Well, this has been a heck of a month for Batman. Not long after the Justice League and LEGO Batman Movie trailers brought down the Comic-Con house we have not one but two movie appearances in a week (The Killing Joke and Suicide Squad) and a brand new videogame. It’s a good time for a Batmanfan like myself. More than that I’m also a big fan of Telltale and their patented choice-and-consequence adventure game design, so it’s fair to say I was looking forward to Batman - The Telltale Series. But was my faith justified or is Telltale’s latest rotten to the core? Read on!
I’ll assume you’re all au fait with Batman, the Dark Knight, the Winged Avenger etc so I’ll simply tell you about Telltale’s story and when it takes place. It’s set early in Bruce Wayne’s career as Batman. Gordon isn’t yet Commissioner, the police will shoot Batman on sight, the Joker and most of the famous rogues gallery haven’t been encountered, gangster kingpin Carmine Falcone still has Gotham City in a vice-like grip, Bruce is still learning to be Batman and faithful butler Alfred hasn’t got used to putting up with all this nonsense yet.
Despite the story of Batman being a well-trodden path Telltale spend a lot of Episode 1 doing world-building, and it’s not wasted. I don’t want to get into too many specifics with the story but it spends time with both Batman and Bruce Wayne. A routine robbery broken up by Batman in suitably dramatic fashion turns complicated with the arrival of a certain female cat burglar, whereas a fundraiser for mayoral candidate and Bruce’s friend Harvey Dent turns sour with the arrival of Carmine Falcone.
The relationship between Bruce and Harvey is well handled
The plot escalates very well in my opinion and sets up the season nicely, but it’s the characters that come off the best. Harvey Dent is a huge man, putting on a brave face but hiding a lot of underconfidence. Alfred protects Bruce as best he can but really hasn’t accepted the man Bruce is becoming. Selina Kyle is a professional who loves a good thrill, but is scared of the people she answers to. There’s one other major Batman character that I won’t spoil who’s undergone the most radical transformation (he’s in the trailer and I never guessed who he actually was) and I’m eager to see how this person fits into the overall story.
Gameplay
As per usual with Telltale, the primary gameplay in Batman is the branching story. I admit I was a little skeptical when I heard Telltale was tackling The Dark Knight. While Telltale deal in licensed properties usually they’re allowed to make up their own characters, like Lee and Clementine in The Walking Dead or House Forrester in Game of Thrones, but with Batman you have to have, well, Batman. You’re not going to be allowed to make choices that drastically change the DC universe.
Batman always gets between these two
Funnily enough the last time Telltale faced such a lack of freedom was with another DC property - Fables, and yet The Wolf Among Us is still one of my favourite games in their catalogue. In Batman they manage things in much the same way: introduce some unexpected elements. Public opinion of Bruce Wayne and manipulation of the media are just two examples and they’re well handled – I particularly liked how one seemingly minor choice I made got paraded around throughout the episode. There’s even one particularly big choice where you get to decide which of two major DC characters you want to trust, which could have a big impact on the whole story later on.
Like The Wolf Among Us, and appropriately for Batman, there are also detective moments. These are a more adventure game-like version of similar scenes in Batman: Arkham Knight or Origins, where Batman has to recreate a crime scene by scanning in evidence and holographically piecing together the order of events. I’m hoping these won’t peter out like they did in Bigby Wolf’s adventure since the one major crime scene reconstruction here is rather fun, if a bit clunky with Batman having to manually “link” evidence by walking to it even if it’s on the other side of the room. Most games (and movies) forget that Batman is meant to be a great detective so my biggest hope for The Telltale Series is that these scenes play an even bigger role in episodes to come.
The crime scene reconstruction moments are very Arkham
Of course when thinking fails Batman can always rely on his fists. Combat encounters are done in classic Telltale QTE style, combining WASD for punches and dodging, mouse aiming for stuff like Batarangs and the Grapple Gun, and awkward Shift + Q or E for special moves. It’s fine missing a few button presses but the objective is to get most and fill up a Bat-symbol in the corner. Succeed and you can take your opponent down in spectacular fashion, fail and you’ll die and have to do it again. I like these moments, and the directions are certainly clearer than Game of Thrones. The Shift ones are a bit annoying though.
