Post by Martin Stett on Jun 24, 2019 5:36:24 GMT
This was my first Telltale game, and... I'm mostly on "wow" end of the spectrum. And I want to talk a little bit about why.
First, some nitpicky game things: the framerate BLOWS, the auto-save feature (which I don't think I can turn off) frequently brought things to a standstill, and this game is almost Skyrim levels of glitchy. That is unacceptable. It really ruins a well laid out fight scene when the game stops every three seconds to save your last input so you can start over the scene FROM THAT COMMAND. On top of that, the framerate/lag issue actually screwed up simple action commands fairly regularly, and for a game that looks so ugly there is no possible excuse you can make for this kind of pervasive issue.
(I do want to say that when fights don't lag they can look seriously awesome: the bar brawl in episode 2 was a blast and perhaps the one time that the game didn't slow down considerably in a fight. I can see how good these would be if the game actually, y'know, acted like it was running on a PS3 instead of a '98 Apple.)
Now, for the story itself. Rambling and spoiler-filled. What really struck me as I played through this is how it uses your "choices" to create a version of Bruce/Batman that feels more real than any other I've seen. By asking the player to take active responsibility for their actions -- basing the entire narrative around this, in fact -- it makes the character a more fascinating... and frightening... creature. I always knew that Batman was supposed to "scare" criminals, but I never understood how terrifying he could be until I made active choices to break the arms or murderers, or to impale a man on rebar out of anger. And that's just in the first episode!
It makes a very strong case for sympathizing with all of Batman's choices (since I'm the one making them) while also truly showing how horrible a monster like this could be if allowed to run free.
But this is all simple gameplay stuff, in the end. It is very well done, but crafting choices around moral dilemmas and asking the player to take responsibility is a fairly basic gameplay mechanic that has been in use for a long time.
The real power of Telltale Batman as a story comes in its depiction of... Two Face. Seeing this man of justice lose his own soul because God decides to use him as a punching bag illustrates the core theme of the game. He is a man who loves Gotham, who runs on law and order and against corruption, who finds his world turned upside down when the people he loves and relies on let him down, betray him, spit on what he holds dear. He creates two competing versions of himself that can't possibly live in the same body, and he loses his own soul because he can't find a way to make his morality and his personal feelings coexist. He's a living condemnation of himself. I have no knowledge of the character in the comics, but the brash, operatic stylings of his story here shook me to the core.
Because he's Batman. From the betrayal of his closest friends (Alfred), idols (his father) and allies (Selina, Harvey, Oz), to his need to control Gotham through any needs necessary as Batman, to his belief in Harvey's campaign, right down to having a "real" voice and a gruff "bad guy" voice... they're identical.
And that's what I found horrifying about this incarnation of Batman. It was watching "Bruce" lose his own sense of identity, of seeing the "man" break down under the pressures of Alfred's betrayal, of guilt over his father's crimes to Oz and Lady Arkham, of guilt over his own crimes to Harvey... and seeing that underneath is not a warrior of justice, but a rabid dog. One who will uncontrollably beat Oz with his bare fists, one who will curse at the useless filth taping him as he orders Alfred to ram the police barricade, one who stops even hiding what he is when his mask is off. It was fascinating to find that when the game turned everything I based Bruce on crumbled, I found myself wanting to become Batman... as an escape from trying to hide Bruce's true self. When he dresses up, he can do what he really wants to do: be free from consequences. (This is something he is directly accused of in the final episode, but it isn't expanded upon.)
First, some nitpicky game things: the framerate BLOWS, the auto-save feature (which I don't think I can turn off) frequently brought things to a standstill, and this game is almost Skyrim levels of glitchy. That is unacceptable. It really ruins a well laid out fight scene when the game stops every three seconds to save your last input so you can start over the scene FROM THAT COMMAND. On top of that, the framerate/lag issue actually screwed up simple action commands fairly regularly, and for a game that looks so ugly there is no possible excuse you can make for this kind of pervasive issue.
