bishopcruz
Member
Ok, so since it was on sale, I decided to finally pick up the first season of the Telltale Batman series on Steam. The last Telltale game I played was Game of Thrones and after five episodes, I was so annoyed that I haven't picked up a Telltale game since. I am a HUGE fan of their early work, and I did love Walking Dead Season 1, and also really adored The Wolf Among Us. I'd been hesitant to pick up Batman because, well, Game of Thrones was just that bad, and I didn't want to see them screw up another favorite property of mine.
Thankfully, they didn't. Well, they mostly didn't.
Some of Batman was GREAT, much of it was ok, and far more than I would like was pretty awful.
The Good:
The Voice Acting - Troy Baker does a great job as Bruce, and the rest of the cast has some great performances as well. I thought Sully as Falcone was perfect. Props also go out to the VA for Harvey, I really felt for the guy.
The Design - I liked the design of the Batmobile and all of the bat gadgets. The Batcave looked really good as well. Outside of the penguin, the character designs were pretty solid overall as well.
Bruce Wayne - This is the first Batman game that puts a very sharp focus on Bruce as a character, and that isn't something you actually get to see all that often, even in the comics. I liked the feeling that Bruce was in over his head, still trying to figure out how to act when he's without the cowl, and you can see his vulnerability inside the cowl as well. It's rare to see a version of Bruce that is this visibly scarred by his trauma. I just wish that the story beats they used to show it worked better for me.
Catwoman - This is probably one of the better takes on a romance between Bruce and Selina, At least in my version, Bruce was dealing with falling for someone he knows he shouldn't while Selina is doing everything she can to distance herself from him. It's one of the bits of the game where choices actually seem to matter, as there are lots of different ways that these conversations can go. Bruce telling her that he beleives she's a good person, and her reaction to that were some of the best parts.
The OK:
The Story - While I do like early Batman stories, it's becoming tougher and tougher to do new things with them. I mean, how many times do we need to see the birth of Two-Face? Or Batman gaining trust with a suspicious James Gordon, or the fall of Falcone. That being said, the story was competently told, and good attempt was made on a major twist, even if it wasn't to my taste at all times. I especially am not a fan of the whole Dark Past of the Waynes story, or the idea that it wasn't a random mugging that killed Thomas and Martha. Turning Thomas Wayne into a villain was a bold move I suppose, but it just never feels right.
Then there is the whole concept of the Children of Arkham. Penguin worked well enough in the role of revolutionary, but I do think that Lady Arkham fell flat. I'll get more on that in the bad section.
The Choices - Telltale games are all about the choices, and for a lot of the game, mainly the smaller choices, I think it worked well. Choosing whether or not to go into a scene as Batman or Bruce was pretty cool, though I have doubts about how much effect that would have on the plot. Some of the choices, the big moral ones, feel a little flat, or one sided. The majority of the choices, when looking at them at the end of each episode are extremely weighted in one direction or another, with many of them topping 90% of players choosing one over another. So, while some were great, too many seemed easy.
Harvey Dent - This could have been great. I really liked the friendship between Harvey and Bruce, and I thought it was handled very well early in the series. Where things went wrong though, is in the horrible implementation of choices you make that involve Harvey. The main one is the choice in Episode 2, of saving either him or Selina. Not only is the choice itself pretty obvious, Harvey is in absolute immediate danger, while Selina could reasonably survive her encounter, but saving Harvey breaks the story. Harvey's descent into madness is actually handled well, until the point that he's suddenly Two-Face, is called Two-Face on TV and in the in game subtitles, and is suddenly unleashing a reign of terror in the city. None of this would bother me, if at some point even after being saved he scarred himself, or got scarred another way. But it doesn't happen. He goes through the Two-Face transformation without the inciting incident that drives him mad.
I also didn't buy his being that into Selina when they clearly hadn't been dating for long. But that's small potatoes.
Alfred - Alfred would be great if it wasn't for his constant speechifying and laying out what each and every choice will mean. He becomes captain exposition, and he STILL doesn't come clean about the Waynes,
The Awful:
The Presentation - It sucks, the camera angles are alright, but the stuttering, the freezing characters, and the horrible textures just make it look awful. The Telltale engine needs to be retired. No engine this primitive should run this badly. As such, I never really felt the tension of many scenes, because of performance issues.
