Batman - The Telltale Series

Game is riddled with bugs and glitches. Hope you enjoy playing a telltale game where you have no background, foreground, and randomly disappearing characters. Couldn't even get 2 minutes in. Yes, everything is patched and updated on my end. Current feedback from telltale is, "We are aware of the problem. We have no timeframe for a patch in the future."

Judging by the story side, the game starts good. The art style fits Batman pretty good, too. If the other episodes keep up quality-wise, one will have fun with this game. Con: Well, "game" is maybe not appropriate. Their is only minimal interaction. I guess most people know this by now. This means, that this game defines itself through its story and its "cinematic" style. Well, good enough, right? Wrong! Telltale doesn't even manage to get this cinematic part done good. Awful animations and constant lagging because of loading. I expect more from a company whos exclusive ability is to present a story. The conditions under which this story is presentet have to be much better than this technically awful game.

I haven't been suffering the crashing issues reporting by many Steam users, but I am experiencing brief lockups during many scene transitions. They are extremely short, but also very annoying. Nonetheless, I have been playing for 1.5 hours so far and have really enjoyed the experience. Please do NOT be put off by the current technical issues. It definitely seems like stuff that can be fixed with a small patch. The actual game has been terrific fun so far. If you aren't willing to gamble on this game being fixed, perhaps put it on your wishlist and wait a few weeks. If you're as much of a fan of the other Telltale games as I am, you're almost certain to enjoy this one too. I'll be giving 5 stars when none of the scene transitions stutter. This feedback does not apply to the Steam gameplay experience. I'm playing with GOG Galaxy.

I've beaten the first chapter twice now, and I'm absolutely intrigued to see what happens next. It gave me the same sort of feeling that The Walking Dead and Wolf Among Us gave me after their first episodes. The story is tight, the dialog is (mostly) very good, and it's a fresh and unique take on the Batman universe that's extremely grounded and surprising, even so early in the narrative. There are frantic combat moments, extremely engaging detective scenes, and some really clever choice-and-consequence (which is why we love us some Telltale games). The experience pops and tells an incredibly brutal story that emphasizes the descent of a once-proud Gotham into the slum we know, but shown to us with the heft and terror that a PG-13 movie isn't capable of conveying visually. We've seen the squalor, but the murder, homelessness, and drug abuse that creates societal squalor is now front and center. It's a remarkable look into a well-trodden universe. But all is not well in house Telltale, for you see there are bugs. Bad ones. It appears that they didn't code in a way to leave the in-game codex, so I was forced to restart the game multiple times (I later confirmed on the Steam forums that this is a widespread issue). Also, playing the game with an Xbox One controller leads to missed QTE button presses. Switching to a 360 controller fixed the problem, or substituting the shoulder buttons anytime there is a prompt for a trigger (most of the time). The game also has threadbare graphics settings, belying its multiplatform development focus. Even with the in-game AA options on, you'll notice a lot of jagged edges. I got a few frame skips (on a GTX 980) and some textures popped in a few times, but we've played enough Telltale games to know that bugs are part of the package. All of this does drag the experience down from being perfect, and a few vocal performances are forgettable, but the game taken as a whole is a solidly-grounded start. Count me in for this one.