Summary
It could be argued thatTelltale Gameswas responsible for bringing point-and-click adventure games back into fashion with modern audiences. Games likeThe Walking DeadandBack to the Futurewere incredibly successful - both commercially and critically - and remain some of the best-licensed games on the market even to this day.
The studio’s brand of interactive storytelling intuitively blends visual novels, interactive movies, and old-school point-and-click adventure game mechanics and quickly became the benchmark for similarly styled titles likeLife is Strange.Despite facing some turbulent times in recent years, Telltale Games continues to pump out top-tier titles on a fairly regular basis.
Updated on November 12th, 2024, by Mara Cowley:Telltale is a long-standing game studio that has a surprisingly extensive library of games in its history. Most gamers will undoubtedly be familiar with their recent and popular titles based on other IPs, such as The Walking Dead, Batman, or The Wolf Among Us, which are all among thebest Telltale gamesof all time. While fans are still waiting for the next release, which looks to be season 2 of The Wolf Among Us, it’s time to revisit some older games or discover them for the first time. This article has allTelltale games rankedwith brief descriptions of what makes each game so great, or why it might not stand as tall against other games in the studio’s vast library.
30CSI: Fatal Conspiracy
Great Casting in a Mediocre Experience
Developed by Telltale and published by Ubisoft, these two great studios weren’t enough to saveFatal Conspiracy, nor was the casting of Laurence Fishburne in the role he plays on the TV show.
Set across five episodes, each containing a different case, what could have been an exciting game unfortunately falls short of delivery, making it one of the worst Telltale games to have ever been released. Only die-hard fans of the series are likely to derive any joy from this particular Telltale title.
29CSI: Hard Evidence
Fall Slightly Short Compared to Other Games
Telltale seems to struggle when makingCSIgames, asHard Evidenceproved only to be a little better thanFatal Conspiracyand still falls short of the just barely averageDeadly Intent. Though it uses a few characters from the shows, their actors were not brought in to do the voice acting, something which die-hard fans are sure to pick up on.
The game is episodic in typical Telltale style, with each of the five episodes featuring the investigation of a unique case. Die-hard fans of the show and those who like investigative gameplay may find some enjoyment out of this, but other than that, it is less likely to appeal to gamers in general.
28CSI: Deadly Intent
Many Cast Members Reprized Their role
CSI: Deadly Intentdifferentiates itself from the majority of games on this list, as it wasn’t published by Telltale Games themselves. Instead, industry giant Ubisoft handled the publishing side of things, while Telltale Games worked on development.
CSI: Deadly Intentcoincided with the ninth season ofCSI: Crime Scene Investigation. It featured animpressive amount of cast members, including Laurence Fishburne, Lauren Lee Smith, and Robert David Hall, who all reprised their roles.
27Law and Order: Legacies
The Middling Investigation Game is Unfortunately Unavailable to Buy
Another episodic game based on the famousLaw and OrderTV show, with some famous faces to go with the name. Though this will undoubtedly please fans, as will the generous length of seven episodes, which is longer than most of Telltale’s usual affairs, it, unfortunately, does miss the mark in delivering a game of the studio’s normal caliber.
Players will take to the streets investigating crimes, and then engage in the subsequent courtroom hearing, but unfortunately, with it taken down from stores, gamers will no longer get to experience this adventure themselves.
26Poker Night 2
A Simple Poker Game for Those Not Looking for Intricate Stories
Along with their exciting adventure games that take players through intricate stories, tasking gamers with QTEs and making decisions, Telltale has also made some more simple games perfect for sinking in a few casual hours in here and there, such as their card games.
Poker Night 2is one such card game, a follow-up to thePoker Night at the Inventory. Those familiar with this title will know it was a simple poker video game featuring famous video game characters, such as Heavy fromTeam Fortress. The player takes control of an unseen participant, facing off against other players, such as Ash fromEvil Dead, the eponymous protagonists fromSam and Max, Claptrap fromBorderlands,and many more. The inclusion of these famous characters elevates this game to new, fun heights.
Like most of Telltale’s games,Jurassic Park: The Gamewas released as an episodic adventure that players experienced through multiple playable characters and their exploits within the famed IP of the same name, hooking players in with the name and the promise of some familiar scenes.
The game is derivative of the movies, using plot points from the films in the game, but having the PCs as relatives of the main cast, or introducing new ones, which arrives as a disappointment for most fans. However, the game still provides heart-racing confrontations with dinosaurs that fans would hope for, including a confrontation with a T-Rex. With a newJurassic Parkgame on the horizon, this title might serve to whet appetites until it releases.
24Texas Hold ‘Em
The Classic Card Game
Who doesn’t love a game of poker? This must be the sentiment Telltale had when they decided to make their very firstcard game,Texas Hold ‘Em, which aided in the development of other games such asPoker Night at the Inventory,and its inevitable sequel,Poker Night 2.
Four characters partake in a fictional poker tournament based in the City of Gambling itself, Las Vegas, pitting the player against computer-controlled characters for the thrill of gambling without the risk of bankruptcy. However, the game does lack what could have been a crucial element to elevate this game to higher levels of entertainment: the implementation of multiplayer. Allowing players to play against friends would have been a huge boon.
23Puzzle Agent 2
A Challenging Puzzle Game for Fans of the Genre
The sequel to the firstPuzzle Agentgame,Puzzle Agent 2is a mix between a puzzle game and an adventure game, where ace puzzle investigators will travel to the Midwest to meet up with Agent Tethers and help him solve the mystery that surrounds the area.
Players will follow a linear adventure story, solving puzzles while interacting with the world and speaking to the other characters that populate it. Dialogue can sometimes lead to puzzles of various kinds, from jigsaws to mathematical equations to logic puzzles. Players will need asharpened mind to bypass all the puzzlesand win the game, and doing so will award them hours of fun. Puzzle game aficionados should definitely check this game out, but fans of the more adventure-focused titles may not enjoy this one as much.
Back to the Future: The Gameis one of Telltale’s episodic games based on a cinematic classic, the famed 80s time-traveling movie that has garnered many fans over the years. Fans of the movies would have been excited to seea game finally based on their favorite film. Though it wouldn’t quite reach the same levels of quality, Telltale treated this IP and its fans with the utmost care.
Telltale Games tried its best to ensure that its fanbase would be happy withBack to the Future: The Gameby asking for their input via online surveys. The studio clearly wanted to stay true to the IP’s roots, as the film trilogy’s co-writer, Bob Gale, was hired as a story consultant for the game. The care and concern for theBack to the Futurefranchise were evident in the final product, making the game agreat choice for fans of the films.
21CSI 3: Dimensions Of Murder
The Strongest Contender in the CSI Game Series
Telltale took up the mantle of developing aCSIgame, based on the TV show it shares a name with, resulting inCSI 3: Dimensions of Murder. With the use of a new 3D game engine, this title had improved visuals compared to the previous entries and was an all-around better game.
Rather than split into five episodes, the game is split among five cases, with the fifth case tying all the previous ones together. Players will need to don their investigator hats as they work alongside Gil Grissom and Catherine Willows to try and solve the cases and arrest their suspects. While not on the same level asLA Noire, it is still a mildly impressive game, especially considering the time of its release.
