‘Batman: Arkham Shadow’ Trailer Reveals Story Behind Quest 3’s Next Big First-party Exclusive

By
Scott Hayden
-
13

Batman: Arkham Shadow is coming exclusive to Quest 3 sometime later this year, and today we’re getting a peek at the story behind what’s shaping up to be VR’s biggest full-fledged Batman game, and next big first-party exclusive from Meta.

Following the release of Batman: Arkham Shadow‘s teaser trailer in May, developers Camouflaj and Oculus Studios today revealed we’re in for an epic battle to prevent the “Day of Wrath,” set to take place on the Fourth of July.

But first, here’s how the studios describe it at length in a new blog post:

It’s the Fourth of July, and Gotham City is besieged by a new threat: the mysterious Rat King and his cultish devotees. Public officials have been abducted, including Batman associates Commissioner Jim Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent. The Rats have pledged to execute them in one week’s time for “crimes committed against the people of Gotham City.”

As widespread rioting engulfs the city, Batman races to prevent this so-called “Day of Wrath,” but it all goes wrong.

Set between the events of Batman: Arkham Origins and Batman: Arkham Asylum, you’ll experience the origins of such iconic characters as The Scarecrow, Harley Quinn, and more, as Batman grapples with the contradiction at the core of his identity—the use of force in pursuit of peace.

Notably, we thought we’d be facing off against the Ratcatcher (aka Otis Flannegan) who isn’t canonically referred to as “The Rat King,” so it seems there’s a mystery there yet to uncover. As seen in the trailer, The Rat King looks nearly identical to how the Ratcatcher is portrayed in the comics, including his iconic gas mask.

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Whatever the case, we’re in for what promises to be a new VR-native blend of the series’ patented exploration, stealth, and free-flowing combat, which will take us across Gotham to fight various baddies with Batman’s Grapnel Gun, the Batarang, throw smoke bombs, and the ability “glide” behind unsuspecting enemies by grabbing your cape.

The studios say Batman: Arkham Shadow will also include plenty of crime scenes to scour for clues, puzzles to solve, hidden collectibles to uncover, and iconic locations to explore, which is set to include the Monarch Theatre and Bowery.

Developed by Meta’s Camouflaj and Oculus Studios, and created in partnership with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC,  Batman: Arkham Shadow is slated to launch exclusively on Quest 3 sometime in late 2024. In the meantime, you can wishlist the game here.

It was also announced that we can expect a gameplay reveal during Gamescom 2024 which will be held in late August.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • The Rain in Spain’s Therapist

    Love the gamelay!

  • Cool trailer!

  • Andrey

    You can say that this is not the exact place to comment on this topic, but unfortunately there won't be an article with the according name and/or theme, so here it is.

    It's official – firstly Sony killed PSVR2 and now Meta is doing the same for Quest.

    Some people, especially on Reddit, were "happy" that Meta Quest Gaming Showcase was "cancelled" so Meta could show their games on a bigger presentation with a much wider audience to, potentially, attract some new players to VR medium.

    So, now when the Summer Game Fest has passed and we know what was shown I think that all of us can agree that Meta *&%$!# up pretty bad.

    Only two games were shown and, moreover, one game was an already released project while the second one got only a cinematic trailer without any gameplay.

    Firstly – where is Metro? Where is Behemoth? Alien game? What about previously announced and then delayed games like Attack on Titan: Unbreakable? Or just announced Hitman? All of those games will be "released" in 2024 by the way and a good bunch of them "only for Meta Quest 3".

    Secondly – fine, maybe those games are not in the shape to be shown (then why the hell they were announced to be released in 2024?…) just like this Batman game. Then just show some CGI/story trailers! SHOW SOMETHING!

    Some people – including me – were expecting Q3S announcement with some games – like, forgive me God, GTA SA VR or maybe another RE VR port (RE5?) or some other popular game's port – to support it's release as well. Again, there is no better place than this totally-not-an-E3 substitute to announce something to reach the widest gaming auditory possible.

