NS: Details on the Telltale Batman game

[lucean]

Since I posted the game announcement, I thought to also post some of the first details about the up-coming Batman episodic adventure game. Especially since they just left me even more hyped for the game.

All the detals are here: https://www.telltalegames.com/blog/105073/first-details-on-telltale-s-batman-series-discussed-at-sxsw

What I found interesting was the central concept of approaching the problems and characters either as Bruce Wayne or Batman, which I think can provide a really interesting character examination.

Comments

[janegray]

Telltale is sort of hit&miss for me. I find that, in general, their stories tend to be too depressing for my taste (everybody betrays you! lots of people die! everybody betrays you! darkness and pain! and have I mentioned that you'll be betrayed all the freaking time?). But, if there is a character that could work well with their approach, that character is Batman. So I'm looking forward to this :)

[cyberghostface]

I think it depends on the story. 'Game of Thrones' and 'The Walking Dead' are both fairly grim stories and the games reflect that but their take on 'Fables' wasn't really depressing.

[ozaline]

It kinda was I mean it fit the tone of the comic and it wasn't all doom and gloom but come on the ribbon bit?

Now Sam and Max, or Bacj to Future those aren't depressing.

[janegray]

Now Sam and Max, those aren't depressing.

I have to disagree. I thought The Devil's Playhouse was extremely depressing. They kill off many, many characters in that game (in completely unnecessary and mean-spirited ways, at that. What was even the point of killing off the ancestors? And the cockroach guy's death immediately got jokes along the lines of "flush him down the toilet"), including Max himself. And the "happy" ending is that a different Max from another dimension was left so utterly miserable by Sam's death in his dimension, that he abandoned his world to go look for a universe where Sam was still alive.

[ozaline]

To be honest I only played the first episode of season 3, but seasons one and two were really fun.

[janegray]

Ah, sorry, didn't mean to spoil the ending, I thought you had already played it :/

[ozaline]

No biggie, I did know that it had a ST: Voyager "Year of Hell," ending with Max being dying and being replaced with another dimension's version that much had been revealed to me, but didn't realize there was more death aside... I mean if Sybil is killed that'd be pretty depressing.

[cyberghostface]

**spoilers**



*shrugs* I didn't find anything depressing in the Fables game. Dark, sure. But the main character ends up solving the crime, saving the day and punishing the villain. There was nothing along the lines of building up a character that you care about and then emotionally breaking them and/or killing them off in a horrible way.

[rainspirit]

The Wolf Among Us was gloomy as hell. It had systemic violence against non-humans (pay expensive prices for glamour or sent to The Farm), a general sense of hopelessness in the face of rampant injustice and inequality, several characters dying or having their lives ruined, and--well, a good part of it depends on how you play Bigby, whether he gives in to his wolf side or not. (I made a lot of nasty choices in my playthrough, not least being when I tore off Gren's arm.)

Also, this is the soundtrack that stays with me when I think about the game. Dark and very sad. https://youtu.be/LgErp-OIi6E

[informationgeek]

Don't want a depressing Telltale game? Tales from the Borderlands is perfect! It does have some downer moments, but it's upbeat, funny, action-packed, and very exciting all the way through. Best of all, you don't need to be familiar with Borderlands to enjoy it, like with me.

[janegray]

Wait, you don't need to be familiar with Borderlands to enjoy it? Really?

A friend of mine is a big Borderlands fan and she said the Tales game was really good, but I skipped it because I assumed you needed to play the other Borderlands games to get it. I mean, Telltale's Monkey Island game directly followed the storyline of the previous MI games and definitely expected you to know who was who.

[sadoeuphemist]

I'll second the recommendation, you don't need to know anything about Borderlands at all and it's really good. It's like you're a random NPC in the videogame, and all the main characters are running around in the background blowing things up and trying to kill each other, and you're mostly trying to stay out of the way and go about your own business.

[alphamonkey]

I'd say that being familiar with the Borderlands franchise HELPS, but no, I guess it's not strictly necessary. It's just that when characters from the shooter games show up in cameos, there won't be as much "I SEE WUT U DID THAR" going on.

Still really, really, really funny, series, though. But I'm a bit biased because I love Borderlands.

[beeyo]

Allow me to be the next person recommend Tales From The Borderlands. It has real emotional moments that don't rely on depressing situations to anchor them. There is a death, but it's treated with depth and heart and will wrench your guts the first time you see it.

Also, the biggest gunfight in the game comes around the 3rd episode and it doesn't even involve guns. It's fanatstic.

Play this game, is what I'm saying

[reveen]

There's also Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent, which is a collab with Graham Annable and is lot more like a cartoon version of Twin Peaks and Fargo than anything else.

There's a good review for it here, though he talks about the ending at the very end, so don't watch the whole thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4SUYRhHC88

[deh_tommy]

I wouldn't say that's entirely fair - sure, some of their stories can come off as cruel or depressing but that's usually to fit with the tone of the source material (like Law & Order, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, The Wolf Among Us (to a lesser extent), etc.).

They've also done lighthearted comedies (the first two seasons of Sam & Max, Tales from the Borderlands) and interesting adventures (Back to the Future, Monkey Island, and maybe Jurassic Park).

[janegray]

Well, that's why I said hit&miss :P

I personally hated Jurassic Park. Every single character in that game ended up clutching the Idiot Ball or the Villain Ball or both to frankly utterly baffling degrees, and the danger was kept up because the predators kept ignoring the yummy huge preys they killed to go stalk the humans.

But I did really love Monkey Island, to the point that I bought the collector's edition DVD to keep in my library (the beautiful cover art by Steve Purcell helped too). And, while I didn't like the Gainax ending of Back To The Future (and yes, I know that the original movie was supposed to end that way too, but they had the sense to change that), I thought the game as a whole was pretty good.

I haven't played Tales from the Borderlands, but I have a friend who is a huge fan so I'm going to assume that one is good too.