So after running through Telltale’s The Walking Dead Season Two’s first episode my head has been swimming in possibilities, imagining what Telltale couldn’t do if given a big license. We’ll really get to see what Telltale is capable of in their upcoming projects; Tales from the Borderlands and Game of Thrones, but that shouldn’t be where they stop. Telltale has always survived by working with licenses, but many of them just didn’t seem to be the right fit until The Walking Dead fell into their lap. If the first episode of The Wolf Among Us tells us anything, it is that they have really hit their stride and that their brilliance in interactive storytelling goes beyond just zombies.
So what else should they try to tackle? This is what I’ve been mulling over for the past few days and I’ve come up with a list of the top five licenses that I’d love to see Telltale get their hands on and give the Telltale treatment.
Mass Effect
At this point we know Commander Shepard’s story inside and out. We know all about the Reapers, the Protheans and the struggle between organic and artificial life that comes to a head every 50,000 years or so. The thing is that there are so many rich characters, such a rich galaxy to explore, that it seems like a waste to just stop there, especially with some of the characters that we got to know and love throughout the Mass Effect trilogy. Imagine Telltale doing something similar to what they are doing with Borderlands, but doing “Tales from Mass Effect.” I’d salivate over the chance to explore Thane’s life as an assassin, Garrus’s life with C-Sec or his time as Archangel, Mordin Solus’s conflicting time working on the Genophage or even the rise of the Geth. None of these things would be enough to make a full Mass Effect title, but would work perfectly in a Telltale game.
Firefly
Joss Whedon’s cult classic television show and follow-up film, Serenity, still live on to this day. Hell, I make sure to watch the entire run at least once a year and it always feels fresh and fun each and every time. Yet so much feels unexplored in the realm of Firefly. Sure, we have bits and pieces of Mal and the rest of the crew’s history, but there is room for so many more adventures either before the series started or in between the series proper and the film (which had certain pangs of finality to it). It wouldn’t even have to follow the main characters, maybe just a look into the birth of the Reavers or the formation of the Alliance, or even the war with the browncoats? Tons of room to work in a very rich and much-beloved license.
The Man with No Name
Call him Blondie, call him the Man with No Name, call him Joe, the foreigner or whatever you want, but Clint Eastwood’s portrayal of a Western anti hero is forever etched into our subconscious as to what the wild west was all about. Telltale getting their hands on a Western would be a different kind of incredible, especially tapping into Sergio Leone’s classics with a rich history of Ennio Morricone soundtracks. I feel like they could do no wrong with this, especially with how open-ended the whole ordeal was.
Fallout
The Fallout games have created some of the richest wastelands in gaming history, filled with crazy, over-the-top characters, ramshackled cities, evil conspiracies and yes, of course oppressive vaults full of survivors. The action in the Fallout games always felt like it took a backseat to the setting and left me wishing that I could explore the characters and the lore a bit more, Telltale making a Fallout adventure game could really be something incredible.
Star Trek
This, to me, would be the ultimate marriage in entertainment. Star Wars has been given a pretty fair shake when it comes to videogames. Sure, there has been a lot of garbage, but there have been a good share of decent games as well. Star Trek, on the other hand, has had nothing but garbage heaped on top of garbage. Part of the reason why is that Star Trek has always been lighter on the action and huge battles and heavier on the personal interactions, the characters and the politics. This practically screams Telltale to me and there is plenty of room for them to work without stepping on the toes of main plotlines and characters. They don’t need to make a game on some form of the Enterprise or on DS9, just give them a ship, a dashing captain, a multi-ethnic crew and a safe dose of space politics and conflicts and you’d have a fantastic experience.
