Batman: The Enemy Within - The Telltale Series

I revisited this entry after having put it down back when it was brand new and releasing episodically. I remember the moment I lost interest from all those years ago, but decided to give it another chance. I really enjoyed the first season (though I had some issues with the constant decisions where somebody was gonna be inconvenienced by what you chose) and the different twists and turns that it took me. Naturally, I expected Enemy Within to refine the formula and tighten up the experience for the player. The gameplay definitely has a leg up from the first in terms of gameplay and QTEs, but that's about where my praises end. For the most part, this critique is based on the game's selling point: the story. And this story irritated me. I can pinpoint the exact moment halfway through episode 1 that I had a bad gut feeling about where this was going, and by the time the episode ended, that feeling only got stronger. Of course I wasn't expecting anything to be faithful to the comics; this is its own thing. But there's making changes for originality, and then there's making changes just for pure shock value... and a bunch of these changes feel like they only exist for shock and awe, followed by a flimsy justification to explain it. Too much change can be a bad thing, and I point to this as a prime example. Not to mention the graphical bugs I encountered in episode 2. The camera really doesn't like being stuck in a tight space with Harley and it would break the scene and characters. I basically had to sit through it until the scene changed and fixed itself. I don't know whether it's because I played in Shadows mode or something else, but it didn't do the game any favors. So: I'd recommend sticking with the first season, and then pretending it got cancelled despite the critical reception

I thoroughly enjoyed Telltale's take on Batman, and this second outing was overall a stronger work than the first. More unusual, more exciting, and more coherent in it's themes. The perennial Telltale problems remain, that while the interactivity of QTEs and walking-around scenes can often enhance the feeling of connection to what is happening, they are just as often used in clumsy ways that unnecessarily extend actions sequences or slow down sections of the game to a crawl where a quicker pace would be apt. The completely unnecessary bugbear of seemingly arbitrary failure states returns as well; while it is possible to have these sorts of false-ending moments in a visual novel or similar in a satisfying way, Telltale rarely manages it with these failure states feeling like tacked on concessions to Game-y-ness. There are some stumbles in the storytelling as well but it's hard to express them without spoilers. Mostly distracting "Really, this is where you're taking this?" sort of moments and of course there are going to be some Big Binary Choice moments that just ring false and that sacrifice the themes of the game in the name of choice. I feel Batman does that a bit less than many of their other games, though, and manages to be a little choosier about when it allows you to tie a nice bow around everything, when it takes all your stuff away no matter what you do, and how these moments fit into the game's themes. The cast is excellent. The story feels complete and well executed. John/Joker's arc is a bit abbreviated over Episode 5, but Telltale does interesting things with the character I haven't seen elsewhere. A solid Batman tale, a solid interactive fiction, and a publisher somehow still baffled at the idea that you can make 3D interaction fiction that doesn't desperately shake you to make sure you know you're playing a video game. If you've bounced off Telltale's offerings before, this probably won't convince you. Otherwise, it's almost their best work yet.

I get this is another company's take on Batman, but even factoring in player "choices," I don't think there is a more complete misunderstanding of the characters in an IP than this.

I liked the story origin on this, I did not realize this was a sequel so some elements in the story don't make much sense unless you play the first game. The issue I have is the save system 4 times I followed the auto save and left the game at said check point only to later see the game having not save anything and have to repeat everything again. Don't know if this is an GOG issue or the game issue but it was bad. Repeating 4 times the beginning because the game said it saved and nothing was was really disapointing

This season is definetely better than the first season, choices finally mattered! Could have loved it more if i could save Joker from murdering people at all in the vigilante path but i guess telltale cares about canon when they want even if its completely unnecessary given how far its from original already. At least i hope theres some sort of hope for him in my ending, so season 3 needs to bring me more of them being buddies, if its coming ofc, but considering you can give up being Batman idk how it will work. Liked all of the other characters too and voice acting is awesome as usual, Selina is a good character, but i hated how i couldnt just stay friends with her, they kept pushing romance with her and if you reject its always harsh and you always end up enemies like wtf...at least if you dont sacrifice her she more or less saves you at the end so thanks for that. i just would have loved to see more queer main relationships in telltale games, as im queer myself, or at least dont pust so much of heterosexuality in my face lol