Decline The Dark Knight derps: Telltale's QTE Interactive Batman Movie

[Jaesun]

Their new "interactive stories" are selling VERY well, they aren't going to be changing from that for a long long time.

 

[Correct_Carlo]

I don't care if they make adventure games or not. I think the idea of interactive storytelling is cool. The reason why Tell Tale is shit is because they stick to a repetitive formula for all their games and the entire reason for playing them--C&C--is just a flimsy facade which, in their last couple games, they aren't even really bothering with trying to maintain anymore.

So their games basically just boil down to poorly written TV shows where you can occasionally make dialog choices

 

[Tom Selleck]

You know when like, there's a fat chick who smells like garlic butter and you know she'd definitely kiss up you and your balls but you're holding out for something better but then like closing time rolls around and you're like fuck it whatever and settle on getting your knob baubles fondled by the human parmesan loaf anyway?

That's me and this fucking game or any of these games.

I just know I'm going to buy it.

 

[Helly]

You know when like, there's a fat chick who smells like garlic butter and you know she'd definitely kiss up you and your balls but you're holding out for something better but then like closing time rolls around and you're like fuck it whatever and settle on getting your knob baubles fondled by the human parmesan loaf anyway?

That's me and this fucking game or any of these games.

I just know I'm going to buy it.

Close to reality, except that when she brings you back at her place all you do is watch movies together and you leave frustrated.

 

[Azalin]

The trailer is out,it seems this will take place in Batman's early years,Harvey Dent isn't Two-Face yet and Falcone is in

Yuo can pre order the game for GoG and Steam now btw

 

[Boleskine]

I might be in the minority but I think this looks like shit. Boring rehash of a story we've seen countless times. For a "gameplay trailer" this showcases little to no gameplay, which is to be expected, but it looks like the Telltale formula has devolved even further away from interactivity.

I'll stick with Batman: TAS.

 

[pippin]

The only proper way to make a game where you can freely be Batman how it's supposed to be is the Arkham games. Ironically the AC formula works better when it's done by the character AC started aping in the first place. A Batman VN really sounds bad, and considering how TT does their VNs, this will only be interesting if you like the source material.

 

[Jaesun]

Really like the Batman suit/art. <3

 

[Venser]

What's next? Telltale: Angry Birds?

New pics:

wow they didn't even bother designing the Batmobile. Let's just give him an armored Bugatti.

 

[Rahdulan]

Clearly a cash-in title. Meanwhile, this is what new TWD game looks like.

Batman not good enough for a new engine?

 

[pippin]

They both look like crap men

 

[Metro]

The girl is like five years older. I knew they would do a time jump so they wouldn't have to deal with C&C from the end of the second series.

 

[Bubbles]

They're doing a regular Talking Dead / Talking Bad-style aftershow called "Batman: Unmasked":

‘BATMAN: Unmasked’ In-Game Discussion Series Premiere

WATCH ON YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/pxexBF1QJDE

Hey there Gothamites! With only a few days left before the debut of BATMAN - The Telltale Series, we’re excited to share with you the first episode of our all-new video series Batman: Unmasked!

Hosted by kindafunny.com's Greg Miller, Batman: Unmasked is a series of after-show discussions on all things pertaining to the The Caped Crusader’s upcoming action-packed interactive narrative adventure. With special guests that include comic book industry experts, community legends, cast and crew, Batman: Unmasked delves into what makes Bruce Wayne tick, as well as in-depth dissections of each episode of the Telltale series as they release.

In this inaugural episode, Greg talks with ComicVine's Tony Guerrero, Telltale's CEO Kevin Bruner, and the game's Executive Producer, Sean O'Connor. Join them as they discuss the origins of the game, as well as what you can expect in this new five part series.

Be sure to let us know what you think of this first in a series of episodic discussion shows on Twitter, Facebook, or our community forums!

BATMAN - The Telltale Series Episode 1: ‘Realm of Shadows’ premieres digitally worldwide August 2nd on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC/Mac. It will also arrive digitally on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 later in August. Season Pass Discs for PS4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 will become available September 13th along with mobile versions for iOS and Android devices.

The studio audience looks pretty small - four people, maybe five? Shows that Telltale doesn't have an AMC-sized budget just yet.

 

[Morality Games]

I might be in the minority but I think this looks like shit. Boring rehash of a story we've seen countless times. For a "gameplay trailer" this showcases little to no gameplay, which is to be expected, but it looks like the Telltale formula has devolved even further away from interactivity.