    A minute of sarcastic irony: it's such a shame that this year Apple never announced – or planned to announce at least – an Apple Vision Pro 2 or whatever it will be called, because it seems this is the only thing that can make Meta do something.

    Instead of all of that we got only two trailers and only one of it was something new.

    Should I say it out loud? I think I should…

    There was no Meta Quest Gaming Showcase not because Meta planned to reach a wider audience on a Summer Game Fest, but because Meta simply doesn't have anything to show.

    Quest 3 will soon reach it's first birthday, so about of 1/3 of it's lifecycle will be completed. What did we get in this first third part? Basically only Asgard's Wrath 2 and Assassin's Creed Nexus if we are talking about closely to-AAA style games that were created with Meta's support.

    But, more importantly, what can we expect during the Q3's second year of life? Metro from the studio who creates good, but definitely not outstanding games? Alien that is a horror game and not for everyone? Batman game that was – and is – disliked by flat-gamers so much that even on this SGF after Keyley said "New Arkham Game!" some people started to cheer only to immediately stop when he added "for VR on Meta Quest 3!"? Hitman that is a port of an existing game? Or Behemoth, that looks nice, but knowing Skydance can but easily ruined by it's "groundbreaking" game-design choices?

    Okay, fine!… But that's it? I bought a 500$ device (actually it costed me 700$ for the Q3 that arrived and another 500$ that was lost or stolen by Scamazon, but whatever) just to get an opportunity to play 5 games? Apparently each hundred of dollars of Q3 cost equalls one ~(A)AA game that will be released, huh?

    I won't be dramatic and say something like "It's over, I will sell my Q3 now!!11". But if you are not absolutely frustrated by Meta's attitude just like I am, then we have nothing to talk about. Meta literally just spitted in our faces. And I will never believe that their financial situation is SO BAD that they couldn't pay for at least one another 1 minute trailer. They could pay to show dozens of those trailers if they had any. But they don't. So my Q3 will continue to gather dust right until the first game out of 4 games mentioned above will be released.

    Great job, Meta! Keep it up!

    • kakek

      Gameplay of batman will be shown at gamescon – it's only in 2 months.
      If you expected Q3 to have a more than a AA / AAA game every 2 months, then you lied to yourself. It was always obvious this was what it was going ot be. One AA game every 6 months, more or less.
      And a decent idie game every week ( some of wich will not be for you. )

    • Hussain X

      "It's official – firstly Sony killed PSVR2 and now Meta is doing the same for Quest."

      Meanwhile Meta is busy, about to lose more billions, doing research in XR, and soon about to release a heavily subsidised Quest 3S with an upgraded chip so many more people can get into high quality VR gaming, and 3rd party VR developers can have an audience to develop the likes of Alien, Metro & Behemoth for.

      Meta could've shown more trailers to a mainstream audience on SGF but with diminishing returns as it can only market VR so much to a crowd who has never tried VR, and who will just compare VR games with flat games based on 2D screen trailers they see. Best thing Meta can do to push VR to a non-VR crowd is to remind them VR exists on a mainstream show, that VR has and is still getting high quality games including the likes of Batman Arkham, to make them curious to try VR, as well as then make getting into VR afforable and accessible, as well as create an audience of VR gamers with the latest, capable VR devices, so 3rd party VR developers can bring these high quality games to VR.

      I'd love to see GTA SA come to Quest and I hope it does, but the mainstream crowd will just see the GTA SA VR trailer, a game they maybe already played or can play without VR, remembering that Quests cost $800 plus, then remember the GTA VI trailer that looks way better, then dismiss it to never know what VR is and then VR doesn't grow from showcasing VR at SGF.

