REVIEW – Two different types of Jokers, two almost entirely different plot lines in Telltale’s latest finale episode. Thus, our decision we made in the previous chapter will either make John Doe consider us as an archnemesis or be a good person to us initially. Of course, the situation will fall out of our hands.

 

I can now spoiler roughly 1/4 of the things, as I played through the season with a single save file, so I can’t talk much about the other „half” at all. However, the way Telltale has broken the plot lines to two, and the way how several characters’ stories could end with the end of this season, already brings up that there will be a third season (otherwise why would this mechanic be built into The Enemy Within? serious question…), and I can’t wait to see how these decisions will change things in 2019, when this season likely arrives.

Joker

So, Joker’s character presented a significant evolution throughout the season, and the result will rear its ugly face in the finale. Our decisions will somewhat alter Joker’s actions, but the laughter is guaranteed. A specific character might also switch sides, too. Others could entirely leave (one of them might do it with just one option selected from the dialogue, no joke), so it’d be difficult to explain it all. I’d instead just congratulate Telltale, who are still behind the 8-ball. Big Bad Wolf with The Council has presented a more detailed dialogue system. I’m going to say names: Alfred. Iman. Waller. Selina. Tiffany. Gordon. Harley.

However, Joker will end up in the same place no matter what we have done, although based on our decisions, he could do one of many things in his prison, and he could also get multiple ratings at the end of the game. Oh yeah, ratings: our relationship with most major characters will be recapped at the end with bullet points. A few names did not end up on the list (like Freeze or Bane), which is somewhat surprising.

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And now I have no idea how to fill the rest of this article. Okay, I’ll write the Vigilante recap, because now I have no clue what to mention… so we’ll hear from Joker in two or three weeks. He formed a new base, Bane gets the better of us with a bit of tuning, we get a voice call, we ask for help, we get into a confrontation that makes us hurt even more, a character COULD offer a bit of help, then we investigate, confront Joker, and no matter how much we trusted him, we can’t make him a good person.

This is the biggest issue of the game: Joker ends up in jail. The game will FORCE YOU to fight him a few times. Otherwise, you’ll just get shot or knocked out, which means you’ll go back to the previous checkpoint. It’s a missed opportunity in my opinion. I’d have liked Joker as a more positive person. However, it would have been a significant detour from the lore, so that’s what we get…

Yes

Batman: The Enemy Within was a solid game, and the result (the rating score, which you could see below – I usually rate the entire game with the final episodes, and the chapter gets reviewed in one of the final paragraphs) is excellent. Joker easily took the last two episodes on his back, and the frustration breaks out in the Same Stitch, which itself could be a 9/10 due to the mistake I mentioned a paragraph above. The visuals and the audio are the same quality as before, and now, the action took the major part in the finale, which even ends with an epilogue. I managed to get one of the more friendlier ones. Fallen friend, still a friend.

Batman: The Enemy Within is one of the best Telltale games of the past few years, and I think it even overcame The Walking Dead: The Final Frontier. I like how Bruce Wayne showed his darker side. There will be a new season because it’s far from over yet. Telltale didn’t say it’s the end, did they? You can bet your money on it.

-V-

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Publisher: Telltale Games

Developer: Telltale Games

Genre: episodic, adventure

Release date: March 27, 2018