BATMAN: A TellTale Series

So having acquired Skyrim and The Ezio Collection for Christmas and making a new year’s resolution to play games when I get them rather than waiting 18 months before thinking about playing them, I immediately set about getting balls deep into the remastered edition of Skyrim. However, it takes more than half an hour to install Skyrim so I thought I would crack on with one of the more recent Telltale games. Episode 1 of BATMAN was being given away for free so I played while I waited.

Considering the game is titled BATMAN, it should have been called Bruce Wayne – The Telltale Series as you spend very little time actually playing as Batman. You spend most of the time playing as the playboy billionaire and the storyline sees Bruce take on Harvey Dent, Catwoman, the Penguin and a new villain called Lady Arkham.

With all Telltale games, the story is driven by the decisions you make but I was immediately irritated by this in the first episode. There is a scene where you can chose to intimidate a bad guy into giving you some info or beat it out of him. I chose to intimidate him which involved not beating him up with a metal bar. The dialogue later on assumed that I nearly killed him which is so far removed from what I actually did that I stopped caring about the story outcomes from here on out.

The whole ‘story is derived from the choices you make’ has gone progressively downhill since The Wolf Among Us. The choices in this game essentially take you on a different course to the same inevitable outcome.

A further complaint is the loading times. I almost thought that Skyrim would have fully downloaded by the time the main menu initialised and this made me want to complete the game in as few sittings as possible.

What I did like about the game is the original take on Bruce Wayne’s family and the Gotham environment. Seeing the Penguin as a young man the same age as Bruce was very different as was Harvey Dent’s connection to Bruce from the outset. Other positives also relate directly as a comparison to Game of Thrones. This Telltale game felt a lot cleaner and more polished that this last one I played and there were nowhere near as many glitches or crashes. H ere still present but still, an improvement is worth mentioning.

One noticeable difference between this and other Telltale games is the sheer volume of quicktime events. Some sections string between 10 and 20 button presses in a row. These are quite forgiving though, in terms of the time you are given to do them and also there is no punishment for pressing the wrong combo as long as you get the right one before the time runs out.

The music and effects are very much in keeping with the Arkham series so, despite being completely different in terms of story, it doesn’t feel totally removed from the universe.

Achievements – 1,000 Points – 30 Achievements

There’s not really a lot to say here. Play the game from start finish making whatever decisions you want and you will net them all. Again, it’s a little disappointing because it would have been nice to try some of the different paths and I don’t have the time or patience to play through the game again, not with so many other games I haven’t even started yet.

All in all it’s a solid narrative gaming experience if a little heavy on the quicktime events. A welcome addition to the Telltale series but further confirmation that nothing will beat The Wolf Among Us.

Batman: Arkham Knight

I’m probably getting a little ahead of myself with this review but I’ve finished the game and all the DLC as of 31 December 2015 (which shows I’m a little behind the times in terms of these reviews) so I’m going for it... failed. New DLC released in January but more on that later.

This is technically the third instalment in the Batman Arkham series as many claim that Arkham Origins isn’t a true title in the series because it’s made my different people. It also carries online multiplayer achievements which is why I’ve decided not to go there yet and focus on this newest release - and the correct chronological sequel.

Arkham Knight sees you become the Batman once again and with Joker gone, you are left to battle it out with Scarecrow, the lesser villain from the franchise, and then this guy called the Arkham Knight shows up on some kind of revenge mission to kill Batman.

Scarecrow has apparently called in favours from all the other villains who aren’t dead so when you are bored of trying to stop Scarecrow releasing his fear gas into the city, you can take a side trip to take down one of the other bad guys. Or simply go around picking up the Riddler’s trophies which are scattered across the city in typical fashion. If I was a super villain, that’s definitely what I would do – go around setting up underground race tracks to test Batman’s Batmobile driving ability, and also throw around a load of trophies and only agree to try and stop Batman if he finds them all. What a load of crap.

I have to say that Gotham does look really good. The world is really well designed and for a sandbox, it is not too big and once you have the necessary Batman upgrades, you can get to one side of the city from the other in a matter of seconds. This makes the overall level design really player-friendly which makes a nice change.

