TA Playlist Wrap-Up for June 2023 – Batman: The Telltale Series

”Bruce, you may’t preserve doing this.”
“I’ve to, Alfred… No one else will.”
~Batman: The TellTale Series

The Caped Crusader. The Dark Knight. The Batman. Arguably essentially the most iconic superhero of the fashionable period, Batman made his debut in Detective Comics #27 again in 1939, and has since been featured in dozens of various comedian sequence, TV reveals, films, and just about each different type of media you may consider. Wikipedia’s List of Video Games that includes Batman counts a minimum of 65 video video games that includes the Caped Crusader, together with this month’s TA Playlist Game of the month, Batman: The Telltale Series.

For June 2023, we provided up 4 detective-themed video games to your summer season sleuthing enjoyment, together with Disco Elysium, Return of the Obra Dinn, and Sherlock Holmes Chapter One, however maybe inevitably, it was the “World’s Greatest Detective,” Batman, who received the ballot.

As the identify suggests, Batman: The Telltale Series was developed by Telltale Games, in affiliation with LCG Entertainment, and printed by Warner Bros. Interactive and Athlon Games. As with many Telltale video games, the sequence was launched episodically, with the primary installment arriving in August 2016, and the remaining episodes following over the subsequent 4 months. Caution: spoilers forward from this level on!

Batman: The Telltale Series combines two pretty well-known portions. Even essentially the most informal players know that Telltale video games have a fairly tried-and-true system, licensing established IPs and spinning a brand new narrative that permits the participant to decide on dialogue choices to form the outcomes (to some extent, at the very least), whereas interspersing quick-time occasions so as to add some motion. And you don’t should have ever picked up a comic book or watched a superhero film to know that Batman is the superhero alter-ego of billionaire Bruce Wayne, playboy entrepreneur by day, vigilante protector of Gotham by night time. The query is, would these two nice tastes style nice collectively? Or would the flavors really feel too acquainted and go away a stale style in gamers’ mouths? Opinions within the boards have been blended:

Catching ZZZs stated:

As an enormous fan of something and every little thing Batman, in addition to a fan of the Telltale video games, I knew I used to be going to love this one.

halohogg stated:

One of the primary Telltale video games I skilled. I discovered it kinda boring. Not my kinda sport actually (interactive story).

Hurn Weasel stated:

If you have performed one Telltale sport you have performed all of them, for higher or for worse. If you are enthusiastic about Batman and wish some straightforward GS this may do it, together with a fairly entertaining story.

o Heres Jonny o stated:

Thought this was one of the best Telltale sport. Really like Batman as a personality so it sways my opinion anyway however I did actually get pleasure from this one.

The story reveals Batman within the early levels of his profession, already feared by Gotham’s felony underground, however not but going through off in opposition to any true supervillains. This permits Telltale to place their very own spin on a number of infamous foes, comparable to “Two Face” Harvey Dent, “Catwoman” Selina Kyle, and “Penguin” Oswald Cobblepot. While these characters don’t stray too removed from their comedian roots, they’re given backstories that match throughout the narrative of this specific story, going as far as to make Oswald a former boyhood pal of Bruce Wayne who turned to crime after falling on arduous instances. But the character who noticed essentially the most change from established canon was Bruce’s personal father, Thomas Wayne.

HawkeyeBarry20 stated:

[One] factor that stood out in regards to the sport was Thomas Wayne. I usually see him portrayed as this beacon of humanity. He has every little thing individuals need and but nonetheless cares for individuals down on their luck. So the primary time you discover out about his shady involvement I used to be intrigued. It was a pleasant change that did not make some large change to Batman’s story nevertheless it was sufficient to be like, “I would like to search out out extra about what precisely Thomas was doing.”

