TomDeBomb

I am a huge Batman fan. I love the character and have enjoyed all other Telltale games I've played. I don't mind the copious amount quick time events or the lack of impactful choices that their games typically feature. I'll be writing a short review for each episode giving them all a score. Then I'll use the average score (rounding up) to dictate the final score for Batman: The Telltale Series developed by Telltale Games (obviously). EPISODE 1: I really enjoyed this episode from start to finish. It was well balanced as well as paced. The acting was incredible particularly from the brilliant Troy Baker as Bruce/Batman and Richard McGonagle as the main villain Carmine Falcone. Baker has an excellent range, I mean he voiced Batman twice, Joker twice, Robin and even Two-Face for crying out loud. Hearing him deliver, "write it down, now" in a Conroy-esc voice and tone sent shivers down my spine. Perfect casting. I'm definitely interested in the takes Telltale has on these villains particularly Penguin who has a shockingly lean and lanky build for the character. Overall the atmosphere is thick and the story is well written and engaging. Telltale clearly has a great understanding of The Batman lore and isn't afraid to be bold and show their own takes on these beloved characters. That makes me excited for what's to come. I really enjoyed the detective aspects of this episode as well. Often Batman stories forget that The Caped Crusader is in fact "the world's greatest detective". It was fun to connect the dots and piece together mysteries. The soundtrack is moody and full of gravitas embodying the dark, heroism that Batman embodies. It's up there with Walker's theme for me honestly. I must say though, it didn't seem like my choices affected the outcomes of this episode much. As an example, I thought I was wise refusing to shake Falcone's hand at the manor but it didn't seem to make a difference in the end. Maybe these choices will pay off later. Even if my choices don't make a noticeable mark and even if Telltale's opening phrase "The game series adapts to the choices you make. The story is tailored by how you play" is perhaps exaggerated I enjoyed the opening to Batman: The Telltale Series. I give it a 7/10. EPISODE 2: Immediately this episode establishes a darker more sombre tone. Exploring the fractured, damaged psyche of Bruce and the duality he is forced to confront as the situation gets more personal and tense. Episode 2 seems positively more choice based as a Telltale game should be. There is even an interesting choice given to the player on whether or not to tackle a situation as Bruce or Batman. It becomes apparent this is a younger Batman, early in his career, rash, violent and more headstrong. Some of the plot developments were very interesting and the relationship between Bruce and Alfred is as gripping and tear-jerking as ever. I also really enjoyed the stylistic choice of giving Penguin a creepy, realistic and grungy mask. This episode is definitely shorter than the previous one. And the pacing, though still tight, is poor in some places. In particular, there was some lacklustre, half-baked sections of detective work which let me down since I really enjoyed those scenes in the previous episode. I wasn't a fan of how they tackled Batman's fight scenes. I understand him taking the less stealthy approach considering the point in his career but he simply felt too powerful in the fight scenes. Don't get me wrong, the choreography is brilliant and the action is fun to watch play out but he barely ever takes a hit and only suffers minor setbacks. What makes Batman such an inspiring character in the DC universe is that he is only human. He takes hits, physically and emotionally, he bleeds and loses but he keeps getting up to fight for what's right. All in all, I enjoyed this episode immensely if a little less than the previous one due to a shorter run time, some jarring tonal shifts, less variation and some graphical glitches. I also cannot wait to see how a major final choice on whether to save Harvey or Selina impacts future episodes. I'll give this one a 6/10. EPISODE 3: I'm running out of space to write in depth reviews of each chapter so I'll keep things brief. The 3rd episode had be truly invested in the plot. My criticism with the previous episode was that Batman felt invincible and unstoppable which made him less relatable and the villains less threatening this was remedied in this episode with Batman suffering a crushing setback psychically and mentally. I'm loving Selina and Harvey's character arcs. I'm not sure how to feel about the truly shocking final twist as of yet. I'm so engaged in the plot and can't wait to see where it goes next. My choices didn't seem to affect this episode much unfortunately. Better than episode one but only just so it still gets a 7, but a high seven. 7/10 EPISODE 4: I'm running out of space. Great episode. 6/10 EPISODE 5: 5/10

