Batman: Arkham VR Reviews
The best thing you'll play on PS VR at launch
They told us they were done with Arkham. Rocksteady lied to us. But that’s OK. As well as being a great showcase for how VR should be done, Arkham VR is a short, sharp, and sometimes shocking Batman experience that should really be played by anyone with access to a headset and any fondness for the caped crusader at all.
A brilliant slice of Bat action that lets you make the most of being the World’s Greatest Detective. Don the cowl. It’s worth every penny...
We’d recommend giving Batman Arkham a pass at its $19.99 price tag if it weren’t for how amazingly cool it feels – even if for one brief moment – to feel like you’re Batman. For die-hard Batman fans, this will be worth the price of admission alone, but for everyone else, weigh out that specific moment in your decision-making process. If that sounds like something you must experience for yourself, give Batman Arkham VR a try. If you are hoping for a great-looking tech demo to show off PSVR’s capabilities with an iconic character everyone you know will recognize, give Batman Arkham VR a try. But if you’re looking for a deep, engaging experience, Batman Arkham VR is more laughable than The Joker’s smug grin.
Being Batman in Akrham VR is a great way to more intimately experience Rocksteady's universe and to search for clues in this brief mystery. However, the world and characters around you are largely rigid and unresponsive to your actions, which leaves a lot on the table for a game about a character known as much for his brawn as he is for his brains.
Arkham VR is simply a must-buy for any Batman fan picking up PSVR. Rocksteady has proven itself time and again as the perfect creator of Batman games, and extending its brilliance into VR with such aplomb should be applauded.
How much would you pay to be Batman for an hour? If your answer sits somewhere in the region of £15.99/$19.99, then Batman: Arkham VR is a virtual no-brainer. With the exception of the finicky motion tracking and brief running time, this is an exceptional short story that eloquently demonstrates many of the advantages of virtual reality. But perhaps the most impressive thing here is that, in transforming you into the Dark Knight, it illuminates both the pros and cons of being a masked vigilante. And while the former interactions will make you feel downright awesome, it's when the Caped Crusader slowly begins to unravel that it comes into its own.
The best tech demo so far for PlayStation VR, but with some better storytelling it could also have been a good game in its own right.
You've never quite been the Batman like this, and despite some silly immersion breaking moments, this could be the start of a brand new and exciting Batman experience.
More of a VR experiment than a game, Batman: Arkham VR is light on gameplay but full of moments that will leave a lasting impression.
A short but stunning 90-minute experience that truly lets you 'Be the Batman'.
Arkham VR might prove to be an amusing evolutionary dead-end, a one-time theme park attraction that used the best tech available to let us pretend, however awkwardly, to stand around as Batman. It may also represent a step toward a more deeply interactive virtual reality Batman game, one that will allow us to more literally step into the impressive Batman universe that Rocksteady has built. Either way, it’s a start at best. It’s not a destination.
Even without character movement, Rocksteady shows us that Batman in VR can be an empowering experience. More, please!
If Rocksteady is prepping me for what's to come with Batman: Arkham VR, I'm sold already. A massive amount of time was spent on this project, and anyone who calls it a mere tech demo is doing it a disservice.
Perhaps the only real disappointment about Batman: Arkham VR is that it’s over so soon, but there is certainly plenty of value for fans of the game in replaying and searching for secrets. As more of a detective story, it’s a very different exploration of the world of Batman than we’ve seen before – I’m feeling a sense of déjà vu here – letting you embody the character for the first time.
Rocksteady keeps its reputation intact with one of the finest games to launch with PSVR.
In Arkham VR, you are Batman like never before, thanks to Rocksteady’s convincing virtual reality and an involving story full of satisfying moments.
Batman Arkham VR is one hell of an experience. It’s definitely one of my favourite VR launch titles due to the fact that it takes a set of well-known characters and lets you engage with them.
You can't come up with a more intriguing VR premise than "Batman simulator," and developer Rocksteady has done their best to make it work. But despite how cool it is to simply exist in Gotham, the limited interactions and dumbed-down puzzles make the experience feel much less confident than it should be.
This is the best use of PlayStation VR that I’ve seen currently available. The other, Star Trek: Bridge Crew, won’t be available for a bit. Their common denominator is an easy one – who wouldn’t want to be an actual part of a lifelong love? Batman: Arkham VR is a must-have for any Bat-fan with a PS VR system.