I’m Batman!!! (Batman: A Telltale Game)


Game: Batman: The Telltale Series
Platforms: Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, iOS, Android, Windows
Played On: Xbox One
Price: £11.99
Available on Xbox Game Pass: No

Another free game Microsoft? Why yes, I think I will. So at the time of writing this game is currently free for Xbox One until February 14th 2020 with its games with gold program. If you didn’t look up what we have here is the 2016 release of Telltale Games Studios, Batman: The Telltale Game. This game obviously released before sadly buying naming rights to incredibly popular licenses turned out to be very bad business. As this is a story driven game, there will be inevitably a few minor spoilers ahead.

I love a good Telltale game, was taken in by The Walking Dead and never really looked back. They, like any game series, vary in how good I find them but when you have such a diverse back catalogue like Telltale then really there’s something for everyone and that means some will not be to everyone’s taste.

So here we have Batman, even the casual fan knows of Batman. It’s a story which at this point has been told many, many times, we all know parents killed leaving a theatre, decides to dish out some vigilante justice, decides to be a bat as a symbol of fear, has a few enemies, yadda, yadda, yadda, we know. So what twist can possibly be put on this tried and tested story in this game? Well let’s find out.

We start as Batman foiling a heist on City Hall, we briefly meet Lieutenant Gordon (yes it’s Lieutenant in this game) and that’s our first little clue this is the early Batman years. During the heist we get used to the games action controls, they very simple quick time events, press this button, move the stick in this direction, it’s easy enough but it keeps it fluid. No complaints from me.

We meet a few characters along the way, as you’d expect, and we have a few of the big hitters, Oswald Cobblepot (to start with) Catwoman and we get her Selina Kyle as well. Harvey Dent is there too but at this point he’s very much friend of Bruce Wayne. We also get a brief cameo from the yet to be named Joker.

Fans of Telltale will know how they work, not a huge amount of action and more based on what decisions you choose from speech options but it’s paced quite well, it adds a few more mechanics, you have the Batcomputer where you unravel the cryptic evidence you’ve found along the way, and we have the detective element, where we find a scene and have to link clues as to how the scene ended up to be, all fairly enjoyable as well and breaks up the talking nicely.

So because of this we need a good story to keep us playing and Telltale deliver well on this front, it’s gripping, it’s a story of Batman’s beginnings, a polarising figure among the public taking on the mysterious Lady Arkham and her followers. This brings us the early days of Catwoman, The Penguin and of course Harvey Dent as mentioned above. All this while Bruce Wayne and the Wayne name are dragged through the mud as we learn more of a scandal in the family before Bruce’s parents untimely death. It’s fun, makes you want to keep playing and honestly some of the choices are hard to make. I know at the end of episode 4 a lot of the choices were only 5/10% apart among all players.

It’s voiced excellently so that keeps it very believable and the characters real. It’s shellshaded look is a Telltale staple and one I very much enjoy. It’s like a calling card of Telltale and let’s the player know what kind of game they’re playing. This being said I had a few glitches in the game, I’ve had this before but does drag away the immersion. I was at points talking to somebody who had suddenly found powers of invisibility, or a mouth moving and nothing coming out. I guess it’s not the biggest issue but it does detract from the grittiness of the game.

We have here a very enjoyable game, yes it has a few small glitches but that doesn’t stop it being an excellent story to play through, even more so as this games free right now, but even at £12 it’s not a bad price if you’re yet to play it. So grab it, enjoy it, and have fun playing through a new way to enjoy being the Batman.

8.5/10

As always let me know your thoughts here or follow me here or on Twitter @Peterlinsdell to throw abuse at me and keep up to date for all posts.


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