Review: Telltale’s Batman Episode 1
Our review of the first episode of Telltale’s Batman game series
The first episode of Telltale’s 5-part Batman game is out today, and I have just finished it up. It is a little hard to judge this completely on its own as it is part one of a five part story. Some things we will definitely have to just wait and see if they play out, such as if your decisions actually matter and drastically change the narrative, which is only occasionally true. And though I will try and stay clear of any specific major story spoilers, I will be talking about some story elements in detail, so you have been warned, do not read the review if you want to go in knowing absolutely nothing.
So, Telltale’s Batman. It is certainly best to think of this as a loose adaptation someone took with the Batman license, and to some that may be disappointing. At least in chapter one, this is Batman going up against the less colorful criminals of Gotham. That being the mob, which is controlled by Carmine Falcone.
You do meet some classic characters, but some are that in name only at the moment. Lieutenant Gordon & Selina Kyle/Catwoman are pretty much what you expect, but Harvey Dent is running for mayor and Oswald Cobblepot is a childhood friend of Bruce’s, but also a shady British scumbag he hasn’t seen in twenty years. So Telltale does play around with some classic elements in the first episode.
As far as gameplay? Well if you’ve played any Telltale game over the last several years, you’ve pretty much played this one. How much that effects your enjoyment is obviously going to vary. I’ve liked Telltale’s choice and consequences story-telling even if it doesn’t always add up, and that’s still present here even in the first episode. Some major decisions go down and some are implied for later, but some decisions seem to get the same reaction regardless of the choice you make. For example I had the option to brutalize a thug or just scare him. I scared him, he still apparently ended up in the hospital regardless and Alfred chastised me for it.
But for me, Telltale games usually suffer when they revert to the “game” part of gameplay. Batman alleviates this some by having all the action sequences be quick time events (rather than say press X a bunch really fast til your thumbs hurt), but they are pretty run of the mill and not super exciting. And if you hate quick time events, obviously this will deeply downgrade the experience for you.
The story is usually the biggest part of a Telltale game, and I feel episode 1 of Batman falls a little short on this aspect as well, because it’s trying way too hard to establish one of the most well-known worlds in pop culture. Sure, this Gotham is a tad different but it’s still Gotham and it’s still Batman. We know Gotham is crime-ridden, we know Bruce Wayne’s parents were murdered in front of him when he was a child. Yet this episode just pounds these two things into your head time and time again, and it’s only like 2-3 hours long. Hopefully now that it has all been established in episode 1, we can move on (oh but hey we won’t be able to move on from some of it, because a large part of the overall story focuses on the Wayne family legacy).
And as a story in a Telltale game is super important, the performances matter as well. As Batman, Troy Baker, who is generally a brilliant voice actor, has to carry this story and in my opinion he’s just not doing a good enough job. And I’m not comparing him to Kevin Conroy, who many consider to be the definitive voice of Batman. Baker’s Batman voice is actually pretty bad just on its own merits. And the rest of the cast is just fine, nobody really stands out as of yet, but thankfully nobody is really painful to hear talk either.
Finally, something has to be said about Telltale’s game engine. While Batman does reportedly feature an upgraded engine (but still the same one), Telltale games often seem like they are struggling just to keep it together, with tons of stuttering an choppy animations. It certainly seems minimized in Batman Episode 1 compared to past game, but there was still a noticeable amount of stuttering and some audio cues and sound effects that either are missing or they made an odd and poor choice to keep an action moment silent.
Next: Telltale's Batman Delayed On 360 & PS3
At the end of the day, it’s still a little hard to judge this because again, it’s the first, very exposition-filled episode of a five-part story. And truth be told, I’m intrigued enough to see where it goes, and hopefully it’s not the super obvious route. But Batman is still just another Telltale game in a different skin. Just pick the franchise you like best, you’ll get a similar experience. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s like the Lego games. I loved the first few, but they released so often, changing the formula so little that I can’t even try to get excited about a new one anymore.