Arkham Sequel Robbed Us Twice

The following contains major story spoilers for Batman: Arkham Shadow.

After the release of Batman: Arkham Shadow a couple of Octobers ago, the road ahead for Batman’s Arkhamverse continuity finally looked bright and prosperous for the first time in almost a decade. However, that glowing horizon has darkened with developer Camouflaj being gutted and a Batman: Arkham Shadow sequel being canceled amid recent Meta layoffs. This is deeply upsetting for all studios and projects involved, and there is a lot to mourn about Batman: Arkham Shadow’s sequel, in particular.

With a Batman: Arkham Shadow sequel apparently canceled, it’s a tough pill to swallow that the Arkhamverse may never have a dedicated sequel to one of the Batman: Arkham franchise’s best games. It’s also not guaranteed that players will ever again be treated to Batman: Arkham Shadow’s iconic character portrayals via iconic actors, such as Batman’s Roger Craig Smith or Dr. Jonathan Crane’s Elijah Wood.

Arkham Shadow Is One Of Batman Games’ Best Stories

As a Batman: Arkham fan, sleeping on Batman: Arkham Shadow would be a big disservice. Batman: Arkham Shadow’s story is arguably the best in the whole franchise, with Batman: Arkham Origins the closest to coming in second.

For all intents and purposes, Batman: Arkham Shadow excels at adapting the flatscreen Batman: Arkham formula to VR, including gratifying freeflow combat and ‘predator’ stealth mechanics that players thrillingly perform from a first-person perspective. But, unlike all previous games in the series, Batman: Arkham Shadow breaks the tradition of having its story’s events take place over the course of a single night in order to tell an intimate story within Blackgate Penitentiary.

The length of time allotted until the Rat King’s proclaimed Day of Wraith allows for an emotional assessment of Bruce Wayne, Harvey Dent, Dr. Jonathan Crane, Dr. Harleen Quinzel, Arnold Wesker, TYGER’s Lyle Bolton, and even Joe Chill, the murderer of Bruce’s parents. The writing is exquisite, layering nuance into every dialogue option and every character that players interact with or overhear, and the story extrapolates tenfold when players choose to collect and listen to the lore associated with patient interview tapes and Cyrus Pinkney ancient runes.

Actors’ performances do a lot of the heavy lifting as a result of it being so dialogue-intensive. Harvey Dent’s development is as fantastic as it is tragic, for instance, and Bruce’s personal biases are constantly challenged by his budding relationships with characters like Joe, Carmine Falcone, Bird, and Otis Flannegan’s Ratcatcher as he assumes a fake identity to operate undercover in Blackgate.

Arkham Shadow’s Sequel Is Now “What Could Have Been”

Because Batman: Arkham Shadow’s sequel has been canceled, it’s unclear if players will ever see a direct continuation of the story, much less if Roger Craig Smith will ever play Batman in the Arkhamverse again.

To be fair, it was never officially confirmed that Roger Craig Smith, nor any actors who played a role in Batman: Arkham Shadow, would be returning for the sequel. However, recent posts on Twitter/X suggest that he might’ve been, or that he was at least looking forward to reprising the role of Batman:

“As ever with these things…oh, what could have been.

My best to all the folks affected by the recent Meta situation.

Brutal.”

Moreover, The Lord of the Rings’ Elijah Wood is an inspired Dr. Jonathan Crane. The character hasn’t had his full descent into becoming Scarecrow, either, and thus the brickwork was laid in Batman: Arkham Shadow for a sequel to potentially tell that story.

That’s a part of the beauty of Batman: Arkham Shadow: it didn’t rush to saturate the story with a handful of villains’ origin stories. Ironically, Arnold Wesker and Woody are the only characters who are later known as iconic villains—Ventriloquist and Scarface—who actually take that plunge and have their whole origin story developed from start to finish within Batman: Arkham Shadow.

Neither Dr. Jonathan Crane, Dr. Harleen Quinzel, nor district attorney Harvey Dent has become a villain wholly by the time that credits roll—Harvey may be chemically burned and suffering severely from dissociative identity disorder, but there could likely be more narrative ore to mine in Bruce and Harvey’s relationship as childhood friends before Two-Face begins robbing banks and hiring henchmen. If the sequel hadn’t been canceled, these characters’ stories might have continued gracefully.

Based on how much she is teased, there is a high likelihood that Poison Ivy could’ve been the main villain of Batman: Arkham Shadow’s sequel, with Edward Nygma potentially donning a bowler hat and planting question mark-shaped trophies throughout Gotham City.

Batman: Arkham’s Future Rests On Rocksteady’s Shoulders

If it is left to Rocksteady to continue the Batman: Arkham legacy, there doesn’t appear to be that much hope. Of course, it’s possible that Rocksteady could be devising a brilliant story and choosing a perfect point in the Batman: Arkham timeline to center on, but its latest Arkhamverse entry being Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League doesn’t necessarily inspire confidence.

The degree to which Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League retcons and distorts Rocksteady’s own Batman: Arkham lore is terribly concerning. The true Batman may not have actually been slain by Harley Quinn, but that doesn’t mean Rocksteady didn’t commit to some horrific story beats that now haunt the multiplayer-leaning action-shooter.

For example, Batman’s purple-eyed clone supposedly kills Tim Drake’s Robin; Harley Quinn is somehow a woman semi-reformed, uncharacteristically reflecting on her relationship with the Joker with nothing but resentment and regret; and Floyd Lawton’s Deadshot from the previous games was arbitrarily said to be an impostor, with the ‘real’ Floyd appearing in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League instead.

A hypothetical future Batman: Arkham game developed by Rocksteady that takes place in the prequel era and stars Roger Craig Smith would be a dream come true. A Batman: Arkham Knight sequel starring Roger Craig Smith could be spectacular, too, but anything that is tasked with succeeding Batman: Arkham Knight and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is going to have a lot harder time traversing the controversial narrative that has been established.

Systems

Released

October 21, 2024

ESRB

T For Teen // Violence, Mild Blood, Language

Developer(s)

Camouflaj

Publisher(s)

Oculus

Engine

Unity

PC Release Date

October 21, 2024