Game review: Batman: The Telltale Series

TimeOut·

19 Aug, 2016 02:30 AM2 mins to read

A scene from the game Batman: The Telltale Series.

Batman has stabbed a policeman in the head, using something that looks like a metal wand.

In a warehouse filled with burnt bodies, the masked menace slides the contraption around the cop's brains until a purple light begins flashing.

He slides it out, pushes a button, and the wand releases something telling - the bullet that killed the cop.

A scene from the game Batman: The Telltale Series.

Piecing together a grisly crime scene is just one of the gruesome gaming experiences on display here. But it's compelling stuff that shows exactly what Telltale are trying to do with the first instalment of their version of Batman.

They're trying to tell a great origins story. Using their graphic novel nous from previous versions of The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones, they succeed.

They're attempting to push their graphic novel style to deliver their most impressive game yet. With engaging dialogue and consistently impressive action sequences, they succeed at that too.

Mostly, though, they want to erase the memory of Batfleck and Zack Snyder's woeful movie reboot earlier this year.

Judging by this, the first movie-length instalment of a five-part series, they also succeed.

Telltale's version of Batman's origins story is bleak, bloody and excellently mature. After an action-packed opening sequence that ends with Batman dangling from a building and Catwoman escaping via skytrain, they set up a convincing story that you'll immediately want to hear more of. You've seen Bruce Wayne angry, but you've yet to see him like this.

There's only one downside: you can't yet play the next four chapters in the series. But there's more than enough here to prove a new Batman rules Gotham now, and his name's not Ben.