Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s abruptly delayed Season 2 is still happening
Rocksteady just released a ton of details about Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Season 2, which was delayed last-minute earlier this month.
Suicide Squad game reportedly delayed to 2023
If Suicide Squad ends up being delayed, it leaves Gotham Knights as this year's lone DC game.
Rocksteady faces backlash for inaction regarding alleged sexual harassment
A 2018 memo details instances of inappropriate behavior
‘Batman: Arkham VR’ Review: Not the Hero We Deserved
Editor’s Note: This review was originally published on October 13th, 2016 for the PlayStation VR (PSVR) version of the game, but has been updated for its release today on the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. Additional details can be found at the end of this review.
The caped crusader has a long and storied history with video games. To this day, one of my favorites arrived on the original NES and it was simply called: Batman. It featured gameplay similar to that of Ninja Gaiden, but it plays like an excellent rendition of the World’s Greatest Detective and his more ninja-like tendencies. There have been lots of bad games too, and most recently, lots of even greater ones.
Rocksteady have delivered the excellent Arkham series of Batman games, creating a wonderful balance of stealth, action, investigation, and cinematic storytelling. It doesn’t get much better than that. As a result, you’d understand how excited the world was when it was revealed at E3 2016 that Rocksteady would be crafting a VR-exclusive Batman adventure coming directly to Sony’s PlayStation VR called Batman: Arkham VR. Some might even argue that it seemed too good to be true. Unfortunately, it seems like this is neither the Batman game that the VR community deserves, nor the one that it needs right now. That adventure is now also available on the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive starting today.
In Batman VR, you put on the cowl and become The Batman himself. The entire game is played from the first-person perspective and is undoubtedly, as a result, one of the most immersive Batman games ever made. Visually, it’s splendid, the music and voice work is fantastic, and the atmosphere alone is worth the price of admission for hardcore Bat-fans. There is certainly enough fan service in the game’s opening moments to warrant a giddy squeal of delight.
While playing, I got to peruse the entry hall of the Wayne Manor. I spun a world globe, played the piano, and listened to a music box. Family portraits and regal decorations adorned the billionaire family’s home and it truly made me feel like I was living out the life of Bruce Wayne — or at least peering into his life through my VR headset.
Once the descent down into the Batcave began, that’s when the game was as its strongest. Reaching out and putting on the gloves, placing the cowl on my face, seeing myself in the mirror, and testing out my gadgets in Batman VR made me feel more like the titular character than anything else I’ve played to date. Unfortunately, the opening 10-15 minutes are the best part.
After this montage of a power fantasy, the actual game begins with me ushered from short scene to short scene. I run into the likes of Penguin, his henchmen, Nightwing, Robin, and several other classic characters. I don’t want to spoil any of the details, since the actual narrative itself is worth experiencing if you’re a fan, but it moves too quickly to really carry any weight.
From start to finish, Rocksteady are banking on you entering each moment with a high-degree of understanding for the events and characters. The entire experience plays out more like a highlight reel of a single episode of a Batman TV show than it does a completed game in and of itself.
When I first went hands-on with Batman VR at E3 2016, all of the warning signs were there. This was always marketed as a brief VR experience, but I didn’t quite think that strictly meant only a single hour of content. Once you’ve completed the core storyline, you can replay missions to find Riddler secrets, but that’s essentially all there is to do in the entire game.
I could stand on a launch pad in the Batcave and choose my vehicle, but then the loading screen plays the sounds of me driving without actually putting me in the driver’s seat. I can ignite a fire extinguisher to cloud a rooftop and make the jump on an enemy, but the sounds of fighting and scuffling are all I hear as the screen dims again and fast forwards to after the action. I can investigate the remains of a crime scene, but are forced to point and highlight specific “clues” without any real challenge or deductive reasoning required.
To be frank, plastering the Arkham label on Batman VR feels like a bit of a disservice to the legacy that franchise has built and a major missed opportunity. Its a beautiful, immersive, and downright believable simulation of what it feels like to wear the suit and don the cowl, but it forgets to let us feel the rush of excitement that comes along with actually doing something as Batman.
Playing the game on the HTC Vive or Oculus Rift with Touch yields a more visually impressive experience and the inclusion of 360-degree tracking enhances the sense of presence, but at the end of the day the game was designed for 180-degree setups and the additional movement doesn’t make a big difference. Ultimately, it just never asks you to move around or take advantage of the space in the first place.
