Telltale is doing a great job right now releasing the episodes of the new Batman series at a regular pace; about one every month. At this point, Batman is deeply involved with his investigations towards the Children of Arkham, Harvey Dent’s electoral campaign is still very…hectic (I want to stay spoiler free of the story during this review), and there is still some very palpable tension regarding Bruce Wayne’s emotions towards Selina Kyle. Is everything fleshed out correctly? Is the story put forward in an interesting way to make you look forward to what’s coming? The details will follow, but I can summarize in one word: YES!
The story is making interesting some steps forward in terms of advancement and discoveries. It was hinted in the last episodes that Bruce Wayne and Oswald Cobblepot (a.k.a. The Penguin) have a special connection lasting since their childhood, and it is explored. We now see repercussions on your actions and decisions regarding the Batman action sequences, the investigations and Harvey Dent’s campaign, even shaking what is happening at the Wayne Manor and the company. An important ally is now fully presented and displayed, and I’m curious to see what will happen with him. It’s Lucius Fox, the person responsible for Batman’s gadgets. The feelings between Bruce and Selina Kyle are an important segment of the character development during this chapter. In terms of cliffhanger and the events that is shaking up the city and the story’s protagonists, I’ll only mention these, which are not really spoilers, but if you REALLY don’t want to know anything, just skip to the next paragraph.
With what happened to Agent Montoya during the last episode, the investigation part of the episode is based on that event. Regarding Harvey Dent, we start to realize that the events of the 2 last episodes have shaken him very hard and now, he is really starting to lose it. Are we going to see a Two-Face transformation soon? Only time will tell…
With the way each facet of the story unfolds, I’m very happy with the production values that the game presents. Each actor does a spectacular job (special mention this time for Travis Willingham, who plays Harvey Dent); Troy Baker and Laura Bailey (Bruce Wayne/Batman and Selina Kyle/Catwoman respectively) are on par with their stellar reputations. The music still fits perfectly the mood of each scene, which is even more emphasized this time around with the emotions going from anger, to sadness, to romance. Telltale is again showing how to tell and story and let it unfold slowly, naturally and without absurdities.
Again, the only complains I’ll mention are on the technical side of things. The usual slowdowns are still plaguing this title, but at least – this time around – I didn’t have any console crashes (I’m playing on PlayStation 4). These lags were mostly present during the action quick time events sequences, which is really sad, because the scenes are choreographed in a very awesome way, and the fights are smooth and action packed like a superhero action scene should be. Unfortunately, if it happens so often that it runs slow, it breaks the immersion and really leaves you in a state of…disappointment. It didn’t happen all the time, which is great, but when it did, it broke the experience a lot. Fortunately, the storytelling elements and their quality compensated for those problems, and at the end, the game left me satisfied of what I experienced and wanting more of Bruce Wayne/Batman’s struggles.
This is how you tell a story about a complicated character with a double personality that are extreme opposites. From either Bruce Wayne or Batman’s side, you empathize with everything that happens, and you just want to know more about everybody. I can’t wait to continue this story, because the cliffhanger is again very heavy, and I want to know how it continues. Congrats Telltale for a great job and continue your pace of release for those episodes!
(The review is based on the PlayStation 4 version of the game.)