Over the course of the primary two chapters, whereas investigating a cargo of harmful unlawful medicine belonging to infamous mobster Carmine Falcone, Batman learns that his father was a accomplice with Falcone in his felony enterprises, and that a big a part of the Wayne fortune was gained by means of extortion, homicide, and different felony exercise. Using his authority as a health care provider, Thomas Wayne even had individuals dedicated to Arkham Asylum with a purpose to seize their monetary belongings, together with the land upon which Wayne Tower was constructed, which was stolen from the Cobblepot household.

Catching ZZZs stated:

What I favored most about this sport was the completely different takes on sure characters. Some individuals almost definitely will not like when established characters are modified, however after so many a long time of the identical factor, altering it as much as throw followers for a loop is attention-grabbing for my part. As others have talked about, exploring the not so clean-cut previous of Bruce’s mother and father was particularly attention-grabbing to me.

Penguin has returned to Gotham with a purpose to reclaim what he believes is rightfully his, and is working with a gang generally known as the Children of Arkham with a purpose to result in his revolution. While Gazette reporter Vicki Vale and different members of the Gotham press assault the Wayne household repute by day, Penguin and the Children of Arkham wage struggle in opposition to Gotham City at night time. This culminates on the finish of Chapter 2 with the Children of Arkham attacking the mayoral debate between incumbent Mayor Hill and the challenger, Bruce Wayne’s finest pal Harvey Dent.

COSM1C JOKER stated:

I respect they selected to inform their very own story, doing one thing new with an IP as established as Batman is hard.

One of the challenges of telling a brand new story in such a longtime universe is that people who find themselves conversant in earlier Batman materials in all probability knew what was going to occur to poor outdated Harv from the second his identify first appeared. The reason for Harvey’s disfiguration and transformation into the villain generally known as Two-Face may change from story to story, however as quickly as you hear the identify, you realize it’s the inevitable destiny of the character.

In this sport, although, you may affect that final result somewhat bit. During the assault on the mayoral debate, I selected to avoid wasting Harvey as a substitute of serving to Catwoman (I figured she might handle herself). I finished Penguin from burning off half of Harvey’s face, and thought possibly I prevented his villain flip. Unfortunately, the mixture of trauma and the Children of Arkham’s medicine have been nonetheless sufficient to drive him off the deep finish (although catching Bruce at Selina’s house in his underwear certain didn’t assist), and he nonetheless turned a villain, simply with out the plain disfigurement.

To some, this can be a flaw with this “select your individual journey” type of sport. While Telltale guarantees that “the story is tailor-made by the way you play,” all decisions have a approach of ending up on the identical level anyway. This is proven once more in Chapter 4, after Bruce loses management of Wayne Enterprises to Penguin and will get drugged by the Children of Arkham, discovering himself dedicated to Arkham Asylum, the place he meets a sure green-haired affected person with an unnaturally huge grin.

HawkeyeBarry20 stated:

Not considered one of my favourite Telltale video games nevertheless it was okay. There are two issues that stand out to me about this sport and one is the selection to just accept John Doe’s assist at Arkham Asylum. Knowing he would later be the Joker clearly made me need to decline however I felt I in all probability would have accepted his assist to get out of there, so I did. This is an effective instance of why the Telltale system fails. If you settle for the deal you get out however have principally made a take care of the satan. If you do not make the deal, he nonetheless causes a riot and also you get out of there anyhow. The alternative was an phantasm.

Osmo76 stated:

[This] is simply too typically the sensation with TT video games. I did benefit from the sport however I really feel prefer it might’ve been a lot larger if TT made clearly completely different endings/storylines primarily based in your decisions.

Whether you want Telltale-style video games or not largely relies on how you’re feeling about these “illusory” decisions. They’ve received a narrative to inform, which implies that there are specific plot factors that simply should occur, so no matter which path you select, the variations will both be short-term or minor sufficient that the story can nonetheless proceed. If that looks like they’ve cheated you out of the results of your alternative, you’re in all probability not impressed with the sport general. If, nonetheless, you respect the alternatives that you just can make throughout the framework of the story, you’re in all probability a lot happier with the sport general.

