Batman: The Enemy Within (2017)

This one's a ton of fun. It does a lot of interesting things with the Batman canon, which I've never personally been super interested in and has the potential to get stale fast - I think the only other Batman property that has done things I really liked was parts of the TV series Gotham (and note I said parts of).

The twist on the Harley/Joker dynamic was refreshing and interesting, with Harley being the more dominant, manipulative member of the duo and John/Joker being infatuated (with both her and Bruce), desperately wanting to be Bruce's friend, and moldable in his morals and actions by how that plays out. On a smaller scale, I also enjoyed this take on the Riddler as a more action-oriented genius rather than a purely cerebral fight-through-words antagonist.

I especially love that Episode 5 can be entirely different depending on your choices and relationship with John, and it's a great divergence from the typical 'your choices don't matter' complaint about these games.

I enjoyed getting the opportunity to team up with some iconic DC villains and commit crimes with them - I so rarely get to explore that kind of road in story-driven games and sometimes I just really like the villains and wanna hang out with them! Sue me! The elevator sequence with Harley, Joker, Bane, Mr. Freeze, and Bruce taking a selfie as they broke into a building was great.

There were some great emotional gut punches with pre-existing characters - Lucius, Alfred's residual trauma from his experience in the last game and how that affects him - and I enjoyed the fresh characters brought into the sequel such as Tiffany as well.

Still felt pretty railroaded into a romance with Catwoman, which I had to meta-game my way out of by getting her literally locked up by Harley, which is incredibly out-of-character for me yet was the only way to get her to leave me the hell alone for the majority of the rest of the game.

Though it's a shame we'll likely never get more from this series, I was satisfied with my ending, with John a vigilante and Bruce visiting him and maintaining their friendship while giving up the suit for Alfred.

(Sidenote I include with all Telltale reviews, though it's less apt for this one as The Enemy Within has plenty of more obvious changes: Telltale's games often get a bad rap for having your choices not influence the story, but to me this misses the point of what they do. Variant endings are a nice bonus in games, and I enjoy them when they do pop up in Telltale's stories, but for the most part your choices aren't here to change where you go. They're there to change how you get there, who you are when you get there, and often who you get there with. They influence and change your relationships with the characters around you. The joy of replaying these games is to experience the different dialogue, the different reactions to you, the different routes you can take on the way, the different bonds you can evolve with people - not to have a wildly different ending. I think this aspect is overhated and sadly misunderstood by a lot of players, so if huge, game-changing differences are what you're looking for, I'd temper your expectations.)

Having been a fan of the first game, I was very excited for this one. Thankfully, my expectations were met for what I personally wanted out of this game which was Batman, Joker, Catwoman. These three are what really worked for me in the first game and getting more of them this game was a huge treat.

I do wish we had gotten more Catwoman, it felt like she didn't really play a major role in the story but they were trying to include her anyway. Joker on the other hand was the best part of this installment as your friendship with him evolves throughout the game, but we all know the reality of his character, very tough choices.

On the other hand, Harley's portrayal was so different from how she usually is that it took me a second to adjust, which was a tad disappointing since she is one of my all-time favorite characters, but I respect trying new things. Having Amanda Waller was also an interesting choice, a very complicated character that added a lot of moral greyness to the story. Other than that, Bane and Mr. Freeze were a little sidelined, but then again what more could they have given them to do.

Overall the game did a great job showcasing Bruce/Batman and Joker's relationship while sprinkling in a lot of other Batman characters around it.

The first season of Telltale’s Batman was one I enjoyed, they put an interesting twist on certain characters and made a superhero story that felt personal to Bruce Wayne and the effects his family had on Gotham, intended or otherwise. So, perhaps I had too high of expectations for this 2nd season.

We can start with the art style. The Sin City vision still makes this game feel much deeper than what it may actually be and gives a nice artistic twist. I did notice at the end they seem to have gotten lazy with Joker. Most of the characters just have a little pop of color, he was more color than grayscale. Granted, maybe they were going for an artistic thing, showing the personality differences between Batman, who’s all black’n’white & Joker, who’s all color.

The gameplay is the same as every other Telltale game. Walking around clicking on objects, choosing your dialogue in conversations, and QTEs for fight scenes. The little detective areas from the first season are almost completely gone. I think I encountered one in the whole game. They weren’t the most engaging thing, but even their little addition helped solidify the detective angle of Batman. Telltale games, I’ve realized, are walking simulators wearing the clothes of an adventure game, and I think that hurt them. I know they were pumping these episodic games out every other month it seemed, but I think it’d’ve suited them better to make an actual adventure game. Give Batman puzzles to solve and an inventory to refer to. Given the Riddler plays a large role in this game, there were some puzzles, but most Telltale puzzles are pick up this one item than can only go into one obvious spot.

