When, back in August 2009, ‘Batman: Arkham Asylum’ hit the shelves of video game stores, many of us knew it was the beginning of a new franchise. The problem is that we didn’t expect it to deteriorate so quickly. It took only three more games (‘City’, ‘Origins’, and ‘Knight’) for the saga to completely fall apart with mistakes like ‘Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’ or the mobile game ‘Arkham Underground’. But we didn’t see this coming.
What’s happening in VR
The next game in the franchise, in a spiral towards nonsense, is ‘Batman: Arkham Shadow’, which finally continues the franchise ten years after its last installment and of which we only know two things. One, the official description, which adds nothing new (“Evil is in the streets. Gotham City is in danger. And only you can stop it”). And two, that it is an exclusive for Meta Quest 3. Yes, try to contain the screams of joy.
This is not the first virtual reality game in the saga (that would be ‘Batman Arkham VR’, which didn’t even have combat and focused on puzzles), but that’s not a relief. This doesn’t mean that ‘Arkham Shadow’ is going to be bad, but it is a shame that so few people will be able to try it. After all, Meta Quest 3 costs over 500 euros, and I have my doubts that a Batman game is going to convince people that this is what they need in their life.
The 30-second teaser introduces us to Batman chasing a rat, which leads us to believe that the current villain will be Ratcatcher, a fifth-rate bad guy that makes us think that maybe the game is not intended as a new main installment, after all. That’s what we have.
