THE TELLTALE SERIES: EP 1 REVIEW

“So, what are we thinking: modern art or hanging light fixture?” I’m asking two friends about which way we should severely concuss a man. We spent the last five minutes curating Batman’s not-so-subtle entrance into Falcone’s skyscraper headquarters using a drone, and every method involves tossing people into (sometimes through) solid surfaces. Afterwards, in typical Telltale A-or-B fashion, we get the moral choice to brutalize an important character or not. I hardly know what it even means anymore, but no matter, this is Batman’s secret vocabulary, and Telltale’s interpretation of the character is as hazy as ever. You position Bruce Wayne through dialogue choices and pivotal decisions against the same inconsistent moral question Batman has always faced: how far should vigilante justice go? It must at least go into and through modern art, I suppose.
Unfortunately, episode one of Telltale’s story-driven adventure game—where dialogue choices and quicktime punching sequences make up the bulk of the action—doesn’t have time to address Batman or Bruce Wayne’s character in full, shifting most of the focus onto setting up a story that digs into Wayne’s origins—and no, I’m not talking about his parents’ murder. They go deeper. The result is a domestic comic book story that does little to change the Telltale formula, but might change Batman’s. You’ll see no crocodile men here, just gangsters and politicians and quick time events.
Comic hook

The setup is is fairly simple: Harvey Dent is running for Mayor, and Bruce Wayne is backing him. Notorious crime lord Carmine Falcone arrives at their fundraising party as a public supporter of Dent, and Bruce can choose to take umbrage with that or not. We kicked his ass to the curb, worried that keeping close ties to a notorious criminal might tarnish Dent’s and Wayne’s reputation. Meanwhile, in an earlier scuffle with Catwoman, Batman recovered some supposedly valuable data that’s taking a while to decrypt. Several parties, a few unknown, are fighting for control of the data, because a harrowing truth hides within. One that may change how Wayne thinks about himself, his duty and limits as Batman, and those he formerly considered enemies—the revelation (and my attention) just comes right at the tail end of the episode.