Previously on Batman: New World Order
New World Order focused primarily on the “Children of Arkham” distancing Bruce Wayne from his family’s legacy and life of comfort. After the attack at the Mayoral debate by the Penguin, Harvey’s mental health begins to deteriorate as he slowly becomes the insane Two-Face. Felicia’s relationship with Harvey after the attack diminishes, whereas her relationship with Bruce begins to grow. With more evidence and accusations about Bruce’s corrupt family surfacing to the media, Bruce is left with no choice but to step down from Wayne Enterprises. Cobblepot (the Penguin) takes advantage of Bruce’s misfortunes and claims what he believes the Wayne’s robbed him of. New World Order ends on a high note with the revelation of Vicki Vale as the mysterious villain, Lady Arkham as she drugs Bruce during his resignation as CEO at Wayne Enterprises.
Guardian of Gotham
Shortly after being drugged by Vicki Vale, Bruce’s behavior becomes violent prompting his arrest and sentenced to Arkham Asylum. Bruce wakes up unaware of his surroundings and comes to realize that he is in Arkham. With the drug still coursing through Bruce’s body, he needs to find a way out of Arkham so an antidote can be made at the Bat Cave. Knowing that none of the staff will believe his plea to leave the asylum, Bruce makes an acquaintance with one of the most well-known villains in comic book history, the Joker. At one point in the Arkham chapter, Bruce discovers that the Joker knows more than he shows concerning the situation in Gotham concerning the “Children of Arkham.” The Joker understands that Bruce is limited on time and needs to escape Arkham, so he happily gives Bruce the option to cause a distraction to use the phone to make a phone call out of Arkham. However, there is a catch involved with this deal and should come to no surprise with the Joker. Once the diversion begins, Bruce can either help the inmates who are getting injured or make his phone call. Regardless of which option you choose, you will be released from Arkham.
After leaving Arkham, a quick recap of Gotham’s plight from Alfred and Gordon gets Bruce up to speed. Harvey Dent is becoming more of an unstable menace and Lady Arkham is still on the loose. With everything that Bruce’s alter ego, Batman, needs to attend to, Bruce still hangs onto the idea of him and Felicia having a future. This future is quickly shattered when Felicia confronts Bruce about their relationship. Always looking out for her best interest, Felicia leaves Bruce but may have some role to play in the final episode. Now that Felicia is out of the picture, Bruce has two things to worry about: Harvey and Lady Arkham.
After using an antidote on the hallucinogenic drug that Lady Arkham administered, Bruce recaps Alfred with Vicki’s motives and why she is calling herself “Lady Arkham” from the information he heard in Arkham Asylum. Bruce reveals that Vicki Vale was an orphan similar to himself and that her family name is Arkham, which answers several unanswered questions from the previous episodes in the series. With a good start in investigating Vicki, Bruce decides to check out her foster parent’s home as Batman. Once in the Vale’s home, Batman is left with an investigation for how and why the Vales were murdered. During Batman’s investigation of the Vale’s home, a drone comes to attack him. The drone provides quite a challenge for Batman because there is something within the tech that is preventing the drone from being stopped. After Bruce is able to stop the drone, he dissects the tech and learns that Cobblepot is hacking it. Bruce is faced with two problems and has time to deal with one. He must either stop Harvey from destroying Wayne Mansion, or stop Cobblepot from continuing to hack his tech. In my playthrough, I chose to stop Harvey. The consequences of letting Cobblepot hack Wayne Tech is that eventually, Bruce will have to stop supplying power to all Wayne Tech leaving everything inoperable.
Hearing that Bruce Wayne was released from Arkham Asylum, Harvey became furious for the premature containment of his ex-best friend. Nothing that Bruce says will affect Harvey, so the next best option is for Bruce to don the Bat suit. Near the end of the episode, there is an exciting standoff at Wayne Mansion between Batman and Harvey. With the help of Alfred, Batman prevails in subduing Harvey, however, by the end of the episode all power is lost to all Wayne Tech and the episode ends in darkness.
Conclusion
The title “Guardian of Gotham” is fitting for the episode because Bruce comes to the realization that he needs to be Batman in order to stop the menaces trying to control Gotham. This title implies that most of Episode 5 may have the player as Batman. So how did Episode 4 fare after Episode 3? Episode 3: New World Order was a fantastic episode with a captivating story and gameplay, however, Episode 4 failed to keep up with the previous episode’s pace and storytelling. The small story arc in Arkham Asylum felt rushed and dull. Depending on how Episode 5 will play out, the Joker hardly felt as terrifying as he should be. Telltale must have some reason for using the Joker, but I hope if he is used in Episode 5: City of Light that he is not as boring as he was in this episode.
Nearly everyone is aware of the Joker’s manner of speaking and mannerisms. Telltale’s version mostly resembled Willem Dafoe and sounded nothing like the Joker we are accustomed to. In regards to voice acting, Mark Hamill set the standard so high for the Joker that anyone who doesn’t sound remotely close to Hamill’s Joker is terrible. I remained optimistic about Telltale’s Joker, but found the character flat and disappointing. Because Arkham Asylum set the tone for the episode, it was hard to break away from the dragging story. I was actually finding it hard to almost finish the episode until the big fight at the end of the chapter. That last fight with Harvey (or Cobblepot) was a breath of fresh air because the Vicki Vale plot was unnecessarily long and boring. Being a fan of the Walking Dead Telltale games and how well each season has ended, I’m hoping that Episode 5 will remind me of Episode 3’s quality and bring closure to the series. Interested in what to expect from Episode 5: City of Light? Check out the trailer below for more info!
Stay tuned to The Noobist for a review of Episode 5, coming soon!