Batman The Enemy Within Episode 1 Review

Telltale’s Batman returns with The Enemy Within. Is it time to take up the cape and hit the streets, or are you better off watching The Dark Knight? Check out our review and find out what we thought.

Batman The Enemy Within Episode 1 Review

Following up after the events of the first Telltale Batman season, you start as Bruce Wayne in a shady casino looking to get info from the mob boss Mori. While trying to find a way to listen in on the mob boss, The Riddler crashes the party and decides to play. Asking a couple of riddles and killing a man, he quickly takes the casino over and puts Mori into a death machine. As Batman, you can’t just stand idly by while this happens, so you escape to the alley and gear up. What follows is a series of quick time events and choices that lead up to the first fight with the Riddler. At the end of the battle, he tosses you a riddle box and tells you that in order to save everyone, you have to solve it before escaping into the night.

Dealing with The Riddler isn’t the only problem you will face as Batman. Early on, “The Agency” makes themselves known. They serve as the FBI in this game, and there is a territory dispute between them and Gordan and his cops. You can choose to help both or pick which side you want to help more. Depending on which side you choose, you will get different dialog options and areas to explore. Regardless of who you pick, the ending is the same, making it somewhat meaningless.

As Bruce Wayne, you will have to cultivate relationships as well. I’m not sure if this was in the last game, but now relationships have statues such as vengeful and ecstatic depending on how you respond to characters in certain situations. Alfred, John Doe, Gordan, and a couple of Agents from the Agency have relationships with Batman and Wayne. I can’t say for certain that it had any effect in the first episode, but John did help me with the case later on that might not be an option if you upset him.

If you’ve played any Telltale game before then, you know what you are getting into with this game. There are conversation trees, quick time events, and even a little bit of exploring to be done. Most of the conversations don’t have a ton of weight to them, but some of the choices you make will help or hurt you in the future episodes. As for quick time events, there are a ton in this episode of the game. It is an action-packed episode with really only one major puzzle, even though the main enemy is The Riddler. The puzzle is pretty intense but not painful to figure out.

I only played the first episode of the last game, but I liked what they did with Wayne and Cobblepot in the first episode. That comes back in The Enemy Within, and John Doe is a character nearly any Batman fan with recognize. They take liberties with the characters to tell a different story, and it ultimately helps the game out. The one downside is the lack of notable new characters in the first episode. Outside of the Agency and The Riddler, most of these were seen last season. Still, it’s early, so I am sure they don’t want to blow everything right out of the gate.

Most Batman fans will enjoy the first episode of Batman: The Enemy Within. However, waiting for the entire season to release first might be the best course of action at this point, if only to see what new material Telltale will bring to the table.