When You Walk Through the Gotham, You Better Watch Your Back
By Darth_Navster 12 Comments
Note: Minor spoilers for Batman: The Telltale Series.
For as much as I’ve enjoyed Batman stories over the years, I’ve always subscribed to the notion that the Caped Crusader is always the least interesting character in his stories. This is definitely not a unique opinion to have about the iconic hero, but whether it’s the Joker, James Gordon, or any other charismatic Gothamite, the Bat’s brooding, tight-lipped schtick pales in comparison to the various personalities he encounters. Batman: The Telltale Series’s retelling of the Dark Knight’s adventures is no different in this regard, but what’s new is the character that most dampens Batman’s shine is himself, or rather, his alter ego Bruce Wayne. Telltale’s focus on the man behind the mask opens up an aspect of the character that was minimized in previous video game adaptations, and as a result makes for exciting narrative and gameplay potential. Furthermore, by making some smart tweaks to our hero’s origin that reframes how he views his fight for justice, the episodic series manages to craft a distinct Bat-universe that drew me in despite a weariness for more stories featuring the famed cowl.
Batman: The Telltale Series very much follows in the formula of previous releases by the developer. There’s a five episode season, there are the trappings of a modern adventure game, the story superficially adapts to the player's’ choices, and action scenes amount to QTE button presses. It speaks to how consistent the formula remains in that I hadn’t played one of these since The Walking Dead season one and didn’t miss a beat. Unfortunately, with this sort of consistency comes a game engine that is being asked to do a lot more than it was designed for, and the Xbox One version of the game is full of bugs related to audio syncing, texture loading, camera placement, and sluggish framerate. Despite these issues, I found myself pressing forward simply based on Telltale’s fresh take on the iconic character’s well-worn story.
What makes this version of Batman so intriguing is its raising of a simple question: How did the Waynes become the most powerful family in the corrupt, crime-ridden city of Gotham without getting their hands dirty? The game’s answer is just as simple: They couldn’t. Indeed, by the end of the first episode, information comes to light that Thomas Wayne had collaborated with the city’s crime bosses in order to amass wealth and control Gotham. Later episodes detail the elder Wayne’s many crimes, including false imprisonment and assassination of his many enemies, and the revelations shatter Batman’s view of his crusade. The fortune and privilege he uses to fuel his campaign against crime was in fact generated by creating the conditions for that very crime to flourish, and many of the villains he faces were once victims of his father. These contradictions make for a fascinating re-alignment in Bruce Wayne’s moral compass while he works to rectify his family’s innumerable sins.
In many ways Telltale’s take on Batman comes rooted in a post-Great Recession world. With income inequality ever-growing and the regular drumbeat of wealthy individuals implicated in corruption scandals and abuse of power, there has been a growing distrust for the moneyed elite. Why then would audiences find a morally pure benevolent billionaire who takes the law into his own hands all that interesting? By compromising the Wayne family’s seemingly perfect facade, the hero is diminished in a way that no previous work has. Batman is now simply another impure cog in Gotham’s uncaring machinery.
One thing that modern Batman stories seem to struggle to justify is whether the large outlay of resources required to don the cowl could be put to better use in treating Gotham’s many ills. Rather than paying for a cutting edge Batmobile, wouldn’t it be more effective to put that money into improving schools? Rather than building a network to spy on citizens, couldn’t that effort be used to give the city free internet? But you can’t make a blockbuster film or bestselling comic book by having Bruce Wayne simply glad hand politicians and write checks, so extraordinary circumstances come up to make the Bat’s presence justified. Perhaps Gotham is a literal warzone of clashing gangs, or the police are corrupt to a man, or there’s a wide world of super-powered villains that no average human can fight. The developers at Telltale seem to understand this conundrum and smartly focus on the duality of Bruce Wayne and Batman and how each persona interacts with Gotham’s many systems.
The Bruce Wayne of Telltale’s imagining seems to understand that in order for meaningful and lasting change to take root in Gotham, there must be a fundamental realignment in how the city functions. To that end he funds initiatives like a new psychiatric hospital to offer more humane treatment compared to the ghastly Arkham Asylum. He also pledges his support for the mayoral campaign of Harvey Dent, who vows to clean up the corruption of Mayor Hill’s current administration. As such, much of the game has the player outfitted in Wayne’s bespoke suits as he navigates Gothamites’ competing interests through dialog. This conveniently compliments Telltale’s writing strengths and their excellent cause and effect system. There’s a building tension as Bruce must tactfully balance what’s best for the city, what’s best for those he cares about, and what’s best for him.
In many ways this aspect of the game reminded me of the The Wire, where an individual’s actions are shaped and limited by the institutions and machinations that surround them. Now, I certainly don’t mean that Batman: The Telltale Series rises to the quality of writing in The Wire, but its emphasis on systems affecting a city’s fortunes certainly evokes David Simon’s opus. Like the semi-fictional Baltimore, the overlapping systems and motivations that keep Gotham humming require that the player carefully consider how to deploy the vast resources at their disposal, often with incomplete information. It’s surprisingly nuanced, but it is ultimately undermined by the story’s dullest aspect: Batman.
Given the game’s title, it’s no surprise that the titular hero gets ample screen time. Batman’s portrayal comes across as fairly conventional. He wears an armored suit, wields a bunch of high-tech gadgets, speaks with a low growl, and punches a whole bunch of dudes in the face. Bruce dons the cowl whenever the story calls for him to take a sledgehammer to his problems, and unsurprisingly this is where the game’s nuances are smashed away. There’s minimal dialog in the Batman sequences and action is paramount. Unfortunately, this is also where Telltale’s game design also stumbles. In addition to the engine’s bugs feeling more pronounced in these segments, the action sequences are boring QTEs that awkwardly slows down the choreography while also failing to provide the player with a feeling of control. While there are slower-paced investigation scenes that are inoffensive, it never feels like there’s enough to prevent me from yearning to get back into Bruce’s imported loafers.
I can’t help but feel that Telltale could create something extraordinary were they unshackled from the demands of their various licenses. The Bruce Wayne half of Batman: The Telltale Series feels like a different, better game than the Dark Knight’s segments, and I wish that there was more of the former than the latter. To the game’s credit, there are scenarios in the game that allow the player to engage as either Bruce Wayne or Batman, and I hope that season 2 offers more of those segments. Despite my ever-increasing Bat-fatigue, the developers have managed to craft a compelling story that offers a new perspective on our hero’s well-worn mythos. If that’s enough to intrigue the overwhelmed Bat-fan within you, then Telltale’s latest may be worth checking out.
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