Batman: Arkham Shadowreleases later this month and it seems fairly clear what players can expect from the Dark Knight’s latest prequel caper as they pursue the Rat King and potentially experience other super-criminals in the making. The pool of possible antagonistsBatman: Arkham Shadowboasts is great as it blends iconic, well-known characters with ones players may know nothing about since they have either never been seen before in the Arkhamverse or only come from a specific outlet in Batman’s history of source material.
There are secrets Camouflaj is withholding that will likely be held tightly to its chest until the Meta Quest 3/3S exclusive launches and that’d be for the best. It’s true that any number of other villains may make even a small appearance if only as a voice that comes through on ananswering machine, payphone, or radio broadcast inBatman: Arkham Shadow, but only a short amount of time will tell. Likewise, while Oswald Cobblepot’s Penguin has not been teased or confirmed as of yet, Camouflaj wouldn’t need to feature the arrogant crime lord to reprise his most notable gimmick in theArkhamgames: combat arenas.
Batman: Arkham Shadow Has a Layup for an Epic Penguin-Style Combat Arena
In bothBatman: Arkham CityandBatman: Arkham Origins, Penguin’s respective museum and boiler deck ‘dungeons’ house combat encounters in a large room flooded with enemies. These moments are distinct from any other combat encounter as they are meant to hurl enormous waves of Penguin’s thugs at the player and the stage each is set in pins them as epic arena-style battles. They’re memorable because of how they test players’ combat mettle in a way that few other encounters do early on inCityandOrigins, and are held as gladiator spectacle tournaments for other lackeys to bear witness to.
Batman: Arkham Knightfeatures Penguin and doesn’t continue this notable trend, though Penguin is also only introduced briefly in the main campaign and hisoptional “Gunrunner” Most Wanted side missionthereafter is composed of intermittent combat encounters that co-star a playable Nightwing.
Batman: Arkham Shadow’s Lock-Up Boss Fight Suggests a Possible Combat Arena
Lending credence to the idea that a combat arena may be featured, two enemy factions have been confirmed with direct ties to two ofBatman: Arkham Shadow’s core villains: The Rat King’s devout Rat followers and Lock-Up’s TYGER guards. Lock-Up in particular is the only antagonist who’s actually had his boss fight shown at all, with players capable of wielding shock gloves against him while dashing left and right to evade the electric whip Lyle Bolton brandishes.
However, what’s equally intriguing as the boss fight itself is where it seems to take place—an arena that bears a striking resemblance to the boiler deck inOrigins’ Final Offer with NPCs cheering and spectating from behind a thick, gated wall. Even if it’s not the identical arena aboard Penguin’s ship, it would be sensational forShadowto host its own fight tournament pitting Batman against a swarm of TYGER guards.
Plus, like howOrigins’ boiler deck begins with a fake-out gimmick boss fight against Electrocutioner and eventually drags players back to the same arena to have alegitimate boss fight against Deathstroke, there’s a decent chance of something similar occurring with Lock-Up wherever his boss fight takes place.Batman: Arkham Shadowcertainly doesn’t need to adhere one-to-one with the franchise’s established formula, nor does it need a combat arena sequence to prove its faithfulness. Still, the layout of Lock-Up’s boss fight arena could be the perfect set dressing for such an encounter to take place.