Update: This review was slightly modified to account for its release on Rift and Vive. The previous paragraph about Rift and Vive support was added, references to specific headsets have mostly been adjusted, and additional purchasing information has been added to the end. The score and content of the review remain the same since the game itself is the same.
Final Score: 5/10 – Mediocre
Batman: Arkham VR isn’t a terrible VR experience — it even manages to deliver a satisfying twist ending to the short narrative — but it’s a far cry from the type of game fans want or expect. What was shipped here is little more than a tech demo, or a museum of objects and features that are never fully realized. Just as each scene from the game starts to feel like its picking up some steam, it’s over and you’re onto the next vignette of content. Die hard Batman fans will find enough fan service to warrant a purchase, but if you’re looking for an actual game featuring the Dark Knight in VR, then you’re better off waiting a while longer.
Batman: Arkham VR was made available on October 13th, 2016 for PlayStation VR at the price of $19.99 with HTC Vive and Rift versions on Steam, as well as Rift on Oculus Home, also available for $19.99 as of April 25th. Read our Game Review Guidelines for more information on how we arrived at this score.
Tagged with: Batman, rocksteady
‘Batman: Arkham VR’ expands to HTC Vive, Oculus Rift later this month
Batman: Arkham VR, previously only available on PlayStation VR, will hit the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive later this month. The game is currently available on the PlayStation store for $20.
The post ‘Batman: Arkham VR’ expands to HTC Vive, Oculus Rift later this month appeared first on Digital Trends.
‘Batman: Arkham VR’ Review
If Playstation VR is Sony’s maiden voyage into virtual reality gaming, Batman: Arkham VR is a strong wind to cast off with. Developed by Rocksteady Studios, the game immerses you the moment you lock on your headset, or rather don the cowl. At face value Batman: Arkham VR offers the Arkham universe’s defined aesthetic and cast of quality voice actors from a very different perspective.
Batman: Arkham VR Details:
PlayStation Store Page
Developer: Rocksteady Studios
Publisher: WB Games
Available On: PlayStation 4
Reviewed on: PlayStation VR
Release Date: October 13th, 2016
Arkham VR differs from series predecessors—which had a healthy mix of fast paced combat balanced by a strong story and interesting puzzles—by focusing heavily on Batman’s detective work. Arkham VR is more of a slow burn then the ‘BIFF, BAM, POW’ series fans are used to. The game is an impressive first effort for a veteran game studio that is just beginning to delve into virtual reality.
Gameplay
Stepping into Batman’s cape and cowl, players have access to several highly detailed environments like the Batcave, Wayne Manor, the Iceberg Lounge, and other elements of Gotham’s seedy underbelly. To explore these environments, you’ll brandish three tools off of the Bat’s utility belt: a grappling hook, a forensic scanner, and Batarangs for days. You will use these to hit buttons, scan evidence, and zoom around the Batcave in ways that allude to other Arkham games, except this time from a first-person perspective (and with major tweaks for VR comfort). The tools are not only fun to play around with, but also end up driving the player’s attention to the important narrative, ensuring you don’t miss the serviceable story.
The first playthrough, which is unfortunately short (around two hours), takes you through the standard pallet of Gotham noir-esque hangouts like crime scenes, morges, and sewers searching for your missing Batfriends. Although there is a lot to see and much to interact with in these environments, what the game possesses in storytelling and detail it lacks in action and length. Once the initial novelty of ‘being’ Batman in Gotham wears off, you quickly realize that the narrative is being spoon fed to you and the story mode ends rather abruptly without a single punch being thrown.
There were several moments where it appears the player will finally get to crack some heads, until the screen instead fades to black only to see the smoke clear and all of your enemies defeated off-screen. This sort of controlled storytelling is rampant throughout the game, and takes away from your ability to “be the batman.” In short, players only seeking the thrill of busting up the Penguin’s cronies or grappling with Bane need not apply.
Most of the locomotion throughout the game involves predetermined teleportation nodes, though it’s occasionally dressed up in the form of using your grappling hook to pull yourself from one node to the next, which is well executed and feels more cohesive than the moments of pure point and click teleportation. Most of the places you’ll teleport to are surrounded with things to interact with, some optional, and some critical to moving the narrative forward. This can be tedious, especially when you need to retrieve an object to solve a riddle which is on the other side of the room.