Now, a lot of people cry their eyes out over the Batmobile and the fact that you have to use it for certain parts of the game. While I sort of understand this, I don’t think it should attract the level of furore that it does. I mean, yes they could have cut down on the amount it was used but they could have also made it a total shit bag to control through under development which is typically what happens to games when they introduce obligatory vehicle sections. Instead, the Batmobile is forgiving in its control systems and allows you to easily navigate through tight corners and through streets littered with debris. Some people complain about the ‘tank’ function, but honestly, it’s like any other control function in any game. It does work when you get used to how it works. People don’t often complain that the combos in Street Fighter are hard to do so why are people complaining about being able to control the tank function properly, which is basically complaining that they can’t press the right buttons at the right time.

The combat is the other main gameplay element and once again they have done a lot of work on making sure that it is as seamless as possible. It is very possible to get through most fights without being hit if you time your moves correctly and use the correct moves all the time. The game will punish you for trying to be cheap so if you spam a certain attack that is meant to be used on another enemy type, you will most likely get smashed up.

Achievements – 2,000 Points – 113 Achievements

Now there is a lot here so the first thing I’m going to celebrate is the fact that there are NO MULTIPLAYER OR MISSABLE ACHIEVEMENTS!

Right, now on to the main game. You can do most of the original 1,000 Points by playing through the main game and most wanted missions and completing AR challenges. If you get any DLC at all, the AR challenge stars achievement is a joke as you have so many opportunities to get stars across the board that if you suck at predator challenges (or don’t have the patience for them, like me) then you won’t actually need to do them to get the required stars.

The few achievements from the main game that cause people issues are the one for using 15 different moves in one combo, getting five perfect shots with the tank in a row without missing and completing every type of predator takedown. None of these gave me too much trouble and I think the reason that most people don’t have them is that they can’t be bothered to play for them. The 15 different moves is the hardest in my opinion and it carried a whooping 5 Gamerscore with it. Brilliant.

There is one achievement that requires you to play through the entire game again on New Game Plus, something that I found trying because I hate having to listen to the exact same stuff over and over again. I had also done all of the combat AR challenges by this point so not having the counter icon, which is the only noticeable difference between modes, didn’t provide that much of an extra challenge. This achievement didn’t require you to do all the Most Wanted missions again and it doesn’t respawn the Riddler trophies – again, this shows that the creators knew what they were doing for the most part.

Downloadable Content

At the time of writing there have been... hang on... 14 different DLC packs that carry achievements . The main game carried 69 achievements which means that 44 are on offer from the DLC – for another 1,000 points.

There is a lot here but a lot of it is repetitive. There are additional 5 story missions which carry one achievement each and another 5 achievements for getting AR stars in different Batmobiles. There is one title update DLC which requires you to get 21 AR stars with all the different characters you have unlocked. This isn’t particularly difficult but it is very time consuming.

Two of the best DLCs are A Matter of Family and Season of Infamy. A Matter of Family sees you take control of Robin and Batgirl in an abandoned theme park on the trail of the Joker. Season of Infamy adds 4 new most wanted missions to the main game. Both of these add value to the game and the hardest achievement on offer here is in A Matter of Family for locating all of the hidden objects. The tracker covers the entire map so if you can’t find one you could be looking for hours without a guide.

That just leaves the most recent DLC. Challenge Pack 6. They have released 5 other challenge packs (obviously) but none of these carried achievements and Challenge Pack 6 proves to be the most challenging part of going for the 100%.

All the nice things I said about the combat mechanics go out of the window here. The predator challenges are fine, if not a little confusing, and only take an hour or so to get through. The combat challenges however are another kettle of fish. You have to basically be a master at combat combos to get through all three of them. Crime Alley requires to the clear all rounds without getting hit. Three times. Monarch Theatre requires you to get through all rounds in one freeflow. 4 times. Iceberg Lounge requires to get at least a 400 combo against all kinds of enemies and then beat a boss fight.

In order to clear these challenges you need nerves of steel, patience, a really good temperament (and if you don’t, a couple of extra controllers) and least important of all, a sound knowledge of the combat functions.

There are ongoing discussions over which challenge is harder, Monarch Theatre or Iceberg Lounge. In my opinion it is the Iceberg Lounge because you need to concentrate for longer.

Overall, Batman Arkham Knight is a very good game and a rewarding 100% as it stands. However that DLC has taken it out of me. I don’t think I can revisit the game even if they released another pack (although we all know if they do, I definitely will.)