It’s not easy being the Batman. I’ve lost my parents when I was just a kid only to inherit all of their money and a dark secret. I’ve spend fortunes creating the Dark Knight, I became a vigilante guarding our streets against the creeps that are haunting the innocent. They operate from the shadows, they live in the darkness, that’s why I became the darkness; that’s why I became the Batman.
The origin of the Batman
If you’re a fan of the Batman comics, you’ve already heard the origin story a dozen times. Instead of reading all about it, you actually are the young Bruce Wayne, standing behind his scared parents. You start Batman Arkham VR in a dark alley somewhere in Gotham City. During your first minutes in the game, you’ll want to see everything the dark world has to offer and it must be said, it’s an impressive feeling. It really feels like you’re standing in the streets of Gotham and everything is created with a lot of details so that everything feels like the real deal. Arkham VR is without a doubt one of the better looking PSVR games at the moment.
There isn’t much time to enjoy the scenery however since you’re standing at the exact spot where both of your parents get killed by a thief. The way this is done is rather impressive. You’re standing behind your mother, who’s trying to protect you from the thief. By moving your body and head, you can have a glimpse at the thief. After he lost his patience and shoots your parents, he looks you straight into the eye and gives you a lesson you’ll never forget. It’s a scene that won’t leave a mark if you played it on your television screen, in Virtual Reality, it’s a whole other deal. Looking that criminal straight into the eyes left an unsettling feeling, a feeling only VR can transfer to the player.
You are the Batman!
Right after you finish this scene, you play an adult Bruce Wayne that just got into a huge fight, based on the shape of his hands. He’s standing in front of his piano, desperately looking for a key. It’s your waiter who hands you over this key. With the key in your possession, you unlock the secret entrance to the Batcave and suit up.
Suit up
The Batcave forms the first big part of this game, that’s actually more like a tech demonstrating of what Batman could mean for Virtual Reality. That being said, in the Batcave, you’re able to put on your suit. We recommend using two PlayStation Move controllers and go for the true immersion. You use both controllers as your virtual hands so you’ll be able to put on your gloves, suit and mask with both your hands, just like the real Batman would do. You can decide to play with the regular controller but that takes away a lot of the fun, to be honest.
Besides the suit, you’ll also gain access to some gadgets like the grappling gun, scanning gun and the deadly Batarangs, too bad you can’t throw them at actual enemies. After you spend some time messing around with your gadgets, you’re ready for the second part of the demo, the puzzle solving scenes.
Where’s Robin?
The actual gameplay revolves around the mysterious disappearance of Robin, we all know that the Joker is behind this but let’s just forget that for a moment. Your task as Batman is to investigate several scenes in order to find clues and solve the mystery around the missing Robin. By moving bodies, scanning codes and manipulating objects, you can discover some clues like only a true hero can.
These puzzles aren’t that hard to solve since they just need some basic handling. It’s nothing really special but throwing a Batarang at an object still feels rather amazing nevertheless. The only real problem with it is that you can’t walk around in the virtual world. Instead, you just select the spot you want to be and start your investigation from that angle. It’s a fun experience but it could have been a lot better if you ask us.
Too short
The puzzles do lead up to a thrilling ending that leaves us wanting for more. It’s a shame that the experience is this short, in just a bit more than an hour, you’ll be finished with the story. After that, you can mess around with the Batarangs to set your personal records or access the computer in the Batcave to see some famous characters up close and personal. It’s a fun little extra but it’s nothing more than just that.
Conclusion:
Batman Arkham VR is an impressive piece of technology but is way too short to really leave a mark behind. We would love to spend more time in the virtual world of Gotham since it’s created with a lot of love and details. Arkham VR made it possible to be the Batman for a couple of hours but that’s not enough. We’re hoping we’ll see a lot more of this Virtual Reality Batman in the future. As for now, it’s one of the more impressive PlayStation VR experiences but there should have been a lot more content.
