Batman: Arkham VR Preview & Impressions

Batman: Arkham VR was one of the biggest surprises of Sony's E3 2016 press conference, a game that lets you be the Batman like no other experience ever has. Best of all, the game's from Rocksteady Studios, a developer that knows a thing or two about the Dark Knight. While I only got to play two short sections of the VR experience, my time in the Batcave and on the streets of Gotham were very impressive. I wrote in my Resident Evil 7 VR preview that I wasn't sure that the PS VR was the piece of tech that would finally replace the controller and TV for good. But Batman: Arkham VR is a wonderful counterpoint to that, because it does showcase the next step in the industry's evolution.

The demo focused heavily in immersing the player in the experience. The first thing I was asked to do was make my way down to the Batcave and suit up. The trip down to the depths of Wayne Manor was tantalizing, as I slowly descended in a glass elevator that allowed me to gaze upon the underground caverns from all sides, waterfalls rolling down into the abyss and bats flying from one of side of the screen to the other.

Something as simple as suiting up was made way more exciting by the VR, too. I felt like I was truly transforming into the Caped Crusader. From the gauntlets to the iconic cowl, slipping into every part of the suit pulled me deeper into the experience. I looked down at my hands and they were suddenly the mighty hands of the Bat, while a mirror's reflection revealed me to be fully transformed into the Dark Knight. 

I also got to play around with some gadgets, including my grapple, a scanner that allowed me to rewind and fast forward crime scenes, and my handy batarangs. The latter teased how combat might work in the game. I didn't throw a single punch in the demo, and it's not clear if you'll be able to dive into melee combat against a group of thugs, but I'd be surprised if Rocksteady didn't include that in the VR experience. 

Instead of getting into a fight, I did a bit of detecting, as the second part of the demo made way for the game's first big plot twist: Nightwing has been murdered and it's up to me to find his killer. The detective work took place in a Gotham City alley, where Nightwing's body lied slumped over against a wall. The section began on a Gotham City rooftop. Making my way down was slightly disappointing. I didn't glide down to ground level as Batman would in past games. Instead, the game just had me point my PS Move controllers at specific points below me. With the press of a button, I teleported down to that spot. I can't quite fault Rocksteady for the lack of gravity-defying stunts, though. The simplified travel method was undoubtedly implemented to circumvent one of VR's bigger problems: motion sickness. Still, it would have been cool to see what flying through the air as Batman might feel like. 

The actual detective work mostly involved playing the crime scene back and forth with the scanner, as I watched Nightwing try to fight off an unknown assailant. Throughout the clip of the fight, I had to identify the four brutal injuries that led to Nightwing's death in order to develop a profile on the baddie that killed him. This part of the demo can most accurately be compared to a point-and-click adventure. 

The PS VR provided a unique vantage point from which to watch Nightwing in hand-to-hand combat that you simply can't get on a regular TV. All around me, the fight unfolded, as the characters punched, kicked, and dodged from all sides. The fight is in fact quite violent, too. By the end of the demo, I hadn't uncovered the identity of Nightwing's killer—I'm guessing that part will come much later in the full game—but I had discovered a new way to play Batman, perhaps even the only true way to experience a day in the life of the Caped Crusader without ending up dead in an alley like Nightwing. 

Batman: Arkham VR is out October 2016.