I'll stick with Batman: TAS.

They're starting at the beginning because each third party developer for DC properties these days essentially gets an "Earth" of their own in the DC multiverse to romp and play. This is like Earth 785-C3 or whatever.

I'm sure Telltale will want to expand to other DC heroes if this proves popular and eventually create their own version of the Justice League.

EDIT:

Well, it might more accurate to say they are cultivating the option.

 

[Echo Mirage]

They just had to use Troy Baker for the voice of Batman didn't they? They could have picked anyone, but they just had to use him and throw a filter over it as well.

 

[Bubbles]

IGN review:

The quick-time event-based combat constantly evolves to incorporate different gadgets and make awesome, cinematic use of space. Batman’s comic book look translates beautifully into Telltale’s recognizable art style, with only a few occasionally awkward animations (most notably when characters are walking). Consistently unique actions and reactions make combat a treat to watch – but remember that watching is most of what you do, and for good reason. It feels a lot more like you’re directing a combat experience than actively participating in it, with failed QTEs usually only meaning you won’t activate a dramatic ‘finishing move’ at the end of a sequence rather than failing that encounter. It’s an unusually forgiving and low-stakes approach to combat, but this prevents the fast-paced action from getting frustrating and spares us awkward depictions of The Dark Knight getting his butt kicked. All of the weight and punishment is in dialogue choices and decision making, where the combat is more of a visual treat.

Realm of Shadows’ detective-style sequences are thankfully a little more interactive. You’re presented with a crime scene and made to connect characters with corresponding objects or clues, from fishing a bullet out of somebody’s skull to matching it up with a specific bullet hole. The attention to detail and density of each of the environments makes this a treat visually, and while there are too few options for there to be any major sense of old-school adventure-game challenge, it adds another more cautious, insular layer to a game that’s already surprisingly varied. It does continue a trend of making the “World’s Greatest Detective” seem laughably idiotic in order to make us feel smart as we walk him through it, though - at one point you’re prompted to find out more information about Catwoman, and so you look her up on your fancy Bat-computer only to be presented with Bruce’s own notes on Catwoman saying he doesn’t know much about her. Great detective work, there, Bats: you looked up your own notes.

The Verdict
Telltale’s Batman is an unpredictable, multi-faceted adventure told through Batman the brawler, Batman the detective, and Bruce Wayne the politician. The three almost entirely separate characters and play-styles keep the familiar Telltale formula feeling fresh and inviting. While some of the dialogue does feel overly expositional, it’s hopefully only there to provide concrete padding for future episodes, and the gorgeous, high-action combat sequences and creative detective work provide the right amount of contrast.

7.5/10

As a final note, Telltale says that Batman is its first game to support cooperative multiplayer by allowing anyone with a phone or a web browser and the unique code generated in the main menu to join your game and vote on each decision. However, this feature wasn't ready to test before launch.

 

[Bubbles]

It's out!

 

[Anthedon]

Seems like it's buggy as fuck. Did they switch engines or what?

 

[Cyberarmy]

How can this even be buggy with its shallow gameplay ?!?!

 

[taxalot]

I will wait for the entire series to be out, on sale, and patched. It's a video game alright.

 

[Astral Rag]

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/08/03/batman-the-telltale-series-review/

Wot I Think: Batman – The Telltale Series Episode 1
Alec Meer on August 3rd, 2016 at 7:00 pm.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve often wondered about just what it was that made Bruce Wayne become Batman. If only there was some sort of insight to be had into whatever tragic event caused Wayne to wage a war on crime. 77 years of Batman, thousands of comics, hundreds of cartoons, a dozen films and still his origin is entirely mysterious to us. If only there was some way to find out a) what makes Wayne hate crime so and b) how he feels about it.

Thank you, Batman – The Telltale Series, for finally putting us out of our misery.


You’ll never guess what, but it turns out the Bruce’s parents were shot and killed by a mugger! I know! And Bruce was but a child when it happened! And he saw it all! And it happened when they were on the way home from seeing Zorro at the cinema! Gosh, it all makes sense at last.

