Batman: The Telltale Series - Episode 3: New World Order (PC) Review

Here's a quick rundown for those who had hopes that some elements of the series would change with this episode… First, most of the interactions required still tend to offer one choice: press 'A' or keep Batman staring till the end of time. Secondly, the QTE battles are, once again, unchallenging borefests that dare not innovate even by a little bit. Third, the detective segments are nothing more than chore-ish speedbumps, and, finally, while the story is supposed to be affected by your choices, that still remains a barely well-devised illusion.

Let's focus a little more on the last point. While Telltale Games generally has a tendency on creating crossroads that inevitably lead to pretty much the same conclusion, this time around it all feels lame on the developer's part. Why? Because (spoilers ahead) Batman actually had to make a big choice in the end of Episode 2 - Children of Arkham: let Harvey Dent's face get some severe damage, or protect him and let Catwoman get to defend her leather-clad behinds on her own, eating a bullet in the process.

It's pretty logical to assume that the decision here would lead to a totally different behaviour by these characters - but no. Dent will start to get Two-Face'd no matter what, and Catlady will still get to smoochie coo with lucky-guy-Bruce for… some reason (chicks dig cars and Bat-Credit cards). In other words, the "choices" don't really affect the outcome of the story, and instead marginally change some scenes and dialogue sequences - a slightly angrier response here, a somewhat friendlier face there, and so on.

What saves the day? The main characters of this - still mostly political - thriller. Penguin's cool thug-meets-businessman demeanour and the way he invades Bruce Wayne's world like a snake, angering the player while at it, Selina Kyle and how her weaknesses appear under the cracks of her tough exterior, and, most of all, Harvey Dent, the character who started as a simple politic with a pretty high ego, and ended up being a "villain" that's hard not to sympathise with and desperately want to bring to the Light Side of the Force… or something.

Unfortunately, the main hero seems to have lost his interest in what's happening around him… which seems strange, because he actually gets besieged from all sides in this episode. Everything, from his money and the people that he cares about, to the resources that he needs to work his night shifts are under threat, and generally, this instalment does a fine job at making you feel weak and helpless - unfortunately, even at his angriest, Bruce almost feels like a secondary character here.

Even worse, while the series as a whole is obviously more into the life of Bruce and not his alter-ego, Batman gets pushed aside way too much in this episode, not to mention that he has lost that unique spark that differentiated him from his unmasked self; that feeling that, whenever he wears his cape, he "transforms" into somebody else. Finally, story-wise this walks on a pretty predictable path, and while there's a pretty impressive plot twist included, it coming in the very last minutes means that it doesn't do much to increase the enjoyment of getting there to see it.