Feature - Why Telltale Should Tackle Batman

Those of you who have had the pleasure of playing the episodic adventure The Walking Dead from Telltale Games know just how intense and dramatic they managed to make the experience. If not, then you’ve probably heard some of the buzz about the game or maybe just caught a look at some of the reviews or trailers out there.

Regardless of whether or not you’re familiar with the game, you’d have to be living under a rock not to have heard of The Walking Dead television show, which is now in its fourth season. Familiar with the franchise or not, it would be pretty difficult to argue that The Walking Dead isn’t redefining the world of zombie fiction. What makes all of The Walking Dead’s incarnations so entertaining and unique is the consistent underlying theme that is present throughout, and no, that theme isn’t zombies.

What most engages me about The Walking Dead isn’t the violence or the undead, but rather the ways that characters cope with those things and how their psychology is shaped by them. This is all the more true of Telltale’s The Walking Dead, as the player is the one reacting and making the difficult decisions.Since Telltale have proven equal to the mature and sophisticated narrative of The Walking Dead universe, I think that they would be the perfect developers to pick up Batman once Rocksteady Games finishes up. Sure, Arkham Asylum was great and Arkham City even more so, but I feel like they let the narrative fall off in favor of more action.

For me, Batman has always been about Bruce Wayne’s fanatical obsession with crime and how it is so similar to his enemies’ obsessions with death, power or wealth. It’s what goes on behind the mask that makes Batman different from other costumed vigilantes and this comes out with much more clarity in Batman comics (graphic novels, whatever) rather than games. Another downside to action-heavy Batman games is that we hardly get to see any Bruce Wayne at all, which can make it difficult to grasp the full extent of his psychological damage.With Telltale at the helm of a Batman game, the player could actually make decisions for Bruce, giving them a chance to actually impact the course of the plot rather than just jumping through hoops. It would also provide a much better basis for the detective aspect of Batman’s talents, which I think were oversimplified in recent iterations. On top of this, Telltale’s episodic approach to their games is a perfect fit for a Batman narrative, as they have a huge variety of characters, locations and events to fallback on when expanding the story.

Just as the cell-shaded graphics of The Walking Dead game serve to emphasise the dark and gritty atmosphere of that world, so too would they enhance the suffocating gloom of Gotham City and its inhabitants. Pretty much everything about Telltale’s artistic style screams Batman in my opinion and it would be fantastic to see what they could do with such a well-developed franchise. If you’ve read some of the classic Batman comics like The Killing Joke, Hush, A Death in the Family, Arkham Asylum or The Dark Knight Returns, then you probably have a pretty good idea what I’m talking about.

You might even be thinking the same thing as me when it popped into my head: why didn’t I think of this before?In Short: With Rocksteady soon to polish off their last entry in the Arkham series with Arkham Knight, I think it's time for Telltale to take up the Batman reigns.

Feature - Why Telltale Should Tackle Batman on ClickOnline.com