Name: Batman: The Telltale Series
Developer: Telltale Games
Publisher: Telltale Game
Platform: Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One
Date Release: Episode 1 (August 2nd, 2016) for Playstation 4, XBOX One and Windows
Price: 4.99$ per episode on XBOX One
Introduction
A few months back on XBOX games for Gold, this title was available for free. It included all 5 episodes. I could not resist a Telltale game as I had played a few of their previous titles and always loved the story lines. I had previously played and also reviewed The Wolf Among Us. That was a really good entertaining game.
I am also a very big fan of Batman. A lot of people are getting tired of the retelling of his stories, but I will always be intrigued by this Dark Knight. Too bad that the Batman movies are very much hit or miss. The Dark Knight Series was awesome but then Batman vs Superman was disappointing for me.
Gameplay
So as, you probably know, you play as the Dark Knight himself, Batman. There is no surprise there. However there is a twist. In some situations, you get to play as Bruce Wayne. You have the choice of going to see some people as Bruce Wayne or Batman, and the situation encountered will be different for both.
The story in a nutshell is the emergence of Two-Face and you get to learn the motivation behind Lady Arkham.
The game has this weird mechanism called Crowd Play. I do not fully understand how it works in real time, but essentially people can watch your game and assist you in making decisions. I see that people vote, but I never really understood if it is a real audience or just a total of people that voted online. Either way, it is a pretty cool feature.
Other than that, the rest is a pretty much a typical Telltale game. Your decisions make an impact on how the game unfolds. This is not a typical game as it feel more like a TV series that you are participating in, rather than a traditional game.
Story
There are 5 episodes
Episode 1: Realm Of Shadows
Episode 2: Children of Arkham
Episode 3: New World Order
Episode 4: Guardian of Gotham
Episode 5: City of Light
I do not want to give too many details of the episodes as I think it would take away from the game. If you would like to know what each episode is about, you can see it on the Wikipedia page.
Despite that I do not want to get into too much of the episode's details, I would like to give my opinion on certain characters that make an appearance.
Harvey Dent: Everyone will know that he becomes Two-Face. That is not a secret. However I actually got to feel for him. While he seems to be fighting between his real self and Two-Face, you feel that he becomes a very disturbed person. You see that Batman or Bruce really want to help him. I think that they had really good chemistry during the series. The chemistry between Wayne and Dent seems authentic.
Catwoman: This was the Catwoman that we know and love. The one where you do not know if she is good or bad. Too bad the movie with Halle Berry was not this good. Catwoman does not appear very often in the series, but enough to add drama to Batman's life.
Vicky Vale: For those who do not know, she is a reporter. She can be very cunning in getting what she wants. Where we do not know where Catwoman's allegiance lies, Vicky Vale makes it perfectly clear.
Cobblepot (Penguin): He is a childhood friend of Batman and he is messed up. Where Batman experienced bad events in his life and took it as motivation to do some good, Cobblepot did the opposite.
Joker: You do not see the Joker very often in this series. He is however memorable. You can deduce that they they are building up another Telltale series based on him and that would make me so psyched up. He plays a patient at Arkham Asylum. He helps Bruce on the inside. The dialogue here is superb.
Alfred Pennyworth: He is the trusted butler for Batman. I liked that he seemed vulnerable, but yet an essential part of Bruce's surroundings and father figure. Although Movies and TV shows have tried to portray that feeling, here, I believed it did.
Throughout the series, I never said, this is ridiculous and that the story did not make sense. I always had a sense of interest and wanted to continue the story. I binged played/watch this game. I finished it in about 4 days.
Sample Gameplay
Video Curtesy of Batman Arkham Videos
Bottomline
I believe that this is one of the best tellings of Batman stories around. I could easily rival the movie and TV franchises. The thing that makes these Telltale games so good, is the writing. They have a knack for creating dialogue which is engaging and interesting.
It is a game that I was able to play with my wife. She sat beside me with popcorn and watched the whole thing with me. Her reaction was the same, "This was awesome. Is there another one that we could buy? "
I think this is a great game and I would pay full price for it. I do agree that some episodes are better than others which is expected, but overall I was happy with the game. The replay value is limited but you could make other choices that you did not make the first time around. Since I got it for free, I cannot complain too much. :)
Rating: 9 batarangs out of 10
Did you play? What did you think about the game? Let me know below.
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