Batman: Arkham VR (2016) is one of PlayStation VR’s top games, and an exclusive too. Now, developer Rocksteady has announced that it will soon launch the game on the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.
Batman: Arkham VR has placed consistently in the top 10 most downloaded PSVR titles since the headset’s October 2016 launch. Built on Unreal Engine 4 and well optimized for PSVR, it’s also one of the system’s best looking games.
Now Batman: Arkham VR will launch on the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift on April 25th, with full motion controller support on both systems. It isn’t quite clear at this stage if the game will see a native launch on both SteamVR and Oculus Home, or if the game will launch on SteamVR with support for both headsets, though our guess is on the former. Price hasn’t been announced, but the game is presently priced at $20 on the PlayStation Store. A trailer (heading this article) reveals the forthcoming headset support, but otherwise appears to show more or less the same game we saw on PSVR.
We praised Batman: Arkham VR on PSVR for its attention to detail and highly interactive environments. The game also managed to be very comfortable thanks to a thematically driven use of Batman’s grappling hook as a well paced teleportation mechanic. And while the length of the game and underwhelming “combat” left us wanting, on the whole it was an impressive starting point for what we hoped would become episodic installations that would let us further explore the dark underbelly of Gotham.
Sadly, after the game’s launch back in October alongside PSVR, we haven’t heard any further plans for the first VR-enabled Batman game from developer Rocksteady Studios or publisher WB Interactive Entertainment. This week’s news that the game is coming to the Rift and Vive is a good sign however, suggesting that positive sales on PSVR have lead stakeholders to believe that a release on the leading desktop VR headsets is worth their while.
We don’t expect the game to play much differently on the Vive and Rift, though it’s likely that the UE4 foundation will scale well on PC, offering a big jump in graphical fidelity. On our wishlist too would be tighter batarang mechanics (making us of more accurate VR controller tracking on Vive and Rift) to make the game more challenging and skill based; the batarang throws in the PSVR version were rather forgiving, likely due to the less accurate Move controllers.
One question on our mind is how the new release of a 2016 VR game will fare with 2017 expectations. The reception of the game on Rift and Vive could have a major impact on the fate of Arkham VR going forward.
The post ‘Batman: Arkham VR’ Coming to Vive and Rift April 25th appeared first on Road to VR.
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