Video Game Review: Batman: The Telltale Series, Episode 1

The first episode of Batman: The Telltale Series is free on the Windows store. You can play it on your Windows computer or on the Xbox I think. Here’s the link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/batman-the-telltale-series/9nblggh4sq91

It is only free for four more days as of the writing of this post.

Here’s the review.

A while back I tried the Walking Dead series from Telltale Games and did not enjoy it. Since this episode of Telltales Batman was free, I decided to give their games a second chance.

If you aren’t familiar with their video game style, Telltale basically make adventure games that are reminiscent of the choose you adventure style books. You have limited control of your character and gameplay generally consists of quick time events and narrative decisions. Their most popular series relate to popular franchises like Game of Thrones, the Walking Dead, and Borderlands.

This episode is split into five chapters and the story starts from the beginning of Batman’s career. Bruce Wayne has been fighting crime as Batman for a bit of time now and is assisting Harvey Dent in his run for mayor of Gotham City. It’s clear that Batman has yet to run into any of his major super villains and in this first episode, he meets some of them for the first time.

What I like about this episode is that Telltale is clearly intent on rewriting the Batman history. Everything seems to be fair game from Batman’s parents to super villains back stories. You can tell that the characters will follow similar trajectories as their comic book or movie counterparts, but there will likely be some twists on those characters along the way.

In regards to the audio, the music and voice acting are great. I recognized the voices of Laura Bailey and Troy Baker and, as a fan of their work, enjoyed hearing them in this game.

In terms of gameplay, there was little to do. This is an unabashed adventure game. In other words, it’s your narrative decisions that matter, not your reflexes or skill. If you don’t like that, don’t play the game.

Score: 6.5/10 Not a bad start and actually got me wanting to buy the rest of the episodes. Hard to criticize a game that was free.

TV Show Review: Star Wars Rebels Season Three Episode One

Damn, Ezra. You got real scary.

Star Wars Rebels returns with an hour long special and it was all right. I mean they pretty much just took care of all the scary possibilities set up at the end of last season and returned everything to the status quo. The only real, lasting change is Ezra’s haircut and that he’s grown taller.

In this episode, Ezra is made the team leader for the next mission and leads the crew to steal some Y-Wings. We get introduced to Admiral Thawn. It’s mostly just set up for the rest of the season. No major developments really.

I do like exploration of the force and the relationship between the Jedi and the Sith. That was only briefly touched upon though.

Score: 5.4/10 I imagine that the best is yet to come. I hope that the best is yet to come. This episode just felt like a preface towards answering all the questions and plot threads left by last season.

TV Show Review: True Detective (2014) Season Two Episodes One and Two

The first season of True Detective conveyed very specific things to viewers. It gave a glimpse at the gritty, lower levels of Louisiana society. You got a great character study on McConaughey’s and Woody Harrelson’s characters. You got a freaky crime mystery. And most importantly, the tone of True Detective season one is unique, somber and often terrifying.

True Detective season two does not feel unique. It feels like a series trying and failing at recreating what was great about season one. And they are trying, it’s just not working right now. I think a big part of the reason for this is that it the casting. McConaughey and Harrelson were perfectly cast for season 1. Season two… isn’t as good. There are a lot of core characters versus just the two in season one and I’m not sure they spend enough time with each. There isn’t enough character development. There are also some snippets of Los Angeles and the criminal aspect of that society, but it doesn’t give me the same kind of poignant feeling that rural Louisiana did.

I will give this season some credit. After what happened in episode two, it is clear that this season will try to be a little more unpredictable or shocking than the last.

Score: 5.5/10 This is just a preliminary score. Who knows where the rest of the season will take us. I feel bad for comparing this to the masterpiece of season one. It isn’t as good, but it’s still a satisfactory show.

TV Show Review: Suits (2011) Season Five Episodes One and Two

After these last four seasons, I’ve figured out what I love most about Suits. I love scenes with Lewis and Donna. I love the humor. I enjoy watching Jessica mentor, protect, and smack down the rest of the cast. I enjoy some legal drama, but that isn’t the core of this show to me. I love these characters and how they interact. They’re a family; a work family and what I love about suits is about watching the drama between such close coworkers.

What I don’t like about Suits was the whole Mike conflict where every episode someone was going to figure out Mike didn’t go to law school. It was an interesting idea for the pilot, but after four seasons you’re just beating a dead horse. I’m very glad they left that plot line behind. I also tire of seeing the predictable cheating/love triangle that every piece of mainstream entertainment includes just for the heck of it. Love triangles are predictable, derivative, and — in my opinion — just muscle memory for writer to include into a story line. I don’t enjoy them and I’m very happy they left that stuff behind. The closest thing to cheating and breaking up is Donna going to Lewis and I love that plot line.

I feel this season is finally the season that gets it exactly right. These first two episode leave out all the crap from the other seasons I did not enjoy and gets right to what I love: the legal work drama, the humor and the heart of the characters. Harvey and Lewis fight like brothers. Donna and Harvey are not lovers nor are they brother and sister, but the separation is still poignant. A little legal jargon is welcome, but it doesn’t need to be an existential crisis each and every time. Mike is with Rachel and everything is fine… for now. I hope it stay that way. Leave cheap love triangle plot devices out. Discussion of prenuptial agreements is fine and apt for a legal drama. More jokes are great and I love any scenes with Lewis and Donna.

Score: 7/10 Great opening. Had everything I loved about Suits in these opening episodes. Looking forward to the rest of the season.

TV Show Review: Star Wars Rebels (2014) Season Two Episode One

Details: Airs on Disney XD.

All you need to know about this episode is one thing: Vader.

The most surprising thing about Star Wars Rebels and this episode especially is how much of the actual Star Wars movies and canon is involved in this show. If you don’t know, ever since Disney purchased the Star Wars franchise, all the past Star Wars stories (books, television, video games, etc.) were confirmed to have nothing to do with the movies and were decidedly not part of the Star Wars canon. Everything that comes afterwards however (including television shows and comic books) is now part of the official canon from the movies and is all being overseen by a Star Wars brain trust somewhere in the Disney corporation.

With that understanding, this episode becomes that much more amazing. Historically, the use of Darth Vader has never been permitted to a certain extent. This episode shows that now he can be. In fact, Star Wars Rebels goes ahead and writes new history for the Star Wars franchise and — miraculously — it all resides within the same universe as the Star Wars movies.

Accordingly, we can now understand that the Clone Wars television series is part of the official Star Wars canon as well as the character Ahsoka Tano. All the characters in the show: part of the official canon. The possibility exists that we may even see them in the movies one day!

To further reinforce the idea of how official this show is now, actors from the Star Wars films reprise their roles for this episode. James Earl Jones actually does the voice of Vader. Billy Dee Williams reprises his role of Lando Calrissian. And I’m happy to say Ashley Eckstein reprises her role of Ahsoka Tano. Given this cast, the episode was a real treat.

As for the story, it was tense and exciting. Vader takes the role of master schemer and formulates a plan similar to the one in A New Hope (tracking device, then ambush). He also presses the tension by becoming something like the Terminator; an unstoppable force that you can only defend against and flee from. The best parts of the episode are seeing the protagonists get ambushed by Vader and try to escape his wrath. You truly get a sense for how powerful he is and how feared he is in the Star Wars universe.

Score: 7.5/10 A fun episode that introduces possibilities for future episodes. Will we see Mark Hamill reprise his role as Luke Skywalker? Hamill has become a legendary voice actor in his own right for his work as the Joker. Less likely is Harrison Ford who is still exclusively a big time movie actor. Only time will tell and — as this episode expresses — anything is possible.