Telltale’s Batman has already exceeded expectations, with twists on the traditional Batman universe and turns I could never have expected. Episode 3, New World Order, left off on such a cliffhanger that it makes it all that much more disappointing that Episode 4, Guardian of Gotham, can’t seem to keep up.
Regardless of the choices made up to this point, Bruce Wayne finds himself waking up in a dirty cell in Arkham Asylum. It doesn’t take long for other inmates to notice, and within minutes of waking up, you’re already in a scuffle thanks to a corrupt Arkham employee. Mercifully, the fight is broken up by “John Doe,” a green-haired, pale-skinned man who likes to laugh.
Bruce is then shown around the asylum, seeing first-hand how terrible the conditions are for inmates. Many hold a grudge with Bruce for what his father did to them, making it all the more dangerous.
While having the tables turned with Batman locked up in Arkham Asylum is an interesting concept, it’s quickly dropped as Bruce gets to leave almost immediately. While some plots that seemed to have developed here will likely play out over the course of the last chapter, it still felt like the whole Arkham visit was very abrupt. I guess we’ll have to see how it all plays out.
Once out, players will have to make several major decisions about what to do with Harvey Dent, as well as learn some more information about Vicki Vale’s identity. While this is all fine and good, it feels like the plot is dragging on crucial story elements just to further emphasize how much everyone in Gotham hates Bruce.
There also are a few weird narrative hiccups. The biggest one comes after Harvey does something that, without giving it away, is very morally wrong. Many agree that what he did was bad, and he should be punished for it. Almost immediately after, Gordon does the same exact thing. Granted, when Gordon does it, it’s on a much smaller scale. Nobody brings up that what Gordon did was wrong. It felt weird, and very off for what was going on at the time.
I don’t want to get too into the story, especially given how different the stories can be told. I will say that this episode didn’t really feel like it should be the second-to-last. There seemed to be much more set-up for future plots in this chapter than all of the previous ones except the first. Even the first chapter felt like it at least had more action elements though.
The biggest mystery is the introduction of The Joker, or “John Doe.” This seems like such an interesting character that it feels like a waste only giving him a sliver of one chapter (and presumably some of the last chapter) in which to shine. If not, there better be an entire second season for this iteration of The Joker, because he seems worthy of more than what we’ve been given so far.
Like last time, technical issues continue to be found all over the place here. Thankfully, the game seems to run more smoothly than previous chapters, but audio not lining up with lips and animations not playing continue to be common issues. These don’t detract too much from the overall experience, but when you hear a character talk and his or her mouth doesn’t even move, it comes off a bit jarring. Additionally, there wasn’t a “Next Time On…” segment like there usually is. I don’t know if this is a bug or intentional, but it would have been nice to get a little trailer of the final episode to know what to look forward to.
As for when we can expect to see the final chapter of Batman, expect a release before the end of the year. New episodes have been releasing once a month, so the final one should be coming around the end of December.
Given how strong the writing has been for the previous three Batman episodes, I’m still incredibly excited to see how this whole season will wrap up. Unfortunately, Guardian of Gotham didn’t really do much to make me more excited.
So what do you think? Have you already played through Guardian of Gotham for yourself? What major decisions did you make? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
