Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

Did Telltale use a real photo of an assassinated diplomat in Batman Season 2?

Garrett Hulfish
By

telltale batman diplomat photo the series episode 1 featured
Death is a theme often dramatized in entertainment vehicles, but the understanding that it is fake makes it much easier to stomach. In the most recent episode of Telltale Studio’s Batman: The Enemy Within, also known as Batman – The Telltale Series: Season 2, however, the game allegedly shows an image of the real body of an assassinated Russian ambassador.

Warning: The photos below contain graphic content. Viewer discretion is advised.

Related Videos

During the second episode, The Pact, an in-game image is meant to show security footage from a recent break-in at the fictional Gotham Brokerage. Within the scene are a couple of bodies, but unlike the background, they appear to be pulled from stock photos.

The episode was only released a few days ago, but eagle-eyed player BroTeamPill (via Eurogamer) recognized the image of the body. The image appears to be a pulled from a photo of Andrei Karlov, a Russian ambassador to Turkey, after he was shot and killed in December 2016. Karlov was hit at point-blank range during the opening of an art exhibit in Ankara.

1 of 2
telltale batman diplomat photo 1
telltale batman diplomat photo 2

The killer was a Turkish police officer who deliberately planned the assassination in a camera-filled public setting to ensure it was recorded. Karlov’s death was reported all around the world. The photographer who took the images went on to win the top prize at the 2017 World Press Photo contest.

Although the photo is stretched on Bruce Wayne’s in-game display, the similarities are evident. It appears that an artist at Telltale may have found the image online and Photoshopped it into the game before checking its source.

Without making any accusations about Telltale’s use of the photo, this isn’t the first time in-game imagery has caused an issue. In a much less graphic mistake by Naughty Dog, an early Uncharted 4 trailer featured uncredited concept art from Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. After acknowledging its error, Naughty Dog took the trailer down and re-uploaded it with a new image. Even when one artist makes a mistake, it can easily be overlooked during playtesting.

We have reached out to Telltale Studios for confirmation or a statement about the image, but have yet to hear back. The article will be updated accordingly with the studio’s response.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Everything we know about The Outer Worlds 2
The spacer looks out over a vast horizon in The Outer Worlds 2 key art.

Not to be confused with The Outer Wilds, the indie title that launched in the same year as The Outer Worlds, The Outer Worlds 2 is an upcoming sequel to the dystopian sci-fi RPG with a healthy dose of corporate commentary made by Obsidian Entertainment, as Xbox announced during E3 2021. The original game was often referred to as a Fallout game but in space, which makes sense because Obsidian was responsible for what many consider one of the best, Fallout: New Vegas. It was a well-received game, though not without some flaws, leading many to wonder whether or not this new universe would ever come back.

After being purchased by Microsoft, Obsidian's future became more stable and, among other game announcements, the latest tease we got was for none other than The Outer Worlds 2. Many (including us) were surprised to see news about this game, and while there isn't much to go on just yet, we can make a few informed guesses on details we will get later on. For now, here's everything we know, and suspect, about The Outer Worlds 2. 

Read more
The next Assassin’s Creed game has been teased ahead of fall reveal
The protagonist of Assassin's Creed: Valhalla shouting in battle and wielding two axes.

During the Assassin's Creed 15th Anniversary Celebration livestream, Ubisoft announced that the next entry in the history-hopping series would be revealed during a special event coming in September.

Assassin’s Creed: 15th Anniversary Kickoff

Read more
Splitgate season 2 might pull you away from Halo Infinite
Splitgate characters fighting one another

Halo Infinite isn’t the only shooter that’s getting a second season this spring. Splitgate Season 2 starts tomorrow and it looks to regain some momentum with new modes, cosmetics, and visual upgrades. It’s a well-timed update, as its larger peers struggle to keep fans hooked. Halo Infinite’s Lone Wolves season has been widely criticized for its lack of new content, while Battlefield 2042 is removing one of its few modes entirely. By comparison, Splitgate’s new update is exciting, bringing some fun new ideas to the portal-based shooter.

I went hands-on with this season’s new content, trying out all three of the game’s upcoming modes: Lockdown, Hot Zone, and Juggernaut. Each one is a welcome addition to the game’s growing roster of playlists, which continues to show that developer 1047 Games is committed to its long-term plan to transform the indie into a “AAA” shooter.
Hold those zones
Of the three new modes, two of them revolve around capturing zones. The pace of each is very different, though. First, I jump into a round of Hot Zone, a mode that features one rotating “hill” that players need to capture and defend to earn points. It’s a fairly standard zone control mode that moves the action around the map, but it’s an especially clean fit with Splitgate’s unique portal feature.

Read more