Review: Telltale’s Batman Episode 2 — Children of Arkham
A bit shorter and a bit sweeter, episode 2 keeps the forward momentum and piles on a more complex conspiracy.
As I warned in my previous review for episode one (this one here) my reviews for these episodic games will contain spoilers for the episodes previous, as otherwise it becomes difficult to talk about what’s going on in the current episode. As such, expect no quarter to be given for Episode One: Realm of Shadows from this point onwards.
Following on from the revelations at the end of the first episode, Children of Arkham opens with Bruce re-examining what he thought he knew about his parents and digging into their past while continuing to deal with the fallout of half the city finding the skeletons in his closet before he did. Given the way episode one ended I expected Alfred to be somewhat antagonistic in his treatment of these secrets for at least the start of this episode, but rather quickly that tension is calmed and Bruce refocuses on other things — presumably Alfred was not privy to the exact details of the Waynes’ dealings.
I think the limitations of Telltale’s three dialogues choices at a time system comes in here, as while I chose the closest I could to what I wanted Bruce to say there was some nuance to the interactions between the two that I couldn’t delve into with the lighter conversation options. It meant parts of the conversation I personally wanted to expand upon or at least some things I would have liked to say didn’t get said. Alas, such is the limitations of conversation trees though. We can’t all get what we want.
With Carmine Falcone in custody as of the climax of the last episode the tone of the story shifts gears quite quickly to keep things interesting and to expose the layers of what is really going on. So far I’m enjoying peeling back curtain after curtain, and the angle at which Telltale is doing it is proving to be a really interesting one. I can’t say with certainty it’s unique, there’s just too much Batman for me to comb it all and fact check how new it is to do anything with Thomas and Martha Wayne except make them shining paragons of virtue, but in a way their constant portrayal as such across the Batman stories reflects Bruce’s opinion of them, and in watching the secrets of their darker dealings brought to light we as players get to feel an echo of the gut-punch Batman himself is getting. That’s a great parallel that helps us as players really empathise with Bruce’s sense of shock and betrayal.
Catwoman continues to be a considerable aspect of the story, and Bruce’s back and forth with her feels good, even if it’s a bit by-the-numbers as far as Batman stories go. Nothing wrong with telling a story right after all, and the way the player can influence their interactions gives them a lot of leeway in what kind of a guy Bruce is — he can be the playboy millionaire who takes every opportunity to chat up Selina, or he can hold back and try to keep things strictly business despite the Cat’s flirtatious attitude. Either way the back and forth between them is quite natural, and seeing them work in tandem is a lot of fun.
On the other side of the rogues’ gallery, Penguin continues to perplex me. I like him. He’s got the right kind of flair and direction that the series really doesn’t feel like it needs to add in the Joker (still hasn’t happened, and I’m starting to get hopeful it won’t) while maintaining a very clear goal and direction in his actions. Oswald is a man on a mission, and he wants fireworks in the process. That’s used to great effect during the scenes he appears in, and he’s shaping up to be a strong primary villain for the series, especially in light of some of his motivations, especially in reference to the Wayne family.
That said, nothing about him says Penguin. At one point in the episode Bruce simply mentions offhand that Oswald goes by ‘Penguin’ as his underworld alias and at no point is that ever justified. He could have called himself ‘Fox’ or ‘Bear’ and it would have made just as much sense. I like the character himself, but I don’t feel he fits the mould of the Penguin, and I’m going to keep banging that drum until either there’s some kind of actual reason given or Telltale really surprises me by dropping him in a vat of chemicals and dyeing his hair green. Just as an aside, a cockney Joker seems like something that should have been done by now.
Having established a lot of foundation for the plot in episode 1, episode 2 flows very smoothly from point to point without really needing to pause and catch its breath, and while I enjoyed that for the most part the result is an episode that’s shorter than the previous, and one that absolutely feels like it flies by quickly. While it does do a good job of adding to the feeling that Batman and Bruce Wayne are both under attack by multiple fronts and dealing with a situation he has not anticipated and is having trouble adapting to, it also means there’s never a quiet moment to collect your thoughts. Episode 1 featured an interesting scene of detective work that involved putting aspects of a crime scene together to work out what had transpired there. As well as being a good way to show a little more of Batman’s detective side, it also gave the episode a breather scene that didn’t involve going from combat scene to heavy plot scene to combat and heavy plot scene.
The clip at which episode 2 proceeds is in my view a little quick as a result, and I’m hoping that in the fallout of episode 2’s final moments there is time to catch my breath and examine the situation from the outside.
Telltale’s use of choice in this episode definitely helps enhance the narrative towards its later scenes, with one instance involving deciding whether it would be better to visit a character as Bruce Wayne or Batman, weighing up the pros and cons of Bruce’s resources and more peaceful approach versus Batman’s tech advantage and sheer intimidation qualities. It’s a good way to further leverage the devs’ choice to highlight Bruce and Batman’s duality, allowing the player to steer Bruce’s many qualities in ways they want or believe to be the most useful.
Keeping their penchant for the Telltale Sadistic Choice, the episode ends with a great example of bad to worse, and in the few seconds of slowed time I was given to decide I found myself weighing a lot of things I knew both about the situation at hand and about the Batman mythos as a whole before I finally decided to make the choice that made the most sense to my Bruce. I’m happy with the result, providing Telltale don’t immediately pull one of their patented equaliser plot points to reduce how important that choice was.
With the end of the episode packing yet more revelations about Gotham’s past and promising a lot of places the story could go in terms of villains and character arcs I’m pleased so far with Batman: The Telltale Series. What it’s done so far it’s done well, and it hasn’t lost any of the great potential this episode has continued to carefully nurture. I look forward to episode 3 (titled New World Order) where I’m hoping things will really hit their stride.
