Batman the telltale series is getting close to the end. I found episode four to be a solid episode that sets up what should be a great finale. I would say it was my least favorite of the episodes released so far, but still enjoyable. The episode starts with Bruce in arkham asylum because he attacked penguin after being drugged by lady arkham. We get to see batman's most famous villain make his first appearance in the series. The joker helps Bruce escape arkham asylum. Once again telltale puts a different spin on a familiar character, it was fun to see the jokers interaction with Bruce during the first 20 minutes of the episode. I'm not sure if the joker will be utilized again until the next season of this series because he doesn't fit into the main storyline as of right now. I'm used to just joker and batman encounters but telltale did a great job once again of changing things up.
After Bruce escapes the asylum Gotham is in complete chaos. We continue to see Harvey Dent's descent into madness throughout the episode. His relationship with Bruce is pretty much shattered and he thinks Bruce belongs in arkham asylum. The player gets the option to talk with Harvey as Bruce or Batman making it the players decision. I chose batman because in episode three I saved Harvey from penguin smashing his face, so I liked my chances as batman more so than Bruce Wayne. That decision still didn't change Harvey's mad actions. He planted bombs in a children of arkham stronghold which also ended up killing civilians, I think that marks the point of no return to sanity for Harvey. A big decision comes during the end of the episode either go back to the Wayne Mansion to defend it from Harvey's men. Or go stop penguin from hacking all of Wayne tech. I chose to stop batman because of how much he relies on his technology. This leads to a well choreographed boss battle with penguin that was fun to play. At the end of my play through, I had penguin defeated. But during that encounter Harvey had the Wayne mansion set on fire. I'm curious to see how my this decision will impact my final episode. What will Bruce do to Harvey for burning down the Wayne mansion. Since this is such a new take on batman would telltale have batman kill Harvey Dent. I can't wait for the final episode it's been such a great series.
Gameplay remains familiar it's broken up with detective mode and combat sequences. I've enjoyed both aspects of gameplay throughout the series. I think the the boss fight with penguin was the best action sequence so far in the series. There are still some technical issues that annoyed me during the episode. I ran into bad frame rate drops and sometimes the audio wouldn't work during a combat sequence. I still just not sure how this game could have these bugs. This isn't a game that goes for great graphics it's a stylized game with telltales unique look. These kind of issues just shouldn't be happening. I played Uncharted 4 earlier this year which graphical game i've ever seen on consoles. It was also a massive 55 gb game. I ran into zero frame rate issues during my play through. I hope these issues don't pop up in the final episode. but overall these technical problems aren't enough to ruin my overall enjoyment of the episode.
