Highlights

  • Batman: Arkham Shadow's Summer Game Fest trailer confirms the return of Roger Craig Smith as Batman and features Scarecrow and Dr. Harleen Quinzel.
  • The game offers the origin of Scarecrow in the Arkhamverse, which could lend itself to a terrifying experience with multiple horror-centric villains.
  • VR gameplay could deliver intense first-person horror, drawing inspiration from Rocksteady's Batman: Arkham VR.

Summer Game Fest 2024 unveiled a full trailer for Batman: Arkham Shadow and, like in its announcement teaser, there are tons of Arkhamverse Easter eggs to sift through pertaining to the larger continuity it belongs to. It was already presumed that Roger Craig Smith would be reprising the role of Batman from Arkham Origins, and hearing his voice-over narration in the trailer confirms it; likewise, Dr. Harleen Quinzel is confirmed to be featured, as well as Scarecrow. The fiery mayhem in Gotham City is palpable in this cinematic story trailer and, if gameplay is half as atmospheric as these cinematics have been, Batman: Arkham Shadow should be a treat.

Batman: Arkham Shadow has all the makings of a great installment in the Arkhamverse from its thematic teasers alone, which plunge Gotham City into a nightmarish apocalypse aesthetic with orange hues from the fires that loyalist goons are raging, whether they’re following the Ratcatcher or the Rat King. It’ll be exciting to see how this translates to gameplay on the Meta Quest 3. Scarecrow, Ratcatcher, and the Rat King could all contribute their horrific themes toward Shadow being the scariest Arkham game yet, but especially through the intimate lens of VR.

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Batman: Arkham Shadow Still Has a Major Antagonist Waiting in the Wings

Ratcatcher is the main antagonist in Batman: Arkham Shadow, but Camouflaj's Ryan Payton reveals to Game ZXC that there are more villains, too.

Batman: Arkham Shadow’s Horror-Centric Villains Make for a Spooky VR Game

In a recent Game ZXC interview with Batman: Arkham Shadow’s Camouflaj, it was revealed that the game offers the origin of Dr. Jonathan Crane’s Scarecrow. This is evidenced by his simple appearance in Batman: Arkham Shadow’s Summer Game Fest 2024 trailer, where Crane is seen standing in front of the courthouse.

Crane wears a gas mask, a suit and bolo tie—which hopefully is intentionally emblematic of The New Batman Adventures Scarecrow’s noose necktie—and holds a mild-mannered briefcase that’s likely full of his experimental fear toxin paraphernalia.

Ratcatcher and Rat King should be Arkham Shadow’s primary focus so that it doesn’t lean too heavily on an antagonist who’s already had their own lead role. That said, it would be tremendously exciting to play sequences where Batman first experiences ingesting Scarecrow’s fear toxin.

Otherwise, the teaser suggests that players will be tackling hordes of rats in alleyways and that could be deeply disturbing, too, with all of their red, beady eyes swarming the player. Batman: Arkham Shadow isn’t being billed as a horror game but there’s a lot it could do in that space and it has the perfect assortment of villains for that to be a viable subgenre, even if players will be busy predominantly gliding, stringing enemies to vantage points, tossing batarangs, and investigating crime scenes.

VR Can Instill First-Person Horror in Batman: Arkham Shadow

If Camouflaj has drawn any inspiration from Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham VR it should correlate to how poignant and dread-inducing its emphasis on horror is. Arkham VR’s ending is particularly haunting as it features a Joker-infected Batman snapping Nightwing’s neck, looking down at players’ bloody hands, and looking at his reflection as Joker in the mirror.

Scarecrow’s fear toxin could create terrifying sequences that mirror what Arkham VR achieved, flashing jump scares at the player while they’re completely immersed in virtual- or mixed-reality. The Rat King’s amassed flood of gas-mask-laden henchmen is not dissimilar from the rats Ratcatcher can control and it’ll be interesting to see if and how successfully Batman: Arkham Shadow can wield horror. The wait isn’t much longer to discover what that might look like since Batman: Arkham Shadow is slated to have its gameplay reveal at gamescom in August.