if you're a big Batman fan that feels a little bit burnt by the recent Suicide Squad game well worry not because I am just about to give you seven reasons why Batman Arkham Shadows is a worthy entry into the Arkham series you could have been more than a symbol you could have been a god Batman arkom Shadows is a purely VR game exclusive to The Meta Quest 3 and it is set in the Arkham timeline it is set just after Arkham Origins so before all the other games in the series it features a whole host of returning characters that you'll remember Harley quinnzel is in there before she becomes Harley Quinn Harvey Dent is in there before he becomes Twoface this is early on in the timeline but it totally fits in with the Arkham series that means we're going to see Easter eggs and hints towards upcoming games there might even be some nods to The Suicide Squad game in there but this is a faithful law abiding video game that fits in completely with the Arkham series it's the freaking P we aren't afraid of you one of the biggest things about the Arkham series is obviously the combat how does that translate to VR though you might be wondering the combat itself is done by melee attacking so physically punching and what happens is as an enemy comes towards you the the action slows down slightly and you get these kind of targets to aim for with your punches so in a way it's almost like a rhythm game you see these targets come up that you have to punch for occasionally there'll be indicators showing that you have to do a left hook or a right hook or an uppercut and then you'll also get these indicators where you can grab enemies by their shoulders pull them towards you and then give them awesome finishing moves if an enemy comes up behind you you will get this kind of bat sense indicator on the left or right of your head you can then lift up your arm and your vision will swing round to that character that is attacking you from behind then you can launch into a combo against them and this kind of all chained together really nicely and if you are quite deliberate and ex exaggerated with your swings you end up feeling like you are doing this combat Dance all the way through I tried fighting a little bit faster and the punches don't land as much but if you stick with the onscreen prompts it just feels really good there's this amazing flow to it honestly it felt comfortable to do it felt great to play I couldn't have asked for a better way for that combat to translate into VR Alfred we tried it your way now we do it mine one of my favorite things about the Arkham series was playing as a stealthy predator and in Batman Arkham Shadows you do get to do that signature Predator style combat so that means jumping up on top of gargoyles reaching down pulling enemies up tying them to the gagles jumping from gagle to gagle avoiding line of sight it's really fun to be able to hide up above and actually look down with your own head at the enemies below you surveying them watching how they Patrol watching them as they split off and taking them out one by one you can kind of Glide down and you if you hold down the Y button you can glide down and kick them in the head again it slow MOS as you come down so presumably that helps a little bit with motion sickness but once you get down and you pin them down you can then Pummel them in the head and then you can use your grapple hook to zip back up again you'll see the other enemies wandering around go whoa who did that where I saw some blurs what the and then you can again wait for them to calm down a bit and strike at them it's this gameplay that we love translated into first person really well there's a new Darkness overtaking Gotham driving the city mad later games in the Batman Arkham series have been very open well but Batman Arkham Shadows is a little bit smaller it's more similar in a way to Batman Arkham Asylum in the fact that there were smaller open worlds but it also had a Metroid veia style element to it the main antagonist in this game is the Rat King so the early portion of the game that I played was set underground in some sewers but at the end I did emerge out onto the streets of Gotham on top of a building where I could see this suggestion of a nice big open world to explore it's not a massive open world I've been told and we won't get vehicles or anything to drive you can though use Batman's Glide ability to Glide around the environment the open world isn't that big but there will be a nice bit of open world exploration especially if you're up for looking for Easter eggs and things like that it is more similar to Batman Arkham Asylum than the bigger city games Jim this Rat King could be anywhere a face in the crowd a foot soldier in his own fanatical mod so how in the hell do we find him in Batman Arkham Shadows to activate Batman's detective mode you need to tap your head and this brings up the detective mode which kind of like is a wall hack view you get to see through walls you can see enemy skeletons you can see guns highlighted you can see routs to access shortcuts and secret areas and also you can see hints towards puzzles and perhaps a lot of extra areas of exploration where you might find Easter eggs and stuff like that the Rat King will stop at nothing to destroy my city how far will I go to destroy him the Arkham games were great for making you feel like Batman but when you are fully in Batman's costume looking through Batman's eyes you really do feel like Batman that means you can look down at your arms and you have a full body you can see Batman's armor it has this wonderful scuff marking on it all his gadgets are built onto the suit so if I was to grab my chest I'd bring out my batarang and I could throw it at Targets I also have gadgets like like the grapple gun which is a nice quick simple one press button and I can aim at a Target and zoom up so this really does feel like embodying Batman I didn't get to play it during my demo but there is an early suitup sequence I've been told so you start off as Bruce Wayne you can walk through the Wayne Manor or the bat cave at least and watch yourself being suited up as Batman it's going to make you embody that amazing superhero that you've you've been able to play from thir person before but now you're actually going to be him and it actually does feel like him as well this rat cult spreads through Gotham like a plague I have to stop it even if it consumes me and finally the seventh reason why this is a worthy entry to the Arkham series is that there are loads of returning cast members here that you'll recognize from previous Batman games Roger Craig Smith who was the voice actor for Batman in Arkham Origins makes a return here as does Troy Baker who is back voicing Harvey Dent and Tara Strong will be voicing Harley quinzel before she becomes Harley Quinn and there are also a bunch of other famous returning faces as well so all in all this is definitely a worthy entry into the Arkham series as long as you have a meta Quest 3 look out if you don't calm down someone's going to die alred we tried it your way now we do it [Music] mine something Big's going down tonight we were press our rage our fears it feeds the shadow deep inside us you're everything that's wrong with Gotham I'm done holding back