Review Of Telltale’s Batman Episode 2: Children Of Arkham
The mystery deepens in Batman Episode 2: Children Of Arkham
The second episode of Telltale’s Batman saga is out today. Does it weave an intriguing enough mystery for you to want to continue? And did you choices from episode one actually matter in a meaningful way? Read on to find out!
One of my biggest problems with episode one of Telltale’s Batman was definitely the story. Because Telltale had for whatever reason decided to take Batman and put him in a Gotham of their own making, you basically spent the entire episode setting the story. That’s two hours and some change of nothing happening, and in some cases themes being repeated into the ground.
The good news is things really pick up story-wise in episode two. How much it may bother longtime Batfans may vary on how willing you are to accept that this is not the Batman you know. Things happen to what may be considered sacred canon, and unlike in most of the comics, movies etc., Batman isn’t perfect and can’t save everybody. He says “nobody else dies” and guess what? Some people still die. And that’s ok.
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More importantly, they’ve managed to make the murder of Bruce Wayne’s parents interesting for the first time in probably decades. Again, the way they go about it might be considered messing with something fans consider sacred, but manages to do it in a way where I really want to see where they go with it. So storywise, I’m certainly on board for the next episode.
Where Batman Episode 2: Children Of Arkham really falls short though is like many Telltale games, on a technical level. The framerate is pretty abhorrent, more so than episode one with constant stuttering and clipping. Numerous sound cues simply don’t happen (hey, that guy’s gun didn’t make a sound, neither did that other guy’s head when I slammed it into a table). It makes the game just feel like a mess an extremely unpolished.
The story in episode 2 of Telltale’s Batman is a big improvement, and also the game’s saving grace. The game suffers terribly on a technical level, and the action sections remain dull by the numbers quicktime events. Granted, if you love Telltale games, you probably don’t let this bother you, but all that means is that Batman continues to be just another Telltale Game with a different skin when it could’ve been something unique.