Batman: Arkham Shadowsurprise-launched on October 21, one day before its official release date was slated. Not unlikeArkhamgames before it,Shadowdoes a terrific job of honoring Arkhamverse lore and weaving twists into its narrative.Batman: Arkham Shadowhas absolutely no shortage of Easter eggs and lore tidbits, and its environmental storytelling makes a tremendous effort to craft hairsplitting references toBatman: Arkham OriginsandBatman: Arkham Origins Blackgatewhile also not shying away from penning a bold and unprecedented chapter in the Arkhamverse.
On the other end of the video games industry, Bloober’sSilent Hill 2remake has reached a level of success that few remakes have lately. The remake is simultaneously faithful and unfaithful in many ways and yet Bloober makes a big point of acknowledging iconic moments it did alter, even at the cost of in-game immersion. This concept has now been mirrored inBatman: Arkham Shadow, too, with both games coincidentally featuring an on-the-nose nostalgia collectible purely for fan service.
Glimpses in Bloober’s Silent Hill 2 Reflect the Remake’s Source Material
TheSilent Hill 2remake’s Glimpses of the Pastexplicitly nod to the original game’s imagery and events, particularly in moments where the remake deviates most prominently from its source material. These Glimpses will have fundamentally no meaning or significance to anyone who hasn’t played the originalSilent Hill 2before diving into the remake, but they are neat for anyone who adored the original and may have been anticipating certain sequences to be adapted one-to-one.
The introductory Glimpse is found where players might remember having originally confronted their first lying figure as a specific camera angle is held and a notable audio cue sounds.
It can be initially confusing what is meant to occur here, if anything at all, and players with no knowledge of the original game will surely be dumbfounded while knowledgeable players will notice that the first enemy encounter has been moved elsewhere in the remake. Later Glimpses include the Brookhaven Hospital rooftop fence that Pyramid Head shoves James Sunderland through or theold moral noose riddle in Toluca Prison, for example, and are seemingly meant to be love letters to the source material even if Bloober decided to reinterpret these moments differently.
Echoes in Batman: Arkham Shadow Connect Its Lore Between Origins and Blackgate
Batman: Arkham Shadows’ eleven Echoes of the Past aren’t immersive, diegetic collectibles like patient session tapes, Rat King idols, Rat King radios, rat bombs, rat maps, or ancient runes. Instead, Echoes are essentially memories with sound bites fromBatman: Arkham OriginsandBatman: Arkham Origins Blackgate, whichtook place only six and three months prior toBatman: Arkham Shadow, respectively. The first echo bubble players can discover is found when they glide down into Gotham City’s Bowery.
It may be easy to overlook given how much sensory stimulation surrounds it—Gotham Cinema on fire, the Bank of Gotham boarded up, andShadows’ enticing payphone that players can dial numbers into—but LeBlanc’s Echo bubble is in the corner of the street and has Bruce and Alfred reflect humorously on their recurring run-ins with the Santa hat-clad Loose Lips.
A sound bite flashback remembers Joker remarking on what he’s accomplished in so little time during the events ofOrigins, for instance, while an echo of Bane’s Blackgate boss fight causes Bruce to reflect on how he trained in order to fight “crooks and killers, not monsters like Bane and the Joker.” Echoes may have been needless bits of fan service if not for the reflections they often stir in Bruce, giving substance to them with follow-throughs on the state of Gotham and Bruce’s perception of it and making for a great tether to the games that predateShadowin the timeline.