In fairness, Telltale’s conversation’n’quicktime Dark Knight tale isn’t an origin story per se, and nor we do we get a straight-up enactment of the Waynes’ death, but it’s shown obliquely several times and mentioned more than I can count. There is a final act reason for this slow-motion refresher course, but it is difficult to believe that the vast majority of this game’s audience would have been unaware of these long-held core Bat-facts, and certainly I found the restatement frustrating.

In all respects, this is something of a Year One story all over again, rather than A Day In The Life Of The Bat-Like Man, and as such is extremely concerned with old chestnuts such as why Bruce puts himself through physical and psychological hell by doing the ol’ midnight street-cleaning fandango, that Gotham City’s politics is interwoven with organised crime, and that an array of familiar larger-than-life figures are on a date with supervillainous destiny. Harvey Dent is a crusading district attorney, Oswald Cobblepot is down-at-heel former nobility with a chip on his shoulder, and some unseen tyke is up to funny business with nerve gas. Glowing neon signposts to anyone with even an only rudimentary knowledge of Batlore, in other words.

Whether these figures will indeed embrace their infamous mantles during the course of this episodic series remains to be seen, but going on the first instalment’s excessive heel-dragging, I wouldn’t be surprised if at least a few of the rogues’ origins are being put off until a hoped-for later season. Similarly, Commissioner Gordon has only just become aware of Batman, our hero has his first-ever meeting with Catwoman during the game’s introductory act, and mob boss Carmine Falcone still has an iron grip around Gotham’s neck.

Age-old links are being forged once again, known beats are yours to drop, and while this gives Telltale a clean slate from which to puppet-master its characters, I needed it to skip to the end and start the party in earnest. I found myself craving a more established Batworld with everyone in their right places and no setup needed, and with a brand new villainy concept as opposed to the hoary old “corruption in city hall” plot here (which is also a touch too similar to The Wolf Among Us). There is a final-act twist that drags things in a fresher direction, although it’s still one that will be familiar to relatively recent Batman comic readers.

Telltale’s Batman has a certain amount in common with the Gotham series, in terms of being a somewhat remixed, everything-is-connected fresh start – but very much not in terms of being absolutely crackerjack nuts. Tonally, this is more the sombre angst of Nolan than anything else, but slower, broader, more earnest, and indeed clumsier in terms of pacing.

I very much admire its intentions in terms of giving us more glimpses of how Bruce Wayne’s life works in between late-night beatings, and certainly his walking the line between maintaining his devil-may-care face and publicly refusing to work with dodgy characters plays to the moral deliberation strengths of the Telltale formula. The stakes feel high, and the sense that there will be consequences to ticking off someone is there, whether or not past Telltale adventures have essentially railroaded decisions into the same outcomes come the final chapter. The same may well happen again, but hey, stop and smell the roses and all that.

There is so much wheel-spinning though, particularly in long-winded chats with a distractingly Hulk-like Harvey Dent and age-old ‘Alfred says Bruce is pushing himself too much’ sequences. As I say, there are also too many scenes of Bruce feeling sad about his parents. I get that this wants to be a Bruce story as much as – if not more than – a Batman one, but I worry that it just hasn’t found anything new to say about him.

Meanwhile, Telltale’s Oswald Cobblepot is another grating entry into the rich and storied history of American actors giving The Penguin a woefully unconvincing English accent. For God’s sakes, there’s no need for this. He lives in Gotham, just make him American.

On top of that, Telltale’s well-used Walking Dead engine and art style, though prettified, increasingly has a homogeneity problem. I felt almost disorientated on occasion – wait, was I playing Batman or Game Of Thrones or Wolf Among Us or Walking Dead? Had I always been playing this one game? Those fake comic ink lines, those exaggerated expressions – too familiar, too contrived now. When the camera pulls out and the lines and the over-expressive eyes aren’t visible, Batman becomes far more beautiful, with a more noire and less fantastical take on Gotham than the Arkham games’.

That aside, one couldn’t say that this feels especially ‘Batmany’ on an aesthetic level – it’s an unavoidably a Telltale game with Batman characters, and the faux-outlines particularly verge on self-parody at times. The exception to the homogeneous rule is an attempt to make some characters more grotesque in order, I am guessing, both to look more distinct from the Telltale norm and to play to the twistedness of the Batman fantasy.

Trouble is the results of this approach mean we get a Commissioner Gordon who looks on the verge of a ‘roid rage and a revered district attorney who we are supposed to believe is unprecedentedly crusading despite very obviously spending 23 hours a day in the gym. This grotesquery would work if there was any sense of playfulness to the dialogue, but sadly it’s either entirely earnest or has a character effectively mugging to camera. For a game that’s interested in the nuances of Wayne’s identity, it doesn’t have much in the way of subtlety.

