Review: Telltale’s Batman Episode 3 – New World Order
Episode 3 Of Telltale’s Batman makes little sense, and makes your choices feel less impactful than ever
Episode 2 of Telltale’s Batman ended with a pretty big cliffhanger depending on your decisions. In episode 3, we see the result of Harvey’s run in with a spotlight courtesy of Penguin. Selina and Bruce can get a little closer. Bruce faces a mutiny at his own company. And a shocking twist no matter what you do. And maybe it’s because it’s only the third act, or maybe this is just typical of Telltale Games’ products, but I have rarely felt more just along for the ride with my choices making little to no difference than they did in episode three.
Let’s get the technical stuff out of the way. Any issues with framerate, sound problems, etc. that were present in the first two episodes of Batman are just as present here. Either you can get past them or you can’t. Clearly Telltale feels the finished product is good enough. I get they are on a schedule, but dropping a patch to fix things up just a little bit could do wonders.
If you have come this far, it’s pretty much all on the story and how much your choices matter. And with going into minor spoiler territory (much of which was revealed in the damn trailer), the choices you make in episode 3 don’t seem to count for much and make little sense. Harvey Dent becomes the villainous Two-Face, but is somehow still mayor? Also he just magically has his infamous coin. There’s a story behind that coin, but in Telltale’s Batman he just shows up with it with no explanation.
The story gets even more ludicrous when Bruce Wayne is removed as head of Wayne Enterprises. I won’t spoil his replacement, but it’s the most ridiculous pick you could possibly make, who has no qualifications whatsoever. It manages to get a good twist in at the end that actually makes plenty of sense, but the rest of the story just gets silly.
Again, little to none of this is based on any decisions you have made thus far. It happens as it happens. And maybe if there was some big decisions that would make clear impact in the future, that might be ok. Like how about choosing between a couple options as to who to endorse as the new Wayne Enterprises CEO?
Next: Arkham VR: Joker Committed All The Crimes
Maybe it will pick up in the last couple of episodes, but Telltale Games is a company that supposedly prides themselves on making player choices matter in story. Batman hasn’t seemed to have anything that drastically changes the story based on your choices. Maybe it won’t really add up to the final episode, but 3 episodes in it just feels like any sense of real choice or control is getting smaller and smaller.