REVIEW – Fractured Mask? Nomen est omen – in this episode, the clear line between what is a good decision and what isn’t is blurred. What is the right approach and which one is terrible? Who can you trust and who would stab you in the back? The story kicks in, and it’s just episode three.

So, at the end of the second chapter, we almost perfectly stole a package, which contains a dead person, and a returning character joins the gang. There’s not much difference between person A or person B coming back after left behind, but that’s not important: the story starts to take new heights.

Balance

You, John, and the returnee go to Riddler’s hideout, where you’ll have to solve a little riddle. All I say is footwear, and nothing else. There’s a secret part of this underground bunker, where you’ll find a computer, and I don’t care, I’ll write down two key points: SANCTUS.

Project Lotus. The computer self-detonates after failing a security check, but one component is saved, which turns the plot towards stealing a laptop – this part of the story focuses on your relationship with John, which will get Harley’s attention, making her notice that you two are too close to each other.

After meeting Gordon, you’ll find someone listening to your conversation, and a selfie follows, where, incidentally, I responded to myself with a sentence from Life is Strange: „go fuck yourselfie.” The laptop is going to be in your hands, but upon returning home, you’ll find an unexpected guest, whom you might trust enough to see more of your secrets. The laptop reveals that a group close to us has previously done some experiments, and after an internal cleansing, this team is still alive and kicking, which effectively means there’s a triangle in the game.

One part of this triangle will step in to help when cuffs click on your wrists, and you’ll notice that there’s a weird thing on the ear of one person. You’ll visit a location to prepare for the next step, you’ll get knocked out, and you’ll be one of the characters labeled as a mole. You’ll get a choice to either take the blame yourself or cast it on someone else – one of you will end up in trouble, followed by a cliffhanger. As usual, there’s no preview for the next chapter, which has become the trend. It’s useful, regardless.

Hm…

I know, I got through the – mostly – spoiler-free plot synopsis shorter than before, but it was a tough thing for me to keep things without naming most people. I’m sure that there’s something big happening behind the triangle, and a few characters will step forward as critical personalities in the upcoming episodes. The SANCTUS will likely attack in the endgame, but that’s four months away. Until then, I’m going to be curious how our relationship will change with Gordon – he stood by us right from the start.

Did I write that in the past tense? Was it intentional? Also, Alfred barely showed up in Fractured Mask, and I don’t understand why. As a negative, I think I could say the typical Telltale-style tension creation: something terrible happens at the end of one episode, only to be resolved almost immediately at the start of the next one. This approach just worked in the first season of The Walking Dead between the fourth and the fifth episodes. The switch there was terrific.

Wave

The second episode wasn’t that weak, but it was worse than the first one. The third chapter is excellent, which deserves a 7.5 out of 10 due to the regularly present tension. It doesn’t get more than that: there was just only one action scene during the 105 minutes that took me to complete Fractured Mask. The usual things are present: the graphics are on the same level as before, the voice acting is up there as always, and the background music is still scarcely used. The story kicked the score up a bit for me. I hope it will be good. Telltale has its work cut out, without a doubt…

-V-

Publisher: Telltale Games

Developer: Telltale Games

Genre: episodic, adventure

Release date: November 21, 2017