Each ‘act’ is primarily planted in singular spaces like a large room or a balcony which has several of the aforementioned teleportation nodes available for you to move to. It isn’t until the end of the game that you really get to kick around a somewhat larger environment, which again, still leaves a lot to be desired as it is essentially just a larger space with more predetermined nodes. This shortcoming, which would likely be less of a problem with a room-scale system like the HTC Vive, is somewhat overcome by the plethora of objects to interact with at each point.
Upon completing the first playthrough, Arkham’s classic Riddler content is unlocked which (cheaply) lengthens the game by adding an abundance of mini puzzles and secrets to find on your second playthrough. These can actually be quite tricky if you are unfamiliar with Batman canon, so the (re)playtime may vary. Despite this gambit, the overall length of the game still feels lacking. A lot of detail was clearly put into the story and the environment, but a longer experience is needed to capitalize on the other solid parts of the game. At a 1/3 of the price ($20) of a full game, Arkham VR feels like it has 1/4 of the content.
Unfortunately the slow pace, and lack of action make Arkham VR somewhat one dimensional, and to an extent, it seems limited by Playstation VR’s capabilities. Although you can swivel, peer over edges, and draw the three tools from your belt, they made no attempt at having you interact with other characters beyond the most simple of movements (i.e handing them an object). This is enjoyable for about as long as the game is, but future renditions of Arkham VR ideally would include a combination of more tools, at least a few fights, and more interaction with characters.
It is certainly worth mentioning that the game seems like a great foundation for more Batman VR content, and is ripe to be followed by more content releases, perhaps in an episodic fashion (just speculation for now, but we’d certainly welcome it).
Immersion
Game Director Sefton Hill emphasized developer Rocksteady Studios’ commitment to staying true to the characters and utilizing the VR platform to innovate the player experience. As expected from Rocksteady, Batman: Arkham VR delivers a deeply engaging experience into the DC Universe.
Arkham VR’s graphics are impressively detailed, and the environments are riddled with subtleties; the game proves that a skillfully optimized VR experience can look great even on three year old console hardware.
It must be said that the interaction design within the game is impressive. Interactions with various objects, from virtual drawers, touchscreens, levers, tablets, keys, and cartridges work exceptionally well, giving players a tangible connection into the world. It’s clear that much care was taken by Rocksteady in tuning these interactions to make them intuitive and functional. The sheer functionality of these objects and interactions creates a strong connection between the player and the game world which heightens immersion.
In Arkham VR you can interact with most apparently-grabbable objects in your environment but less so their associated parts. For example you may be able to interact with the panels on a cabinet but not the inviting books sitting within reach atop of it. This isn’t a huge deal, as the game still plays immersively with a plethora of objects for you to examine and manipulate, but on occasion you’ll find yourself grasping at air when scrutinizing some of the less important items around you as you look for what you might have missed.
There were several moments in the game where I’d noticed something was out of place, like a key card or a shiny object, and would only later find its cryptic purpose which would be to open a door or a panel revealing something novel, adding details from beyond the main story and into the broader world of Gotham. Coupled with the interactive drawing of tools from your utility belt, it’s easy to forget your parents weren’t really murdered one rainy night in Gotham.
Another appreciated feature, which is easy to overlook, is that the environment you’re in isn’t just a backdrop, it’s actually quite complete. For example, in Wayne Manor there are several pieces of furniture which you really have no business looking under, but yet the model is all there (don’t just take my word for it, kneel down and look at that woodwork!). This includes the objects you handle. Rocksteady went through great lengths to make objects real inside and out.
I recommend that hardcore Batfans or general fans of the Arkham series take the time to turn over every rock and peer around every corner, as there are tons of subtle easter eggs alluding to the previous games and other Batman canon. Throughout the Arkham series Rocksteady has consistently included elements for the hardcore Batfans, and this installment is no different. For a game which stands on object interaction, they did an excellent job constructing the play space.
One of the more difficult features to VR storytelling is directing the players attention to important events happening within the space. To Rocksteady’s credit, for a first crack at the VR medium, they did a great job focusing the player’s attention to story events by way of interacting with the environment. The environments are really detailed, and you can easily lose focus watching traffic in the distance or staring at the falling rain. This is combatted by your need to hit buttons or pull switches to solve puzzles which would, in turn, forward the story and inevitably draw your attention. This feels like a fairly safe method for enabling the player to experience the entire story, however there are several moments like the aforementioned ‘fight scenes’ which detract from you feeling immersed.
