Over the past decade, Telltale have evolved from a plucky little point & click adventure developer to a real powerhouse within the adventure genre. They’ve been entrusted with ever more ambitious and prize licenses, with more yet to come, but Batman: The Telltale Series is perhaps their biggest so far. It’s also done things differently, weaving together their own interpretation of the characters in the beloved comic book series. There’s been some really nice things that stemmed from that approach, but the question remains, can the series close with a bang, or will it fade to the sounds of leather bat wings in the night?
One of the main strengths from the first half of the series was that it continually looked for new ways to twist and reimagine established Batman characters and stories, but I don’t feel that the last two episodes really managed to capitalise on that. Between Penguin, Two Face and Lady Arkham, there’s three major villains to take off the board, and three major encounters, which actually balloons to five when you’re faced with the climactic choice from last episode. Understandably and necessarily, the episode isn’t just back to back fight sequences, but the pacing feels slow and stodgy, suffering from the need to try and wrap up loose ends.
One of the most successful parts of the series has been the relationship between Bruce Wayne and Harvey Dent. It’s something of an origin story for Harvey Dent – this is still early on in this Batman’s career – and so we get to see the slide into the split persona of Two Face and the callous way he deals out what he sees as righteous justice. That descent comes in part from Bruce’s actions, amplifying the sense of betrayal that is nestled deep within his psyche.
With divergent paths to choose through the final two episodes, my eventual encounter with Dent was one that focussed on that original friendship and common ground between Bruce and Harvey. It was one the brought forth some of the compassion in Bruce Wayne’s character and, because of that, felt satisfying, even with moments of awkward and repetitive dialogue.
The grand showdown with Lady Arkham, by contrast, was a protracted flurry of fists and feet, a running battle that carried on for several scenes as you fight to save one of the few friends and allies Bruce has in this world. It almost feels a little odd that, when it comes down to it, it’s not putting a life on the line in a manner that could have continued the series’ bold steps away from conventions.
And between this episode’s two showdowns? We had instances of the light puzzle solving that I initially enjoyed in earlier episodes, but really haven’t evolved or grown over the course of the series. Walking around a room, finding clues and then matching them together is a nice mechanic, but it’s exactly the same match two system as it was in the first episode, and the same can be said of the instances of letting you plan Batman’s plan of attack to swiftly take out a room of enemies.
Dealing with the aftermath as well, feels like it could easily have been cut short in order to end on high note as opposed to a faux-cliffhanger. The plot’s been foiled, the dangers to Gotham have been neutralised, so I don’t really see the need to foist an ultimately inconsequential decision on the player right at the end. Perhaps picking the other option would have been more rewarding.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s still good ideas here and the finale does lean in on the more personal stakes that have been built up over the season, but a number of points weren’t quite given the time to be explored fully and given enough weight. It doesn’t hit home when a bit-part character dies and everyone looks as shocked and saddened by this as if they’d been a key player in the story all the way through.
Ultimately, the season just feels like it ran out of steam towards the end, perhaps as a consequence of delivering episodes on a monthly basis.
With the full season of Batman: The Telltale Series now at an end, we’ll be returning to consider the series as a whole in the not too distant future.
