Batman: The Telltale Series

Donald Trump and the Republicans are in power in this setting, which explains why Harvey, a candidate advertising himself as an radical outsider against a corrupt established politician, is able to wield such sweeping legal powers in spite of his mental instability.

edited 29th Nov '16 11:47:21 AM by FluffyMcChicken

Nah, I supported Harvey the whole way because I felt bad for him and didn't want him to turn up evil.

Alas.

Harvey didn't start out with a split personality, though. That's mostly the drug's doing. I mean, he was probably still insecure about his hero complex and even a bit envious of Bruce, but he probably would've had better control over those issues if he wasn't drugged.

It seemed to me that when he talks about his therapist being worried that the drug might cause some pass issues to 'resurface', a split personality is exactly what he's talking about. I read that as saying that the drug exacerbated an existing problem— it didn't create a new one out of whole cloth.

Could be wrong, but it seems consistent with what else we know of those others who've been exposed to the drug.

Episode 5 will be released on December 13

I feel like we know more about Penguin and Harvey than we do our main villain.

Speaking of which, I enjoy this version of the Penguin. I wasn't expecting the fight with him to be so brutal.

Telltale does a little cast interview thingee periodically. This one has a brief clip of Episode 5 at about 27:53.

Okay, so it looks like Episode 5 is going to change dramatically based on your choice at the end of Episode 4. Or, at least, I hope it's a big change.

Also, that flashback made me sad.

Where's the federal government during Harvey's reign of terror?

Is President Trump secretly condoning his actions?

He does get arrested in episode four if you choose to defeat him.

Choosing to stop Penguin probably delays his eventual arrest for a bit.

Finale trailer.

Also, the final episode is apparently already out in some places, so beware spoilers.

It's all up on You Tube, yeah.

Okay it was disconcerting as hell to see Batman refusing the kill his enemies, even if he seriously hurts them, only for Gordon to suddenly shotgun one of Harvey's troops.

To be fair, it was self-defense. Then again, a shotgun is pretty powerful...

edited 13th Dec '16 8:28:01 PM by Hobgoblin

Why does Gordon even have that leather strap across his chest anyways?

edited 13th Dec '16 8:30:29 PM by FluffyMcChicken

It's his holster, isn't it?

Still not out on Steam, huh?

Also, did anyone else get that glitch where one of the Arkham patients is just a floating pair of eyes and a mouth?

That was actually very worth the 1 day delay on PC, which looks like it'll be the new norm for Telltale.

• I was surprised to see the Commissioner go out like a hero. I was under the impression that he was corrupt, given his status as an Obstructive Bureaucrat.
• I much prefered this confrontation with the Penguin to the fight in Episode 4. Much more emotional weight to it.
• I told Selina that she's is better than she thinks she is and had Bruce kiss her goodbye. I was kind of surprised that she didn't show up during the final battle.
• So it was pretty obvious from the previous episode that the Vales were abusive, but holy shit that torture cellar.
• So was there a benefit to keeping Lucius at Wayne Enterprises? Is it just the classic batsuit. I mean, that was nice, but I was expecting him to get me vital info at some point.
• Gordon's brief fight with Zsasz was great. My only disappointment with the second Arkham sequence was that Harvey was just a cameo and didn't help out in some way. But then again, Harvey refusing to leave his cell seems to be a sign that he's on the mend.
• I chose to unmask to save Alfred. I was completely unsurprised when Vicki died ten minutes later.
• The Lady Arkham fight was incredible. And that finishing blow was great. The best fight in a game full of really well done fights.
• I went to the speech as Bruce and vowed to make Arkham Asylum an actual working mental health institution.
• On the one hand, I dislike the Joker. On the other hand, the last two minutes of the game make it clear that we're getting a sequel. If this was going to be a one off series, then Telltale would just have ended it with Bruce finishing his speech.

tl;dr Very good game and I actually don't mind the myriad of (now mostly fixed) technical glitches on the PC version. Let's hope that Telltale can continue this streak with The Walking Dead season 3 and Guardians of the Galaxy.

I totally wouldn't be surprised if The Invisible Man was also an inmate.

Now that I think of it, Lady Arkham's one huge Composite Character consisting of: Ra's al-Ghul's ideology, Joker's reputation, Scarecrow's methods, Penguin's resources, Deathstroke's fighting style, and Talia al-Ghul's undisguised appearance.

How do people feel about Lady Arkham as a villain? The backstory and actions they take make sense, but I think she really needed more time to develop as a better villain. We never even get to see her interact with anyone other than Bruce Wayne. Did she really see Penguin as a pawn? Did she actually like/sympathize with him?

Exactly my thoughts. The motivations and everything make sense and she made for a decent Big Bad, but he she needed the push that Two-Face and even Penguin got.

Also, any bets on who the Vale boy is supposed to be?

I think that Vicki's problem as a villain was that she got no screentime in Episode 4. The big twist worked and her scenes in Episode 5 were excellent, but Penguin and Two-Face were the more compelling villains because they got more screentime overall.

The Vale boy is clearly a future Robin. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about Batman's history to determine if he's a canon Robin or one made up for the game.

I'm kind of hoping he's one of the Robins, actually.

The more we saw of Lady Arkham's equipment and backstory, the more I wish she'd been called out as being a female Prometheus. Her costume and gear are kind of in line with that, and she's basically a criminal version of Batman. She really needed to tie in more with comics lore, given how she's cribbing so much from the rest of Batman's rogues gallery as it is. I could forgive that if it was acknowledged as such, made all the more explicit that she is, in many ways, the culmination of 'Batman creates his own villains' as a conceit.

edited 14th Dec '16 11:16:28 AM by Unsung

I don't think we have had an African American Robin before, but I'll be fine with the Race Lift. But would he be Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, or Tim Drake?

It'd be weird for Dick Grayson not to be first, but just based on the home-life he had (even if it was abusive, it wasn't the circus), I'd tend to prefer Tim Drake.

Actually, if they do have Robin, I wonder if how they might update his circus background to the modern day. Circuses do still exist, but somehow I suspect they might look for an alternative.