J2B9 stated:

It is smart although when even simply interested by the quantity of additional effort, planning, and time that is required so as really [make separate endings for each choice]. […] So so long as it tells a great or first rate story I get pleasure from it regardless that it’d after all be higher with these actual alternative and penalties.

Telltale evidently heard a few of the criticism of the shortage of impactful decisions, as a result of they made a extra divergent story for the second season, which a number of of our commenters appreciated:

Dresden N7 stated:

The first season was okay or mid, however season 2 aka Batman: The Enemy Within is great. It’s one of many uncommon instances the place your decisions matter as a result of there are two totally completely different variations of Episode 5 in Season 2 relying in your relationship with one particular character.

J2B9 stated:

Which does make it particular when the alternatives do really matter in Season 2 like talked about right here. Even if it is not the largest factor ever, having a largely completely different last episode is satisfying and price noting.

But that’s a dialog for an additional playlist… “John” solely has a quick look on this sport, though someway he already is aware of the key that Bruce solely realized simply earlier than being despatched to the asylum. Lady Arkham, the chief of the Children of Arkham, is none aside from Gotham Gazette reporter Vicki Vale. Born Victoria Arkham, Vicki’s delivery mother and father have been amongst Thomas Wayne’s victims, and she or he’s taken on the persona of Lady Arkham to actual her revenge.

The Noto stated:

I believed the look of the sport was superior, however I actually do not know the way I felt in regards to the villain reveal. But writing for characters like these is tough. You stray too removed from the frequent information of a personality and also you get yelled at for not being a purist. You keep too shut and also you merely have a boring story. So I absolutely acknowledge the conundrum these writers had. I REALLY favored this model of the Joker (as John Doe), however I by no means felt happy with the Vicki Vale plot.

After Bruce escapes the Asylum and whips up a remedy to the Children’s toxin, he’s received rather a lot on his plate; Harvey has sunk into full-on paranoid schizophrenia and turned Gotham right into a fascist police state, Penguin is hacking his approach into Wayne Tech safety and can quickly uncover Batman’s secret id, and Lady Arkham is hatching a plot to contaminate extra of Gotham’s residents together with her nerve fuel. We don’t need to give every little thing away, so we received’t spoil the ending, however suffice it to say that restoring peace to Gotham will push each Batman and Bruce Wayne’s limits.

Khyser Bier stated:

You know what you are getting whenever you begin a Telltale sport, and that is very a lot that. Decent sufficient however not wonderful, like each different sport they’ve ever launched.

Several feedback remarked on the predictability of Telltale’s sport type, though there have been a few improvements within the Batman video games that set them aside from the dev’s different properties. For one, there have been a number of scenes the place you’re offered with an choice to attempt to obtain your goal as both Bruce or Batman; go as Bruce to attempt to persuade your goal to surrender some info, utilizing the Wayne household’s energy and affect, or placed on the cape and cowl to make use of concern and intimidation to achieve your purpose. As famous above, the 2 choices will have a tendency to finish up in the identical place, story-wise, however that is an attention-grabbing approach to permit the participant to regulate the trail to that vacation spot.

Another mechanic that isn’t current in different Telltale video games is the detective mode, the place Batman is ready to analyze a scene and seek for clues, linking them collectively with a purpose to reconstruct a sequence of occasions, or to plan a course of assault when getting into a room stuffed with goons. It’s used sparingly, nevertheless it presents a welcome change from the structured dialog decisions and QTE fight periods.

wildwest08 stated:

I believed this did effectively working within the Telltale system. You can get into the detective facet of Batman greater than the motion. I favored the sport and would put it in my high Telltale video games

xuxicroptop stated:

If there’s one huge draw back to this sport — and lots of others in Telltale’s portfolio — it’s the technical glitches that crop up once in a while. The smoke from Jim Gordon’s cigars appeared to essentially throw my console for a loop, rendering as an opaque white blob taking over half the display screen moderately than a wispy path of smoke. I additionally had complete scenes the place characters — or components of characters — simply did not render, and different related graphical hiccups. These experiences have been shared by many in our boards.

