Telltale’s BATMAN Game to Premiere This Summer
Adventure game publisher Telltale confirmed yesterday over Twitter (via Head of Creative Communications Job Stauffer) that their new series based on the Batman character will be premiering this summer. At the same time, the company announced the 3rd season of their The Walking Dead games starting up in the fall.
https://twitter.com/jobjstauffer/status/739552648915886080
This new line should prove a sea change, both for Telltale and the Batman franchise in general. To date, most if not all games featuring the caped crusader have been firmly in the action or action/adventure genre. But Telltale, formed by LucasArts alumni who were let go after a spate of project cancellations in 2004, has always been primarily a publisher of adventure games. And while very little information is available as to the upcoming game, it is a reasonably safe bet it will follow the Telltale formula of inventory-and-puzzle-based adventures.
After sequels to LucasArts’ Sam & Max and Full Throttle games were binned, the company formed more or less as a way to resurrect those and other former LucasArts franchises, most notably the Monkey Island games.
Since that time, they have published a few original titles, but have mostly carved a niche for themselves creating adventures based on licenses for movies (Jurassic Park, Back to the Future), TV shows (Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead), even other games (Tales from the Borderlands, Minecraft: Story Mode). This, however, will be their first take on superheroes (no, Strong Bad doesn’t count).
Still, there are definite possibilities here. The world of Batman has long been known for introspection and story depth, the dichotomy of Bruce Wayne/Batman being a popular theme for writers to play with. It is entirely possible that the Telltale team have been able to take this material and run with it, allowing players to really get inside the cowl for the first time.
In any case, gamers should not have very long to wait. With E3 coming in only a few days, it is quite possible we shall know more very soon.
(Kelly Luck is still waiting for that Full Throttle sequel. Her other SciFi4Me work can be read here.)
