I know what you are thinking; “Why is there a review of a Batman game on a horror website?”

Well, have you SEEN Batman? His entire mission is to terrify his foes, and scare them into submission. Hell, a lot of Batman’s stories and villains are rooted in the horror genre, too, so it makes perfect sense, right? Also, he is my favorite superhero, so deal with it.

Telltale Games recently released their latest series based on the adventures of the Dark Knight. Telltale has been knocking it out of the park the last few years, but horror fans will mostly likely know of them from their fantastic The Walking Dead games.

Their latest venture is to show Batman from a new perspective. Not everything you know from Batman’s history will be on display here, allowing the player to make new choices and new versions of the things they know and love.

The game is typical Telltale, playing more as an interactive movie than a “game”, per say. However, that doesn’t stop it from being a lot of fun.

A bulk of your time in this first episode is actually spent as Bruce Wayne, showing the more political side of being a billionaire playboy. In the story, Bruce is trying to help his friend Harvey Dent become the next mayor, to help combat the corruption of Gotham City. Along the way, you’ll have to make some tough decisions about who to associate with, and dig deeper into the Wayne family past.

While you ARE in the batsuit, you are tasked with becoming the world’s greatest detective by scoping out crime scenes to put the pieces together, organizing a plan of attack against the bad guys, AND determining just how far Batman will go when brutalizing his foes. Will he show restraint? Or will he go too far? That is entirely up to you.

I actually had a lot of fun trying to balance the two sides, and determine what choices might be best for the overall experience. While the decisions have not come into play yet, they absolutely will in the future episodes, helping to shape Gotham City into something new.

The unique twists that Telltale included into the story were good enough to keep me interested, and not have to be bogged down by years of bat-lore to understand. This is not the Arkham games, nor does it aim to be. This is its own thing, and I am thankful for that.

Episode 1 was a two hour experience, so a bit on the brief side, but I am looking forward to the next installments…and scaring the hell out of the criminals of Gotham City.

For more on the game, you can visit TellTale’s website.