Batman – The Telltale Series: The Best of Us (PC)

In the third entry of the Telltale Batman series, things keep getting worse for Bruce Wayne. As a long-time Batman fan, it’s always fun to see Bruce disappear into the Batman persona when things aren’t going well for Mr. Wayne. Romantic relationships, problems at work, angst over a death-iversary; whatever it is, it’s always worked well in the comics when Bruce checks out, spending more and more time as the Batman. But what happens when things are going just as bad (if not worse) for Bruce as they are for Batman?

This episode is a lot of fun, mainly because things are indeed going terribly for the caped crusader and his alter ego and it’s fun to watch Telltale try and find a way out of the mess they’ve created for the Dark Knight. Bruce has been ousted from his own company and replaced by Oswald Cobblepot of all people, the Children of Arkham are taking over the city, both Batman and Bruce are having major trust issues with Catwoman/Selina Kyle and good buddy Harvey Dent is starting to have some major mental issues. There are big decisions to make, a huge revelation towards the episode’s final minutes and a pretty stellar action sequence, in addition to the opportunity to flex Batman’s detective skills, which we never see enough of, in my opinion.

It’s unfortunate that some of the major decisions I agonized over in the previous episode don’t really seem to play out in an impactful way in "The Best of Us". As mentioned in our previous review, Telltale is walking a tight-rope, since everyone knows that there is only so much you can do to change the Batman story and mythos. Bruce can’t be permanently disgraced, Batman can’t die, Harvey Dent will always be Two-Face, etc. Some things you just can’t really mess with. That said, Telltale still does a very good job making alterations to this version of the DC universe where they can.

One alteration/revelation comes completely out of left field, way outside of the Batman mythos. I assume no one else saw this revelation coming either, and I was initially pretty impressed with Telltale for making such a ballsy and unexpected decision. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that there was really no way I could have seen it coming and I am pretty confused as to how this choice will work, especially given some of the events of this episode. I can’t really get into specifics, since I would be getting into some pretty spoiler-ey territory, but I am going to just have faith that Telltale will figure out how to make the choice make more sense in the upcoming episodes. 

Speaking of the established mythos, it’s a lot of fun watching Harvey Dent’s slide into insanity. Keeping with Telltale’s “retelling”, Dent’s transformation is happening much differently than I expected. Although I feel like the “straw that broke the camel’s back” was a little mild given his psychotic reaction, it’s a blast watching the voice actor chew the scenery on this one, devolving into the madman that is Two-Face. I felt like I was watching one of the Final Destination films, looking around each scene to see what could potentially fry half of Dent’s face off. It was a lot of fun watching Two-Face emerge as a personality before the actual physical disfigurement. 

As for the voice acting, Telltale knows that it’s the backbone of their point and click games, and they don’t skimp here. Harvey Dent is excellent, Selina purrs and roars and Batman’s gravely menace contrasts with Bruce’s sometimes unsure delivery as he navigates his personal and political life. I wanted to slug Cobblepot a few times, since the actor so perfectly plays smug, condescending and spoiled all at the same time. The other sound effects are all the tried and true smacks, gunshots, grapples and grunts, but the voice acting totally steals the show, as it should.

The graphics are the usual Telltale fare, although I could almost swear they have improved a little over the last episode. Some gamers may be tired of the somewhat ho-hum cel-shaded look, but I am still loving the look of the game. Even with some of the awkward gestures (Bruce and Selina kissing is a pretty comical mash-up of two faces pushed against each other), overall things still look good, especially the action. A lot of this is accomplished by the top-notch directing, allowing some action to occur in your mind, due to the intelligent use of quick-cuts, fade-aways and smart pacing and angles, but this is by no means the Bourne Identity-style “throw the camera into the dryer” of directing to film the action scenes. Bruce may look a little silly reaching for a bag of bagels, but Batman sure as hell doesn’t when he’s kicking in a skull and whipping batarangs at everything that moves.

The puzzles make another appearance in this episode after being mostly absent from the previous chapter. While I welcome the detective aspect, I was somewhat underwhelmed by the execution. I appreciate any time that a Batman game actually tries to get him to live up to the title of “World’s Greatest Detective”, so I have to give them points for the effort, but the “puzzles” are very straightforward and make more use of Batman’s tech than his actual smarts. I hope that they try to add a little more next time, especially since the combat, while fun, is the same QTE driven fare of the previous episodes. For a game that is so dialogue heavy and dependent on choice, it would be nice to see more effort put into solving crimes and puzzles.