You’ll often be spoon fed directions by Alfred, or hints and narrative from Batman’s voice which inevitably remind you that you aren’t quite a free-roaming decision maker in this space, and that only specific actions will move you forward in the game’s story. This becomes less frequent as the game goes on, but it still detracts from the overall experience. This is juxtaposed by the total lack of clues you receive for the Riddler puzzles. These should prove to be challenging, and thought provoking, even for hardcore fans of the series.
One element that is pleasantly surprising is the use of attention-pivot mechanics for enhancing the story. There are several moments where your attention will be focused on something, look away, then look back to see the space has changed in some way. This is a cool mechanic and (without giving anything away) is well used for the more psychological elements of the game.
Comfort
Generally speaking Batman: Arkham VR is as comfortable of an experience as the Playstation VR can offer. Several of the comfort issues may be attributable to the lack of a 360 degree tracking, which is a limitation that games on the platform are responsible for designing around.
Player movement in Batman: Arkham VR amounts to being able to peer around and over objects within the beautifully detailed environments, but in the end you feel teased. The lack of mobility, which has you twisting and turning to click to other stations, is compounded by the limited gestures used for gameplay. Specifically, most of the game is reliant on limited arm movements which become a bit tedious, and generate a pseudo-feeling of claustrophobia where everything you need to touch is even closer than an outstretched arm.
Several moments in the game when you need to turn around, the controller (and sometimes headset) tracking would drop out as you face away from the PSVR camera. This not only is an annoying immersiveness issue, but also proves to be somewhat disorienting as the general nature of your position gets jumbled, and things get a little shaky for a moment or two. To counter this, players can use buttons on the controller to spin their orientation 180 degrees, but that comes less naturally than simply turning one’s body around.
Although it is a cool mechanic and the centerpiece of the player’s existence within the game, Batman’s utility belt can be spotty at times. Throughout the game I found the belt would slide ‘into’ my stomach, making it impossible for me to grab tools from it without having to bend forward or ‘suck it in.’ To compound this issue, when trying to (quickly) and intuitively correct for this on the fly, your position within the play space would often shift, can be temporarily disorienting.
The game’s detailed objects tempt you to bring them in for a close inspection but often end up shaking somewhat in your hand because of the imprecision of PSVR’s tracking, This makes it hard to see and appreciate the fine details layered throughout.
The saving grace of the teleporting locomotion and lack of fighting is that there’s no concern for getting dizzy while zipping across the Batcave, or getting thrown to the floor; during these instances where you’d think you might normally find yourself getting nauseous, like grappling up to the Batplane, the screen fades to black and uses audio to guide the experience. This detracts from the immersiveness, but certainly saves your eyes from what would likely be uncomfortable movements.
The post ‘Batman: Arkham VR’ Review appeared first on Road to VR.
‘Batman: Arkham VR’ Review: Not the Hero We Deserved
The caped crusader has a long and storied history with video games. To this day, one of my favorites arrived on the original NES and it was simply called: Batman. It featured gameplay similar to that of Ninja Gaiden, but it plays like an excellent rendition of the World’s Greatest Detective and his more ninja-like tendencies. There have been lots of bad games too, and most recently, lots of even greater ones.
Rocksteady have delivered the excellent Arkham series of Batman games, delivering a wonderful balance of stealth, action, investigation, and cinematic storytelling. It doesn’t get much better than that. As a result, you’d understand how excited the world was when it was revealed at E3 this year that Rocksteady would be crafting a VR-exclusive Batman adventure coming directly to Sony’s PlayStation VR called Batman: Arkham VR. Some might even argue that it seemed too good to be true. Unfortunately, it seems like this is neither the Batman game that the VR community deserves, nor the one that it needs right now.
In Batman VR, you put on the cowl and become The Batman himself. The entire game is played from the first-person perspective and is undoubtedly, as a result, one of the most immersive Batman games ever made. Visually, it’s splendid, the music and voice work is fantastic, and the atmosphere alone is worth the price of admission for hardcore Bat-fans. There is certainly enough fan service in the game’s opening moments to warrant a giddy squeal of delight.
