Batman: The Enemy Within - The Telltale Series

Season 1 of Telltale's Batman got better and better with every episode. This trend seems to continue with Season 2, starting as strong as season 1 ended. If you liked season 1 you can't do anything wrong with this game.

When it comes to games based on personal choices you make during your adventure, all that matters is the illusion of freedom. You're a puppet dancing on the devs' strings, but good games, like Life Is Strange or the 1st season of The Walking Dead, give you enough room to believe you actually tailor the story, and actually matter. Both as player, and protagonist. The Enemy Within, sadly, feels very shallow, due to rather poor writing and even worse character development. It's bad, because you actually can feel you're the puppet. The story involves some of the most well known characters from Batman's mythos, some reinvented, others pretty faithful to their comic selves. The biggest changes were made to Joker, who is the second most important character in the game, after Bats, and Harley Quinn, who in this version was turned into an evil manipulator (and I truly hate that). Bane, Mr. Freeze, Catwoman and Riddler, are pretty much what fans would expect them to be. Now, as I said earlier, your illusionary choices are a bit on the nose, and you'll quickly realize they hardly matter, and you can't build actual relationships with characters. That's noticeable especially in episodes 4 and 5, where the story comes to an end. Everything revolves around John, the proto Joker. Your decisions will affect him, and the game wants you to believe he learns from you, but the narrative may have been way tighter. TTG accomplished that in the first season of The Walking Dead, which was truly emotional, personal and well crafted. This game isn't, your role in it feels like a sisyphean task, which is especially noticeable with side characters, whom you can hardly impact. They are pre-determined to act certain way, and end in certain place. Maybe you'd like to reason with them, find their inner good side and reform them? Nope, no chance. Dance as you're told to. Overall, I'm quite disappointed, especially since I know what TTG was once capable of. I sadly can't recommend this game. 2.5/5

Yeah, it's better than the first season. Yeah, Telltale is back on its track. - Old comix personalities but in a twisted manner - you won't see them in a usual Batman way; - Heartbreaking choices. There will be no easy decisions. And even if you are Batman you won't be able to save anyone; - Guilty sympathy. Even for villains - they all have their motives; - 10 hours of thrilling action. It's just like a good blockbuster. It's simply worth it. So, if you really into first season of Walking Dead or The Wolf Among Us, you should try this. I have similar feelings with this season of Batman after finishing it. And it's great that after very controversial third season of Walking Dead Telltale just get the job done right, I'm so happy to play this.

Honestly the waffling with quick time events, although it did get me to feel engaged, and the choices were interesting and did seem to have some branching paths, this game I didn't love for the gameplay. Your decisions seem pretty trivial and only add up ultimately to collection of statistics at the end of each chapter, although to be fair there seems some memory if you failed to save someone or made a particularly momentous choice. The movement is clunky. Sometimes the graphics have some issues. It's not a perfect game: just erring on the side of mediocre. No, what makes this game five stars to me is that is FINALLY GETS BATMAN. This is the perfect blend of classic superhero and modern-day vigilante: all the best qualities of Adam West's optimism (and unapologetic theatricality), Bob Kane and Bill Finger's Gotham as-another-character idea, Nolan's darkness and grounded realism, the recent TV show's focus on Batman's relationship with the GCPD, Gordon, and government agencies...IT'S ALL HERE. And it's all fresh. Anything could happen. Every character feels true to their origins and legacy but they are not nailed down to previous iterations. The way they handle The Joker is particularly brilliant, and even tragic. I'd watch a full TV series based on this premise and playing this game feels like that, only with more wiggle room to explore. The music, the SUPERB voice acting, the fact that you can finally see a Batman story with the guts to suggest he could make mistakes (even deadly ones) it's all brilliant. You feel like you're hanging out with the cast and they're really the stars of the show. If you want to play a TV show, and an excellent show at that, this is the closest it comes and it is arguably one of the best written and compelling Batman stories of all time. Come for the story, the characters, the twists and turns. The gameplay is just an addition to that quality package.