REVIEW – Similarly to the previous episode, I’m writing my thoughts down roughly after ten minutes of completing the chapter. I’m feeling the same way for the first regarding Batman as I have felt with The Walking Dwad: Michonne – it was way too short, but it was good to play the episode through.

 

So after the third episode, Bruce Wayne is in some deep sh_t, and he has to survive in a new location while meeting some of his future foes. I’d name one of them: John Doe.

Nowhere to go

After the excruciating first scenes, I noticed a lack of movement in certain directions during one part which then triggered an event that should not have normally happened. I know it’s just nitpicking, but since I have to talk about the game without effectively spoiling everything, I need to go into the technicalities.

When we get the chance to grab the phone, there’s suddenly a hope of getting out of there, but for that, we might have to help this John Doe guy. The future suddenly lies in front of the present – there is no good choice or alternative here… and when we learn a bit more about the leader of the Children of Arkham (who is the reason why we start out at a certain location…), the ordinary life won’t be the same as it was before.

Securitate, Gotham-style

Police state. You’ll hear this many times during the episode due to the decisions of the mayor (and regarding him, I might have been a bit confusing about his actions in the previous episode… what a two-faced maneuver… oh wait, wink wink.), and there’s also that good old corruption.

We’re still not 100% healthy, but after a small puzzle (don’t worry, it’ll take less than a minute), we might begin our investigation built on John Doe’s information. The inspection is another piece of cake, but at least the events right after it make up for the lack of difficulty. A survivor, getting ambushed by our own technology, and the shock: not even our weaponry can be trusted anymore.

ProviDent

After another decision, we’re meeting the mayor, who’s more random than a drunk teenager’s movement on the street. However, the already catastrophic situation gets even worse, ending our investigation before we could have wrapped it up. We save the skin of an important character, who could have helped you get out of the unnamed location previously in the episode.

Our weak hardware starts to show malfunction, and our decision could change a thing or two. I’d rather not write down what I chose, but I can tell you that the end was dark. Literally. I didn’t even get a teaser of the finale, which is usual for Telltale’s games. When will we even get the last episode? Now that they kicked The Walking Dead’s launch to the last Tuesday before Christmas (what a bright move…), where I expected to get the Batman episode, it’s likely that Bruce Wayne will return in 2017.

Apparently, Bruce Wayne is a ventriloquist

I found two other technical bugs aside from the previously mentioned one during Guardian of Gotham. During one scene, Batman‘s mouth didn’t move at all. There were also a few lines of never appearing subtitles, plus I found Bruce Wayne moving inappropriately, making it seem like he sits down when he already was sitting. Perhaps I was drugged, too…

Graphically, the game has the same quality, but the frame rate didn’t feel entirely stable. The music is good; the voice acting is top quality – John Doe’s voice takes the show without a doubt. Congratulations, Telltale. Well done.

Finita la Commedia

Still, the episode only gets a 7. It’s great, but I completed it in 74 minutes, and that included the recap, plus I had not a lot of movement, either. It felt like the typical lower quality episode before the outstanding finale. We’ll see how this story ends. I have a hunch about it, though…

-V-

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Publisher: Telltale Games

Developer: Telltale Games

Genre: Indie rogue FPS with RPG elements

Release date: November 22, 2016 (PS4, PS3)