Are the Telltale Batman games worth it?

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I can get both seasons of Batman for $15 on PSN right now. I've been interested in them as I've heard the occasional good thing about them. What I mainly want to know is if the writing and choices are good enough to be worth the probably 20 hours it would take to play through both seasons.

Walking Dead S1 was great but I haven't played another Telltale game that I enjoyed nearly as much. Walking Dead S2 was "meh" and I couldn't really care less about the story for that anymore. Borderlands was decent (6/10), it was entertaining enough but I just didn't find it that funny (or as funny as I thought it could be at least), the finale episode was pretty good though. Wolf Among Us was very up and down for me and probably another 6/10. I forget if I played or watched the opening for Game of Thrones (the 1st episode was free at some point) but it seemed boring as all hell just an hour into that. That's been my history with Telltale games so far.

I guess I'll ask if Guardians is any good as well since I love Guardians but again Telltale hasn't been up to par with their writing for the most part.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Well I?ll tell you this, Phoenixmgs: with your oft-mentioned taste in gameplay I?m surprised you weren?t bored/frustrated as hell with all of them. However, perhaps you like branching narrative games that spin a good yarn, and that?s enough.

My favorite by far is A Wolf Among Us, although I?ve only played The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones (not as good as the show, but serviceable). The others I?m not interested in personally, although if Batman was gritty enough like AWAU I?d probably give it a try. I just really liked the characters and cyberpunk/fairytale setting of the latter, and really hope they do another season down the road.

What didn?t you like about it?

 

[CannibalCorpses]

Nah...they make games for people who don't like playing games. Go watch a film or something instead.

I'd struggle to give any of their games more than 3/10...but then i rate games on gameplay more than anything else and telltale games barely have any.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Well I?ll tell you this, Phoenixmgs: with your oft-mentioned taste in gameplay I?m surprised you weren?t bored/frustrated as hell with all of them. However, perhaps you like branching narrative games that spin a good yarn, and that?s enough.

My favorite by far is A Wolf Among Us, although I?ve only played The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones (not as good as the show, but serviceable). The others I?m not interested in personally, although if Batman was gritty enough like AWAU I?d probably give it a try. I just really liked the characters and cyberpunk/fairytale setting of the latter, and really hope they do another season down the road.

What didn?t you like about it?

I treat Telltale games more like a TV show than a game. The actual "gameplay" is probably less than 5% of the games really. If half the game was trudging through quick-time event combat, then I would totally hate them. I don't like Witcher 3 because most of the game is not comprised of its good writing but the playing of the game where nothing from combat to running around actually plays well. Witcher 3 would've been so much better (and shorter) if it was just a Telltale-like game. Basically, just give me the good stuff and nothing else, don't waste my time.

What I want from a Telltale game (or any game like it) is good writing with the occasional impactful choice that I realize won't impact much of the core storyline like how basically all your important choices in Mass Effect branched off the main storyline. Then, people got mad when that continued to happen, but that's a whole other thing that's been discussed ad nauseam.

I don't remember Wolf Among Us with great detail now. I recall not being that satisfied with the plot twists and overall ending. It started off really good but faltered probably episode 3 or 4. After playing it, I recall reading how the game had a good deal of rewrites, which made a lot of sense to me and explained much about my overall feeling with the game. Also, I recall reading at some point that season 2 wasn't even going to pick up after the reveal at the very end, which is disappointing as well.

 

[TheFinish]

I mean, for that price, yeah, otherwise, no. Telltale games have nosedived in quality since The Wolf Among Us, and the Batman ones are just bland. They also have a ton of false choices that only lead in one direction no matter what you do so keep that in mind (the first one has a particularly egregious one).

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I mean, for that price, yeah, otherwise, no. Telltale games have nosedived in quality since The Wolf Among Us, and the Batman ones are just bland. They also have a ton of false choices that only lead in one direction no matter what you do so keep that in mind (the first one has a particularly egregious one).

Money isn't the issue. I heard a few people really dig parts of at least the first season so it was kinda on my radar if I saw it go on sale as I have a couple other games to get through anyway. I want to know if it's worth my time to play through it, which you seem to say I shouldn't based on saying it was bland.