Reactivity, or lack thereof - Too many of the choices in this game mean jack and shit, and while it's not as bad as Game of Thrones, it's still pretty bad. Certain choices if they are made harm the story immensely. But even worse than that is when the game doesn't even make sense of the choices you made. I was suspicious, but on good terms with Ozwald early on, but he acted like we'd gotten into it in the park. Harvey apparently burned Wayne Manor to the ground, but it was in perfect shape the next episode. I apparently gave Montoya's name to Vicki Vale, even though I never did. And that's just a few. In smaller situations, like in Arkham, the reactivity was actually pretty good, but overall it was disappointing.
QTEs - The feedback on the QTEs is awful. Half the time I'm not sure if I succeeded or failed, and many times, failure doesn't matter because the same animation will play. Sometimes a failure is bad, but most times it means absolutely nothing. Shenmue 1 is nearly 20 years old, and it has better feedback and different animations when dealing with a QTE. It's awful, and when so much of the gameplay is QTE, it's a real problem. Worst QTEs I have seen in a long time.
Lack of exploration - The environments are tiny, and never bigger than one room for any one event. It would have been cool to have to piece together clues across an entire environment, as opposed to something 10 feet away. Disappointing.
Lady Arkham - For the introduction of a new villain, one who is an evil version of a classic character, they did jack and shit with it. Ok, so Vicki has worked for the Gazette for years, and is planning a revolution, ok sure. How the hell did she get so good with a staff that she is able to take on Bruce? The tech helps, but she's a damned ninja! Where and how did that happen? Also, her motivation was weak as hell. We needed a scene where she talked about her past BEFORE she is revealed. I mean, this is Vicki Vale, Bruce's first canonical lady friend, if you're going to make her evil she deserves better than she got in this. I think it might have been smarter to Phantasm her up a bit, have a possible relationship with Bruce, which would set up a triangle with Selina, and give an opportunity to get to know her more before she is the villain. As it is though, her arc SUCKS.
So yeah, it was fun, but I'm glad I didn't pay more than $6.25 for it. At full price, waiting for each episode I think I would have been a lot less forgiving. And again, the jank in this game is unforgivable at this point. I don't understand how Telltale is getting worse over time with this stuff.
Thankfully, they didn't. Well, they mostly didn't.
Some of Batman was GREAT, much of it was ok, and far more than I would like was pretty awful.
The Good:
The Voice Acting - Troy Baker does a great job as Bruce, and the rest of the cast has some great performances as well. I thought Sully as Falcone was perfect. Props also go out to the VA for Harvey, I really felt for the guy.
The Design - I liked the design of the Batmobile and all of the bat gadgets. The Batcave looked really good as well. Outside of the penguin, the character designs were pretty solid overall as well.
Bruce Wayne - This is the first Batman game that puts a very sharp focus on Bruce as a character, and that isn't something you actually get to see all that often, even in the comics. I liked the feeling that Bruce was in over his head, still trying to figure out how to act when he's without the cowl, and you can see his vulnerability inside the cowl as well. It's rare to see a version of Bruce that is this visibly scarred by his trauma. I just wish that the story beats they used to show it worked better for me.
Catwoman - This is probably one of the better takes on a romance between Bruce and Selina, At least in my version, Bruce was dealing with falling for someone he knows he shouldn't while Selina is doing everything she can to distance herself from him. It's one of the bits of the game where choices actually seem to matter, as there are lots of different ways that these conversations can go. Bruce telling her that he beleives she's a good person, and her reaction to that were some of the best parts.
The OK:
The Story - While I do like early Batman stories, it's becoming tougher and tougher to do new things with them. I mean, how many times do we need to see the birth of Two-Face? Or Batman gaining trust with a suspicious James Gordon, or the fall of Falcone. That being said, the story was competently told, and good attempt was made on a major twist, even if it wasn't to my taste at all times. I especially am not a fan of the whole Dark Past of the Waynes story, or the idea that it wasn't a random mugging that killed Thomas and Martha. Turning Thomas Wayne into a villain was a bold move I suppose, but it just never feels right.
