Telltale’s Batman series has begun, with the first episode out now. Called Realm of Shadows, the episode plays less like an action-oriented Batman game, instead focusing on the quieter moments of Bruce Wayne’s life. While there are some sequences of action, the majority of the first episode is spent introducing characters, establishing a plot and showing Wayne out of his batsuit. This results in a game filled more with political and and financial intrigue than punching and car chases.
The majority of gameplay is spent as Bruce Wayne, who is helping his friend Harvey Dent win an election. Dent, the same hope for Gotham we’ve seen portrayed before in Batman stories, is running for Mayor and has allied with powerful people like Wayne to help his election. Unfortunately, Dent has also reached out to Carmine Falcone, the notorious crime lord.
As with other Telltale games, the most tense and engaging moments are the smaller ones. This means your major decisions you have to make involve handshakes and who you invite into rooms. Be sure to watch what you say as well, every dialogue option feels important.
Unfortunately for Batman fans, much of this dialogue in this first episode is going to be a retread. We spend time establishing the death of Wayne’s parents, spend time establishing the relationship between Wayne and Alfred and spend time on other conversations that Batman fans probably already know. If you somehow have missed any Batman origins story movie, this might be new to you. Otherwise, this just feels like long-winded establishing dialogue.
That being said, the story eventually moves to a plot that I don’t believe a comic or movie has covered yet. Without revealing too many plot points, Wayne’s parents are more important than ever.
If you are wanting some ass-kicking Batman action, there are a few moments in Realm of Shadows that did present some opportunities to deal out the punishment Dark Knight-style. Because action is handled with multiple series of quick-time events, action sequences feel like a Zack Snyder movie. The game’s pacing frequently goes from normal speed to slow motion and back again to allow players more time to react to the on-screen prompts.
Oddly enough, while I did pass most of the quick-time events, it seems failing them didn’t really have an impact. Maybe the bad guys got an extra hit or two in, but I never felt in danger during a fight, regardless of my pass/fail rate at the QTEs. This did take some tension out of the action, but it also showed how skilled Batman is in combat, especially when he plans out his attacks so meticulously.
Batman’s title as “World’s Greatest Detective” is also on display when he shows up to crime scenes. Using the ability to link objects found in a scene together, Wayne can piece together ideas of what happened or how it happened. These moments of interactivity when walking around gave Realm of Shadows a classic adventure game feel, even if only for a few minutes throughout the episode.
Realm of Shadows’ two hours of game time spends most of it doing the establishing work. We get introduced to characters, main plot of the season and see how Telltale have reinterpreted the Caped Crusader. While still enjoyable, as the credits were rolling, I still wanted a little more. Thankfully, Telltale is already hard at work on Episode 2, which should be coming next month.
One last thing to note, Batman: The Telltale Series is the first Telltale game to implement Crowd Play. This new feature allows one person to control the game, but up to 24 others to vote on choices using smart phones. This feature will be great for groups of people, and I am already seeing “Telltale nights” replacing movie nights with friends around the world. The feature can even scale up to allow for thousands of people to participate, so expect more major Telltale events now that it’s much easier for crowds to play along.
So what do you think? Are you interested in seeing where Telltale’s adaptation of Batman goes? What did you think of Realm of Shadows? Let us know in the comments section below.
