With the Batcave-sized caveat that we’re still yet to see gameplay, Batman Arkham Shadow – at least on paper – sounds extremely promising.
It’s a new chapter in the Arkham series where you actually play as Batman, created with a clear desire to build on the foundations of Rocksteady’s iconic trilogy. It’s built on a scale reminiscent of the original – and perhaps the best – Arkham Asylum. And it lets you do all the things you really want to do as a Dark Knight – dash, slide, investigate, and chin up baddies.
Of course, Batman Arkham Shadow is also a VR game – exclusive to Meta Quest 3 when it arrives this fall, and it seems unlikely to launch elsewhere. It was built by Camouflaj, the talented team behind Iron Man VR, and has been in the works for several years in close collaboration with Warner Bros. Games and veterans from Rocksteady itself.
The game takes place before Arkham Asylum (albeit after Warner Bros. Montreal’s own prequel, Batman Arkham Origins) – a deliberate move by Camouflage to introduce a younger, less experienced Bat who could be under pressure without a number of allies.
“I was taken aback by how ruthless and violent Batman was in Arkham Origins, and I really loved Roger Craig Smith’s performance,” Camouflaj boss Ryan Payton told me via video call. “I thought – Batman post-Origins is definitely in a very ripe state to go through some really tough times given his arrogance and lack of remorse and empathy for his enemy forces.”
Payton, himself a veteran of 343 Industries and Konami, where he worked on the story for Halo 4 and as a producer on Metal Gear Solid 4, says he was nervous to ask Roger Craig Smith back for the role of Batman – but that the actor was quick to accept and it became “a gift from the heavens” while performing and still a huge fan of the Arkham series.
Of course, Camouflaj has huge shoes to fill, moving Rocksteady’s beloved franchise forward. But it sounds clear that the studio was trying to go at it with respect for what came before. Payton says he was a fan, too—but that still didn’t prepare him for the need to build something that seamlessly fit in with everything that had come before.
“One of the key elements of Batman Arkham is the element of surprise, and we wanted to do something similar…”
“I didn’t appreciate the level of care and interconnectedness that Rocksteady put into these games, even after playing the games multiple times,” Payton said. “Even now – last night I was on a plane and I was playing them again on my Steam Deck. I’m taking screenshots that I’m sending to the team to say ‘hey, we didn’t quite match this thing’. That’s the kind of level of complexity and the difficulty of creating an official new entry in the Arkham franchise, but something I enjoy doing.”
Where there are questions about what happened, Camouflaj got the behind-the-scenes details of Rocksteady’s original intent. Where there are narrative gaps, Camouflaj has been given the freedom to explore these areas narratively.
“There’s one part of the game that I don’t think we’re going to talk about – even until launch – which was [Warner Bros.] it really forces us to do something different,” teased Payton. “One of the key elements of Batman Arkham is the element of surprise, and we wanted to do something similar with Arkham Shadow.”
What we do know for sure is that Arkham Shadow will feature the return of several core characters from the series – including a couple as we’ve never seen them before. “Since we’re at the beginning of the Arkham timeline, it’s an opportunity for us to tell the origins of some iconic DC characters,” Payton said, name-checking Harley Quinn, Scarecrow, and Two-Face. Ratcatcher and Jim Gordon are also featured in the game’s cinematic trailer.
“We have older versions before they become larger-than-life characters. Players are used to seeing them fully developed, so let’s explore what they are like before. No one in the Arkham franchise has seen what Scarecrow looks like without the mask…”
The Camouflaj team was assisted by several Rocksteady veterans working full-time on the project, including Design Director Bill Green, who served 11 years with the Arkham founder and was the lead developer on Batman Arkham VR. “For the last couple of years, we’ve just looked up to the incredible work that Rocksteady and the team at Warner Bros. Montreal have done,” Payton noted.
“In the Arkham franchise, no one has seen what Scarecrow looks like without his mask…”
Translating the gameplay of the Arkham series into first-person form (and yes, you can look down and see your body in the Batsuit) doesn’t sound easy, but Payton says Camouflaj approached the project knowing it had to include “all the elements that make the Arkham games great”.
“We know it’s about exploration – grappling and gliding – combat, boss battles, investigation and cinematics. We really needed to hone those five core elements,” he said. Exactly how this will all look in action is something we’ll have to wait until Gamescom in August, when Arkham Shadow is revealed.
Payton now says that Arkham Shadow will be somewhere between Iron Man VR and Rocksteady’s Arkham Asylum in game length, and will be “heavily inspired by the gameplay structure of Asylum.”
“It’s kind of open – not open world per se – but similar to Asylum’s Metroidvania-inspired structure,” Payton concludes. “We have these large courtyard-inspired areas where players can choose where they want to go, and multiple dungeons where players can come back later and search for secrets.”
As we close, it’s clear that there’s still a lot to uncover about the game – but I’m looking forward to the next one at Gamescom in a few months to see if what it looks like in action lives up to its pretty exciting promise.