![]() While my framerate was seldom at 60 FPS, it never dipped below 40 FPS but still had noticeable stuttering. The rest of the game suffered from some pretty bad stuttering. It was to the point where it was just black in the background of a shot. The opening scene takes place in the alley where the Waynes were shot though it was hard to tell as one of the wall had some pretty bad artifacting. To say that it runs poorly would be a terrible understatement. ![]() Unfortunately, this game might be one of the worst that Telltale has put out from a technical perspective. Of course, I doubt that decision will have a permanent effect and will helix back together eventually but Telltale could be on to something interesting in the interim. There is a decision that may be of consequence and that’s the last one. I can’t really describe it without spoiling it but I think you can see where the consequences of the decision are heading when you are confronted with it. Are there so few decisions in this episode that they had to pretend these ones mattered? Given the episode’s conclusion, they were in the game to either pad the game out or throw you off the actual ending to the episode. Any consequence that these decisions would have, bar a line in a later episode, is erased within 15 or 20 minutes of you making them. They were both shown on the end of episode decision recap screen which makes me question what Telltale was thinking. This episode also features one of the great moments of Telltale’s helix story design that I’ve ever seen. There are a couple of decisions you can make based on your political entanglements that are instantly undone. It would have been nice if they kept with the cast introduced in the last episode but I guess that’s just not Telltale’s style. They could have done their own story but switched to fan service at the end of this episode. Telltale seemed in a rush to move from featuring less popular Batman characters that they were working on establishing in their world to introducing big name villains that will have a bit more mainstream appeal. A swerve in the story for the sake of a random plot twist to keep you on your toes isn’t good storytelling. Telltale certainly didn’t do that with the plot proper but I think that they could have done a better job with some of the characters in the game. Speaking of which, this month’s villain was obvious from the game’s second scene. The line basically telegraphs the direction of the story for the rest of the episode. Bruce remembered everything except one line the killer and his father said before he was killed. What I don’t like is that Bruce has a convenient case of amnesia about the night his parents were murdered, that cleared up at the start of this episode. They spent a lot of time creating an alternate version of Gotham rather than rely on the standard tales of Batman’s origins. While Batman’s parents are still dead and Bruce still becomes Batman, the new history of the Waynes that was the focus of Episode One does create a compelling tale for Batman to confront moreso than his villains. ![]() ![]() Telltale’s strength is storytelling, even if they are terrible at presenting the choices you make in that story actually mattering to the story. Unlike the first episode of Batman, this episode doesn’t throw you into the middle of everything saying “It’s Batman! You’re Batman and Bruce Wayne! How cool!” Instead, Telltale throws you neck-deep into the lore they’re creating for their interpretation of Batman. A lot of the questions that are brought up as a result of the new lore that Telltale introduced in the first episode of Batman is resolved in this episode as well. The story is largely compelling, even if the characters aren’t, but the actual execution of the game is so poor that you wonder if Telltale was taking notes on PC ports from Rocksteady’s Arkham Knight. ![]() The Batman series finds an odd middle ground for Telltale. When they half-ass it, people worry that Telltale was nothing more than a flash in the pan and that it’s poor efforts of the past are more indicative of the company’s quality than its critical highs. When the company is focused on putting all of its resources behind a particular game, it gets in the conversation for year-end awards. Telltale is very hit and miss with its many, may different titles. ![]()
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