Introduction
Batman The Telltale Series is a point and click episodic adventure game. It was developed and published by Telltale Games, with the first episode releasing in August 2016, with the last episode releasing in December 2016.
Review
At the start of Bruce Wayne’s alter ego life, Batman never had many friends. He never had many enemies either. He took it upon himself to try and keep the city he loves safe as Batman, all while trying to change the political side of it all as Bruce Wayne, by helping Harvey Dent become mayor of Gotham City. As time went on though, he realized everything was a lot harder than he expected it to be. With corruption, blackmail, and lies around every bend. Who can you trust, when everyone has a dark side?
I absolutely fell in love with this season within the first 30 minutes of starting. It all takes place right near the beginning of Batman’s birth, and is such a dark and gripping tale through it all. Originally the game starts off with Penguin being the main villain, until it all morphs and evolves into the Children Of Arkham being the main antagonists. The story gripped me from start to end, even when it slowed down in certain scenes. Like when Bruce was in the Batcave, reeling about newfound information about his parents, or just getting off the phone with Harvey, while he’s speeding through the streets in the Batmobile. It was all perfectly paced and so fantastic.
As I played the game, one of the main driving forces of the series that I remembered is that throughout the series, depending on the decisions you make, you form who becomes a villain and who doesn’t. Will Batman become a killer? Or will he brutalize people like normal and hand them over to the law? Will Bruce be a calm calculated individual like normal? Or will he become a screaming maniac that makes Zsaz hunt him forever? When I played, I kept my Bruce and Batman pretty on par with how I know he normally acts. It was fun and exhilarating. Some in game choices let you decide to handle stuff as Bruce or Batman even! So I was always stuck weighing the pros and cons of it all.
At the end of the day though, I really don’t think the game gives you as much choice as one might think. For example, I treated Harvey absolutely perfectly, and he still became Two-Face, just without the scars. Penguin still becomes Penguin, no matter what. Heck even The Joker still becomes the Joker. I was sad that no matter how hard I tried, Harvey just couldn’t keep his mind together, and ended up turning on his best friend, Bruce.
The gameplay is akin to just about all of Telltales games. You walk on a straight line basically when you actually get control, except you do get to do Batman style investigations where you have to comb over a crime scene and figure out what exactly happened to it. The only terrible thing about it all, is that you can’t fail them. The game tells you when you’re wrong and to try again, with absolutely no consequence. The QTE fight scenes are exciting to watch as well. If you hit every prompt properly you fill up a bar as well, that lets you do a special finishing move at the end of the combat scene. I’m not entirely sure if you see them regardless, considering I never failed them, but I assume you still see it play out the same way no matter what.
There were quite a few bugs to this game unfortunately. Nothing too game breaking, but it was immersion breaking for sure. Between a character literally missing the backside of her head and skull, to a character model being completely invisible during their time on the screen, I was left wondering how the hell these bugs were missed. I only ever had one crash, which happened during a trailer to the next episode. The absolute worst bug of them all by far though, is that the audio would sometimes completely cut out for seconds at a time. Sometimes three seconds, sometimes ten. Thankfully I play every game with subtitles or I would’ve missed what was actually said during these parts, but for someone who hates them, it could be one of the worst things ever, especially if you miss a crucial story detail. It’s just asinine to think these bugs slipped through the cracks.
Rating
Pros:
- Fantastic Origin Storyline
- Exhilarating Combat Scenes
- Perfectly Paced
Cons:
- Choices Don’t Matter As Much As You Think
- Awful Bugs
Summary
This is a must play for any Batman fan. The storyline that it brought along with the intense combat and morale choices had me on the edge of my seat all the time and I can’t wait to jump into the sequel season at the first opportunity I get! Play this game!
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Game & Developer Information
Developer Website: Telltale Games
Developer Socials: Twitter
PSN Store Links: £17.99/€19.99 Europe / $29.99 North America
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