Then there is the whole concept of the Children of Arkham. Penguin worked well enough in the role of revolutionary, but I do think that Lady Arkham fell flat. I'll get more on that in the bad section.
The Choices - Telltale games are all about the choices, and for a lot of the game, mainly the smaller choices, I think it worked well. Choosing whether or not to go into a scene as Batman or Bruce was pretty cool, though I have doubts about how much effect that would have on the plot. Some of the choices, the big moral ones, feel a little flat, or one sided. The majority of the choices, when looking at them at the end of each episode are extremely weighted in one direction or another, with many of them topping 90% of players choosing one over another. So, while some were great, too many seemed easy.
Harvey Dent - This could have been great. I really liked the friendship between Harvey and Bruce, and I thought it was handled very well early in the series. Where things went wrong though, is in the horrible implementation of choices you make that involve Harvey. The main one is the choice in Episode 2, of saving either him or Selina. Not only is the choice itself pretty obvious, Harvey is in absolute immediate danger, while Selina could reasonably survive her encounter, but saving Harvey breaks the story. Harvey's descent into madness is actually handled well, until the point that he's suddenly Two-Face, is called Two-Face on TV and in the in game subtitles, and is suddenly unleashing a reign of terror in the city. None of this would bother me, if at some point even after being saved he scarred himself, or got scarred another way. But it doesn't happen. He goes through the Two-Face transformation without the inciting incident that drives him mad.
I also didn't buy his being that into Selina when they clearly hadn't been dating for long. But that's small potatoes.
Alfred - Alfred would be great if it wasn't for his constant speechifying and laying out what each and every choice will mean. He becomes captain exposition, and he STILL doesn't come clean about the Waynes,
The Awful:
The Presentation - It sucks, the camera angles are alright, but the stuttering, the freezing characters, and the horrible textures just make it look awful. The Telltale engine needs to be retired. No engine this primitive should run this badly. As such, I never really felt the tension of many scenes, because of performance issues.
Reactivity, or lack thereof - Too many of the choices in this game mean jack and shit, and while it's not as bad as Game of Thrones, it's still pretty bad. Certain choices if they are made harm the story immensely. But even worse than that is when the game doesn't even make sense of the choices you made. I was suspicious, but on good terms with Ozwald early on, but he acted like we'd gotten into it in the park. Harvey apparently burned Wayne Manor to the ground, but it was in perfect shape the next episode. I apparently gave Montoya's name to Vicki Vale, even though I never did. And that's just a few. In smaller situations, like in Arkham, the reactivity was actually pretty good, but overall it was disappointing.
QTEs - The feedback on the QTEs is awful. Half the time I'm not sure if I succeeded or failed, and many times, failure doesn't matter because the same animation will play. Sometimes a failure is bad, but most times it means absolutely nothing. Shenmue 1 is nearly 20 years old, and it has better feedback and different animations when dealing with a QTE. It's awful, and when so much of the gameplay is QTE, it's a real problem. Worst QTEs I have seen in a long time.
Lack of exploration - The environments are tiny, and never bigger than one room for any one event. It would have been cool to have to piece together clues across an entire environment, as opposed to something 10 feet away. Disappointing.
Lady Arkham - For the introduction of a new villain, one who is an evil version of a classic character, they did jack and shit with it. Ok, so Vicki has worked for the Gazette for years, and is planning a revolution, ok sure. How the hell did she get so good with a staff that she is able to take on Bruce? The tech helps, but she's a damned ninja! Where and how did that happen? Also, her motivation was weak as hell. We needed a scene where she talked about her past BEFORE she is revealed. I mean, this is Vicki Vale, Bruce's first canonical lady friend, if you're going to make her evil she deserves better than she got in this. I think it might have been smarter to Phantasm her up a bit, have a possible relationship with Bruce, which would set up a triangle with Selina, and give an opportunity to get to know her more before she is the villain. As it is though, her arc SUCKS.
So yeah, it was fun, but I'm glad I didn't pay more than $6.25 for it. At full price, waiting for each episode I think I would have been a lot less forgiving. And again, the jank in this game is unforgivable at this point. I don't understand how Telltale is getting worse over time with this stuff.