Performance & Graphics
MINIMUM:
OS: Windows 7 64Bit Service Pack 1
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz
Memory: 3 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia GTS 450+ with 1024MB+ VRAM (excluding GT), latest drivers
DirectX: Version 11
Additional: Not Recommended for Intel integrated graphics</b>
Telltale’s games are weird in that they’re fine for most PCs (they run on iPhones for flip’s sake) but still have slowdown occasionally even on the most powerful systems. Apparently Batman is a big update to their previous engine so it’s not surprising that there have been reports that it’s been clunky for some. It has been patched now, so hopefully no one will repeat the fiasco I faced when I got stuck in the Batcomputer halfway through the episode, exited out and the game lost my saves so I was forced to replay an hour of unskippable gameplay.
Curse this infernal Batcomputer
Graphically I wouldn’t say Batman is a huge step over The Walking Dead: Michonne as it uses a similar cel-shaded style and location textures are still a bit muddy, but there are some nice rain effects, crowds seem bigger and more impressive, and character animation just seems generally better. It’s still no Life Is Strange but it’s a step forward for a studio that has stubbornly stuck with the same engine for over ten years.
Audio / Voice Acting
Telltale are known for having great voice acting, so I’m happy to report that trend continues here. Everyone suits their iconic roles well, with Catwoman/Selina Kyle sounding straight out of Arkham even though I’m sure it’s a different actress. I’m relieved to say that Troy Baker is excellent as both Batman and Bruce Wayne, even if he does occasionally lapse into the same voice he did playing the Caped Crusader in the LEGO Batman games. The only thing I’m not sure about is the synthesized Batman voice, but then I didn’t like it in Batman V Superman either.
Additional Thoughts
Despite Telltale doing very well with adapting their choice and consequence gameplay to such a rigid universe there are already some cracks showing. All the main characters are well established from the comics, there are no original major characters for Telltale to screw around with like they did in The Wolf Among Us so every choice feels temporary, at least in Episode 1. I’m hoping that my decisions will affect the long-term story of the series even if they don’t, say, stop Harvey Dent turning into Two-Face. At the moment though I feel I only really affected a few news articles.
I'M BATMAN
One other moment I really liked was Batman preparing for a combat encounter. Using his various gadgets I surveyed the area, identified threats, chose how best to deal with them and then enacted my plan with a bit of improvisation towards the end. This scene was excellent and made me really feel like Batman, someone who doesn’t just rush in fists-first and wins because he carefully plans for every eventuality. More of this please Telltale.
BATMAN - THE TELLTALE SERIES VERDICT
While not an out-and-out triumph as a huge Batman fan I was greatly satisfied by the events of Realm of Shadows and how Telltale have adapted the DC universe to their play style. Combat may have been all QTEs but there was a good flow to it and a degree of risk, not to mention some truly cinematic moments even Rocksteady would have trouble producing. I particularly loved the more thoughtful scenes, like character interactions, detective scenes, and that cool battle preparation later on in the episode. The new engine works mostly well barring bugs, and the voice cast embody their roles well. It’s only really the choice system that’s inevitably a bit of a letdown as nothing really big can happen in such an established universe, but hopefully it’ll at least shape Telltale’s own story as we go along. A fine start then to Telltale’s Batman, let’s hope the developer builds on it.
TOP GAME MOMENT
The battle preparation. Making a plan and then enacting it, as Batman. Awesome.
Good vs Bad
- More thoughtful scenes great, especially character, detective and planning moments
- And the combat is good too, there's risk and it's pretty comic book-y
- Voice cast are excellent and suit the roles well
- Choices feel a little small, and can't really affect the characters too much
- Some gamebreaking bugs but hopefully they'll get patched out
