BATMAN: A Telltale Series – Episode 3: New World Order Review

The Hero No One Deserves:

Episode 3 wore me down. The Batman of comic-book fame humbly accepts that, whilst Gotham may deserve him, it never really likes him. That goes doubly so in Telltale’s spin on the franchise, a developer who gleefully fills all of their casts with unlikeables who actively harass and provoke you in the hopes that players will lash out at them and make some bad decisions.

So I’m ashamed to admit that, after another two hours of not only having a city full of ingrates hating their saviour Batman but also Bruce Wayne, I was done, and I started making a fool of myself.

Story:

As I mentioned, Telltale have filled this game with a cast so downright irredeemable that I really couldn’t care less whether Batman saves them – not that I’ll have much say in the matter – and that’s ultimately a sad failing. Previous characters who I’d been ridiculously loyal to even in the face of a script that was begging me to abandon them or betray them at some point – such as Harvey and Gordon –now hated me for some reason (because Telltale needed them to for story reasons or simply because the team never expected a player to put up with all their bullshit, I do not know) which takes away any sense of ownership I had over my playthrough, and that’s a real shame.

Whilst I appreciate we’re supposed to empathise with Bruce Wayne feeling like the world has turned its back on him despite how many times he’s saved it, actively wanting to watch said world burn isn’t a strong motive for continued play, especially when it feels our actions are being discarded anyway.

There are some interesting developments here and there, especially where the brilliant Catwoman is concerned, but otherwise the story sort of trudges along towards an inevitable climax. Harvey Dent starts talking to himself (shocker!) Cobblepot pokes and jabs from the sidelines hoping to get a rise, and the new kids on the block, the Children of Arkham, are making strides to build various doomsday devices.

There’s enough villains to provide either a spectacular showdown come episode 5 or a bloated, unfocused mess, a la Spiderman 3, but only time will tell on that front. Still, the narrative strings – and Batman’s own rich tapestry to draw from – seem underutilized and a little muted here.

Gameplay:

New World Order doesn’t really want you to play it. By episode three the canonical stakes have raised so high that player choice is more of an illusion than ever, and the game has become an interactive comic book rather than anything you have much control over. The only say I got this time round was which crime I’d drop in on early on, but even then I was only there to enjoy the spectacle.

There are no big set pieces with Episode 3, which was a letdown, and the action is forgone in favour of story development – predictable in any middle child of a Telltale game – but there’s enough here to entertain for the ninety minute runtime.

The most interesting moment, which I won’t spoil here, happens close to the end of the chapter and is a tense, well-written encounter between the Bat, the Cat and a cannon that’s becoming increasingly loose. Whilst the scene doesn’t particularly flex much gameplay muscle, it’s still a fun and nervous moment to be a part of, and one where I felt my choices had truly led to a particularly twisted outcome (though, honestly, I don’t imagine the scene would have played out much differently if I’d continued to play good-Bat).

Presentation:

What’s even more frustrating than Telltale’s look-don’t-touch policy with the Batman license is the fact that, despite a lot of the episode being hands off, it still suffers in terms of slowdown, weird loading and jarring scene changes. The game doesn’t run well at all, and in any scene where something more intricate than a simple one on one dialogue is happening, you can expect it to struggle.

Fight scenes were particularly egregious, which is a shame because when they flow they do so beautifully. I hope Telltale iron out whatever issues have reared their heads recently and get back to the consistently good streak they were enjoying previously, as its issues like these that can ruin any immersion players feel in their games.

 

Conclusion:

Honestly, New World Order nearly made me stop caring about Telltale’s Batman series. It’s not that it was a particularly terrible episode – there was an interesting revelation near the end of the episode and plenty of fun interactions to be a part of – but an otherwise predictable plot, a hands off approach to storytelling and a hateful cast threatened to ruin the good work the team has accomplished so far.

I always struggle with middle episodes of Telltale games, and Batman is no different, but here’s hoping they can close out the series strong and leave us wanting more.