Realm of Shadows
Telltale is known for bringing beloved franchises to life through deep story and point and click adventure style gameplay. So when they debuted a teaser trailer for their new Batman series at the Video Game Awards last November I was all in. Look, if you know anything about me then you will know that Batman is my favorite fictional character in the entire world. So take this review with a grain of salt if you need to. The "too long, didn't read" version of this review: the first episode is awesome and sets up a wonderful story full of politics, corruption, and the dynamic between both Batman, Bruce Wayne, his allies, and his enemies. I'll try to stay away from spoilers!
Telltale's games are all about the choices you make and how those choices will impact the overall direction of the story. The most interesting aspect to Telltale's Batman is that you spend as much time in the Batsuit at night as you do playing Bruce Wayne during the day. And the consequences of your actions as Batman have an affect on how the city views you and how Bruce must deal with the fallout. Brutally interrogate a mercenary by breaking his arm? Lt. Jim Gordon will not appreciate that and will choose to look poorly on Batman's actions. This game truly feels like role-playing as Batman. Will you be the Caped Crusader who inspires hope in the people of Gotham? Or will you play as The Dark Knight who instills fear in Gotham's underworld criminals? The dialogue options you choose, and the actions you take will reflect how everyone else views Batman/Bruce Wayne. Overall it is an extremely neat approach to playing a complex and layered character such as Batman.
Telltale's combat mechanics have never been something to praise; however, the opening combat scene felt much tighter and more fluid than the ones they had in their Game of Thrones series. The comic book style cinematic art presented throughout the whole game actually lends itself really well to these moments. I can almost picture them lifting these scenes straight off the pages of a Batman comic. They are full of your typical Telltale quick time events, and you better be fast on the buttons because I noticed there wasn't much room for making mistakes here. There are a couple of other action scenes throughout the rest of the two hour episode and the final one had me planning Batman's tactics for each thug he was about to take out, and then playing through the combat with the choices I made for taking them down. This was the most true to form Batman moment for me in the entire episode. Systematically bringing down each mobster one by one was a thrill that culminated with a final fight between Batman and the big bad guy at the end of the scene. All in all, I think Telltale has made strong improvements to the way they approach combat in these games. The only downside was I could still feel the occasional frame rate drop during these high intensity moments and that can be the difference between dodging a punch and landing one of your own.
The voice acting cast for Batman: The Telltale series is phenomenal. Troy Baker takes the cowl as Batman and Bruce, Travis Willingham plays Harvey Dent, Laura Bailey picks up the role of Catwoman, and "El Goddamn Dorado" himself Richard McGonagle is mobster Carmine Falcone. Each actor brings something different to the table and makes the role their own. Baker does a wonderful job transitioning between aloof playboy Bruce Wayne, and the tortured Batman we all love.
My take:
I really do not want to say much more about this first episode. I encourage you to pick it up and play it for yourself. I really loved it. It's a new and different way to play a Batman game, and Telltale traditionally has wonderful stories and I can tell this is no exception to that. Be the Batman that you want to be. The game is out today, August 2nd, so go buy it and let me know what you think in the comments below!
Batman: The Telltale Series Episode 1 "Realm of Shadows"
8.0
8.0
+Role-playing Batman
+Stellar voice cast
+Comic book style art
-Frame rate dips can be jarring
