Batman: A Telltale Game
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Developer TellTale Games publisher TellTale Games price $ 24.99 ( full season) AvAilAble At sTeam telltale.com/series/batman
The best Batman stories aren’t those about punching the villain of the week in the face. The best stories are the ones that see Batman and Bruce Wayne as masks for each other and ask questions about how far a man can push himself, how far he can transcend his limitations, and how deep into the rabbit hole he can go before he becomes as much of a monster as the criminals he hunts. The first episode of Telltale’s Batman series tries to tell such a story, but thanks to some wildly erratic characterization and awkward action, it comes off as the slowest and most unsatisfying start to a series as yet.
There are a few points of real promise shown in the first episode early on, with Bruce Wayne navigating a fundraiser for up and coming DA candidate Harvey Dent. Bruce must convince the old money of Gotham to get behind the charismatic but arrogant Dent, but Wayne, his tragic history and his money are much more interesting to the gentry than any political upstart.
Matters are complicated by the addition of Carmine Falcone, the premier crime boss of Gotham. He is willing to throw his weight behind Dent if Wayne is willing to compromise and work with him. Can the first son of the city balance his desire to see Harvey Dent in office with his desire to see criminals punished?
Unfortunately, later in the game, Bruce seems to have some type of identity crisis as the player is offered some almost sociopathic options in both dialogue and action. It could be leading to an interesting story about Bruce/Batman confronting the darkness within, but the story is so muddled in this first episode that it
Bruce seems to have an identity crisis as the player is offered almost sociopathic options
could just come down to a momentary lapse of judgement.
What could be an interesting story of muddied morality gets muddles from there on in, with converging storylines of Falcone, Oswald Cobblepot, Catwoman, and crime. It could be leading to an interesting plot in coming episodes, but in the first it just feels busy and disjointed thanks to the wildly different approaches to Bruce and Batman gameplay.
Perhaps in an effort to counter the talky, and often overly expositional (how often do we need to hear about Bruce’s dead parents and that hellhole Gotham used to be great?), the Batman sections are filled with the most rapid fire QTE scenes in any Telltale game to date, with button prompts flying thick and fast in an effort to lend some real dynamism to the Bat’s martial arts/ gadgeteering prowess.
The first time you mash buttons wildly while fighting Catwoman is fun and even missing prompts can lead to some great cinematic sequences, but it gets tiring pretty quickly. Batman’s fabled detective powers also take something of a back seat as well, with most things requiring nothing more than clicking every interactive object or point until the next scene is prompted.
Hopefully the next episode of the series will find a more satisfying balance between Bruce and Batman. There’s potential here, but it’s yet to be realised.