Batman: The Telltale Series (Season 1)

So I've had a little bit of hiatus recently due to schooling and other things. November was a busy month but I have been watching some stuff that I am interested in writing posts about in the future. It might not be very frequent but I'm hoping where I'll diminish in quantity, I'll increase in quality. There are a couple of movie/pop culture topics I've been stewing over in the last few weeks and I think as we come to the end of the year, there are some good topics of discussion to have.

The first one is about Batman: The Telltale Series.

If you don't know what Telltale series are, they are point and click "choose your own adventure" video games where the choices you make, either through your actions or dialogue choices, will change the outcomes of the game. They've had good number of these games come out, some of which I might be playing and reviewing in the future based on how great this one is, but I hadn't really gotten much into them until this game.

 You take on the titular character of Bruce Wayne (voiced by Troy Baker). They don't say how long he's been Batman, but I would wager that Bruce Wayne has been Batman for a little bit but not long enough to put away any of the well known villains of his rogue gallery. This is obviously for the benefit of getting to see the formation, (or prevent it?) of major Batman villains.

The game starts with Bruce Wayne supporting Harvey Dent's (voiced by Travis Willingham) campaign to oust the corrupt Mayor Hamilton Hill (voiced by Robert Pescovitz). As this is happening, allegations of corruption perpetuated by Thomas and Martha Wayne come out and Bruce Wayne's name and legacy starts to be tarnished. At the same time, Bruce Wayne's childhood friend Oswald Cobblepot (voiced by Jason Spisak) returns to Gotham with the goal of inciting a "revolution". While he asks if Wayne is going to be on the right side of it, it's obvious that Wayne is on the list of people Cobblepot is interested in taking down. On top of it all, Batman starts seeing the rise of a terrorist organization called The Children of Arkham as well as a new player, the untrustworthy Catwoman (voiced by Laura Bailey).

So that's a broad overview for the purpose of outlining the key players in the game. I know that there are multiple choices that you can make as Bruce Wayne/Batman and I went through the game with those choices, but the game could be slightly if not totally different, depending on the choices you make.

There is a lot to love about this game but the thing I think I'm going to start on is how it takes the Batman lore that everyone seems to know and makes it very malleable for the player to make choices and shape it. The end story could be in line with what happens in the Batman lore, or it could be totally different depending on your choices.

But what's just as interesting in my opinion is how the game took very familiar lore to bring in the fans of Batman, but also took a much darker tone with it to kind of make it there own. I think what we're seeing with properties like The Joker is that the Batman, and frankly the DC universe as a whole, is able to be shaped and manipulated to make new stories while maintaining the same core of the character. Without spoiling too much, there is a Joker in this game, but near the end of the game, he's a very different Joker than any of the other iterations, and it works because the Telltale games are a different animal in themselves.

I might talk a little bit more about DC and how they're planning on utilizing that malleability in the future, but for now, I'll just say I liked how Telltale rode that fine line of adapting familiar material, and yet making it their own.

One thing that I think this game did incredibly well was dive into the duality of Bruce Wayne and Batman in a way I don't think many iterations of Batman have done it in the past.

The game really gives you the opportunity to shape the kind of Bruce Wayne/Batman you want to be.

Are you the Batman that adheres to a strict moral code of not killing? You can make choices to maintain that code. Who is Bruce Wayne? You get to make that choice. I think I actually had more fun when I was Bruce Wayne trying to talk my way out of situations.

And I think the game delved more into Bruce Wayne as a person than most of the movies are willing to go. Bruce Wayne is easily played as the generic rich white dude facade that serves more of a mask for Batman rather than Batman serving as a mask for Batman. In this game, you get to delve a little more into the psyche of Bruce Wayne and how he would act as a member of Gotham, apart from Batman, and I found that really interesting.

That doesn't mean the parts where you play as Batman aren't as good. I think it just gives players the opportunity to dig a little more into Bruce Wayne as a person, rather than the public persona of Batman, which I appreciate.

Now I was recommended this game by a couple of buddies of mine who played the game a while ago. I think one thing I'd note about this game is that it seems like regardless of the choices you make, you still end up one way or another in a similar outcome to finish the narrative of the game. And this isn't so much of a critique because I know making a video game is hard, and writing a cohesive story for the game is hard and you don't want things to get out of hand story and development wise.

My note would be that I think that there are some choices that don't really make a difference at the end of the day. I am starting to watch some gameplays of other people's choices to see if there is a different story that I missed, but it seems like the episodes keep to a set story and some of the choices I make may change one or two things, but the ending is relatively the same. I might rescind this comment after watching some other playthroughs but the reason I bring this up is because my friends have been telling me about season two and that while season had similar outcomes just with different choices peppered in, season 2 kind of takes things to the next level and I would have wanted to feel that kind of differentiation in season 1 (even though I already have season 2 queued up on my PS4 at this moment).

Also Bruce Wayne kind of looks like Archer... not a criticism, just funny.

It doesn't take away from the fact that the story in this game is absolutely phenomenal.

It got me invested quickly, played up the different angles of Batman, especially the Bruce Wayne in public angle that we don't see that often, but also including the scenes of Batman actually being the world's greatest detective.

The game is really well done and I can't wait to start the second season.

But what I also like is that this game has finally started me back on the DC train and put me on a bit of a Batman kick. I think this game shows that Batman can be done differently than the Nolan films that have been such a keystone of the Batman lore in the last decade or so.

I'm going to probably follow up this up with a post about the upcoming Batman film (2021) and what I think we can expect from DC in the future.

But until then, if you have the opportunity, do yourself a favor and dive into the Telltale Batman game. You will not regret it.

But those are my thoughts on Batman: The Telltale Series. What did you think? Have you played it? What kind of outcomes did you have? Comment and Discuss below! Also send me your outcomes and thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for movies, TV shows, and video games I should check out in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks for reading!