Test: Batman: Arkham Shadow does justice to virtual reality

Since the technical restrictions of virtual reality prevent Camouflaj from returning to the open world of Arkham City or its successors, Meta's in-house studio opts for a more intimate story that approximates the structure of Arkham Asylum. After a long introduction to the streets of Gotham during a riot, Batman realizes that he must know the criminals better to resolve the civil disorder at the source. As luck would have it, the Rat King who leads the riots would be incarcerated in Blackgate Prison; our vigilante drops the mask and puts on the false mustache of “Matches” Malone, street scoundrel, to infiltrate the penitentiary center. Suffice to say that the hell he discovers there completely exceeds his preconceptions.

Like the movie The Batman in 2022, Batman : Arkham Shadow examines Bruce Wayne and his methods in the light of modern riots, pointing the finger at prisons and their role in radicalizing inmates with the subtlety of a large knuckle salad – Blackgate Prison is currently run by the security company TYGER, a collection of dark corrupt thugs and crooked ex-cops who openly mock human rights. Add Harleen Quinzel and Dr. Jonathan Crane before their respective reconversions into Harley Queen and Scarecrow for an explosive cocktail. Batman : Arkham Shadow shines as well when he deepens the mythology of the universe with strange runes in the foundations of Blackgate as when he offers intimate sequences, during group therapy or a troubled memory of Batman . The “immediate” writing – the enemy dialogues, for example – also contains some nuggets in the conversations between guards, as usual, especially towards the end of the game.

Car Batman : Arkham Shadow is a fascinating standard bearer for the Meta Quest 3S headset, a new commercial missile aimed at small budgets. Camouflaj takes the mechanics of the Arkham saga to transpose them into virtual reality, and it works quite well. For example, the combat system requires us to strike our opponents according to targets or directional indicators, to simulate hooks, jabs and armlocks with small, simple rhythmic sequences. The difficulty is being able to orient yourself 360 degrees when Batman finds himself surrounded by his adversaries; While parry indicators often shine on the screen to tell us in which direction to defend, by raising our arm, special enemies can confuse us – even more than in the original games. But these confrontations generally turn out to be exhilarating and very immersive. Not to mention that you'll burn a few calories fighting ghosts in your living room. Be careful though, extend your arm carefully to attack, otherwise the movement detection can be a little finicky.

Batman also has several gadgets – batarangs, explosive gel, cryptographic sequencer, etc. – which can be used while mimicking the actions of the dark knight. To grab a batarang, for example, all you have to do is reach out to your chest to retrieve a projectile from our virtual bat logo, before launching it using (very) assisted aim. In combat, managing gadgets is much harder than before, and that's normal. Camouflaj has adjusted the difficulty accordingly and you shouldn't suffer too many defeats, giving you time to learn how to juggle all the devices. Batman : Arkham Shadow features a small range of fairly useful upgrades arranged according to four distinct progression trees. We find all the classics, such as critical hits which increase the combo gauge faster to trigger a special attack, as well as gun jammers.

Batman : Arkham Shadow is an excellent introduction to virtual reality, as it mobilizes the capabilities of the Meta Quest 3S, always in an intelligent way. Cautiously scaling crumbling brick walls or intertwined pipes gives an entirely different rhythm, one that brings us even closer to the more measured rhythm of The Batmanwith its sometimes slightly clumsy vigilante; but the immersion, once again, is total, to the point of making one dizzy. Many interactions are sprinkled throughout the environment. In any case, you will quickly see that Batman's hands are faithfully simulated to the point of having precise physics of the fingers on the environment, with a realistic deformation when you pass your hand over a wall, or the corner of a table. It's useless for the gameplay, of course, but impressive. Camouflaj was careful to maintain the illusion down to the details.

As for whether swinging from one ledge to another causes a “gerbotron” effect, rest assured, Camouflaj has mastered his subject. Small transitions mask sudden movements to avoid making us too nauseous. Generally speaking, Batman : Arkham Shadow offers a nice range of options for adjusting VR settings to your liking, with several pre-configured sets depending on your familiarity with the technology. Note also that the game turns out to be rather beautiful in its category, whether in terms of animations or artistic direction. However, note numerous sound flourishes with many unexpected cuts, perhaps caused by loading in the background. This is the only downside to this sacrosanct immersion.

Unlike his elders, Batman : Arkham Shadow takes place over a full week and adopts a very slight metroidvania tone, since our progress will be punctuated by the acquisition of new gadgets which will be useful for revisiting the previous areas and finding all the secrets. With around a hundred items to collect, Batman : Arkham Shadow extends its lifespan nicely, and without a single Riddler trophy in sight. Instead, you will have to find memory cards, rat statues or clandestine radios to smash, sometimes with little puzzles to solve. This remains completely optional. Camouflaj paces our progress quite well by dividing Blackgate prison into several unique zones, marked by different colored atmospheres, from the sickly greenish of the Arkham wing to the burnt red of death row. If it is obvious that we eat metallic and concrete environments repeatedly given the narrative framework, the pill goes down quite well. Flashbacks intersperse important scenes to delve deeper into Batman's psyche.

If the fight gets the adrenaline pumping, the “predator” phases where Batman must eliminate guards without being spotted are less interesting than in the episodes flatscreen. This is partly due to the format of Batman : Arkham Shadowbut also to the artificial intelligence of the guards, who tend to stay stuck together… or stare at their fallen comrades. As a result, manipulating the henchmen to align the perfect route is relatively painful, and we sometimes prefer to get into the crowd even if it means taking a few bullets to speed up the process. But the infiltration phases remain infinitely more interesting than the investigation sequences, which ask us exclusively to scan highlighted objects before issuing a deduction of elementary simplicity. Certainly, it's not tomorrow that we'll think we're Sherlock Holmes in the armor of the dark knight.

Batman : Arkham Shadow ends with a slightly far-fetched twist, but which nevertheless manages to tie together all the main themes of the story. Here, Bruce Wayne must confront his dark side after Arkham Origins and become a hero rather than a blind vigilante. Another story arc that accidentally resembles The Batmanyou will tell me; no doubt this concern is in the spirit of the times. Each antagonist supports this question of the “dark side”, whether psychological or ultimately political, and shows how good people can sink into absolute evil through the cruelty of circumstances. If we must salute Camouflaj's narrative work, it is perhaps on the coherence in retrospect with the other games in the franchise, because inserting a new title into this already tight timeline was not a foregone conclusion. The studio gets away with the honors thanks to a few clever shortcuts. We forgive.