Spoiler Warning Presents Batman: London City, Part 1

By Shamus Posted Friday Dec 23, 2011

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 72 comments

Spoiler Warning would like to extend to all of you our warmest holiday greetings. We wanted to play a game that really captured the wonder and mirth of the season, so we’re playing a game about an opium addict who chases a guy that stabs prostitutes.


Link (YouTube)

This tale will end tomorrow, on Christmas Eve.

 


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72 thoughts on “Spoiler Warning Presents Batman: London City, Part 1

  1. Newbie says:

    Coincidence that I was watching Sherlock Homes 5 minutes ago? No they were spying on me.

    I am the best detective.

  2. Daemian Lucifer says:

    I was waiting for you to finally unlock the cape,but I guess you are doing that tomorrow.

    1. Bryan says:

      Nah, they need to unlock the pointy-eared mask first. Also called a “top hat” by some, but those are the crazies. :-P

  3. Winter says:

    I… i am not sure i can watch this. I love Sherlock Holmes too much. Not that i can’t take a deconstruction of the game, but i don’t think i can take the game itself… I guess perhaps the makers loved Sherlock Holmes, too? But… this is painful…

    (Edit: the dancing men! They do love Sherlock Holmes…)

    1. NihilCredo says:

      The game is very faithful to Sherlock Holmes lore. At one point you have to assemble a bunch of outfits, and Holmes goes “oh, and Watson, please fetch that deer-stalker hat that I never ever wear even though everybody seems to think I do all the time”.

      It’s also very faithful to our real-life knowledge of Jack the Ripper: pretty much every hint and every suspect you’ll meet was part of the real investigations on the case.

      With all that said, it’s not as good a game as SH & The Awakened or SH vs. Arséne Lupin; the rails feel much tighter, and the deduction minigame is very broken since there’s nothing preventing you from bruteforcing it. But I still enjoyed it.

      1. Eric says:

        Really? Because the dialogue in the opening scene is insultingly bad, not to mention feels completely out of character. Since when was Sherlock Holmes a goddamn emo druggie obsessed with death? Yeah, Watson is fine, but Watson has no real character (no, backstory is not character) so he’s hard to mess up.

        1. Raygereio says:

          Since when was Sherlock Holmes a goddamn emo druggie obsessed with death?

          Actually from what I recall of it, that is fairly accurate for the original source material.

        2. Luhrsen says:

          Actually in the original A.C. Doyle books SH WAS an emo druggie obsessed with death. Much like the character House from the modern tv show. Only coming out of his funk for interesting cases that stumped everyone else.

          1. Eric says:

            I’ve read all the original shorts and novels (even the shitty ones after Doyle jumped the shark). Perhaps I phrased myself poorly, but Holmes’ attitude there is just completely off. The way he speaks seems far too contemporary and brooding. There was always that side to his character but it was never that… mallgothy.

        3. NihilCredo says:

          He was very much a manic-depressive, and Watson remarks multiple times about how he would fall into a deep brooding inbetween his bouts of strenuous activity. I do agree that the style is a bit off, since Holmes was no lover of metaphors, but moroseness definitely fits him.

  4. JPH says:

    Two and a half minutes in… Is this entire episode devoted to trolling Mumbles?

    1. Raygereio says:

      I know. Terrible, isn’t it?
      I mean implying that Sherlock and Batman can be compared to be eachother? The nerve.
      One is an intelligent character who dresses like a civilized human being and who has an equal as a main enemy.
      The other is emo bitch who dresses like a gimp with an animal motive and has a clown as main enemy.

      Anyone can see the two clearly do not compare.

      1. James says:

        you do know she’s going to kill you, don’t you. we’ll have to hide you, somewhere, maby Korea she wont find you there.

      2. Syal says:

        Anyone who would rather watch two well-dressed men engage in a battle of wits when they could very well be watching a clown beat the crap out of another, more orthodox clown needs to take a good, hard look at their priorities.

        1. Raygereio says:

          Since I already follow politics for work reasons, I’d rather reserve the other one for my entertainment.

          1. Newbie says:

            Brilliant sir.

            If anyone loves Sherlock Holmes but wishes he was actually a modern day crazy detective then you should find the BBC 3 part series called Sherlock. Watson is played by the guy who is going to be Bilbo Baggins and he writes a blog about Holmes.

            1. False Prophet says:

              And the guy playing Sherlock will be the voice of Smaug.

              1. Newbie says:

                Smaug is a toff eh? My life is complete.

            2. Svick says:

              And a new episode is due on the 1 January. Yay!

      3. Daemian Lucifer says:

        Wait,moriarty is a clown?When was that established,I dont remember that.

        1. Nick says:

          He’s a Professor of Clowning. It helps him run his evil empire by letting him know what the most humourous thing to do in any given situation is, thus letting him put people at their ease before he stabs them

      4. unnamednpc says:

        Oh, come on!
        A deerstalker is hardly an “animal motive”, and, even though I admit that Moriarty’s character has been watered down in many adaptations, it’s hardly fair to call him a clown.

