Telltale’s Batman Game Continues to Change the Dark Knight Lore in Satisfying Ways

<p><span style&equals;"font-family&colon; Georgia&comma; serif&semi;"><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; large&semi;">Last year&comma; Batman&&num;8217&semi;s Telltale video game series managed to win me over by presenting a fractured mirror version of the Batman story&period; Nearly every installment featured popular characters and plots that deviated wildly from their original comic book counterparts&period; For example&comma; Thomas Wayne was a crime lord in Gotham City who killed and hurt many people for his own personal gain&period; He teamed up with the likes of other well known criminals&comma; such as the flamboyant gangster Carmine Falcone and the corrupt Mayor Hamilton Hill&period; Unlike the comics&comma; The Penguin was a childhood friend of Bruce Wayne&comma; and instead of a fat bloated penguin looking bad guy&comma; he is a tall and slim mercenary&period; Moreover&comma; the first season&&num;8217&semi;s core villain was an astonishing re-imagination of Bruce&&num;8217&semi;s perpetual girlfriend&comma; Vicki Vale&period; <&sol;span><&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"western"><span style&equals;"font-family&colon; Georgia&comma; serif&semi;"><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; x-large&semi;">It Gets Even Better<&sol;span><&sol;span><&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-family&colon; Georgia&comma; serif&semi;"><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; large&semi;">With all these shifts in the story line it made it increasingly difficult to make choices&period; Do I really want to help out these new devious versions of my favorite characters&quest; At times I wanted to scream out&comma; &&num;8220&semi;what should I do next&quest;&&num;8221&semi;&period; Your choices&comma; like in all the Telltale series&comma; change the direction of the game and morph the well known Batman lore even more&period; For example&comma; <em>Batman &&num;8211&semi; The Enemy Within<&sol;em> starts with a familiar setting&period; The sequence begins with Bruce Wayne scoping out a gambling den of an arms dealer&comma; which subsequently gets invaded by the Riddler&&num;8217&semi;s thugs&period; This seems like the beginning any other Batman scenario&comma; but it takes place in a universe where Batman&&num;8217&semi;s father was a Crime Lord himself&period; Not only is Batman trying to avenge his parents death and clean up Gotham&comma; he&&num;8217&semi;s also trying to renew his tarnished family image&period;<&sol;span><&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-family&colon; Georgia&comma; serif&semi;"><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; large&semi;">If you like Telltale&&num;8217&semi;s Batman series you may also try your hand at interactive betting games&period; There are <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;slotswebsites&period;org&sol;new&sol;">so many brand new slot titles to choose from<&sol;a> and keeping up with all of them is sometimes hard to do&period; If not&comma; let&&num;8217&semi;s back to Batman &lpar;I&&num;8217&semi;m Batman&excl;&rpar;&period; <&sol;span><&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"western"><span style&equals;"font-family&colon; Georgia&comma; serif&semi;"><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; x-large&semi;">Most of Your Decisions are About Batman&&num;8217&semi;s Personal Relationships<&sol;span><&sol;span><&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-family&colon; Georgia&comma; serif&semi;"><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; large&semi;">Similar to other Telltale series&comma; <em>Batman&colon; The Enemy Within<&sol;em> teases players with a series of narrative decisions&period; Like the past series&comma; this release doesn&&num;8217&semi;t stray too far from Telltale&&num;8217&semi;s usual template&period; You are still being forced to make decisions in split seconds&comma; amidst a flurry of diverse actions and conversational scenarios&period; Choices are usually focused on building relationships or maintaining trust between Bruce and other characters&period; Each one of these decisions has a level of tension to it&comma; as each one of them can either bring you closer or take you further away from the original Dark Knight Lore&period; <&sol;span><&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-family&colon; Georgia&comma; serif&semi;"><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; large&semi;">It is clear one of the main objectives in this game is decide which relationships are more important to prioritize&period; For instance&comma; you will have to decide if it it&&num;8217&semi;s okay to lie to Lucius Fox or Jim Gordon for the overall greater good&period; You will also have to ponder what kind of Joker&comma; John Doe&comma; will turn out to be based on your interactions with him&period; At this stage of his development&comma; John Doe is a wannabe best-friend&comma; and he seems very needy&period; He is ill-suited for a world outside of Arkham Asylum and leans hard on Bruce Wayne for attention&period; In the end&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s your individual choices that will decide his character&&num;8217&semi;s fate and many others&period; <&sol;span><&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"western"><span style&equals;"font-family&colon; Georgia&comma; serif&semi;"><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; x-large&semi;">Your Choices Do not Always Matter<&sol;span><&sol;span><&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-family&colon; Georgia&comma; serif&semi;"><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; large&semi;">However&comma; you should be aware that there are some parts of the plot that cannot change&comma; no matter the choices you make&period; One prime example of this is while Bruce is investigating a weird puzzle box left behind by the Riddler&comma; Lucius Fox&comma; the longtime Wayne family friend and research scientist&comma; dies a tragic death&period; You may have want to save him in this moment&comma; but the game simply won&&num;8217&semi;t let you&period;<&sol;span><&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-family&colon; Georgia&comma; serif&semi;"><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; large&semi;">While I found Lucius Fox&&num;8217&semi;s passing striking&comma; it helped ramp up the stakes in the game&period; It made me think long and hard about all the times Lucius Fox assisted Bruce in the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight Series&comma; and how many of the achievements of Batman would have been impossible without his assistance&period; Knowing the integral role he played in other Batman iterations&comma; it only added to the loss I felt towards this goodhearted character&period; Might this loss make Batman even more jaded and cynical than he already is&quest; Time will tell&period; <&sol;span><&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-family&colon; Georgia&comma; serif&semi;"><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; large&semi;">The first episode of <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;vg247&period;com&sol;2017&sol;07&sol;19&sol;the-wolf-among-us-2-the-walking-dead-the-final-season-coming-in-2018-batman-the-enemy-within-out-in-august&sol;">Batman&colon; The Enemy Within <&sol;a>closes with a few more reveals that should get players coming back for more in subsequent episodes and seasons&period; One of them alters a pillar of the Batman lore&comma; and the other teases another radical reinvention&period; While the game deviates wildly from the source material and changes the background of Batman&comma; as we know and love&comma; it does it in a satisfying and unique way&period; Similar to how the TV show Gotham is re-imaging the beginnings of Batman&&num;8217&semi;s tale&comma; this game series by Telltale reinvigorates the whole series and let&&num;8217&semi;s our choices be the true teller of the story&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s definitely worth a play&period;  <&sol;span><&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;