While Bruce Wayne disguising himself as Irving “Matches” Malone to explore Blackgate Prison is definitely the most unprecedented twist inBatman: Arkham Shadow, another leniency the game takes on the narrative is how many days the story actually takes place over.Arkhamplayers will be incredibly familiar with previous games only taking place over single, individual nights, whereasBatman: Arkham Shadowtakes place over roughly a week’s time.
This is essential to the plot with Bruce investigating Blackgate during the day and trying to find the whereabouts of the Rat King. Some events stall his progress, such as being injured and needing to visit the infirmary or being thrown into solitary confinement after mopping the floor withBlackgate’s new warden, Lyle Bolton, and each night Bruce suits up as Batman again. The Rats have all congregated at Blackgate anyhow, but knowing Batman has left Gotham City at the mercy of other miscellaneous criminals and villains should hopefully inspire events in futureArkhamgames.
Every Night in Batman’s Arkhamverse is Ludicrously Eventful
Batman left Gotham City unsupervised and unattended in the handful of days and nights leading up to theRat King’s Day of Wrathand, knowing how impossibly eventful single nights can be in theArkhamgames, it’s unfathomable how much criminals and villains could’ve been up to in that time.
If something so disastrous and awful was happening on the streets of Gotham while Bruce was spending his days and nights in Blackgate he’d presumably have taken a night out of that schedule to look into it, or at least task Alfred Pennyworth and Barbara Gordon—whoofficially debuts as Oracle inBatman: Arkham Shadow—with looking into it in the meantime. Still, Batman is wholly consumed with locating the Rat King as the Rats had targeted two of his closest loved ones: his foster brother, District Attorney Harvey Den, and their shared maternal guardian, Dr. Leslie Thompkins.
This perfectly explains why Batman is as narrowly focused as he is and has binocular vision regarding his pursuit of the Rat King, as well as why he shows such unbridled rage toward the Rats. That said, an enormous amount of criminal activity commonly occurs on single nights in the Arkhamverse, and there’s no telling what a week’s worth of Batman’s absence or distraction could allow criminals to achieve.
Batman: Arkham Shadow Closes One Arkhamverse Chapter and Opens Another
Batman: Arkham Shadowtells a story that is both intimate and open-ended, meaning that it needed to put characters such as Dr. Harleen Quinzel, Dr. Jonathan Crane, Harvey Dent, and Arnold Wesker on their paths to becoming Harley Quinn, Scarecrow, Two-Face, and the Ventriloquist. But, all the while,Enigma may have been littering Gotham City with his first batch of green question mark trophies.
Moreover, the League of Assassins has seemingly yet to make its mark on Gotham in the Arkhamverse beyond Bruce’s dodgy acquaintance with Shiva. Only time will tell ifBatman: Arkham Shadow’s events have any real pull on subsequent stories, but the day and night cycle that Camouflaj boldly went with will hopefully have a notable impact as an excuse for how the city has evolved.