  5. Eärlindor says:

    we're playing a game about an opium addict who chases a guy that stabs prostitutes.

    I believe Sherlock Holmes was addicted to cocaine. :)

    1. Winter says:

      You are correct. And depending on when in the Holmes canon this exactly takes place he may have broke the addiction. (Although, of course, they just had to refer to his coke habit in the intro.)

    2. peter says:

      morphine, too, which is an opiate.
      i believe holmes expressed disgust about the opium dens of back then, though.

  6. So I think this is relevant to the Watson discussion. Also this.

    Anyway, this is one of the worst Sherlock Holmes adaptions I’ve ever seen – we haven’t even spotted his arch nemesis The Master, or had anyone exterminated by the Daleks yet.

  7. NonEuclideanCat says:

    “Holmes is basically the Gregory House of crime.”

    It’s more like House is the Holmes of medicine.

    And Batman is the Holmes of Mary Sues.

    1. silver Harloe says:

      “It's more like House is the Holmes of medicine.”

      Indeed, if you watch the commentaries on the first episode, they talk about all the ways they intentionally derived House from Holmes.

  8. Milos says:

    3:30 You might even call them – hobros? Eh? Eh? Amirite?

  9. silver Harloe says:

    “doesn’t look like Holmes” – the deerstalker cap and pipe wasn’t something Mr Doyle ever portrayed in the original stories. It started because that was the (at the time) mostly arbitrary costume used in a early stage production based on the works. But now it seems like an inescapable part of the character and gives him his distinctive profile that everyone recognizes. Life is weird like that. I don’t think Mr Doyle was ever particularly specific about Holmes’ clothes or facial hair, either.

    1. Sekundaari says:

      Well he did wear the cap in the countryside in some of the illustrations of the original stories. But not in the middle of London, no.

      I imagine no facial hair is pretty much expected from a master of disguise.

      1. Peter H. Coffin says:

        merely because that’s WHERE people wore deer-stalker caps. Civilization means people can afford situationally-appropriate clothing, and no one would shop in pajamas or wear basketball shoes without the rest of their P.E. uniform.

        1. Hitch says:

          I don’t know what 21st century you’re living in, but around here pajamas are among the dressier public outerwear options and many people do not own shoes that would not qualify as basketball shoes.

          Unless you’re implying that civilization is a thing of the past. A point which I can offer no valid counter to.

  10. TheAngryMongoose says:

    So I totally watched this on Chocolate Hammer before it went Twenty Sided >.>

    1. JPH says:

      Oh yeah, well I watched it back in beta.

      1. BeamSplashX says:

        I wrote the original version of Sherlock Holmes, but it was so good that I burned half the pages and let Doyle steal what was left.

    2. Entropy says:

      I watched it on Ruts’ livestream channel on Thursday. Before it was all mainstream.

  11. Velkrin says:

    Without watching the video I have to say I love the still screen image.

    ‘I used to be a detective like you, until I took a harpoon through the head.’

  12. Hitch says:

    Dude, did you not watch the Spoiler Warning Fallout episodes? You do NOT just walk up to a baby carriage in a video game. Those things explode.

    And yes, if you saw in on the History Channel in the last couple years, it was definitely aliens. It’s always aliens.

    1. Lord of Rapture says:

      “And yes, if you saw in on the History Channel in the last couple years, it was definitely aliens. It's always aliens.”

      Your comment makes me sad, because it is so true. What the heck happened to the History Channel I loved in my youth?

      1. False Prophet says:

        “And yes, if you saw in on the History Channel in its first couple years, it was definitely Hitler. It's always Hitler.”

    2. Eruanno says:

      Other games where baby carriages explode: Bioshock, Gears of War 3

      1. Hitch says:

        Clearly — never trust a baby carriage in a video game. If you are armed, all baby carriages shoot be shot from a safe distance as soon as you see them.

  13. Bren says:

    On the Holmes going to get the police report thing, in the stories he did normally talk to the police right off the bat before going off on his own path.

  14. CalDazar says:

    Rutskarn is driving and we’re already jumping on urchins and chatting up prostitutes for freebies.
    Fun.

    1. BeamSplashX says:

      It sounds a bit like he practiced some lines before getting into it with the rest of the crew, which I’m not entirely keen on. I feel that pre-planning is only important to Spoiler Warning when it lets someone break the game even further (see: Josh’s Fallout 3 character build). Or, of course, for the player to troll the commentators.

      1. Shamus says:

        That was our first exposure to the game, all of us. We talked about what game to do, then Ruts saw Sherlock cheap on Steam, bought it, and downloaded it right then.

        (Or maybe he already owned it, but had never installed it? I forget. I do remember we had to wait 45 mins for the game to download over his slow-ass connection.)

      2. Rutskarn says:

        Yeah, no, there was no “practice” here. There wasn’t any actual *room* for practice. I purchased the game right before recording it, and we started recording as soon as we’d made sure our setup worked.