Kingdom Come: Deliverance developed by Warhorse Studios and released in 2018 is the best game I'll never finish. In this review I'll be going over various topics such as story and characters; visuals, performances and sound design; side content and finally, gameplay and controls. Please enjoy. Hopefully you find this spoiler free review enlightening and helpful. I'll begin by prefacing, I didn't finish Kingdom Come: Deliverance. I'll get onto the reason why later in this review but just know I have sunk a mere twenty five hours into the game. I played the game on PS4. The storyline of Kingdom Come: Deliverance is really rather simple, here is a light summary. A young man, Henry, is thrust into the land of 15th century Bohemia when his village is attacked and his parents killed by a vengeful ruler and his barbaric army. Henry sets out to claim revenge against his parents murderer though that is certainly easier said than done. The concept is sound and compelling. It is a great example of how story can work hand in hand with gameplay in an immersive way. Henry begins the story as a talentless, cheeky trouble maker who can hardly pick up a blade, let along use one. Throughout the game Henry grows into a charismatic, deadly, cunning force who can cut down a bandit without breaking a sweat. His journey is rich, compelling and unpredictable and rarely drags. It is more than enough to keep you glued to the screen. It all feels positively grounded and realistic, because it literally is. The characters are defined and interesting and many have excellent arcs. Perhaps the greatest aspect of Kingdom Come: Deliverance is the painstaking attention to historical accuracy. The world feels so alive like I'm stepping back in time. Peasants beg on the side of muddy roads hoping for even a lick of food, birds flock over dense forests sending their calls all through lush, sun-kissed valleys, its thousands of these little touches that make the land of Bohemia a joy to live in. It's a minor issue but the frequency of sun showers really irritated me, people who have played the game know what I mean. All in all one of the most immersive games I've ever played. The graphics are good. The lighting can, at a handful of times make the game near photorealistic however textures pop ins are ridiculously frequent as are other graphical glitches. Load times are extremely long bordering on three minutes occasionally. Now, allow me to highlight the greatest flaw of the game in my opinion GLITCHES BUGS GLITCHES EVERYWHERE!!!!!! This is what ultimately put me off Kingdom Come Deliverance. From small glitches like texture pop ins and clipping to catastrophic issues like whole quests glitching and extreme game crashes. Awful stuff, even two years after the game was released. Sound design is occasionally inconsistent but mostly authentic feeling and snappy especially in battle and in urban areas. Very present and immersive sound. The voice acting is off-putting at worst and serviceable at best. Major characters are voiced well enough but side characters often feel lazily voiced. I also noticed many of the same voices repeated across several NPCs. The side content for Kingdom Come Deliverance is actually pretty damn excellent. It contains a large amount of activities such as, gambling, hunting, exploring, looting as well as many traditional side quests allowing progression in many different ways. Time never really feels wasted no matter what you're doing. The side quests themselves are fun, lengthy and varied. They all have multiple ways to complete them and they can even be failed altogether. They feel as player driven and choice based as the main questline does. Now, onto gameplay. Combat can be tackled in a variety of ways. Keeping your distance with a bow (my personal favourite), charging in with a longsword or sneaking around slitting throats after a bit of pickpocketing of course. It is extremely grounded and realistic you don't have a reticule when aiming a bow for example, and it takes a lot of getting used to, but it does become quite a bit of fun when learnt. This is no fantasy CRPG where you have a million ways to spec your character, far from it. It is unforgiving and "hardcore", as much as I hate using that word, it seems fitting. Many people don't like the lockpicking minigame but it never bothered me, I found it extremely tough but fair, I didn't play the sneaky type though. I enjoyed all the mechanics revolving around speech as well. The controls are pretty awful. I hate games where you must hold circle to speed up and then have to awkwardly stretch your index finger over to the thumbstick to look around. Feinting, horse movement, locking on and general traversal feels awful. When Kingdom Come Deliverance is running on all cylinders it is an undeniable masterpiece of game design but at its lowest, darkest moments it is a buggy, fiddly catastrophe which is what ultimately what put me off.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]