Well, here we are. The end of the line. Telltale said they would release this game monthly and that they did. Although, like last episode there were unexplained delays on Steam. However, I had less performance issues ever since Telltale released that patch, so that good for a change.
Anyway, I’m not sure what else I could say in these introduction lines, so I’ll jump right into it.
“Without your toys, you’re nothing.”
My final choice in episode 4 shaped a lot of this episode. That choice feels more aesthetic than anything else but it still felt cool to me. That choice had to do with going after Penguin and stopping him from hijacking Batman’s tech or going after Harvey Dent and prevent him from wreaking havoc on Wayne Manor.
I decided to go after Harvey, just because Batman is more than someone using technology. Also Alfred was there and I felt bad about leaving him on his own, so that means that Bruce had to sacrifice his technology, at least for the time being.
And that was seen well in my playthrough of episode. My Batman felt like he was stretched thing, on the very first sequence several of the gadgets he used malfunctioned and his suit was in a terrible shape. And it kept getting worse. It also gave the interface in the detective sequences (still a bit of a drag) a glitchy look. It’s interesting to see Batman pushed to the limits, because it makes you wonder how you’ll get out of his predicament, and that’s the position I was in.
“When you’ve been fighting crime in Gotham as long as I have, you take your hands where you can get them.”
No matter what choice you made in episode four, the endgame is the same. A final fight to stop the Children of Arkham from causing problems in Gotham.
I had my doubts about the main conflict, mostly about who Lady Arkham really was. But it worked quite well, and using an established secondary character that way was certainly interesting. The same applies to how the game deals with Thomas and Martha Wayne.
I was fearing the game would just retcon the revelations about them as part of a smear campaign. That was the most frustrating part of Batman R.I.P., they hinted that Thomas Wayne wasn’t all that but in the end it was just something to upset Bruce. So I’m thankful Telltale are sticking to their guns here. It definitely makes things interesting.
Telltale had already stated that this game would be part of its own continuity and this kind of thing was why that was a good choice. You can see influences from other Batman stories but in the end they did their own thing with this story, and they did a great work out of it.
“You’ve helped this city tremendously. Both as Bruce Wayne and Batman.”
In a way, Telltale have reconciled all the possible interpretations of Batman with this game. It’s all to the player’s choice. You can be the dark, and brooding Batman who only cares about justice and doesn’t care about innocents, but you can also be better than that. And that’s how I approached the game.
But the most interesting choices about this game are to do with Bruce Wayne. Bruce Wayne is seriously neglected in other games, so it was nice to play a game where he plays such an important role. I always found myself choosing to go as Bruce rather than as Batman when the game gave me the choice.
And in a way, the game does a perfect work out of that. You can see beyond the person who has a plan for everything, and you can see the things that make Bruce (and Batman) human, and I found myself going for the choices where he thanked Alfred for being his family and such.
This isn’t Telltale’s best game, but it’s still a pretty decent game that has a quite interesting story. I didn’t feel like it dragged along, like I felt with The Walking Dead: Michonne or Game of Thrones.
However, the ending feels too sudden, and ending in a cliffhanger is a bit disappointing. It’s all just a bait for a potential season two, which would be a no-brainer. But we also have to consider Telltale has many projects lined up for the future, so who knows when, or if, this will happen.
Just look at The Wolf Among Us (because it’s not a review written by yours truly unless I slip a reference). It ended in a way that hinted to a second season, and yet here I am, still waiting…
Angry Spaniard, adoptive Irishman. Writer, reader, tea drinker and video game player/designer.
