Telltale Games synopsis

Shadow Edition

The Enemy Within

In this latest chapter from the award-winning studio behind Batman – The Telltale Series, both Bruce Wayne and Batman will be forced into precarious new roles. The Riddler has returned to terrorize Gotham City, but his gruesome puzzles merely foreshadow an even greater crisis. With the arrival of a ruthless federal agent and the return of a still nascent Joker, Batman must navigate uneasy alliances while Bruce Wayne undertakes a perilous series of deceptions. Which of Batman’s new allies will you choose to trust? And how deep into the darkness will you let Bruce descend?

*Spoilers ahead*

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Think like both Batman and Bruce Wayne

I did a review on this game back in 2018 as a spoiler-free review, but it was only on the first season. If you want to read it, I will leave a link down below.

Season 1 spoiler-free review

In regards to superhero games, we think about a good story and gameplay. We have games like the Batman Arkham games where we explore Gotham and utilize his skills and gadgets to take Gotham’s Rogue Gallery. In Marvel Spider-Man, we learn the personal struggle with Spider-Man as he tries to save the town and protect his loved ones. However, from the works of the Telltale Games, a game’s story can be affected from the player’s actions and choices. Telltale Games is well known for creating games like The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, Guardians of the Galaxy and the Batman Telltale Series. Rather than focusing on the combat, players will have to think like Batman in this original story. There are only two seasons to this Batman game and so far there is no third season due to the fact that company behind the game has filed bankruptcy in 2018. In this review, I am going to be talking about both seasons and it will all be spoilers.

*Spoilers!*

Season 1 story: Not so honest family 

The game’s plot begins with the young Bruce in his Batman suit and taking down an armed robbery. Everything goes smoothly until he meets a cat thief named Catwoman who managed to escape from Batman, but failed to capture what she wanted to steal. Meanwhile after dealing with the crime, Bruce hosts a party at his mansion and tries to help his friend Harvey Dent run for mayor. Bruce gets an uninvited welcome to a mob boss named Carmine Falcone who is willing to help Harvey as long Bruce is willing to comply with due to close relationship with his family. As things get interesting for Bruce, his childhood friend Oswald Cobblepot returns to Gotham and states that he plans to start a revolution and restore his family’s honor. With these people showing up to Bruce’s life, it only gets worse when news start spreading that Bruce’s family is not what they seem. According to leaked information, Gotham’s richest family the Wayne family are actually corrupt and evil/ With the news in the air, Bruce not only has to defend his reputation, but he also has to fight against that people wants to destroy him and Gotham. Leading to all this catastrophe, Batman will have to face the Children of Arkham, a mysterious underground group who are bent on destroying corrupt leaders with terrorist acts. The leader is the Lady of Arkham and she plans to get revenge on Gotham’s powerful leaders such as Mayor Hill, Falcone and the entire Wayne family.

Season 2 The Enemy Within story: The end of my enemy is my friend

Taking place after the event of season 1, Bruce continues to fight and protect Gotham while also trying to restore his family’s honor. During one of his missions on spying a crime lord, Bruce’s mission gets interrupted when the villain The Riddler returns to Gotham and seeks vengeances on his clients. As Batman fights him, he comes across a secret government group called the Agency and he has to choose to either side with Gotham’s police or help Amanda Waller and do whatever necessary to stop Riddler. This sadistic villain hits too close to home for Bruce when one of Riddler’s deadly puzzle games kills one of his closest allies. With less time to mourn, Bruce puts on the cowl and gets revenge on Riddler. However, the main story begins when Batman is forced to help the Agency and learn about the mysterious group Riddler was involved. As Bruce is forced to go into enemy territory, he has to balance out his priorities and avoid becoming the enemy he swore he would never want to be.

Gameplay: Point and Click and Quick-Time Events

The gameplay of this game is not too difficult. Throughout the game, the majority of the game involves players to choose their words and action as they play as Bruce/Batman. Depending on your choices, you can choose how to address your personality towards the people in Gotham. If you have both games, some of these actions carry on to the next game; some of these actions are notable especially on the final battle in season 1. In action movies, the game will make you do quick time events where you have to press the correct buttons; if you are playing the Switch, you can touch or swipe the screen.

