Batman: The Telltale Series

I've seen Batman in a vast array of different forms. There's been Robins who have put on the cowl, a universe where Batman becomes the Green Lantern (or the Bat-Lantern, if you will), even a version of Batman that's fulfilled by his father, Thomas Wayne, who uses a bunch a of guns and battles an alternate form of the Joker—his wife, Martha Wayne. Needless to say, in a world that has seemingly exhausted this character to death, what else is there left to do?

I guess that's only limited by your imagination, something that the folks at Telltale Games seem to have no boundaries on. Batman: The Telltale Series takes the Batman we know and love and throws him into the interactive narrative style I've also become accustomed to in other Telltale Games like The Wolf Among Us or The Walking Dead (never played the Game of Thrones versions, though). The main focus for this adaptation is to move away from the actual Dark Knight and put attention on the man behind the cowl, Bruce Wayne. 

By stripping Bruce from his armor, we get a more vulnerable and dynamic hero. We get to see how Bruce's politics in the public can actually help shape Gotham and, in turn, the characters who live in it. As with most "choose your own adventure" games, I'm always curious by how impactful my decisions are on the story. For instance, take the game Life is Strange. Stan and I both played this game and thoroughly enjoyed it, yet we had the same frustration -- our choices, however different, didn't seem to change the ending. The game will conclude on one final choice no matter how you play. You would think, in a game where all you do is make decisions, there should be a whole host of endings to land on... not just one. Thus is the downfall to some of these decision-focused games.

That said, I don't feel like Batman suffers from this problem (I say having only one play through). The main reason I have some level of confidence my decisions truly do create a whole slew of different narrative timelines is because when comparing notes with Sweeney, I realized that we managed to get two completely different Harvey Dents. Sween's Dent went the classic route of becoming Two-Face where I managed save Dent's face from being mangled (note: that didn't change him from becoming an evil asshole, though). OK, they may not be radical departures from one another, but they do carry slightly different paths and potentially different side stories. That in itself is satisfying. 

In these "choose your own adventure" style games, it's just more satisfying to see your decisions mean something. And through my decisions as Bruce Wayne I feel like I had the opportunity to see a Batman I don't normally encounter in other material. Yeah, I still played Wayne as the good guy rather than a raving lunatic, but, still... the fact that I got to put more attention on seeing how the public views Wayne, therefore relating to what public power he has, was a really interesting perspective. 

While the story was an interesting addition to the Batman-world, I do have some gripes—mostly being game glitches. Seriously, Telltale... this was borderline embarrassing for a developer with over a decade of experience. Scenes would have frequent loss of frame rates. Lag would often occur when making narrative decisions. Hell, one scene Martha Wayne completely lost her face. 

No wonder Bruce is haunted by the death of his parents. That's the face of nightmares!

Now, even the best of games will encounter the occasional glitch. Just look at Bethesda and Skyrim. That game is loaded with delightfully funny glitches that could cause characters to float off into the heavens for no reason at all. Then again, if this Batman title was an open-world sandbox game as massive as Skyrim, I might let it slide. But these Telltale games seem fairly straightforward. Sure, I know next to nothing when it comes to video game development and coding, however, it seems like these problems could be avoided in a game as linear as these. 

Whatever. A small gripe, but one I've seem to continuously notice in various Telltale titles. It's not going to prevent me from playing these games in the future, just a small wish it could be improved upon. But don't let my whiny complaint convince you that this game isn't worth playing. Far from it. Regardless if you're a Batman fan or not, this is a fairly quick play that's sure to entertain. 

Not to mention there will likely be a sequel. One based on some weird guy you first meet and build an innocuous relationship in this game. 

Seemed like a fairly gentle fellow. Wonder what could go wrong?