While playing, I got to peruse the entry hall of the Wayne Manor. I spun a world globe, played the piano, and listened to a music box. Family portraits and regal decorations adorned the billionaire family’s home and it truly made me feel like I was living out the life of Bruce Wayne — or at least peering into his life through my PS VR headset.
Once the descent down into the Batcave began, that’s when the game was as its strongest. Reaching out and putting on the gloves, placing the cowl on my face, seeing myself in the mirror, and testing out my gadgets in Batman VR made me feel more like the titular character than anything else I’ve played to date. Unfortunately, the opening 10-15 minutes are the best part.
After this montage of a power fantasy, the actual game begins with me ushered from short scene to short scene. I run into the likes of Penguin, his henchmen, Nightwing, Robin, and several other classic characters. I don’t want to spoil any of the details, since the actual narrative itself is worth experiencing, but it moves to quickly to really carry any weight.
From start to finish, Rocksteady are banking on you entering each moment with a high-degree of understanding for the events and characters. The entire experience plays out more like a highlight reel of a single episode of a Batman TV show than it does a completed game in and of itself.
When I first went hands-on with Batman VR at E3 2016, all of the warning signs were there. This was always marketed as a brief VR experience, but I didn’t quite think that strictly meant only a single hour of content. Once you’ve completed the core storyline, you can replay missions to find Riddler secrets, but that’s essentially all there is to do in the entire game.
I could stand on a launch pad in the Batcave and choose my vehicle, but then the loading screen plays the sounds of me driving without actually putting me in the driver’s seat. I can ignite a fire extinguisher to cloud a rooftop and make the jump on an enemy, but the sounds of fighting and scuffling are all I hear as the screen dims again and fast forwards to after the action. I can investigate the remains of a crime scene, but are forced to point and highlight specific “clues” without any real challenge or deductive reasoning required.
To be frank, plastering the Arkham label on Batman VR feels like a bit of a disservice to the legacy that franchise has built and a major missed opportunity. Its a beautiful, immersive, and downright believable simulation of what it feels like to wear the suit and don the cowl, but it forgets to let us feel the rush of excitement that comes along with actually doing something as Batman.
Final Score: 5/10 – Mediocre
Batman: Arkham VR isn’t a terrible VR experience — it even manages to deliver a satisfying twist ending to the short narrative — but it’s a far cry from the type of game fans want or expect. What was shipped here is little more than a tech demo, or a museum of objects and features that are never fully realized. Just as each scene from the game starts to feel like its picking up some steam, it’s over and you’re onto the next vignette of content. Die hard Batman fans will find enough fan service to warrant a purchase, but if you’re looking for an actual game featuring the Dark Knight in VR, then you’re better off waiting a while longer.
Batman: Arkham VR will be available on October 13th exclusively for PlayStation VR at the price of $19.99. After March 31st, the game may be released on other platforms.
Read our Game Review Guidelines for more information on how we arrived at this score.
The bat looks better than ever in this ‘Batman: Return to Arkham’ video
Batman: Return to Arkham bundles both Arkham Aslyum and Arkham City together on current-gen consoles, and a side-by-side video shows awesome improvements to lighting and particle effects.
The post The bat looks better than ever in this ‘Batman: Return to Arkham’ video appeared first on Digital Trends.
Batman: Arkham VR Devs Detail Gadgets and Scenes in Latest Video
Despite it being the week where EVE: Valkyrie is the highlight for PlayStation Blog Europe, it seems as though they couldn’t help themselves when it came to the release of this juicy behind the scenes video of Batman: Arkham VR, and we hear about a few more details than what we previously knew about the title.
The guys who were behind the main development at Rocksteady Studios feature in an in-depth video that may give you more of an idea as to what Batman: Arkham VR really is all about.
Bill Green, Acting Lead VR Designer, shared what kinds of equipment you will come across in the suiting up sequence and into the investigative tasks: “We were keen to bring in Batman’s gadgets with the gadget belt. We’ve got the old faithful bat claw that gets you round the environment. You get to take it off the belt, you aim, you shoot, and off you go. And then on the other side we came up with a new gadget, the Scanner gadget, that is effectively a detective mode for the VR world where you can use it like a torch and then Batman can piece together the evidence using the Scanner gadget.”
Watch the video below for more info, and check back with VRFocus for the latest news, updates, and features in the world of VR.