Those that know me, know that I am a huge Batman fan. But that doesn’t mean that I’ll buy, watch, read, or play just any old Batman media. I’m a bit of a purist when it comes to this franchise. Growing up with Batman: The Animated Series, I’ve pretty much become convinced that that is the best version out there. I could go into great detail why, but this is a game analysis, not a tv show/comic analysis. Suffice it to say, I don’t like it when people try to screw with the Batman ethos that has stood the test of time, just to be “different” or “edgy” or whatever. This is the main reason I’ve avoided playing Batman: The Telltale Series (BTTS). I had heard that virtually all well known characters in the “Bat-verse” were turned on their heads. And while this was certainly true for a grand majority, I was wrong to ignore it, because BTTS did an excellent job telling an incredibly compelling Batman story. One that definitely kept me on my toes. But, this isn’t a story analysis, now is it? So let’s get to it.
The game wastes absolutely no time in getting the player right into the action, as you take on the role of Batman, attempting to foil a heist in City Hall. This, and all “action” segments of the game are done through quick time events. I’ll be the first to admit, I do not like QTE’s. Unfortunately, I just don’t find them an enjoyable game play mechanic. So, as the action unfolds on the screen, the player must press the corresponding button that pops up on the screen. Failure to do so, however, does not necessarily mean failure in the game, though. It just means that something else will happen. And at the very least, I can appreciate that. Some button prompts disappeared too quickly for me to respond, so, to know that missing one, here or there, didn’t spell disaster, was a comfort. Another thing that I’ll say the QTE’s have going is that the buttons are color coded correctly (I played on PS4, so X was blue, circle was red, and so on). This may seem like such a simple thing, something most won’t even think about. But after playing Saban’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Mega Battle, I now understand just how awful a QTE can be when the button prompts aren’t colored properly. The arrow prompts, however, could have used some work. All arrow prompts were slightly skewed, so at first, I wasn’t sure if it was just a straight direction, or if I had to input some weird diagonal direction. I will also note, that during combat, there was an omnipresent bat symbol that filled up with the more correct inputs I made. However, once full, nothing ever happened… This thing was never properly explained. And I played the whole game, not knowing what the heck it was supposed to be or represent.
If this game was nothing but QTE’s, I probably would have written it off as a complete failure. Again, just not my cup of tea, mechanically speaking. Thankfully, though, it isn’t just QTE’s. Overall, the game seems to be divided into four types of scene. Action scenes (see above), dialogue scenes, investigation/puzzle scenes, and straight cut scenes. While I’ve already discussed the first of those, and the last scene on that list is pretty self explanatory, I will go into detail about the other two.
After resolving the first of many action scenes in the game, the player is introduced to the game’s dialogue scenes. Here, the player gets the most out of the game’s narrative as they take control of Bruce Wayne (and sometimes Batman) and talk with other well known characters in the “Bat-verse.” Characters like Harvey Dent, Vicki Vale, Cat Woman, Carmine Falcone, and so on and so on. This game isn’t shy about digging deep into Batman lore, and it is all the better for it. At any rate, during these portions of the game, Bruce (or Bats) is presented with dialogue options when speaking with others. Telltale warns the player before starting the game, that these choices matter, and the game will change based on the player’s decisions.
While I understand the game play aspects behind this. It does strike me as odd to “role play” Batman. He’s a well established character, with a well established M.O. To play him as a merciless sociopath doesn’t seem right. And it definitely seems out of character (a character that has been established over decades), but the option to play it that way does exist. This game is all about player choice. And considering just how many choices there are to make in the game, this is an impressive feat. And it made things very interesting, and at times, very tense. Sometimes the “right” choice wasn’t always so obvious. And there were other times, when it seemed like there was no “right” choice. It was thrilling and very immersive.
My only real complaint with dialogue scenes, was the time limit to make my dialogue choices. There was always a bar at the bottom of the screen when I needed to make a choice, and the more time passed, the smaller that bar got. I often felt rushed due to this, sometimes picking dialogue options not because I wanted to select that one, but simply because I was running out of time. I see no need to rush these sections of the game. It seemed very unnecessary.
Finally, there are the investigation/puzzle scenes. In these scenes, Batman comes across some horrible murder or other crime, and he has to prove his “world’s greatest detective” moniker by figuring out the truth of what happened. This usually involves inspecting certain areas of the crime scene and the objects within it. This felt slightly reminiscent of L.A. Noire to me (although, admittedly, I haven’t played that game in a long time, so I can’t attest to how similar the two were; there was just something about it that seemed familiar).
Simply examining the scene isn’t enough though, as Batman is tasked to connect the dots so to speak. Each piece of evidence he finds invariably connects to something else in the scene. It’s sort of finding the cause and effect between everything. I found this fun, and a unique take on the general “crime scene investigation” trope. It was reminiscent of Capcom’s Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth, where the player needed to connect the “logic” together to come to the truth of a case.
However, it faltered slightly, in my opinion, due to the mechanical limitations. For one, you could only connect one piece to another. There was never any bigger connections to be made. While this certainly simplified things, I think it could have potentially been made a bit bigger, making the game a little more challenging. I’ll also remark, mechanically speaking, controlling Batman, walking around, isn’t exactly a smooth and fluid experience. I feel that could have used a little more time and attention. And finally, the reticle rather bothered me. When in this mode, the player can control a reticle with the right stick, this is used in a point-and-click style of game play, to investigate evidence. That’s fine, but just like ol’ Bats, it was a little rough handling it. It was often times too slow or unresponsive. And in the rare instances where the reticle was used to aim at something during a combat scene? Oh boy, those were rough QTE’s…
Going back to combat, just briefly. I feel I should mention one more aspect of those scenes. Often times, when Batman was preparing an attack, the player would be presented with even more choice. The player could select targets individually and “link” those targets to one of many environments as ways of taking out the target. This was pretty clever, and added an interesting take on “player choice” beyond simple dialogue trees.
Overall though, I feel the game was well paced. You never spent too much time in one kind of scene. Never got too bored with talking, or fighting, or investigating. It was all mostly enjoyable, because no one type of game play outlasted its welcome. And the parts I wasn’t particularly digging, never bothered me too much, because I knew I’d be moving on to something else soon enough.
The transitions between these scenes was sometimes a little too abrupt, however. I’d be watching a straight cut scene, my guard down, not really holding the controller properly, and then, blammo! QTE time! And here I am, not even remotely prepared to press a bunch of buttons in quick succession. I will say this, after a while, the game definitely kept me on my toes.
BTTS is definitely not your typical adventure game. And it’s definitely a unique take on a beloved franchise. It’s hardly a perfect game, but overall, I enjoyed it. And even when I wasn’t loving the mechanics, the narrative did an excellent job of keeping me invested. It tells a very good story, and it kept me enthralled throughout my entire play through.
