Starting off E3 2016 with a small bang, Telltale Games has released the first set of images from Batman: The Telltale Series, which was first announced in December 2015. It’s the next story-focused game in the spirit of the studio’s other games like The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us.
Considering the studio’s tendency to embrace darker themes, it makes sense for Telltale Games to target the Dark Knight. Dead parents make for a pretty grim start, don’t they? And indeed, Telltale Games co-founder and CEO Kevin Bruner said in a press release that the ” … complex life and fractured psyche of Bruce Wayne has lent itself to becoming a bold evolution of the signature ‘Telltale’ role-playing experience … ” A bold evolution is a bold statement as the studio hasn’t done much to its story-telling mechanics in the games that have been released recently.
“We’ve been hard at work at Telltale creating an all-new iteration of the iconic Batman story that puts players in the suit of billionaire Bruce Wayne, just as much as it will put them behind the mask, deciding how to carefully navigate a complex drama, rich with action, crime, corruption, and villainy lurking around every corner of Gotham City,” said Bruner. Most interestingly, the developers already have some experience in working around these subjects. The Wolf Among Us may feature fantastical creatures, but it’s a well-framed detective story rampant with all the “action, crime, corruption, and villainy” the developer could muster. In other words, there’s some merit to the idea that the studio could pull this off in a good way.
There’s a good cast to go with the game as well, including game celebrities like Troy Baker as Bruce Wayne (you may remember him as Joel from The Last of Us). There’s also Travis Wilingham, who’s an avid voice actor for games as well as anime. Then there’s Enn Reitel as Alfred Pennyworth, Murphy Guyer as Lieutenant James Gordon, Richard McGonagle as Carmine Falcone, and Laura Bailey as Selina Kyle.
Unfortunately, there’s still no word on when we can expect Telltale Games to come up with an original IP.
The game will be released episodically on consoles, PC/Mac, and mobile devices.