There are a few moments where the Wayne side of the game lands its punches, though. There’s pleasure to be had in deciding what kind of mask the Bat wears over his face – jocular and amiable, defensive and combative, crusading and emotional. Which best serves the Bat? Which best opens up opportunity for crime-fighting, which is most likely to cast suspicion upon Wayne’s true proclivities? Frankly the game’s too interested in drawn-out exposition to get deep into investigating that stuff, but it’s a welcome peek into the roleplaying Batman must do in order to maintain his cover (and his funding), and I hope later episodes do more with it.

As for the Batman aspect of the game – yeah, stronger, though you have to take the essential quicktime eventiness of it on the chin. This is not an action game by any stretch of the imagination, but it includes multiple action scenes – has to, being a Batman tale. Its approach is to try and make its fights cinematic rather than adrenal. Realistically, you’re highly unlikely to bungle any of the Simon Says prompts, and wisely it tries to make the effects cool rather than the window of response more limited.

There’s much in the way of crunching skulls and inhumanly fast dodges, and generally of Batman being one mental move ahead of his foes at all times. I.e. goons get schooled, and you get to feel like Batman. It’s not a patch on the superhuman flow of a well-executed Arkham series beatdown, but it’s a far better feeling than getting your Kevlar-clad arse handed to you because you mistimed a couple of hits or your thumbs got tired. QTEs are a troublesome mechanic at the best of times, but this does work hard to make them feel natural rather than hatefully arbitrary.

This also has a nice line in choosing what kind of Batman you’re going to be – one who terrifies or one who brutalises. Again, it’s perhaps too similar to the approach used in Wolf Among Us, but there is both a sense of roleplaying and a sense of consequence to it. Are you Keatonman or are you Battfleck? And how will your treatment of criminals look in the eyes of the police and public?

God only knows how it will shake out over the series, but it feels like a meaningful reflection of the modern Batman dilemma: is he saving the city or making it worse? Sadly, it’s undermined somewhat when this game’s particularly insufferable incarnation of the Nagging Alfred archetype chastises you for “beating a man half to death” even when you very deliberately didn’t. (I did wonder if this was a bug, in fact).

Crime scene investigation holds promise too, revolving more around literally drawing links between evidence rather than the Arkham series’ scanning-based approach. Sadly, and again like Wolf Among Us, only an honest-to-god idiot could screw the investigations up – getting a ‘World’s Greatest Detective’ achievement for doing the entirely obvious felt patronising – but it’s nonetheless a decent in-road to a core piece of the Batman fantasy. Hope it’s made more elaborate later, although going on Telltale’s maximum-accessibility form, this is unlikely.

All-told, the pace and the sense of mystery steps up in the game’s final third, and Batman felt less blighted by the tedium that characterises its bulk. With setup of oh-so-familiar things out the way and an actual threat now posed, future episodes at least have the opportunity to hit harder than this sluggish intro does.

I can’t shake the feeling, though, that, more than ever, I am a mere passenger on a story that’s telling itself – though later episodes may disprove that. Other than being top and tailed by QTE action, I felt I was sitting through over-long exposition of the already known, reaching a more interesting conclusion/cliffhanger that could easily and more effectively been built to in half the time.

Some foundations are laid that might make for stronger follow-ups, but as it stands Batman does not have the emotional punch of The Walking Dead’s better episodes, the intriguing oddness of Wolf Among Us or the shockingly heavy consequences of Game Of Thrones, and worst of all it makes cracks in Telltale’s aged wall highly obvious. I should not feel bored in a Batman game, but bored is what I felt for most of it. Bring back Joel Schumacher, all is forgiven.

Batman – A Telltale Series episode one is out now.

 

[Jaesun]

I guess I'll just watch a LP video of this.

 

[Metro]

I guess I'll just watch a LP video of this.

Just watch Gotham. Even though Batman is only 12, it's still more entertaining.

 

[Zombra]

I loved TWD 1 & 2, thought Wolf Among Us was even better, and then ... couldn't get through Borderlands or Game of Thrones. Played a bit of each, pupils contracted, shelved, never went back. If this is as dull as those and doesn't even tell a new story ... yeah.