet on the Vision Pro, signaling to consumers worldwide that the augmented reality future is finally here (or there just about).
However, my fears about 2024 being a make-or-break year for VR have been eased. That's thanks to the Meta Quest 3S, and more importantly the Batman: Arkham Shadow game that comes pre-bundled with it.
Thanks to Arkham Shadow, VR, and more specifically the Meta Quest line of VR/AR headsets, finally has at least one undeniably killer app and it could be one of many with an incredible roster of games lined up over the coming months.
Batman: Arkham Shadow — VR’s killer app (that doesn’t kill)
“This game made me feel like Batman!” is the cliché cry you’ll often hear from reviewers of developer Camouflaj’s Batman: Arkham Shadow for third-generation Meta Quest headsets, and it’s one I’d love to agree with — if only I too were 6’2”, ripped to the gills, and looked just as good fighting crime with my underwear on show.
I do get where they’re coming from though. Arkham Shadow, while drawing my skepticism when first announced earlier this year, has turned out to be the most impressive adaptation of a flatscreen franchise to date. Yes, including the ever-impressive Half-Life Alyx.
Arkham Shadow might lack the sprawling open world of Arkham City or the mouthful-of-sandy-mashed-potatoes grit that covers Arkham Knight, but it retains the same "Metroidvania"-like gameplay of its predecessors, perhaps most closely matching the original Arkham Asylum in scope — all while retaining the Batman power-fantasy of being able to fight ten armed men at once using nothing but the very hands God gave you. (With several layers of padding and armor, and about a billion dollars worth of weaponized gadgets strapped to your chest and waist.)
It’s the ease at which all this comes together with the added VR elements that shines brightest. Be it gliding from point-to-point with your cape by holding out your arms, physically reeling in your Batclaw to topple objects, executing actual combination punches in free-flow-combat, or the all-new mechanics of traversal such as monkey-barring your way over hazards and scurrying up downspouts like a ceramic-clad peeping tom.
It’s bigger than The Bat
Props to Camouflaj, the Bellevue, Washington-based video game studio, that has not only developed a great VR game but one of the best entries to date in the Arkham franchise.
That’s no easy task, the Arkham franchise has basically been the Holy Grail of superhero games for the last few generations. Given how unfairly Warner Bros. Games Montréal’s Batman: Arkham Origins was treated after release, it must feel like a poison chalice to developers who are offered the chance to take the ball and run with it.
Batman: Arkham Shadow is a must-play game, and that makes the Meta Quest 3 or Quest 3S a must-buy console.
No matter how good your game is, meddle with the formula of the core trilogy too much and you risk getting the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade treatment and having your face melted off.
Thankfully, these additions feel natural and welcome, and only add to the overall Arkham experience. It has me itching for more from the universe after richly adding to Gotham’s lore and backstory to great effect. It may be the best VR game I’ve played on Quest to date.
However, what Camouflaj has achieved is bigger than just a great “VR game.” It’s even bigger than being one of the best Arkham games.
It has produced a piece of media that truly sells the platform it was released on.
Batman: Arkham Shadow is a must-play game, and that makes the Meta Quest 3 or Quest 3S a must-buy console.
Along with last year’s Vampire: The Masquerade - Justice and Assassin's Creed Nexus, Camouflaj’s Arkham Shadow may be the end of the beginning of AAA gaming finally finding a home on Meta’s console.
Arkham Shadow is granting Asylum
As I romped my way across the rooftops of Gotham and the (likely) ammonia-scented halls of Blackgate prison as Batman, I couldn’t help but think about the spate of games that Arkham Asylum’s free-flow combat influenced after releasing in 2009.
While initially feeling like lightning in a bottle, Arkham’s free-flow combat was a touchpaper moment for gaming that would inspire the core gameplay of popular titles like Marvel’s Spider-Man, Mad Max, the Middle-Earth franchise, and Sleeping Dogs.
Not since the twin-stick look-and-move controls of 2000’s Alien Resurrection for the original PlayStation has a game mechanic so effortlessly fallen into place in the wider gaming zeitgeist.
Similarly, I hope Arkham Shadow (along with a slew of quality titles still on the slate for 2024, including Alien: Rogue Incursion, Skydance's BEHEMOTH, and the recently released Metro Awakening) can leave its own impression on developers and act as a Bat-signal to blockbuster publishers.
Perhaps not for its adaptation of free-flow combat, but as an indicator that the VR platform and medium is more than capable of delivering meaningful, memorable, and outright exhilarating experiences.