Review: A Batman story filled with trust and betrayal

I played this game more than and I did my best to see all outcomes, but I did get two different endings in Season 2. If you like the idea of creating your own Batman story and interacting with Gotham’s familiar characters, you might like this game. This Batman game is entirely new world, but with similar principals and themes from the Batman lore. As usual, we still have the classic Batman origin with the death of Bruce’s parents, but in this game, we see Bruce’s father as a criminal who have been secretly conducting evil motives with his wealth. We still have some characters still retain their iconic personalities such as Harvey Dent becoming Two-Face and wanting to do justice with his corrupt powers and Catwoman who is neither good or evil, but helps Batman. Speaking of twists, the game also changes up the character role of characters such as Harley Quinn and John Doe, also known as Joker. In this game’s version, Harley is a woman who becomes a force to be reckoned with with a cold heart and has control over her group and even commands Mr. Freeze and Bane. John, in the other hand, is an unstable person who is constantly fighting with himself as he tries to please Harley for her love and Bruce and have the perfect friendship. Overall, this game does its best to retain the iconic roles of Batman and the characters, but also offers some new elements for a fun experience. The majority of this game tackles on the role of Batman and Bruce and this game does a surprising good job making the ability to play as Bruce feel important as Batman. In the Arkham games, you mainly play as Batman and resolve your conflicts through fighting and breaking bones. In this game, you do fight, but then the game also tries to make you solve your problems as the average man, Bruce Wayne. The game takes advantage of playing as Bruce in first season whenever you have to face either Two-Face or Penguin as either childhood friend or campaign supporter. In season two, there is a fight with Joker, but it all depends on how you treat him. If you chose to be friends with him, he will be a vigilante and he wants to fight crime with you. In this vigilante route, Batman must fight Joker and teach him that his justice is on terms with his. On the other route which is the Villain Joker, Bruce must fight Joker and confront him as equal without any tech. The game’s ending in season two really got me wanting more because as you progress through the story, Alfred decides to leave Bruce and it’s up to you if you want to leave him and continue being Batman or give up being a hero and have him in your life.

There is not much I can say anything bad, but I do want point out stuff that I noticed. I believe The Enemy Within is a standalone game that can be played without season one, because the game’s characters have different dialogue despite going through the first game. For example, I wanted to be close with Catwoman in the first game and she and I grew attached to each other, but in the second game, she has mixed feelings with me as if I said something wrong. I always find it funny that the most of people Bruce interacts with always find out he is Batman. Despite Bruce always trying to keep a low profile his identity, it always seem funny how people like Catwoman, Amada Waller and even Joker finds out the truth about Bruce. Overall, there is nothing serious bad about this game. The game chapters can either be long or short if you don’t killing time. The Shadow Mode add-on DLC doesn’t make much of a difference either. It’s just a black and white filter that makes it feel like you are reading a graphic novel. Not everything is a noir look, but there are moments we see color like red on Harley or green on Joker and Riddler.

Conclusion 

After playing this game more than once, the Batman Telltale Series seasons 1 and 2 is a fun game collection. If you like to create your own story and be your own Batman, this game is for you. Whether you are a comic book fan, film lover who enjoyed the Christopher Nolan movies or just want to take a break from the usually beat’em up superhero games, this Batman game will test your patience and put you under stress on the choices you make. The game really makes you feel like you are in the mind of Bruce and you are forced to make choices under difficult circumstances. The characters in the game is fun to interact and the game makes use of them in order for replay value. Interacting with John Doe is one of big factors of replaying the game. You can either fight as a usual criminal freak like Two-Face or The Lady of Arkham, or fight him as lost and misguided friend. You are free to be whoever you want when you wear the cowl or the suit. The Shadow Mode DLC is not really necessary and I wish it was free. It’s fun to have if you want to play the game like a Frank Miller comic. I do wish we got a season three to continue on the story. I would love to see more characters like Robin, Deathstroke, Court of Owls or even returning characters like Two-Face or Penguin. I can’t say we are getting a third season, but I won’t say it’s impossible. Even though Telltale Games filed for bankruptcy, their game The Wolf Among Us is getting a second season from a different group of people who wants to revive the game. I assume if you want a third story, we need some of these people and DC comics to agree for more comic book action.

What do you guys think of the game? Do you recommend it?