Batman: The Telltale Series review: Chapter 1, ‘Realm of Shadows’

From The Wolf Among Us to The Walking Dead, the Telltale franchise has produced some of the best story-based games around. However, more often than not, these episodic adventures fall short of their source material, failing to live up to the high expectations laid out by the likes of Game of Thrones, Borderlands, and Jurassic Park.

So, how does Batman fair? We’ve seen the Caped Crusader’s story presented in dozens of different ways, from acclaimed animated TV series to the recent Arhkam Asylum games; surely, Bruce Wayne’s story has been done to death by now?

Luckily, while Telltale has elected to keep Batman’s origin story relatively similar, various changes to the DC universe make this iteration of the Dark Knight fresh and interesting. For instance, the Penguin’s story has been completely revamped, presenting Oswald as a childhood friend to Bruce. Don’t worry too much comic book fans, the pair fell out soon after and will no doubt come to blows soon enough, but those subtle changes make you wonder whether Harvey Dent really will become Two-Face.

Many of the fundamental characteristics of Batman’s story are are kept the same: Bruce is still an orphan (something we’re reminded of one too many times), left in the care of Alfred, while Catwoman is still a slippery thief with blurred ambitions. Yet, as the chapter goes on, we discover more changes to each person. Without going into spoiler territory, we’re left questioning the Wayne family, and thanks to these subtle changes to the source material we don’t know which way things will go.

Of course, this is just the first chapter in the Telltale story - one that revolves around Dent’s bid to become Mayor of Gotham and Falcone’s dastardly involvement - and it manages to set the groundwork for what could be one of the finer Batman tales of recent memory. Already, I feel invested in these characters, the game playing to Batman’s strengths, the character doing equal amounts detective work to beating up bad guys. Sure, there are occasional moments that could have been shortened (one scene in which you explore wreckage which is particularly tiresome) but the story is interesting enough to carry you forward.

No doubt the smooth visuals and fantastic voice acting also help things along, the only drawbacks being the occasional frame-rate slip on PS4. Once you’re over these minor issues, 'Realm of Shadows' is a quite fantastic chapter, and - if the rest of the series can match its pace - Telltale’s latest story will be an asset to their already fantastic library of adventures.