Microreview [video game]: Batman - The Telltale Series Season 1

Not Quite a Monster

 
Reviewer's note: Fall video game releases ran over my episode 4 review, so I've combined all episodes for a full season review here! No spoilers for this review, but I will include some of my thoughts on the season at the very bottom of the review, clearly marked as spoiler territory.

Telltale Games have a formula. You're going to have multiple choice dialog. You're going to do a little puzzle solving. You're going to have some quicktime action sequences. Knowing this, going into any particular Telltale game, the question becomes "can they use this formula to tell a compelling story?" For Batman - The Telltale Series (BTTS), that answer is yes.

BTTS discards and rearranges a lot of Batman mythology, and that's okay. It's difficult to tell a surprising or original story involving those characters that hasn't already been told in comics. Rather than retell one of those stories, they've given us something original but deeply in the vein of the character. Even better, the choices you make as Batman and Bruce Wayne allow you to play the character as you see him. Is Batman a shining light of justice or a terrifying monster of vengeance, or some balance between those two? Is Bruce Wayne a billionaire playboy caught in the political machine, or a cog driving that machine within Gotham? It's all up to you.

What I found interesting about this game is that it could be seen as an evolution of a previous Telltale game, A Wolf Among Us, based on the Fables comic book. Both games involve an outside-the-law enforcer trying to solve a mystery. The way they balance the dialog, investigation, and action is basically identical, and it could be assumed that A Wolf Among Us was a prototype for BTTS.

However, what BTTS is kind of missing is the tension of being a monster. Bigby Wolf was a literal monster among monsters. Sometimes, he had to be a bigger monster than the rest simply to get things done, but doing so would reduce his standing in his community. When Bigby killed someone, he was playing into a stereotype he was trying to fight against. On the other hand, Bruce Wayne can largely separate himself from Batman. Batman can be a monster, but Bruce Wayne won't suffer the consequences of his actions. When I played Batman as a good guy trying to get things done that a corrupt government would not, the people I wanted on my side were largely there for me. When I played Bigby the same way, I was still treated as dangerous and a liability. BTTS doesn't really capture that feeling as well as A Wolf Among Us did.

My other gripe with the game are the technical difficulties. These cause this game to lose points because they've been a part of Telltale games for far too long. For being a fairly uncomplicated adventure game with good-not-great look, it hitches on framerate far too often. Combined with a save game problem that caused me to have to replay episode 1 because it ate my save, these problems are difficult to overlook. They're not showstoppers, but they're frustrating to deal with.

For Telltale and Batman fans, it's easy to recommend BTTS. You'll know what you're getting into here, and you'll get a largely original Batman story with some creative twists on well known characters. However, if you're not familiar with Telltale games, or you don't care for Batman, A Wolf Among Us is essentially the same type of game with a better sense of character progression.

The Math

Baseline Assessment: 8/10

Bonuses: +1 an original Batman story that shows a lot more Bruce Wayne than video games get to see.

Penalties: -1 separates Batman from Bruce Wayne a little too well, -1 technical problems that have been a part of Telltale games for too long

Nerd Coefficient: 7/10 (an enjoyable experience, but not without its flaws)

***

POSTED BY: brian, sci-fi/fantasy/video game dork and contributor since 2014

Reference: Telltale Games. Batman - The Telltale Series [Telltale Games, 2016] 

SPOILERY DISCUSSION: What I found most difficult in this game was discarding what I "knew" about Batman. Stop here if you don't want character or plot spoilers.

When they drop the video of Bruce's father essentially imprisoning political enemies in Arkham, I wanted to believe it was doctored. This led me to denying it too long, until the evidence was very clear that he was a criminal. On the other hand, when Oswald Cobblepot was revealed as an old childhood friend, I treated him as such. Then it turned out he's still essentially The Penguin, so I felt like an idiot there too. I thought I could've saved Dent, but when I was given the choice of Catwoman or Dent, I chose Catwoman. This obviously resulted in Dent turning into Two-Face, but I'm certain that choosing Dent would still produce the same result because the rest of the story doesn't really work without Two-Face. 

Vale as Lady Arkham was the most surprising character change. It's not telegraphed at all, so I'm glad they spent so much time in Episodes 4 and 5 establishing why she is who she is. She works as a villain because she's got a good point, but her methods are entirely wrong. Bruce Wayne isn't in the right by supporting what his father did, but he has to be better than him to make Lady Arkham wrong. That's what I played into, but there could be an interesting story in playing Batman as the tool of vengeance and (more or less) supporting Lady Arkham's mission if not her methods.

