Batman: The Telltale Series – review

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Telltale’s pedigree in interactive storytelling is considerable. Having adapted The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones to the gaming medium, they are undoubtedly skilful at telling new stories with familiar characters and environments. As a fan of other titles, and a self-professed comic geek, I was really excited to hop into the game.

Batman: The Telltale Series plays like a living comic that puts the player in control. You take on the role of Bruce Wayne (Batman), navigating the politics and intrigue of Gotham City as the former, and clearing the city of crime as the latter. Saying you ‘play’ the game is perhaps a generous description. The player’s input is mainly to respond to the situation presented to you; fight scenes and other dramatic moments take the form of a series of quick time events, and button prompts appear on screen during conversations with options for what to say during conversations. Other characters react to your choices, adding a replay value to each short episode.

The comic-book like art style of the games is a beautiful way of telling an intriguing, though somewhat familiar story. Taking on the role of Bruce Wayne gives the player a surprising amount of freedom to determine the personality that they would like the character to adopt, with other characters responding to you differently depending on how you act: I tended towards creating more of a no-nonsense Batman on my first play, adjusting the game to feel slightly grittier.

As a fan of the Batman lore I feel like the character representations are a mixed bag. Insofar as the game offers the player the option of romancing Catwoman, her character feels nuanced and well developed, especially in the later episodes of the game. Two-Face, similarly, is an excellent tragic villain, with the familiar origin story retold in an emotional and genuinely heart-wrenching way by the developers. Where the game is less successful is in its aims to change the nature of characters significantly: for instance, the Penguin and the Joker differ significantly from their original characteristics. While an interesting idea, this clashes with the otherwise faithful depiction of the world. I’m hopeful that in future episodes the characters will grow into themselves given that ‘Season One’ of the game is predominantly an origin story.

Telltale’s Batman has left me hungry to play more of the series. From a gameplay perspective, it’s fun and beautiful to watch, if at times a little repetitive. The story told by Telltale is similarly well constructed but flawed; the games feel lacking when they stray from tradition. That being said, they function perfectly when they put the old-fashioned characters in their deep and interesting version of Gotham. With a few improvements, this series could move from good to excellent.

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