Hardly Hamilton

Editor’s note: This post was originally published here on the 12th June, 2015. It has been re-uploaded to Hardly Hamilton so that all of my posts are in one place.

Rest in Peace Telltale Games, 2004-2018.

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Written by Josh Hamilton

Telltale Games are working on two new games: a Walking Dead spinoff and the latest in the Dark Knight’s adventures.

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The Walking Dead: Michonne will be a spinoff of the comic book series of the same name, rather than of the popular TV show. Michonne’s adventure will be delivered to players in three parts, exploring her “untold journey during the time between issues #126 and #139.”

“Players will discover what took Michonne away from rick, Ezekiel, and the rest of her trusted group…and what brought her back.”

Samira Wiley of Orange is the New Black fame will voice Michonne, possibly in a bid to separate the game series from her TV counterpart, who is played by Danai Gurira.

Telltale also revealed that they have been working on a Batman game during The Game Awards, 2015. They released a teaser trailer to set the tone of the game, and its art style seems to resemble that of the classic The Animated Series (1992-95).

Telltale’s blog said that “this iteration of Batman will give fans a first-hand opportunity to dive deeper into the complex life and mind of Bruce Wayne, the duality of its own identity, and the struggle of responsibility in saving a city overcome with corruption and villainy.”

So like every Arkham game so far then?

With these editions, Telltale will have produced seven games in this point-and-click quick-time-event style. Their other notable works include: Back to the Future, The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, Tales from the Borderlands, A Game of Thrones, Minecraft: Story Mode and an untitled Marvel game.

That brings the total to a heck of a lot to be working on at the same time. When Naughty Dog split into two teams to simultaneously work on Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and The Last of Us, they were stretched. That’s an understatement.

The Last of Us was delayed from the 7th of May to the 14th of June, and while that was probably a good thing in hindsight, it shows how game companies can suffer when having to work on multiple projects at once.

Could the same be happening to Telltale? Having so many projects to work on concurrently could impact upon the quality of the final game. While I’m all for more Telltale releases, they run the risk of not producing top-notch releases.

And how long will it be before they can pull off their own original story? Each of these high profile games have so far been based upon a popular previous release. While they have gone on to generally critical success and earned huge profits for the company, in an ideal world Telltale would be free to work on a brand-new IP.

I love me some The Walking Dead, but it’s about time the company produced their own content. Scrap the ‘based on _____’ projects and create a new, exciting world in which we can become invested and lost within.

Take the concept of choices with an impact, it works. Keep the memorable characters that we actively care about. Create one major standalone title that wraps within one season, and you’ve got a successful new IP that sells to the thousands. I will play their new games because I love the developer and I love the franchises, but listen up, Telltale. It’s about time you broadened your horizons.

The Walking Dead: Michonne premieres on PC, Mac, PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, iOS and Android in February 2016. Telltale’s take on Batman also releases in 2016, but its platforms are yet to be confirmed.

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