Review Game Batman: The Telltale Series Episode 1

“So, precisely what are we thinking: modern art or hanging permanent fixture?” I’m asking two friends about which way we should severely concuss a male. We spent the final five minutes curating Batman’s not-so-subtle entrance into Falcone’s skyscraper headquarters utilizing a drone, and each and every method involves tossing people into (sometimes through) solid surfaces. Afterwards, in typical Telltale A-or-B fashion, we obtain the moral replacement for brutalize a vital character or you cannot. I hardly really know what it even means anymore, but despite, this really is Batman’s secret vocabulary, and Telltale’s interpretation on the character is just as hazy as always. You position Bruce Wayne through dialogue choices and pivotal decisions resistant to the same inconsistent moral question Batman has always faced: the length of time should vigilante justice go? It must at the very least go into and through modern art, I suppose.

Unfortunately, episode certainly one of Telltale’s story-driven adventure game—where dialogue choices and quicktime punching sequences form the bulk from the action—doesn’t have enough to address Batman or Bruce Wayne’s character entirely, shifting most in the focus onto establishing a story that digs into Wayne’s origins—and no, I’m not referring to his parents’ murder. They go deeper. The result can be a domestic comic story that does little to alter the Telltale formula, but might change Batman’s. You’ll see no crocodile men here, just gangsters and politicians and quick time events.

Comic hook

The setup that is definitely fairly simple: Harvey Dent is running for Mayor, and Bruce Wayne is backing him. Notorious crime lord Carmine Falcone reaches their fundraising party as being a public supporter of Dent, and Bruce can decide to take umbrage with that or otherwise not. We kicked his ass towards the curb, worried that keeping partners to a notorious criminal might tarnish Dent’s and Wayne’s reputation. Meanwhile, within an earlier scuffle with Catwoman, Batman recovered some supposedly valuable data that’s getting a while to decrypt. Several parties, a number of unknown, are fighting for control with the data, as a harrowing truth hides within. One that may change how Wayne acknowledges himself, his duty and limits as Batman, and the ones he formerly considered enemies—the revelation (and my attention) just comes right for the tail end with the episode.

As expected, there are several tough decisions Bruce must make: who to look at valuable information to first—the media and the police? And the classic Batman conundrum: do I bash this goon’s face in or perhaps threaten him to get valuable information? Does your Batman endorse torture? Mine does. A lot. Building your own personal twisted or rule-abiding version of which a popular character is fun, but what effect your decisions have remains in sight. Our Wayne swung wildly between as a stern, steadfast jerk and crying regarding the death of his parents after we could—he was especially unhinged, so we chose to reflect that in Batman’s violent behavior. Even though a not so formal punch from Batman feels like a semi truck hitting a meat fridge, I enjoyed for most of having to select from alarmingly brutal and efficient methods versus playing a safer Batman which has a (slightly) softer touch.

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But the Bruce 1 / 2 of Batman doesn’t come off like a fully-formed person. Troy Baker’s delivery appears like vanilla Troy Baker, a little too everyman to produce this version of Wayne jump out, specially when delivering dialogue intended to rattle. Lines like “Sometimes… you might need a monster” sound too gallant, and hardly honest. The big reveal in the end will truly be a possibility to showcase and test who Bruce is, nevertheless for most of Realm of Shadows, he just may serve as an envoy between primary characters as well as the player. He’s our perspective into Falcone, Dent, Gordon, among others, but at the end, all we is the outline of Telltale’s Wayne served through dependable but familiar Telltale dialogue choices and quick time events.

Bruce waning

Action sequences remove Telltale’s usual button-mashing prompts for complex button combinations. Instead of slamming E to slam a henchman’s face over a desk, you press Shift and E with the same time. I’m no fan of mashing buttons, so I like the fast work my brain should do to press more buttons pressurized instead of slamming a similar one. There are also a number of playful uses of action prompts, like pressing a direction for making Batman flash from the foreground while stalking goons, but subverting quicktime event expectations is usually a sign that Telltale’s quicktime events can be routine. While the action sequences are very choreographed and tense, pressing buttons to determine them along may be losing its appeal for a short time now.

Which is my primary problem with Telltale’s Batman: it doesn't matter the quality of writing and action, it’s held back by Telltale’s design trappings. Animation is stiff and awkward, undermining performances and art that has a lethal dose from the uncanny, a continuing disappointment, for a series whose first intent should be to tell a cinematic, performance driven story. It’s possible to take pleasure from Realm of Shadows—I recommend messing around with friends—but it’s tough to look in the evening shortcomings after we had Alyx-Vance-tier character animation on PC in the past in 2004.

Realm of Shadows is definitely an enjoyable, routine introductory episode as to the might become a unique Batman story, framed in Telltale’s dependable, but tired quicktime-dialogue framework. It is affected with the time spent establishing pieces for just a substantial narrative hook, so my hope is that it fundamentally changes and challenges Wayne during the entire remaining episodes. I want to find out him disempowered and tested: what can Batman resemble if Wayne had no wealth? Is it justice if the suit isn’t shiny? But at this time, it’s worth waiting prior to the next episode or two to acquire an idea for the location where the story is headed since the pieces come in place.