 

[jademunky]

Money isn't the issue. I heard a few people really dig parts of at least the first season so it was kinda on my radar if I saw it go on sale as I have a couple other games to get through anyway. I want to know if it's worth my time to play through it, which you seem to say I shouldn't based on saying it was bland.

The first season has some really good points, the character of Harvey Dent is done really well, Ditto the portrayal of Selena Kyle. One thing you might like or dislike is that the story is far more about Bruce Wayne than it is about Batman. Also, without spoiling anything, some major characters in the Batman mythos get rage-inducingly derailed and one character is shown to have abilities they should never be expected to have.

 

[Bilious Green_v1legacy]

I haven't played it myself, but I know that when it launched it had a ton of performance issues. They might have fixed by now, but be aware that it might run very poorly.

 

[jademunky]

I haven't played it myself, but I know that when it launched it had a ton of performance issues. They might have fixed by now, but be aware that it might run very poorly.

I played recently and noticed no real technical issues. They must've fixed.

 

[Potjeslatinist]

I haven't played them, insofar as they can be played, but I have had the story divulged to me, and I'm not going to spoil anything, but it is beyond garbage. It's truly baffling what they did with some of the characters, who the villains are, and why. Apparently it's all buggy and badly optimized as well.

Man I hate Telltale.

If the whole bunch is only the cost of a beer and a pack of Doritos, get a beer and a pack of Doritos instead.

 

[votemarvel]

I didn't play the first season until all episodes were out, so thankfully I missed the major performance issues.

Personally speaking I think the first season was great. Combat is surprisingly fun for scripted quick time events, and perhaps a little too forgiving on when you press.

The graphics I thought were great and a step above A New Frontier which used the same version of their game engine.

Storywise I think it is great, again a step (or two) above the third season of the Walking Dead game. I like that they've not just copied the most popular incarnation of characters and have instead done their own thing and gone in quite different directions with them at times.

Season 2 is also shaping up to be great, with an interesting (though not hugely surprising) twist on a certain villain couple's relationship.

For me the Batman games from Telltale are the best work they've done for a while now.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I didn't play the first season until all episodes were out, so thankfully I missed the major performance issues.

Personally speaking I think the first season was great. Combat is surprisingly fun for scripted quick time events, and perhaps a little too forgiving on when you press.

The graphics I thought were great and a step above A New Frontier which used the same version of their game engine.

Storywise I think it is great, again a step (or two) above the third season of the Walking Dead game. I like that they've not just copied the most popular incarnation of characters and have instead done their own thing and gone in quite different directions with them at times.

Season 2 is also shaping up to be great, with an interesting (though not hugely surprising) twist on a certain villain couple's relationship.

For me the Batman games from Telltale are the best work they've done for a while now.

Cool, I picked up the games actually a day or 2 back as I came across enough positive feedback about the story/characters on Youtube and reddit.

 

[bastardofmelbourne]

No! Noooooo.

Telltale Batman is the only Telltale game I genuinely disliked, and also one of the very few times where I've downloaded a free demo that has convinced me to not buy the game in question.

Setting aside the radical reinterpretation of several key characters, it's just not a very well-written game.

 

[G00N3R7883]

Depends how much of a fan you are of a) Batman and b) Telltale's games. I'm a fan of both, so I enjoyed season 1. Haven't played season 2 yet, waiting to play all episodes together.

I'd say for someone who likes Telltale but doesn't like Batman, skip it. As Batman is a famous character with an already established personality, its not possible to allow the player alot of freedom to make crazy choices that Batman would not make. This is a weak "Telltale" game.

However, if you like Batman, I'd recommend playing it. You get to spend more time with the people outside of their suits - Bruce Wayne instead of Batman, Selina Kyle instead of Catwoman, etc. Plus there's an interesting villain that I wasn't familiar with.

Also, Guardians of the Galaxy is awesome and hilarious, buy it now. Its easily in my top 3 Telltale games, and my top 5 games of 2017.

 

[CriticalGaming]

I don't know how people still give Telltale games any decent reviews. That company has locked into the worst formula I've ever seen. Telltale games are movies with quick time events. The game is quick time events. I just can't understand how people are still on board with them. I mean The Walking Dead was a nice little novelty experience, but everything else they've done has been the same thing with a different skin on it.