But I do like me some Batman, and with news that this is a revamped engine, I suddenly became very excited for a Telltale game. The First thing you need to remember is you will have multiple dialogue choices and accordingly the story is tailored the way you play.
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They could all fit, depending on the comic you’re reading, and they’re all courses you can take as you play.
While it’s admittedly pretty slick and well-scripted stuff, watching the action unfold while you’re relegated to sporadic button prompts feels pretty underwhelming after the free-flowing combat of RockSteady’s Batman. But it’s a battle that needs Bruce Wayne more than it does the Batman. “This looks to be my fourth favourite Batman game with all the Arkham games in front of it (all the other batman games are not that good so the top 4 are the only good Batman games ATM)”. So far the game has 900 positive reviews and only 384 negative, but the ones rated “most helpful” are overwhelmingly in the latter category. The Arkham games preferred to show that through combat and gadgets, while we get almost the opposite here. Although the first episode opens with a dramatic fight sequence, featuring Batman facing down a bunch of crooks before squaring off against Catwoman, things quickly transition to a high-class party at Wayne Manor.
It’s all rather blasé, and even more tedious once you realize the game doesn’t seem to care whether you succeed or not. Even later, the studio lets players use Batman’s drone to plan his raid on a villain’s hangout. Fortunately, Telltale is under no obligation to follow any particular Batman story line of the past, and they have presented us with their own self-contained take on the Caped Crusader. Maybe the player will first choose to attack from the balcony, then throw a piece of modern art at another enemy, rush another guard in the back and so on.
Issues players face within the game itself include those with sound, crashes and framerate drops that bring the game down to a plodding 10 fps.
Personally, I chose to tread the path of Frank Miller’s take in All-Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder.
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Having stuck with Sam & Max and The Walking Dead, I bailed on Telltale’s games two episodes into Game of Thrones, when a combination of constant visual stutters (on a PC that could run The Witcher 3 flawlessly) and a save-game bug that wiped my progress had me realise “this isn’t worth it”. You’ll get to read about characters and locations you’ve discovered in the codex, watch the local news, and dip into the Gotham media feed to keep up to date with all the news stories. Or are these moves all feints performed within the limits of the Batman licence? It simply works with the pacing set in the story right from the beginning. We’ll find out over the coming months. Look for more of this in my later reviews for future episodes.