(I do want to say that when fights don't lag they can look seriously awesome: the bar brawl in episode 2 was a blast and perhaps the one time that the game didn't slow down considerably in a fight. I can see how good these would be if the game actually, y'know, acted like it was running on a PS3 instead of a '98 Apple.)
Now, for the story itself. Rambling and spoiler-filled. What really struck me as I played through this is how it uses your "choices" to create a version of Bruce/Batman that feels more real than any other I've seen. By asking the player to take active responsibility for their actions -- basing the entire narrative around this, in fact -- it makes the character a more fascinating... and frightening... creature. I always knew that Batman was supposed to "scare" criminals, but I never understood how terrifying he could be until I made active choices to break the arms or murderers, or to impale a man on rebar out of anger. And that's just in the first episode!
It makes a very strong case for sympathizing with all of Batman's choices (since I'm the one making them) while also truly showing how horrible a monster like this could be if allowed to run free.
But this is all simple gameplay stuff, in the end. It is very well done, but crafting choices around moral dilemmas and asking the player to take responsibility is a fairly basic gameplay mechanic that has been in use for a long time.
The real power of Telltale Batman as a story comes in its depiction of... Two Face. Seeing this man of justice lose his own soul because God decides to use him as a punching bag illustrates the core theme of the game. He is a man who loves Gotham, who runs on law and order and against corruption, who finds his world turned upside down when the people he loves and relies on let him down, betray him, spit on what he holds dear. He creates two competing versions of himself that can't possibly live in the same body, and he loses his own soul because he can't find a way to make his morality and his personal feelings coexist. He's a living condemnation of himself. I have no knowledge of the character in the comics, but the brash, operatic stylings of his story here shook me to the core.
Because he's Batman. From the betrayal of his closest friends (Alfred), idols (his father) and allies (Selina, Harvey, Oz), to his need to control Gotham through any needs necessary as Batman, to his belief in Harvey's campaign, right down to having a "real" voice and a gruff "bad guy" voice... they're identical.
And that's what I found horrifying about this incarnation of Batman. It was watching "Bruce" lose his own sense of identity, of seeing the "man" break down under the pressures of Alfred's betrayal, of guilt over his father's crimes to Oz and Lady Arkham, of guilt over his own crimes to Harvey... and seeing that underneath is not a warrior of justice, but a rabid dog. One who will uncontrollably beat Oz with his bare fists, one who will curse at the useless filth taping him as he orders Alfred to ram the police barricade, one who stops even hiding what he is when his mask is off. It was fascinating to find that when the game turned everything I based Bruce on crumbled, I found myself wanting to become Batman... as an escape from trying to hide Bruce's true self. When he dresses up, he can do what he really wants to do: be free from consequences. (This is something he is directly accused of in the final episode, but it isn't expanded upon.)
This is a story that made me see Batman as the symbol of violence that he really is. Which is why I found the final episode disappointing, as it seemed to try to justify many of Batman's actions, no matter how awful (based on the argument of "well, every other villain is even more fucked up"). I suppose this was to help set up a season 2, but it left me feeling a bit angry that the ending doesn't truly delve into the similarities of Lady Arkham and Batman, it doesn't truly look into the morality of Alfred (in a way, the man who created Batman through his own actions), and in the epilogue it doesn't seem to offer any real critical analysis of Batman's actions and just ends on the note of "Batman may be a monstrous schizophrenic vigilante enforcing his own will through violence, but he protects Gotham ain't that swell?" without any hint of irony.
And no proper ending to the arcs of Penguin or Two Face. Like, at all.
But maybe I just played a mediocre run of the finale. I think I'll try the final chapter again with different choices to see how major any differences are. I do know that for four episodes, this was one of the best TV shows or video games or whatever that I've seen: one that really delves into the ugly darkness underneath the actions of "the good guys" to explore what drives them to "good" and how far they're willing to go to get there.
Any of your own thoughts on it?