Microreview [video game]: Batman - The Telltale Series Episode 3: New World Order by Telltale Games

The Villains, Revealed

Reviewer's note: Welcome to the second part in our five-part series reviewing Batman - The Telltale Series, an episodic adventure game. Part one can be found here, part 2 here. This review will contains spoilers for episode 1 and 2!

Picking up after the fairly surprising ending to episode 2, episode 3 continues to tighten the vise on both Batman and Bruce Wayne. Though Falcone and Hill are gone, the antagonists that truly threaten Gotham are revealed; the Penguin, and the leader of the Children of Arkham. But in the real world, Bruce Wayne faces just as much pressure in his support of Dent and the revelation that his father was involved in much of Gotham's corrupt past and the institutionalization of Cobblepot's mother.

Episode 3 is very much like episode 2. More of Bruce's life crumbles around him, and you spend the bulk of it doing damage control. It's split fairly evenly between Bruce Wayne segments and Batman segments. There's a really thought-provoking segment that questions what Batman can do for the everyman. I love seeing that sort of questioning of the role of superheroes in the real world.

However, as we get deeper into the game, I'm starting to notice some of the seams in the story. The decision between Dent and Catwoman near the end of episode 2 seems to be one of those illusory choices that come with offering two obviously different choices that lead to the same outcome. I chose Catwoman over Dent, but given the way episode 3 plays out, it would have to be a radically different structure if I had chosen Dent instead. This is not a complaint per se, but something we live with in Telltale games.

While I continue to enjoy the game and look forward to the next episode, they still haven't ironed out the performance problems. There's one scene in particular that got real choppy. It still doesn't make sense.

In classic Telltale style, episode 3 ends with another significant cliffhanger and teases an episode that I'm very much looking forward to. Despite the technical problems, Batman - The Telltale Series Episode 3 is great and it would take a really particularly bad episode to spoil the whole series at this point. 

The Math

Baseline Assessment: 7/10

Bonuses: +1 asks tough questions of what Batman does for average citizens

Penalties: -1 some weird frame rate hiccups (continuing)

Nerd Coefficient: 7/10 (an enjoyable experience, but not without its flaws)

***

POSTED BY: brian, sci-fi/fantasy/video game dork and contributor since 2014

Reference: Telltale Games. Batman - The Telltale Series Episode 3: New World Order [Telltale Games, 2016]

Microreview [video game]: Batman - The Telltale Series Episode 2: Children of Arkham by Telltale Games

Wheels in Motion

Reviewer's note: Welcome to the second part in our five-part series reviewing Batman - The Telltale Series, an episodic adventure game. Part one can be found here. This is the second episode, and if you've made it this far, you're probably in for the long haul. This review will contains spoilers for episode 1!

Let's kick this off the right way with technical difficulties! When I fired up Batman to play this new episode, I discovered that the game had lost/misplaced/overwritten my save game. It was just gone, as if I'd hadn't even started episode 1. Doing some quick googling revealed that the problem may be related to Telltale Games cloud save system. I disabled it and replayed episode 1 and didn't have any problems, but reader beware! I'm playing on a PC through Steam. If you're doing likewise, you may want to disable cloud saves if you haven't already encountered this problem.

Replaying episode 1 gave me a chance to do things different, but I mostly stuck to my original choices. The big one that I changed was that I did not shake Falcone's hand at Dent's fundraiser. The game rubbed my face in that one on my first run. However, it still placed the blame on me for Falcone being at the fundraiser to begin with. So it goes.

Episode 1 was an introduction. Episode 2 is where the plot starts to really take shape. It continues to put the player in uncomfortable or unwinnable situations, which is something Telltale is good at doing. Episode 2 starts to peel back the skin of Gotham, revealing how deep the rot is. It also continues to challenge what the player knows about Batman by making subtle changes to established characters. Again, if you thought you knew Batman, you can discard all of that except the very bones of the characters. The names may be familiar but the characters are not the same.

No particular complaints about the structure of this episode, but the technical problems linger. The afore mentioned save game problem is a real hassle for some who don't want to spend another two hours running through episode 1. It also hiccups in frame rate in some odd places. They're noticeable but not deal breakers. It's still a good looking game without serious graphical problems, but the frame rate hitches are fairly annoying.

By the end of the episode, some serious stuff has gone down in Gotham and I can't wait to get back into it. However, I don't expect the technical problems to be smoothed out by then. It's just something we'll have to deal with to enjoy the rest of this otherwise good adventure game.

