Gamers are drooling over the silky realism of Batman: Arkham Shadow

Batman: Arkham Shadow is a game that may have passed under your radar. Released this week for Meta Quest 3 and Meta Quest 3S (see our pick of the best VR headsets), it’s the second virtual reality game in the Batman: Arkham series and a sequel to Batman: Arkham Origins.

Developed by Camouflaj and published by Oculus Studios, it’s an action-adventure game in which the player, as Batman, must stop a villain called the Rat King from unleashing chaos. The rhythmic, free-flow combat follows the approach of the previous game, but the new sequel is gaining attention for a very particular aspect: Batman’s hands.

Players are impressed by the smoothness of the physics of Batman’s hands in the VR game. As captured in the POV footage above shared on Reddit, the animation captures movements that look dynamic and unscripted akin to camera footage, although the fingers are perhaps a little overly bendy? It’s created some debate about whether the game sets a new standard surpassing Lone Echo/Echo VR or Dungeons of Eternity.

But the remarkable realism of the animation appears to be distracting some players from the game itself. “I’m just imagining a random henchman walking around the corner and catching batman fondling the wall and immediately noping out,” one person responded on Reddit. POV of Batman sensually touching a wall was definitely not on my bingo card today,” someone else wrote. You can see the game’s trailer below.