Batman: The Telltale Series
PlayStation 4
For the most part I have been a big fan of Telltale Games over the years. The Walking Dead is one of my favorite game series of all time (I still gotta play Season 3!). Game of Thrones was good. Jurassic Park was good. No, I didn't much care for Back to the Future or The Wolf Among us, but I was willing to forgive those as simple missteps.
Over a year ago when I first heard that Telltale was making a Batman game, my interest was immediately piqued. I like Telltale Games. I like Batman. It seemed like a match that would be perfect for me. Unfortunately for whatever reason I completely forgot about the game. But it turned out that my timing for getting a PS4 would be absolutely perfect. I got a PS4 for Christmas at the end of 2017. PlayStation Plus was offering this game as one of their freebies for the month of January 2018. As soon as I noticed it I was like "hey that game!!" It was like it was meant to be. As soon as I was able to download this game, I did so. I dived right in and I never looked back.
I don't know about most people, but I play Telltale video games for their story lines. If you play them for exploration purposes or for gripping action sequences you are going to be sorely let down. So I came in knowing what to expect here. A lot of talking, a lot of conversation choices, a lot of story line, a whole lot of watching. And I was okay with that. The first chapter of this game does have a lot of action scenes, but your interactivity during these scenes is somewhat limited. Press up when they tell you to press up. Circle when you are prompted to press circle. Down when they tell you to press down. So on and so forth. Some people may come in expecting you to be able to fully take control of Batman during a fight, ala Arkham Asylum, but that is not the case here. I knew this coming in, so that didn't bug me at all.
Don't expect this mechanic to change as you play the game either. All action sequences play out pretty much the exact same way. My only complaint would be that these sequences are a little too easy. If it tells you to hit square and you accidentally hit circle, there are no repercussions at all. As long as the icon is still on the screen you can hit square and it will still count as a successful move. They give you plenty of time to react too when you are prompted to press a button. In fact, during my play through of this game and all five of its chapters, I only died once. And that was pretty much because I fell asleep at the wheel and wasn't expecting to have to hit a prompt when one popped up on the screen.
Aside from action sequences, you also take control of Batman during investigation scenes. You come to the scene of a crime. You walk around and look at all the clues. You can then link one clue to another to piece together exactly what happened. These investigations are not difficult at all, but they are fun to play through.
Occasionally you will find yourself in the Batcave where you must manipulate the computers to help you in your investigations. Again, all easy stuff to do. You point your cursor at the prompts and the game basically holds your hand through everything. In case I haven't already made myself clear, the game is very very easy. But that isn't the point of the game. The point of the game is to tell you a good Batman story. Which this game does!
I will lay out the basics without spoiling too much. The game focuses on Batman during his early years. The police don't trust him. Gordon is not commissioner yet. Harvey Dent is an ambitious DA who is running for mayor of Gotham. Many established Batman villains are nowhere to be seen yet. Batman must battle an anarchist group that calls itself the Children of Arkham. They are lead by a mysterious leader who is looking to terrorize the city with a special drug that makes people act out on their deepest and darkest impulses. At the same time, Bruce Wayne has come under fire when it is leaked that his parents were dirty criminals who gained their fortunes through shady business dealings with Carmine Falcone. Not only this, but they gained power by abusing and torturing people under the guise of medical research at Arkham Asylum.
So the game is really a struggle on two fronts. Batman, who is dealing with vicious criminals. And Bruce Wayne, looking to clear his name, defend his company, and detach himself from the criminal dealings of his parents. The story takes a lot of really dark twists and turns. Batman movies are for the most part pretty dark in tone, but this game was dire the likes of which I haven't seen before in a Batman story. You really sympathize with Bruce Wayne, who you know is a good guy. It almost feels like YOU personally are under attack when Bruce starts getting thrown under the bus. You also get back stabbed by friends and people that you thought you could trust over the course of the game. That only adds to the feeling of dire helplessness that amasses as you play.