Now to what everyone plays a Telltale game for, the story. The story for this sequel was a bit of a let down for me. As Bruce Wayne, you work with Amanda Waller’s Agency by going undercover. You work your way into a gang of villains that include Harley, Bane, Mr. Freeze, and Joker. I wasn’t personally engaged in these bits, it goes through a lot of the undercover tropes; searching for the rat, our hero wondering if maybe these villains aren’t so bad compared to his handlers. It’s all about big shadowy govt. Organizations and secret biological weapons. I get they were going for a story that challenged Batman’s black & white world view to show the world is shades of grey, and the good guys aren’t always “good” and I’m usually all for those types of stories, but Waller never really gives a good defense of her shady agency beyond, “It’S fOr ThE GrEAteR GoOD.” The first season had a story that revolved around Bruce Wayne and put him in an comprising position where he wasn’t prepared for every outcome and had to do some soul searching. It was a new spin on Batman that was focused on Bruce, this one feels like plenty of superhero or cop stories we’ve seen before, with all these new characters and organizations coming in. I wonder if this season originally released around the time of the Suicide Squad movie? I could see wanting a game that helps hype up that group being ordered to help with cross-promotion. Then the story ends with Bruce having to choose between being Batman or keeping Alfred. There’s a nice speech Alfred gives about how he’s too old for all this stress and wants to leave, but up until now the idea of Bruce abandoning Batman entirely was never mentioned. It feels like a cheap, last minute thing added in to make the story seem deeper.

The other story thread in this game, that is a little more engaging, is the creation of the Joker, and the hand Bruce Wayne plays in it. See, when we first come across the Joker he hasn’t quite adopted that mantle yet. He’s got an inferiority complex and really latches on to Bruce as a friend. He’s got violent tendencies, but it seems like there’s still time to help point him in the right direction. There’s sort of a tension between Bruce and Joker, Even if you attempt to support Joker as a friend, it still comes off as you aren’t really a great friend, just using him & trying to placate him. And my own past biases about the Joker came into play too. Did I really want to keep trusting this guy? Was he really innocent and friendly, or is he trying to pull a fast one over on me? In the end, the Joker still becomes a criminal, but the slow build up to it and the direct effect Bruce had on it was very well crafted.

That’s one thing that does carry over into this Batman season, Telltale putting spins on characters. This Joker acts kinda like the edgy dudes who think Joker’s the coolest do in real life. Harley & Joker’s relationship dynamic is swapped, with her being, not quite as abusive, but more the uninterested alpha while Joker tries to get noticed. Sort of like a “soy boy” as the kids say, am I using that term right? I’ve stated I’m not a big fan of Joker in general, his relationship with Harley that people like to idolize, being one of those reason. It was an intriguing twist to turn that relationship on it’s head. Speaking of relationships, Catwoman shows back up and she seems a little more tender in Telltale’s rendition. She’s usually portrayed with having a “will they, won’t they”, on again, off again, thing with Batman where her heart of gold will lead her to help Batman, but she never stays in his grasp long. Here, if you play your cards right, she seems to develop real feelings for Wayne and wants to go steady with him. It’s a nice shift. Gordon is the usual, by-the-books policeman, still he’s such an honest and good guy I never could bring myself to betray him, and he had the best action hero line in the game. Though from Waller’s perspective, he & Batman were very much a “good ol’ boys” club. Bane & Freeze are pretty standard versions of themselves, I don’t know why they even brought Freeze in, he gets shoved into the background and wasted big time. Riddler has a neat twist, he’s a pre-Batman baddie who is sort of an older dude with a past working with the Agency. Unfortunately all the riddles he asks you are pretty lame.

All in all, this game is a step down from season one. The plot isn’t quite as engaging or personal as the first game and the undercover stuff is too much of the plot. Had you been playing as a GCPD detective, or someone that isn’t Batman, who went undercover, this game could’ve worked better in my mind. This felt like a basic level Telltale entry, so not bad, but by no means their greatest.

I am finished with it, what a pity! : It was too short. You always know what you are going to find with the telltales games: almost a film in which you are allowed to decide certain things. It is great like this. I played it with a friend and we had such a good time!

Next one in these series: The Wolf Among Us or maybe The Guardians Galaxy?

I really loved the first Batman Telltale series. As someone with an embarrassing amount of Batman comics, shows, films and games in my collection, it seemed to stand on its own, which I found impressive.

This sequel, while still quite enjoyable, fell a bit short for me.

The visuals this time around felt more limited than stylized to my eye. The amount of "damned if you do, damned if you don't" dialog choices started feeling a bit contrived. And the primary antagonist's arc felt surprising but less self-contained than I'd hoped... I did my best to interact with them based on the events of the game, but it felt as if the outcomes were constantly correcting me toward the character's typical interpretation. I also felt a bit deflated by the fifth episode's conclusion, which indulged in dangling plot threads unlikely to be resolved in a post-Telltale world.

That's not to say it's a bad game. The voice acting in particular continues to be stellar... Debra Wilson is commanding as Amanda Waller, and Laura Post lends some wonderful depth to another fan favorite. If you enjoyed the first Telltale game, temper your expectations before diving in and you should have a fine time.