Earlier this year, it was revealed that developer Camouflaj is working on a new VR title set within the Arkham universe titled Batman: Arkham Shadow. Today, at Summer Game Fest 2024, a new cinematic trailer was released.

Gotham City is under attack by the mysterious Rat King and his cultish devotees. Batman: Arkham Shadow, is an immersive, full-length entry into the Arkham franchise coming Fall 2024. Only on Meta Quest 3. 🦇 pic.twitter.com/eeHthpd9E2

— Meta Quest (@MetaQuestVR) June 7, 2024

Batman Arkham Shadow is set between the events of Arkham Origins and Arkham Asylum. On the fourth of July, Gotham City is besieged by a new threat: the mysterious Rat King and his cultish devotees. They have been abducting public officials including some of Batman’s associates such as Commissioner Jim Gordan and District Attorney Harvey Dent. The Rats have pledged to execute them in one week’s time for “crimes committed against the people of Gotham City.”

As widespread rioting engulfs the city, Batman races to prevent the so-called “Day of Wrath,” but everything goes wrong. Players will experience the origins of iconic characters such as The Scarecrow, Harley Quinn, and more as Batman grapples with the contradiction at the core of his identity – the use of force in pursuit of peace.

Batman: Arkham Shadow will push the Meta Quest 3 to its limits, immersing players in a full-fledged, story-driven campaign. Players will get to use Batman’s iconic grapnel gun to traverse a richly detailed depiction of Gotham City, and then silently glide down behind unsuspecting enemies. The game will also feature a built-for-VR evolution of the Arkham series’ iconic freeform combat system, allowing players to get up close and personal delivering devastating punches, deflecting incoming attacks, dodging, and finishing up with brutal takedowns.

Speaking to IGN, Camouflaj studio head Ryan Payton said “Batman: Arkham Shadow is very much inspired by Arkham Asylum in terms of scope and scale in terms of also the structure of the game. It’s exploration, like you have in Asylum – which includes free-flow locomotion, so using the Grapnel gun to zip over onto things, and do the slide, go through vents. All those elements that you’d expect from an Arkham game; it’s gonna be driven in in large part by the moment-to-moment combat.”

Camouflaj believes that they have faithfully reimagined all of the hallmarks of the past Arkham game beyond the combat. So players can expect the entire experience for VR from stealth to predator encounters to detective vision. Perch on a vantage point, or string enemies up from one. Throw a Batarang to keep a combo going or slip out of sight using a Smoke Bomb. Scour crime scenes for clues, solve puzzles, uncover hidden collectibles, and explore iconic locations such as the Monarch Theatre and Bowery from an all-new perspective.

“[Our pitch to Warner Bros. was,] We’re gonna take all of that and then we’re gonna completely reimagine it for VR and make it work amazing for VR and actually have it feel like an evolution,” Payton said. “So you still have that feeling of doing crowd control, but you’re also getting interrupted with counters and you’re making sure you’re flowing into the counter and doing that. All in first-person, all in VR and making it feel that kind of bone-crushing Arkham combat. It’s going to have boss battles just like all the other Arkham games have, [it’ll have] investigations with Detective Mode. And we’re also going to have big Arkham-like cinematics where you’re going face-to-face in first-person as Batman with these kinds of hard-hitting moments. With these classic DC characters. So that was the pitch and that was almost four years ago, and here we are with the biggest game that Camouflaj has ever made, [and] longest game we’ve ever made. And Arkham Asylum is our North Star.”

The first official gameplay reveal for Batman: Arkham Shadow is set for Gamescom later this year. The game will be released exclusively on Meta Quest 3 later this year.