Personally, I’ve never been much of a Telltale Games fan. Every time I look at their games, I just see a series of quick time events, but playing episode 1 of Batman: The Telltale Series made me see why people like the games Telltale develop.

Batman: The Telltale Series has the potential to be one of the best Batman games made, and when the Batman Arkham series is number one you know Telltale has done a good job. What Telltale introduced to us in episode 1 is a smarter Batman, a Batman who lives up to his reputation as the world’s greatest detective as the majority of episode 1 is based around reconstructing crime scenes or planning attacks. Reconstructing and planning attacks involve looking around the area and searching for clues and trying to recreate and create an event. It is like playing a game of pin the tail on the donkey with donkey being a dead body and the tail being a bullet. Unfortunately, while I liked the examining of crime scenes it is very simplistic and I personally hope they become far more difficult in future episodes.

So since this is a Telltale game, what is the story? The story of episode 1 centres on Harvey Dent running for Mayor of Gotham, Bruce Wayne is, of course, supporting him, but unfortunately, Harvey also wants the help of a crime lord known as Falcone. While I don’t want to spoil the first episode, Bruce Wayne doesn’t see eye to eye with Falcone, and what I could describe as a bad move sees Batman go after Falcone. The first episode also features Catwoman, who despite having little screen time is one of the main drivers of the plot.

Now, let’s talk quick time events. Quick time events (QTEs) are at the heart of every Telltale story, and it is no different in Batman. In Batman, QTEs are used in conversation choices and when fighting. While in fighting missing a QTE doesn’t carry too heavy a burden, I mean you might die, but you are brought straight back into the game, but in conversations what button you press and what you say is important because as the game says, the person you just spoke to will remember what you said. As a narrative tool for what is essentially, an interactive story QTEs work well. Although I can’t help but loath the fact the game gives you less than 30 seconds to pick a reply because god forbid if I look away from the screen for just a second I don’t want to look back up and realize I have to pick a conversation option with less than 10 seconds on the clock.

Finally, when it comes to graphics and audio, I liked the game’s comic book inspired art style although it did make some characters look odd, I mean Harvey Dent looked like he was built like a truck. In terms of audio, I had no issues as the voice lines worked well, although I must give special mention to Enn Reitel for his great performance as Alfred.

Conclusion

Batman: A Telltale Series episode 1 is a great start to Telltale’s latest episodic series. The game’s focus on Batman’s famous detective skills helps show that Batman is far more than just beating up enemies.

Score: 8.5/10