As the game goes on, several famous Batman villains make their way into the story. Catwoman appears early on. The Penguin and the Joker make appearances. We all know what happens to Harvey Dent. The only villain I wasn't too happy with was the Penguin. He doesn't look or act like the Penguin that I know. He is not short or fat. He doesn't have flippers. He occasionally wears a stupid Penguin mask that I have never seen in any representation of the Penguin before (that includes the original series, the Animated Series, Batman Returns, etc). He also has a weird Scottish or British accent that almost sounds a bit like David Tennant's voice. This is really odd considering he is supposed to have grown up in Gotham as a close friend of Bruce Wayne. I wasn't a fan. The Joker only plays a minor role in the game, but I am okay with that because it sets him up as a future baddie in upcoming Telltale Batman games.
So the story line I thought was pretty good. It is dark, it keeps you involved. There are lots of twists and turns. The content is very mature too. Expect to see lots of gruesome violence. People get blown away. There is blood. Someone gets their eyes gouged out of their head. Depending on the choices you make, their is even a sex scene in the game.
And that brings me to the game's choices. Now, keep in mind I have only played through this game once. A complaint I have for previous Telltale games is that the choices you make don't actually make that much of an impact on the overall story line of the game. That is different here. I think. Again, I didn't play through the game twice and make different choices the second time around. I probably will some day. But from my general observation and from what I have read about the game, your choices do player a bigger role here.
Some samples of choices: give your evidence to Vicki Vale to run through the press to clear Bruce Wayne's name or give the evidence to the police and Lieutenant Gordon. Confront Two-Face as a friend (Bruce) or as an enemy (Batman). Beat the crap out of the Penguin after he tries to take over Wayne Enterprises or graciously accept defeat. Take off your mask to appease the end villain so she doesn't kill her hostage or attack head on. I made my specific choices in these instances, but I can't imagine the story line isn't altered by making a different choice. I want to go back and play again and see what happens when I do things differently, but at the same time I want what happened to be MY version of the events in the game. Maybe after a few years when it is clear that the series is over I can go back and do the whole thing differently again.
All in all I had a really fun time with the game. Good story, good characters. A lot of really tough decisions. The game also made me care not only about Batman but about Bruce Wayne himself. In fact I could argue that the segments where you play as Wayne are more intriguing than the ones where you play as Batman.
Do I have any complaints here? Yeah. The game isn't perfect. Like a lot of past Telltale titles, the game is a bit glitchy. Things freeze up here and there. The game lags. Backgrounds disappear completely. Characters stutter and it seems like entire conversation bits are skipped on occasion. These were problems that plagued Telltale titles back on the PS3. A Wolf Among Us and Game of Thrones were two big offenders in particular. You would think these things would be fixed on the PS4.
I like the game's graphical look, but this game could just as easily have been done on last generation's consoles and no one would have known any better. Voice acting is decent for the most part, but as I mentioned earlier the Penguin sucked. I also thought that the Joker could have been done better too. Why not bring Mark Hamill in for the role? I thought Troy Baker did well as the Joker in other Batman games. Sure, he is playing Bruce Wayne in this game so it would have been a little weird with him as Batman and the Joker. But it would have certainly been better than going with whoever they picked to do the Joker's voice. I was a little underwhelmed by that character as well.
I also feel as if there were some loose ends with the game's story that never got tied up. I am for the most part okay with this though as it is obvious that there will be sequels where these things will probably be addressed. In fact, upon further research, there is already a sequel out there (although all of its chapters haven't been released yet).
Is this game worth it? Well it was free, so absolutely! I definitely wouldn't have doled out ten or fifteen bucks for each chapter of the game though. I am one of those people that waits for the whole thing to hit the shelves and then I buy the discounted bundle. But overall I thought the game was really, really good. If you are one of those people who don't care about story line and are just looking for action sequences where you beat people up, this game won't be for you. Otherwise if you are like me and you love a good Batman story, you need to check this out. Especially if you are a fan of past Telltale games and know what to expect. This was fun and I can't wait to play its sequels and see where the series takes us.
PS: I know this is silly, but the game is an easy Platinum too.
Overall:
A-
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