Batman: The Telltale Series

Having played a few other Telltale games I can confidently say this one is the best. Excellent art, voice acting and branching plots that really give player agency make this a beautiful game, especially since the writers weren't afraid to have a different take on this Batman universe. 

Over two "seasons" with five chapters each (get the "Shadows" edition to get them both) you'll encounter many familiar faces from the rogues gallery and while there's a bit of QTE combat to be had (which is on the easy side of things) it's the timed dialogue choices that will really get your brain working. Excellent game and highly recommended! I only wish there was more of it! 

Guardians of the Galaxy: Table Turning

[Part of Superhero Stories]

With the cup artifact now in his hands, Peter listened closely to Nebula. "You need to put it on that circular altar in the center of the room, and if you turn it right it powers up the artifact. If you turn it left, it will destroy the artifact."

"It's too powerful for anyone to have. We should destroy it," advised Gamora, who was backed by an "I am Groot".

"No, we should use it to revive my family," countered Drax. "And my friends," continued Rocket. "And ... even your mom, Peter."

Peter thought about it for a moment then put it on the altar. "I'm with Rocket and Drax, we can really make use of this," and turned the artifact causing it to begin to shake, crack and glow. "Peter! What did you do!?" yelped a dismayed Rocket. "I turned it to the right! Wait... was it your right or my right?" At this moment the Kree main force arrived, blasting away with their rifles and damaging Peter's jet boots and hitting Nebula multiple times as she moved forward to shield her sister.

Mid-fight the very ground began to shake violently as the cup artifact exploded into tiny pieces, encouraging the remaining Kree forces to flee. "Earthquake!?" yelled Peter. "Unlikely, as we are not on Earth," replied Drax from behind cover. With no feasible exit for the team, Groot encapsulated them all with his branches to cover them as the very floor gave way sending them falling to some large tunnels below and right into the nest of some voracious tunnel worms!

Telltale's delisted game didn't have the best graphics but it was OK.

With an endless assault of the monsters it was clear they needed to get moving, but Gamora wouldn't leave the already expired Nebula's side. "Gamora! She's dead weight, you gotta leave her!" yelled Rocket as he blasted away another batch of worms just as his gun jammed. With little time to let her process her feelings, Peter decided to give an order: "Groot, carry Gamora!" The tree obliged, gently taking the furious assassin into a basket cage on his back while Peter picked up Rocket who was too slow with his little legs.

While it looked like they were making some distance from the little worms, the sudden roar of a huge mother worm alerted them to the new threat that they couldn't outrun. "Oh flark, we're not gonna make it!" cried Rocket as Drax decided to turn around. "Drax, what are you doing?" asked Peter as he ran past him. "I will cherish the time we had, Peter Quill." With both blades out and not looking back Drax leaped at the mother worm with a mighty yell as it came around a corner, knocking it and himself off into a deep and seemingly bottomless abyss.

Interactive Stories

Should be classified as games.

It's been a while since I finished Telltale's The Walking Dead, set in the same universe as the popular zombie show and it's many spin-offs which follows suit in that it's more about the people instead of the zombies. While the art is always good and improves throughout each game in the series most of the player input relies on timed dialogue responses and QTE button mashing. Also while your choices can change the story a little bit, don't expect to be able to deviate from the main plot points as it doesn't go crazily branching out like in the Witcher 2. My main gripe was that there were so many loose ends at the end of the story.

The Walking Dead season 2 fixes that with much fewer loose ends by the time you see the credits but is a bit odd in that most life or death decisions of the group fall upon a little kid. Walking Dead: A New Frontier again fixes that and for me, has the strongest story of all of them while Walking Dead: The Final Season adds a low key combat system but feels shorter and not as refined as the previous installment. Still good, but the ending especially felt a bit forced. I'd still recommend all of them, especially if you are a Walking Dead fan anyway.

Memorable characters are a plus.

Also in the Interactive Story category is Bloodshore which focuses on a Battle Royale type game taking place on an island. Instead of art, this title makes use of live action decent enough to be a B grade movie. Like the above games you can't escape the main plot points but your choices do affect the story and the ending. I also quite liked the tracker which shows your stats that change based on your decisions and actually affect if your chosen actions succeed or not. Pretty cool and one I'd recommend if you don't have any Telltale games to play anymore.

The Wolf Among Us

Runs your childhood favorites through a filth bath.

In this wonderfully voice acted, five episode Telltale interactive story - Fabletown, home to characters from childhood stories, is undergoing some dark times starting with a gruesome murder. As the Sheriff Bigby Wolf it is up to you so solve the mystery and catch (or kill) the perpetrator.

Its worth mentioning the cell-shading style art is really good too as is the mystery portion of the game. I was quite happy with the amount of blood and gore too. While there are a few areas you can walk around and interact with the environment most of the time you will be selecting action or verbal responses within a time limit that can change how the story goes. More actiony bits such as combat are handled in QTE fashion.

A few awesome violent bits too.

Not so well done is the resolution, and certainly the "laws" by which Fables live. Some people can survive what seem to be surely fatal damage while others cannot. A clearer explanation would have been nice. Definitely an interesting experience and one I can recommend for people that like story-telling. I give it 3 huffs out of 5 puffs.

Insight: If you want more of these stories, the game is based on the Fables comic series.