The Math

Baseline Assessment: 7/10

Bonuses: +1 continues to challenge established Batman lore

Penalties: -1 some weird frame rate hiccups (still), -1 lost my save game

Nerd Coefficient: 6/10 (still enjoyable, but the flaws are hard to ignore)

***

POSTED BY: brian, sci-fi/fantasy/video game dork and contributor since 2014

Reference: Telltale Games. Batman - The Telltale Series Episode 2: Children of Arkham [Telltale Games, 2016]

Microreview [video game]: Batman - The Telltale Series Episode 1: Realm of Shadows by Telltale Games

The Batman Cometh

Reviewer's note: Hello! Welcome to the first part in our five-part series reviewing Batman - The Telltale Series, an episodic adventure game. This is the first episode and this review will be completely spoiler-free! However, subsequent episodes will necessitate some discussion of what came before, so they will be spoiler-free for the episode being reviewed but not necessarily for the previous episodes in the series. On with the review!

I love Batman. I've been a Batman fan since I was a kid, and a lot of it was propelled by Tim Burton's 1989 Batman movie. Ever since then, anything Batman has piqued my interest. There has been plenty of ups and downs for the Dark Knight, but we've been on a real good streak in the video game world since Batman: Arkham Asylum. Batman - The Telltale Series, though completely different in nature, continues that streak of quality Batman video games.

Batman - The Telltale Series is an episodic adventure game in the same form Telltale Games has been famous for for quite a while. Rather than picking up one of the many interpretations of Batman, such as the movies or Rocksteady Arkham series video games, Batman is a new take on the character. After Batman foils the theft of an encrypted data device from city hall, Bruce Wayne is caught in a political knife fight over his support of Harvey Dent's campaign for mayor. Bruce Wayne and Batman fight on two fronts to uncover who is behind some vicious attacks on the Wayne family legacy and who called for the city hall break-in.

If you've played any recent Telltale adventure games, particularly The Wolf Among Us, you know how this game is going to play. If you haven't, these are cinematic adventure games, where the bulk of your interaction comes through dialog choices. In Batman, you spend most of the game as Bruce Wayne, playing the politics game in Gotham City. Where nearly every other Batman game focuses on punching bad guys, Batman - The Telltale Series takes a refreshing break from the cowl to put some serious metaphorical knives at Bruce's back. There's a point in the early game where I made a choice as Bruce that was supportive of a friend of mine, but looked real bad in the public eye, and the game never let me forget it. It kept coming up, and I could try to explain it away as Bruce, but it wasn't something Batman could punch until it was solved. I liked that it held me to my actions, even if it felt a little overboard, because I made a big decision at a split second. Making you feel like you're in some control over the story is what Telltale Games does best, and Batman is no exception.

Being the first episode in a series, there's a lot of scenes establishing characters. Obviously, Thomas and Martha Wayne (Bruce's murdered parents) are plainly present, but Telltale manages to give some characters an alternative look. They're instantly familiar in many ways, but different enough to give one subtle reminder: what you think you know about Batman doesn't necessarily apply here. Familiar characters, familiar setting, but this is definitely Telltale's game and doesn't have to strictly adhere to comic book, or movie, or TV show, or video game Batman universes. Again, I love this because it's keeping me on my toes.

I've got two minor complaints about this first episode. The first is that the action is pretty fast (for an adventure game), and the button prompts aren't 100% clear when it came to directional movement. I learned quick that a prompt that looked like a clockwise half-circle moving right to left really just meant push left. It's a minor complaint, but I came off as a very rookie or drunken Batman in my first fight because I was trying to do too much to match the prompt when the actual input needed was much simpler. It's something I caught on to quickly, but it was an annoyance.

The other minor complaint is that the game didn't run great. I'm not running on brand new hardware, but my PC runs much more graphically intense games than this with fewer hitches. It's good looking, but it's still the simple mostly flat style many Telltale games have. I can't really explain why it didn't run better, and the hiccups were largely between scenes, but it was noticeable. Perhaps the console versions run better.

Batman - The Telltale Series Episode 1: Realm of Shadows is a mouthful, but it's easy to recommend to Batman fans and Telltale adventure game fans. Even if you don't fit within those tastes, the political and class machinations are already heating up in this first episode. It's a strong start and I'm very excited to see what comes next. This is what I expected from Telltale; a quality game taking characters I know and giving me an experience that doesn't feel like it's completely retreading well-worn territory.

The Math

Baseline Assessment: 7/10

Bonuses: +1 recognizable Batman characters now in a different universe from what we've seen before.

Penalties: -1 technical performance leaves something to be desired

Nerd Coefficient: 7/10 (an enjoyable experience, but not without its flaws)

***

POSTED BY: brian, sci-fi/fantasy/video game dork and contributor since 2014

Reference: Telltale Games. Batman - The Telltale Series Episode 1: Realm of Shadow [Telltale Games, 2016]