      An affordable Quest 3S with the power of a GTX 960 at the hands of millions of gamers gives a higher chance of high end 3rd party VR games to be developed, including for high end PCVR/PSVR2, then reminding the mainstream audience about VR whilst making VR very accessible so they try it, is what it will benefit VR in long-term. And if rumours are true, we're about to get such an affordable device. So Meta is far from killing Quests or VR gaming. Meta is creating an audience for the likes of Behemoth, Alien and Metro in VR to be able to exist profitably, and not just on Quests but PCVR and PSVR2 too (along with a massive player base of Quest players to entertain PCVR/PSVR2 players in multiplayer games).

    • Mateusz Jakubczyk

      This half-year, the following games will be released on Quest 3: Batman: Arkham Shadow (Fall), Hitman 3 VR Reloaded (Summer), Behemoth (Fall), Alien: Rogue Incursion (Holiday), Metro: Awakening, Zombie Army, Metal: Hellsinger, Attack on Titan: Unbreakable VR, and you write that Meta has failed, lol…

      • Andrey

        Not trying to offense, but can you read what other people wrote before writing your comment? Out of your “list” only two to three games are somewhat (A)AA and it’s Batman, Alien and Behemoth. Hitman is a straightforward port, so it doesn’t really count just like RE4 both for Quest and Remake PSVR2 version wasn’t really a “new game”. Zombie Army, Metro and Metal Hellsinger is not even close to being AAA experiences. Good? Maybe, but each of those games most probably won’t be even close to be great (on par with HL: Alyx, Lone Echo, Stormland, first Asgard’s Wrath and Assassin’s Creed Nexus) based on previous games from respective studios (and, in case of Metal Hellsinger, on gameplay of “flat” version of the game).
        And, finally, my very favorite! Though all the sarcasm can – and, again, most probably will – be used to some other games mentioned above. Do you remember when AoT should have released? I remember, it was “Summer 2023”))0 And I remember it because I never sold my Q2 because I was waiting for it to release to play it as soon as possible. And now it’s “later half of 2024″… Now there is a question – what are the chances that all those games that doesn’t have gameplay trailers (or have it, but with 3 seconds of gameplay like Hitman’s trailer) will be delayed due to whatever reasons? Noone knows. But what I know for sure that next months, until “later half of the 2024” I will be sitting without good VR games to play (only Hitman will be released “this summer” I think? Which still can be August 31 by the way).
        Okay, fine, let’s image that all those “cool” games will release until the end of 2024 – then what? Nothing till summer 2025 when Meta maybe or maybe not either hold another Meta Quest Gaming Showcase or, once again, participate as a partner in something like SGF? And even if it will be held it will be announcements and not releases of those games. That will once again move all the fun at least to fall of 2025 and Q3 second anniversary. Wow, the future is so bright, where are my shades…!
        What frustrates me the most is that Meta still didn’t realize that games are what sell and promote their headsets the most even after they promised that they will switch back to being more gaming-oriented last year. They could buy a couple of studios like Armature and start a “conveyor” of pretty cheap (comapred to a full cycle development) VR ports after relative success of RE4 (ironicly, it’s what Team Beef are doing for free (or were doing until recently when they created a full-fledged official studio)). What they did instead? Yeah, fired a good amount of people from their acquired studios, especially good ones like Ready at Dawn. That’s some great managment!
        But if you are fine with the current situation (months of no games again and again + nothing to even just wait for), I am sincerely happy for you.

        • philingreat

          Hitman is a straightforward port

          No, it's not, it's build up from the ground for Quest 3

          • Mattphoto

            ports can be "built from the ground up" but also… built from the ground up implies totally new code and assets and that's simply not going to be true. It's a port of a game that already exists, with VR controls. Fans can do this now to hundreds of games with a few clicks. lame.

        • salamancer

          who ordered a yappachino

    • Nevets

      Aways look… on the bright side of life.. Da da.. Da da da da da

    • salamancer

      this isnt the place to comment your little meta rant maybe go back to vrchat

  • Andrew Jakobs

    The trailer looks great, but sadly no gameplay.