Batman: The Enemy Within - Episode 4: What Ails You (Xbox One) Review

Following your decision at the end of Fractured Mask, someone is in need of some saving. After this is resolved (fairly quickly, not to the game's loss), Telltale seems to know exactly how to bring the pace back up. It's time to bring back Batman, and his moments returning to the action are definitely worth the wait. An excellent fight breaks out pretty early on, and while it's not as intense as some of the others this season, it's definitely one of the longer ones. It also does a good job showcasing how well the action QTEs Telltale injects into each of its games can come together, and it's a pleasant way to open the episode.

From there, it's a lot more story-building, but here the story seems to actually matter. The true goal of the Pact is revealed and, even better, players get to look deeper into the Agency. Waller is slowly being revealed to be much different than first thought, and it's at least interesting to see how these developments will occur. Coupled with other characters, like Avesta and Freeze, several relatively underused cast members are finally getting their time to shine.

Good news is, after his incredibly frustrating appearance in Fractured Mask, John Doe is again a very captivating character. While he spends a lot of What Ails You more akin to sad puppy than one might like, by the end, it's clear he's just as, if not more, dangerous than Harley and Waller. Fortunately, most of the blander characters, like Catwoman and Bane, don't get a tremendous amount of time this episode, leaving room to explore more interesting story arcs.

The problem with that is The Enemy Within has a problem of trying to build up too many different plotlines. Alfred has his own plotline that doesn't feel adequately explored, yet is incredibly important to the universe it's occurring in. Freeze's plot point actually moves on without him even being involved in one respect. This episode tries to juggle in Tiffany's return, but it feels like her time on-screen is wasted, and is merely a reminder she exists, just in case anyone forgot. Also, there's a plot twist, if you could call it that, that's fairly underwhelming, and while the actual meat of the twist is moderately interesting, the core of it is pretty predictable.

While this juggling too many plot points has been a problem the season has slowly been building towards, it seems to have reached its apex in What Ails You. With only one episode left, it's hard to believe there won't be a cliffhanger, or worse, Telltale will resort to rapidly wrapping up all its loose ends in a dissatisfying manner. While the plots are not past the point of no return, it's definitely going to set expectations high in the season finale to make them work in a way that's at least logical.