Same Bat-Choices, New Bat-Channel: Telltale's Batman
Become the Bat
Telltale are making a Batman game. Take a trip to Crime Alley and other Gotham hotspots in the brief teaser below.
I really really really really really really really hope that 90% of the game has me playing as Bruce Wayne, trying to pick the most obnoxious behaviours possible so as to maintain my cover as the world's shittiest billionaire playboy. If there's any justice in the world, I'll be able to take things too far and end up so hungover and bloated with vol-au-vents after a prolonged brunch at the mayor's mansion that I'll sleep through the Joker's diabolical plot to make the entire city giggle itself to death.
"THOMAS WAYNE WILL REMEMBER THIS", the game will say, judging me, as cartoon citizens lie grinning in the streets. As Bruce belches merrily in his sleep, I'll be sad for the city but glad that the cycle of violence has ended. And Thomas won't remember a damn thing - he's dead and young master Wayne is going to have to accept that his caped crusade isn't impressing any ghosts.
Telltale have already come dangerously close to crossing the comic book universe streams. When they announced that they'd be teaming up with Marvel, they were already intimately involved with Fables, a DC property. That Fables exists in DC's Vertigo imprint, outside the main cluster of capes and confused continuity, made the urban fairytale noir seem like an independent project though. Superman was unlikely to show up.
Obviously there's no Telltale shared universe (yet; Poker Night at the Inventory aside) so Batman's not going to be signing up with The Avengers just yet, but it does seem a bit greedy to have both major comic brands under one roof. Traveller's Tales have been doing the same thing with their Lego games - something about the word 'Tale' attracts major licenses, clearly.
Normally I wouldn't give a hoot about voice casting announcements, but I'll be waiting to hear who's on board for Batman. I do like some Kevin Conroy in my ears from time to time.
Batman, which will be an episodic series, begins next year. Telltale's announcement does suggest the Bruce Wayne side of the story will be central, which is good. All joking aside, I'm far more interested in the decisions that go toward maintaining a weird double life than I am in choosing whether to punch Riddler in the face or in the crotch.