Batman: Arkham VR is a game for the PS4 / PSVR. As the title suggests, it is a VR game, and surprisingly, was developed by Rocksteady themselves, the same developers as the mainline Arkham trilogy. As a result, the game takes place within the Arkham universe, although can still be enjoyed as a standalone piece, you’ll understand a bit more from having played at least Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, as well as appreciate more of the various characters that show up.
The game is played in first person, naturally, but the more restrictive requirement is that it requires two PlayStation Move controllers. You cannot use a DualShock 4 controller at all. Each of the Move controller acts as your hands. You are Bruce Wayne, you are Batman, and the trigger button of each controller will cause the hand to grip or interact with an object.
The controls are intuitive, as it is motion based. You’re basically only in control of where you look and your hands. Movement is limited to predetermined points that you jump between. The screen goes to black for a short second before you arrive at the next viewpoint, this is to minimize motion sickness. Perhaps the best part is how you have the utility belt, of which you can grab either the scanner, batarang or the grappling hook. Having the utility belt actually works as one really helps with the immersion.
On the whole, the game does a great job as immersing you into its world. Most of the gameplay revolves around investigating areas for clues in order to find out what happened, going from viewpoint to viewpoint to grab items, and solve some simple environmental puzzles. These are extremely simple and passive tasks that most players would find boring in a game released in this time and age, but thanks to being in VR, it feels much more novel and interesting.
As a limitation of the hardware itself, the graphics are passable but not great. Environments are definitely low-res and can appear flat at times. Farer objects are blurry and are obviously not 3D at all. However, once again, there is something that makes it special in VR, and seeing Gotham City like this is a different experience than seeing it on TV.
The story takes place while you’re relaxing in your mansion before Alfred comes in informing the disappearance of both Robin and Nightwing. As a result, you track them down to their last location and then follow the clues to see what happened. Over the course of the journey, you’ll encounter a few familiar villains. The biggest negative of the game is the short length. Even on a first run, it takes around an hour to an hour and a half, easily done in one session of the game.
You’ll notice abnormal things as you play through which makes the ending very interesting. As the game is exclusively for VR, it does several tricks to build up the atmosphere, oftentimes it can be tense. You’ll get close ups of things, or there’s a section that feels claustrophobic. This becomes most evident in the ending where it can feel creepy and uncomfortable, in a good way. Of course, there’s the famous section where you see yourself in the mirror, and it is very cool just moving about and seeing your reflection as Batman moving as you’d expect as if you really are him.
There are some optional things you can do apart from just the story. As a PS4 game, naturally there are trophies that you can aim for. There is a batarang throwing minigame to obtain a high score. The biggest additional optional content unlocks after the story which are the Riddler collectibles. These are nowhere near as numerous or as tough as the main games but they’ll still take a bit of your time.
Overall, Batman: Arkham VR is a worthwhile VR experience. While it can be pricey for the length it takes to finish it, it is fun from start to finish. The experiencing of actually becoming Batman and allowing the game to fully immerse you is pretty incredible. The story itself is intriguing, with many surprisingly good elements that leverages off the VR aspect. While the gameplay is simple, it doesn’t need to be anything complex. However, bearing in mind you need two Move controllers, it make an already expensive game into an even more expensive one, which wouldn’t be worth it if you don’t have any other use for those controllers.
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