Batman Arkham VR Review – Remaining in the Shadows

<p>The entire <em>Batman&colon; Arkham <&sol;em>series from Rocksteady has been amazing&comma; in my opinion&period; It wrestles with issues core to the Batman mythology and realizes both Gotham City and the Dark Knight&&num;8217&semi;s villains in interesting ways&period; It isn&&num;8217&semi;t afraid to plunge into the darkness and face the creatures that haunt Bruce Wayne&period; Which is why getting to actually be <em>Batman <&sol;em>should offer plenty of interesting situations&period; Fortunately&comma; <em>Batman Arkham VR<&sol;em> does just that&period; But it has to fight against technology that simply doesn&&num;8217&semi;t want to dive into the darkness&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>What you realize quickly is that <em>Arkham VR <&sol;em>is more designed around the idea of Batman as a detective than it is Batman the vigilante&period; There is only one real instance of combat in the entire game&comma; and it isn&&num;8217&semi;t even interesting&period; You just tell the Batwing to take out a couple thugs by looking at them&period; Focusing on Batman as a detective helps flesh out the one component that I have always felt was lacking in execution from the <em>Arkahm <&sol;em>series&period; Rocksteady consistently nails the combat and stealth&comma; but the investigative sections are a real bore most of the time&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The story of <em>Arkham VR <&sol;em>is short and sweet&period; Robin is missing and you have to find out where he has gone&period; You spend a tiny bit of time as Bruce Wayne in his manor&comma; but then quickly get acquainted with Batman and the Batcave&period; The Batcave acts as a hub world to let players explore some of Batman&&num;8217&semi;s lore&comma; do some Batarang challenges&comma; and just get a sense that you are truly the Dark Knight&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s plenty to interact with and you can move between areas of the Batcave pretty quickly by just grappling with your grappling hook to swing through the cave&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;114430" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-114430" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-114430 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;10&sol;20134153&sol;batman-arkham-vr-screen-02-ps4-eu-15jul16-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Batman Arkham VR" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-114430" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Batman Arkham VR<&sol;em>&comma; Warner Bros&period; Interactive Entertainment&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>In comes the first disappointment with <em>Arkham VR <&sol;em>&lpar;though this is something other games have as well&rpar;&period; Because there is no analog stick when using the Move controllers&comma; the game only allows you to move from one screen to the next&period; There isn&&num;8217&semi;t even an animation of Batman grappling to the next area&period; Your screen just cuts to black and then comes back to you just standing where you need to be&period; This is a huge bummer&comma; and something that feels more like a missed opportunity than anything else&period; You don&&num;8217&semi;t even have to let me drive the Batmobile&comma; but let me at least see what&&num;8217&semi;s it&&num;8217&semi;s like to be inside it&period; The grappling hook effectively acts as a fast-travel button and not as a &&num;8220&semi;get there faster&&num;8221&semi; device like it does in the <em>Arkham <&sol;em>games&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Worse than that is the inclusion of Batarangs&period; They exist for a puzzle that happens late in the game&comma; and for a throwing competition that is set up by the Riddler&period; So they are there&comma; but barely used&period; The most time I spent throwing Batarangs was in the Riddler challenge that demanded it&comma; but I only spent so much time because the aim assist in the game is so frustrating&period; When you throw Batarangs&comma; they curve in-game&period; The curve is the aim assist essentially&period; This would be a helpful tool if aiming with the Move controllers wasn&&num;8217&semi;t a mess&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;114431" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-114431" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-114431 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;10&sol;20135016&sol;Batman&percnt;E2&percnt;84&percnt;A2&lowbar;-Arkham-VR&lowbar;20161019131245&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Batman Arkham VR" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"720" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-114431" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Batman Arkham VR<&sol;em>&comma; Warner Bros&period; Interactive Entertainment&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The main issue with <em>Arkham VR <&sol;em>is its need for things to work 100&percnt; effectively&period; Alfred hands you a key early on to open your piano and start playing it&period; I tried for an entire minute to grab the key from him&period; But because tracking is so wonky and always stuttering&comma; my hands kept moving in and out as I held my Move controller completely still&period; It got to a point where I was just pressing the button required to grab something repeatedly and hoping eventually the two would just clip each other for long enough to recognize the button press&period; Needless to say&comma; stuttering like that means throwing Batarangs is quite the challenge&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But when things work&comma; the game is extremely immersive&period; A scanner for analyzing crime scenes and bodies is used perfectly in the game&period; You can fast forward and rewind crime scenes&comma; analyzing them by just pointing and clicking&comma; and then holster it at any point&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s simple and effective&period; My largest problem with the <em>Arkham <&sol;em>games was that it never really felt like I was doing something to solve the crimes&period; It instead felt like the characters around me were doing all the investigative work while I flew around Gotham&comma; beating up thugs&period; Now it really does seem like I am the detective solving things&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;114432" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-114432" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-114432 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;10&sol;20135021&sol;Batman&percnt;E2&percnt;84&percnt;A2&lowbar;-Arkham-VR&lowbar;20161019132452&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Batman Arkham VR" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"720" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-114432" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Batman Arkham VR<&sol;em>&comma; Warner Bros&period; Interactive Entertainment&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>There&&num;8217&semi;s some developments later in the game that echo a lot of the themes from the previous <em>Arkham <&sol;em>games&comma; but are used well in VR&period; Once you&&num;8217&semi;re in that head space&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s hard to come out of it&period; Even when Batman refuses to stop jittering through the geometry of the world&period; As a demo of what virtual reality<em> <&sol;em>is capable of&comma; <em>Arkham VR <&sol;em>is a good showcase&period; But it also demonstrates the issues that need to be overcome and what shortcomings are present with the current technology&period; Sure&comma; you can be the Batman&comma; but you can&&num;8217&semi;t do much of what Batman does&period; That&&num;8217&semi;s the biggest crime of all&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;