So far, Telltale’s Batman series has been an entertaining and unique take on the Caped Crusader. Now that Chapter 3 is out, Telltale has stepped the game up from “pretty fun Batman game” to “This is amazing, I need to see where this is going.”
We last left off with Bruce Wayne finding rumors about his family to, unfortunately, be true. These shocking revelations were made all the worse when Penguin showed up to change the landscape of Gotham’s mayoral race.
Without getting too deep into spoiler territory, New World Order takes the intensity of previous chapters and cranks it up. Both Bruce and Batman have more major decisions to make, and they aren’t as easy as you’d hope.
One of the most compelling parts of Chapter 3 is the inevitable turn of Harvey Dent. Those familiar with any Batman story will recognize the name as the man who becomes Two-Face, but we only get glimpses and teases into Dent’s crumbling mental state. A black eye just helps seal the imagery that Dent is slowly becoming more and more insane.
Like previous chapters, there’s a healthy mix of conversations, mild exploration, puzzle solving and quick-time action. There’s only one big scene this time around involving piecing together clues, but that’s ok. This segment is so obvious, I messed up a few times, thinking it wasn’t going to be the solution already hitting me in the face. Why bother with all this linking together of objects if it’s pretty much already spelled out anyway?
We also get several options regarding how romantic you want your Bruce Wayne to be. It’s somewhat refreshing that while there will always be sexual tension between Bruce and Selina Kyle regardless of your decisions, an out-and-out romantic subplot can be avoided if you want.
All of these choices culminate during a press conference dealing with the fate of Bruce at Wayne Enterprises. The closing moments are so shocking, and nothing a long-time Batman fan will see coming, so I don’t want to say any more, except the cliffhanger you are left on might have you shouting at the screen for more.
While all of the story is excellent, it’s unfortunate that New World Order runs as poorly as it does. Even ignoring the fact that Telltale didn’t update Batman properly, forcing many to wait until they weren’t being charged for Chapter 3 despite already owning it, there are many other technical errors.
Animations often don’t play or aren’t synched with the dialogue, lips frequently don’t move when characters are talking, and the framerate can chug when there’s action going on. There was even a point in the intro sequence where the game came to a complete standstill for a few seconds, making me wonder if it crashed and if I would have to restart everything. It’s really a shame, as a story this compelling deserves to not have such immersion-breaking issues.
For reference, I’m playing on an Xbox One. Unfortunately, we do not have first-hand experience if New World Order has such glaring issues on other platforms.
Even with the technical flaws, few gaming stories have made me this hooked and left me begging for more. With all of the major decisions, it’s also worth taking the time to play through a few times to see how every decision can play out.
Telltale’s Batman is available now for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, PC, iOS and Android devices. The first chapter is currently free to try on PC and the Google Play Store. Episode 4, Guardian of Gotham, will be launching in November, and the final episode, City of Lights, will be releasing in December.
So what do you think? Have you played through New World Order yourself yet? Will you be waiting until all of the chapters are out before starting? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
