Batman Telltale Series – “Episode One – Realm of Shadows” Review

Enter the fractured psyche of Bruce Wayne and discover the powerful and far-reaching consequences of your choices as the Dark Knight. In this gritty and violent new story from the award-winning creators of The Walking Dead – A Telltale Games Series, you’ll make discoveries that will shatter Bruce Wayne’s world and the already fragile stability of a corrupt Gotham City.

In the classic Telltale style, the artwork is top notch and the story is up there. The story is early on in Batman’s vigilante career as he is seen as a vigilante to Jim Gordon, the media, and his foes.

Taking on foes there are a few in this episode, from Catwoman to Oswald Cobblepot (The Penguin) and Carmine Falcone the crime boss in charge of decaying Gotham to the pit it has become. Now I’ve played my fair few of telltale’s games in the past my favorite being the walking dead series, which was amazing and cannot wait until the third season, however recently I’ve found these niggling bugs in their games and if it’s just me, well then I’m sorry but every time it happens. This was played on Xbox One and a massive thank you to Xbox for supplying the code for this great game.

My first issue is during some QTE (Quick Timed Events) scenes the sound is either catching up with the action or its mute altogether…and trust me I’m not deaf nor was my TV on mute. It happened in an episode of the Game of Thrones series and also in The Walking Dead: Michonne series. It really bugs me that this happens as the sound of the combat is what keeps you focused in this QTE which are amazing but I’ll touch on them later. The other issue that seriously bugs me is when the dialogue options appear at the bottom of the screen if you’re playing this on Xbox One and you have a friend come online their GT will block out the responses available to you which is frustrating as hell. Especially if you have a short amount of time. This is something that Xbox and Telltale can fix but I’m going into it as this game deserves more than a rant about a silly little bug.

As touched on before the story is based on an early Bruce Wayne and he is helping Harvey Dent run for Mayor, as Bruce says “One party from me and my friends and you will never have to run for mayor again”. We begin with five henchmen infiltrating the Mayors offices and trying to break into his safe room, cue Batman to enter and take them out, Batman’s main ploy is to instill fear in his opponents and this is a fine example of that, he toys with them hanging them up one by one until he begins a one on one with one henchman and absolutely destroys him.

This time around the QTE has a build up bar in the bottom right of the screen which when full allows him to unleash a final blow to his opponent. The QTEs are a lot faster in this game but the time does slow down but you still will find yourself on the edge of your seat anticipating them. So as he finishes off the henchmen to his surprise a saucy young minx is stealing the exact thing those henchmen were attempting to steal…who is this treacle sneaking around behind the dark knights back? Well of course it is Catwoman but again like I said it is early on and she is not known in Gotham yet so a fight begins on the roof between Batman and Catwoman (this is where I witnessed the sound error) back and forth battle occurs and the end result leaves batman to stop woman from falling to her death but the sneaky thief has something up her paws and manages to steal Batman’s grappling hook and sore of to the distance. Round one to Catwoman.

However, she doesn’t get away with the loot and batman begins to uncover what was on the encrypted hard drive. Only to be drawn away from a house party in aid of Harvey Dent as Bruce is helping him get elected. Some of the dialogue options are funny also as it allows to be a humble Bruce Wayne or the arrogant Bruce Wayne you see in some of the early films. The choice is yours as always.

During this party you are confronted by Vicky Vale a reporter who in past films and comics has been romantically involved with Bruce she wants to understand what makes him tick but he just palms her off in this instance as in walks Carmine Falcone the biggest mob boss in Gotham, He was invited by Harvey and all eyes are on him and Bruce as Falcone has many votes in his pocket and could be valuable to Harvey. To say he requests an audience with Bruce is an understatement, he basically demands it, unfortunately, the option to slap him in the face was unavailable…come on Telltale!

The story unfolds more but I won’t embark on releasing that information has I hate spoilers I’ll let you play it first. But what I will say is that it is a cool and refreshing story that really brings batman from the darkness and into a new light.

Throughout the episode, Batman uses his detective skills to piece together scenes and link evidence together to uncover what happened. This is really cool is slightly similar to the Detective work in the Arkham games. You also have the ability to plan your attack, you use your drone to identify goons in the nearby room and plan on how you’re going to take them out. Again this uses the link move you use in detective mode, but apart from that it is the same controls as the past Telltale games, limited walking, and point and click controls with the dialogue options using the face buttons and QTEs using sticks, triggers and face buttons. Although there is one new QTE and that is hitting a face button and a trigger at the same time, this is normally used when the bat signal is filled up with correct quickly timed button mashes.