Telltale's Batman Episode 2 Review

If you haven’t yet played, or at least read about Episode 1 I highly suggest going and playing that now if you have any interest in this series. Spoilers for Episode 1 are ahead.

After threatening to throw Falcone out of his penthouse suite, 50 stories high, Episode 2 begins with tying up the loose ends with the Mob bosses story line and continuing to delve into the Wayne family's murky past. If you’ve ever seen or read anything containing the Batman you might have already guessed what talking about Bruce Wayne’s parents will include. Yes ladies and gentlemen we get portrayal of Bruce’s parents being killed #5236. At this point it’s a running joke, any new Batman material HAS to deal with Batman’s origins and has to show Martha and Thomas Wayne’s death.

In Telltale’s rendition the retelling of the death scene serves to give Bruce a chance to be a time detective, as you start the game at the scene of the crime along side Alfred, trying to remember any clues as to the true nature of his parent’s murder, and solve the mystery of who Thomas and Martha really were. In Telltale’s defence they do try to do something more unique with the Wayne family shooting, muddying the Wayne family name and making it a lot more interesting than the usual backstory affair.

If you’ve played Episode 1, Episode 2 will hold no real surprises for you. The game is played in the exact same way, battles are quick time events, you get to plan out your assaults on large swathes of baddies before performing them and you use dialogue trees that are supposedly remembered to interact with the stories narrative. All pretty standard, except Episode 2 does have a small mechanical change. At one point you have to go see Mayor Hill, either as Bruce or Batman, the game letting you decide. A very small thing, but a feature that I think is pretty cool, and should be implemented much more in the next episode.

The next episode also needs to be longer. Much longer. Episode 2 is so short one can easily complete the game in a simple 1-2 hour sitting. Narratively the shortness kind of makes sense, the episode ends at a very good point, having you make a very difficult choice that should have a massive implication on the rest of the game, and it does mean the story is very streamlined and doesn’t plod or get bogged down. It just doesn’t really feel like a full experience. More like I played a demo. Hopefully this’ll be recognised in Episode 3 where we’ll be given much more to sink our teeth into.

It also means there’s very little to say about it. With one minor difference it’s pretty much the same as the first episode. Just shorter. And with less technical difficulties. While areas did stutter a bit Episode 2 ran much smoother than Episode 1. So if you’re already on board you won't be disappointed about the quality, just the quantity.