EarthboundX stated:

Remember having fun with this primary season. I performed the Xbox 360 model, which actually confirmed how little Telltale cared about sport optimization. A sport that appeared this fundamental should not freeze and stutter prefer it did.

Cleaner7x stated:

I performed by means of the sport this week and loved it regardless of experiencing a number of glitches. A few the achievements did not unlock regardless that they’re all story primarily based. […] Also, I bumped into a few graphical glitches. In one scene Batman was having a dialog with a personality and the character wasn’t seen in any respect. In one other scene all of the background textures weren’t loaded fully. This is the first time I bumped into any points with a Telltale sport.

Despite the technical glitches, a lot of the commenters in our boards have been in a position to get previous the efficiency points and respect the sport’s story, though the place it ranks amongst Telltale’s titles was up for debate.

I8ITackyticsI8I stated:

I actually favored this Telltale sport, the story is nice. It’s inferior to the Walking Dead or the Wolf Among Us however I’d safely slot it simply after — I’m glad it received the vote this month. The second one did not fairly maintain as much as the identical commonplace for me story clever.

Rinckenstock stated:

Not pretty much as good as Tales From The Borderlands or The Walking Dead however higher than The Wolf Among Us and Game Of Thrones I believed. A strong Telltale sport.

The Cripplers stated:

I believed the primary one was somewhat higher, however I loved each of them. I’d in all probability put them within the center to barely higher tier of Telltale video games. Not pretty much as good as the highest ones, however higher than common.

Although, after all, not everybody was on board…

TymanTheLengthy stated:

Batman is boring (and kinda sucks). Before you come at me, I’ve consumed and proceed to eat quite a lot of Batman content material. This put up isn’t a lot about this month’s sport however this sport is included in it so let me clarify:

There’s not room on this article to cowl all of Tyman’s clarification for that daring assertion, however be at liberty to pop in to the discussion board and learn his full put up, which is kind of wonderful and raises some attention-grabbing factors, even in case you disagree together with his conclusions. And with that, on to the stats…

There are three tracked variations of Batman: The Telltale Series on TrueAchievements, and between them, we had 455 tracked players taking part in alongside throughout the month of June. Of these, 256 began the sport for the primary time, whereas 97 accomplished it throughout the month. In whole, 5,655 achievements have been unlocked, totaling 186,540 Gamerscore and 216,490 TrueAchievement rating.

Given that each one the achievements are story associated and unlocked in a set order (minus the occasional bugged achievement that doesn’t pop when it ought to), it’s no shock that the most-unlocked achievement was Welcome to Gotham in Batman: The Telltale Series for finishing Chapter 1 of Episode 1 within the Xbox One model of the sport, unlocked 220 instances in June. At the alternative finish of the spectrum, surprisingly, the least unlocked achievement was Broken Memories in Batman: The Telltale Series (Windows), for finishing Chapter 1 of Episode 2 within the Windows model of the sport, with solely 4 unlocks.

For a comparatively brief and simple completion, we anticipated a protracted listing of Shout-Outs this month, nevertheless it seems solely 53 individuals earned a Shout-Out by finishing at the very least one model of the sport. Special kudos exit to DarkRye16 for the quickest completion, with simply ten hours and 29 minutes from begin to end within the Xbox One model of the sport, and to UpliftGecko for being the one gamer to finish all three variations throughout the month. Great work to all of you!

This article took even longer to get out than common, due to an unexpectedly deep GTASC run (sorry!), in order that doesn’t go away a lot time to affix within the dialogue on July’s TA Playlist sport of the month, High On Life, by both unlocking an achievement or posting within the Spoiler-Free and Spoiler Threads to inform us about your wacky outer area adventures. And prepare for the August TA Playlist sport, Planet of Lana, when the brand new month begins. See you then!

Thanks to BetaSigX20 for this information suggestion.