Review: Telltale’s Batman Episode 4: Guardian of Gotham
Bruce is falling apart. Gotham is falling apart. Telltale is falling apart.
As I’ve warned before, rampant spoilers for the earlier episodes lurk beyond here, as it’s hard to speak about episode 4 without getting into the end of episode 3. If you want to keep up with the earlier reviews you can find the first episode’s here, the second episode’s here, and the third episode’s here.
This one took me a while to get around to. There are a lot of reasons for that. Notably, Tyranny, Pokemon, Final Fantasy XV and the Gwent Beta were all happening either on top of each other or fast enough that I barely had time to finish one before I was pulled into the next, so I didn’t immediately jump onto Episode 4 when it released like I did the previous 3. Beyond that though, after finishing it I wasn’t really feeling up to just jumping in and doing a review like usual. I wanted to ruminate a little rather than put any heated words down.
So, episode 4 begins shortly after episode 3 finished — namely with Bruce drugged and beating the everloving shit out of Oswald Cobblepot AKA Still-Not-Really-Penguiny. The decision to make Vicki Vale the primary antagonist of the story was a surprising move. I never would have picked it, and I was counting on this episode to elaborate a bit on some of the why and how of it. Thankfully Telltale delivered there, with explanations coming in short order as the episode progressed.
After his very public beatdown of his old friend, Bruce is tossed into Arkham Asylum with the kind of speed you could never expect of most judicial systems. While it’s not clear how much time has passed by the time the player gains control it’s very apparent the landscape of Gotham is rapidly shifting as the Children of Arkham act more openly and Mayor Dent moves to counter. Somehow nobody catches on that Bruce — who has blue veins around his mouth and an even more noticeable stretch of them along his arm — is on drugs and should probably be examined by a doctor. But then, maybe I’m expecting too much from Arkham, a place that seems to have been built just so people could escape from it.
It’s here in the madhouse that Bruce meets a few new characters however. Telltale seemed to decide a stint in Arkham was best served by trotting out a few cameos from the rogues gallery, including the Ventriloquist. The big blue guy from chapter 2 reappears briefly as well, with no explanation of what’s going on there. If he’s supposed to be a minor villain I just don’t know about that’s fine, but it did confuse me as to why this man-shaped mountain who was clearly stronger than he ought to be and blue-skinned was never really commented or elaborated on.
All of that pales though, because Telltale had one more thing they needed to do. After all, when Batman goes to the madhouse who else should he find?
They simply couldn’t help themselves. Bruce comes face to face with the Joker.
Now don’t get me wrong. I love the character of the Joker. He’s fantastic. I’ve loved most of his time in the limelight in Rocksteady’s Arkham series, but he’s overdone. Especially in recent times where so much of Batman media outside the comics has revolved almost entirely around him. Telltale already has a full cast of villains in play as part of what is already an early Batman story. Penguin, the newcomer in Lady Arkham, and the emerging Two-Face. They actually form a pretty damn solid collection of villains, and when they utilise them right Telltale’s been doing good things with them.
So why, why, why did they feel the need to add the Joker in for a little icing on top?
Suffice it to say this went a long way to souring my opinion of the episode. It didn’t improve much as things went on either, and while Telltale is almost constantly accused of their fourth episodes being lacklustre it generally fluctuates in terms of quality therein. Tales from the Borderlands features a fourth episode I played twice because even if it wasn’t as strong as the two either side of it the episode itself was honestly quite good. The Wolf Among Us featured a bit of a lull as the plot slowed to prepare for the finale, but the pieces were solid. It’s not like they can’t be done well.
The seriousness of Bruce being locked away from Gotham in the asylum is greatly undercut by a very abrupt end to his time there as well, with it basically encompassing only the first chapter of the episode. The whole episode carries a bit of this feeling of weightlessness as events roll from one thing to the next without feeling like the story is developing, but thankfully another investigation segment helps bring back some of the right bat-flavour. A grisly murder helps Bats delve deeper into Lady Arkham’s past and taken as a vertical slice it’s not just my favourite scene from the episode but it may actually stand out as one of the better scenes in the series so far.
The episode isn’t devoid of plot development of course. There’s a scene that plays out towards the end depending on choices made that felt like a strong story point in Harvey’s character evolution re: Two-Face. There’s a major choice near the end where Bruce needs to decide whether he addresses a serious threat to Bruce Wayne or a serious threat to Batman. The story as it stands absolutely ticks forward, but the episode feels shorter and its movements feel constrained, possibly by the upcoming finale. It’s not all bad, the aforementioned detective segment, the character interactions especially with Harvey depending on how the player chooses to approach it hit good narrative points.
Ultimately though Guardian of Gotham looks like a jigsaw that could have been solved with a few more pieces that someone has instead taken some scissors to in order to make it fit in a smaller form. Episode 4 thus looks not-so-pretty compared to the higher points episodes 1 and 3 managed to score. Perhaps this is a symptom of Telltale’s rush to complete the episodes in timely fashion — they’re having to cut corners to meet deadlines. Maybe it’s a symptom of the pump for the third season of the Walking Dead coming up diverting Telltale’s attention. Hopefully that formula works in alternating strokes and their foray into the Batman universe will come right for the finale. As we stand, episode 4’s end lacks a great deal of the weight most of Telltale’s signature episode 4 smash-cut cliffhangers display, and that’s quite a disappointment.