        1. Neil D says:

          Mr. Pants: You’ve really worked out your banter, haven’t you?

          Blackadder: No, not really. This is a different thing, it’s spontaneous and it’s called wit.

      3. BeamSplashX says:

        I see. The only other let’s play with Rutskarn at the helm that I’ve seen is the Hitman stuff, but I guess there’s more scope for things to spiral out of control in Blood Money than in this game.

        And I still thought it was funny, but then again you guys could probably watch a video of insects* flying around together and make it hilarious.

        *Namely, BEEEEEEEEEES!

    2. Phoenix says:

      A shame he went away from the prostitute in front of the police station, I was curious to see what would happen.

  15. Alex says:

    Mumbles: “A. (Batman) was created by Bob Kane.”

    Not really. Bob Kane was kind of an art-criminal.

    Also, every time I hear “White Chapel” in this, I almost think I’m hearing “White Castle“. How’s THAT for a modern take on Holmes and Watson?

    1. avpix says:

      Sherlock Holmes always reminds me of this.

      1. Alex says:

        Sherlock Holmes always reminds me of Johnny Turbo going super-saiyan while screaming “SHEERRRLLLOOOOOCK HOOOOOOOOOLLLLLMMMEEEES!!!

    2. Mumbles says:

      Okay bob kane was without argument from anyone who knows batman, the guy who came up with the idea fir batman. Thus he was the creator. Did he sign some artwork that wasn’t his? Yes.yes he did. But give credit where it’s due, bro

  16. anaphysik says:

    The “talk” boxes all look like weird-ass pipes hanging out of people’s mouths. Cannot unsee.

    Also, I can’t believe that Rutskarn didn’t point out the BONNET in this episode (see newspaper article).

  17. DarthBilbo says:

    Hey! I was promised a flame war! Where are all of the intertubers comparing the Jude Law movie Watson with the Martin Freeman TV show Watson! Also, the Bruce Wayne comic book Watson!

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      Bah,kids today.Everyone knows that david burke is the first and only watson.

      1. Alex says:

        I vaguely remember skimming an article with no pictures claiming Watson was actually a woman. But it just kind of rambled on and didn’t really emphasize the written parts that supposedly out him. Or I’m too stupid to comprehend the examples of Arthur Conan Doyle’s work.

        I’d go look it up, but I’m afraid to Google “Female Watson”, for reasons I’m sure we all understand.

        1. Daemian Lucifer says:

          Why?Youd just get a bunch of articles and pictures of emma watson.But though thats safe,it wouldnt really be helpful.

        2. Timelady says:

          Watson was a Woman by Rex Stout (author of the Nero Wolfe books, by the way). AFAIK, it was just a silly (albeit entertaining) essay/speech that was never meant to be taken seriously. Still, it’s an interesting thought, isn’t it?

  18. TSED says:

    Mumbles, Mumbles, Mumbles. I’m so disappointed in you. You should love a hero for his character, not for his being Batma-

    Yeah, I couldn’t say it with a straight face either.

  19. Gamer says:

    Welcome back, SW crew. We were starting to miss you.

  20. Dev Null says:

    At right around the 3:50 mark, why on earth did the designers decide to pop up a subtitle saying that its 3:20 AM _and then immediately pan the camera up to a close-up of a clock, showing that its 2:30?_ Is there some deep significance to the fact that the clock is wrong, or are they just really really lazy?

    1. acronix says:

      Maybe they mistyped. After all, the difference between 3:20 and 2:30 is a number swap.

      1. Some Jackass says:

        Probably a mistake…2:30 was the time Nichols was last seen alive.

  21. Some Jackass says:

    “Hoes are people too.” I love Rutskarns urban paraphrasing

    “The [Juwes] are the men that will not be blamed for nothing” was the message Jack left…

    The fun thing about Ripper majors (Ripperologists) is that theyre incredible hostile to each other whenever one comes out and says something definitive about Jack-such as how they tore into Patricia Cornwell for her book.

  22. Lesquille says:

    This is unwatchable (or un-listen-to-able, rather) for me because the volume varies greatly depending on who’s speaking. Shamus is way too loud, someone else (I don’t know names) is way too quiet.

  23. burningdragoon says:

    Wow… I forgot just how funny trolling Mumbles could be. Very. Very funny.

  24. Mixmastermind says:

    As an Arkansan I am offended by your comments about my state. On the other hand, I’m an avid shooter, so… you win this round, college-boy.

  25. macrovore says:

    You guys should do LA Noire for the next Spoiler Warning. I wanna see how much Josh can mess around in it.

  26. Gamer says:

    Sherlock Holmes is the result of a rouge cell that kidnapped Watson at a young age in order to make him the world’s most perfect person. They tested stuff on other children and whatever worked on them they did to Watson. The original Watson personality manifests every once in a while as his conscience, but the new personality (Holmes) is now dominant.

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