I say it once again, it’s awesome to be alive in this era of technology and gaming. This era has brought many characters from comic books alive and well. Think about all the Marvel movies, it’s so amazing how they can bring these characters into the real world. Come to think of it, Marvel even created some cool games such as Ultimate Alliance and other movie related games. Now, Warner Bros is taking on the DC Universe franchise and all these superheroes are coming out of the background one by one hoping to compete with the successful Marvel franchise…
Only a few DC heroes already appeared on the big screen, think about Superman and Batman. These are two important characters in the franchise but we can’t help but notice that the game industry had a lot more love for the Batman than Superman. The Batman franchise became popular with the Arkham series and from the first game to the last, it has been improved enormously but now they’re trying to take on a different road with Batman, they’re going for a choice-driven Batman game and what developer took on the challenge? Telltale Games, of course! Let’s see if the Dark Knight can overcome his inner demons on this unfamiliar road…
The game’s teaser looked like a very cool concept for the game, a story driven game with a lot of dialogue and important decisions to make. The question is, what’s the role of Batman within this game and which enemy does he have to face because Gotham is just full of crazy characters. The game is actually more about Bruce Wayne and his role in Gotham City but that doesn’t take away the fact that Batman is lurking in the shadows, to keep an eye out for any unusual situation. Since it’s a Telltale game, the story’s plot will unfold in different episodes. We got to play the first episode of Batman’s Telltale Story and here’s what we’ve seen so far.
It’s like a cool dark movie with a twist and I like it.
The first episode is called “Realm of Shadows” and it goes back to the day where Harvey Dent is running for mayor against the corruption of Gotham City led by politician Hamilton Hill. Bruce Wayne plays an important character within these elections since he is Harvey Dent’s biggest backer and smart talker to get things right and put on a great light on Harvey Dent. The head of mafia named Carmine Falcone controls a large part of the organized crime within Gotham and he isn’t the type of person to let this “opportunity for control” slip by as he wants to get his money on the ground floor of a new city administration.
This era puts Batman in a bad spot as a lot of people recognize him as Gotham’s Vigilante without the allies to support him. There’s only one person who actually believes in Batman as a possible ally against these freaks of nature, namely James Gordon. During these elections, Batman has to confront a kick ass cat burglar and Bruce Wayne has to face his old misguided friend Oswald aka Oz, one of Bruce’s oldest friends.
These dialogues and decision-making sequences really make me feel like Bruce Wayne.
Telltale did a great job in following the comic books when it comes the game’s personal detail. For example, Falcone’s symbol and calling card is also the white rose. Batman’s gameplay is all about this detective mode to unravel certain mysteries by examining the environment for clues and discover interesting objectives. Quick time events are a common thing in the game as you have to press different keyboard combinations or moving your mouse (a crosshair) to the middle of a circle randomly placed on the screen. The game uses your perfect reaction in order to fill up a finishing move meter to seal the deal. This is a key movement if you want to end the chapter in style. This detective feature and combat mechanic are even combined to choreograph your way throughout a whole fighting scene under the supervision of Batman.
The main feature in the game is, of course, the social decisions a player has to make to continue his journey in this Batman story. These choices give a certain “personal” touch as decisions have important consequences. The choices are definitely well-written but sometimes the dialogue suffers from repeatable quotes. The game’s story unfolds slowly, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing but it takes the player a long time before something interesting is actually happening. The time between “action sequences” and “story sequences” takes a long time and sometimes it’s hard maintaining your focus as a player. But when the game does give you the chance to interact with these characters, you have the feeling that your decisions really matter. They put a lot of weight on your shoulders because you constantly have this feeling of trying to “make the perfect outcome” for your character, Bruce and Batman. Of course, these “good” tensions you’re having are often eased up with the developer’s good sense of humor. The game has some humor but still the game’s story tends to the dark side, which is a fairly good thing. It’s like a cool dark movie with a twist and I like it. The story ends on a decent cliffhanger and has hit some good emotional notes.
Telltale started off great but there’s still some questions that need to be answered. This sense of “left in the dark” is common with these Telltale storylines which are common but just like any good TV-series, it’s hard to wait for the next episode. I really look forward to the next episode and I hope they will follow the comics but with a personal twist. These dialogues and decision-making sequences really make me feel like Bruce Wayne and of course being the Bat.
We’ll keep you posted…
