There was a point in "Batman: The Enemy Within, " the second game in Telltale’s ongoing Batman series, where I instantly regretted every decision I’d made in the game up to that point. It was a typical scene in any Batman game, comic, or movie. I stood over The Joker, victorious. We were both battered, bruised, bloodied from a long and intense battle. Joker laughs a sickly devil’s chuckle and looks up to me. He asks, “Were you ever my friend? Like, a real friend? Like someone you would care about?”

The game presented me with two options to say to Joker, “Yes, you were,” or, “I wish I’d never met you.” Feeling sympathy, I went with the former to which he said, “I’d hate to see what you do to your enemies, Bats.” Batman collapsed, the laughs of The Joker sounding off as we transition to the next scene. In that moment I knew that I was responsible for The Joker’s actions. My version of Batman, my version of Bruce Wayne, created this character entirely through my own choices.

Both this game and the one before it focus primarily on choices and how those choices bleed into our relationships. In Telltale’s first game they’d taken the legacy of Bruce Wayne’s parents and forced the player to question their blind loyalty to that legacy. For decades Batman fans have been told that Thomas and Martha Wayne were caring souls who poured their all into the city they loved. Telltale’s interpretation forced you, as Bruce Wayne, to create a legacy outside of the sordid one they left behind.

The choices you (as a player)made didn’t amount to much in the first game. No matter how you played or what you did the game still ended the same way. A bloody, gritty, downright awesome grudge match in the catacombs of Arkham Asylum. In a way, there’s something reassuring about the resolution of Telltale’s first Batman title. Everything is wrapped up, the city is saved, the Wayne legacy is restored. There is some tragedy along the way of course but that tragedy held little weight in the end.

While there were some difficult choices to make throughout the series the hardest choices, as well as the most interesting, came when Bruce Wayne was involuntarily committed to Arkham Asylum. I won’t spoil the circumstances, of course, but near the game’s mid-point Bruce meets a mental patient with pasty white skin, green hair, and a smile that extends from ear to ear. We know him as The Joker but in this story, he’s John Doe — and at this point in the story, he’s the only friend you have.

In the brief scenes you get with Doe you’re forced into decisions that fundamentally question the Batman character you’d been building up to this point.

As the player you know who Doe is meant to be, and worse, you know what he’s capable of. If you’re a Batman fan to any degree you know how dangerous The Joker is and how dangerous it might be to let him in. During your character interactions with him, you can either stay coy or go in-depth about how you feel in this scenario. The latter helps him get to know you better while the former helps reinforce feelings he may already have about you.

When he causes a prison riot you either have the opportunity to use it to escape or help save the guards. Saving the guards is a very “Batman” thing to do but if you’re locked up in Arkham you won’t be able to be Batman and stop the conflict in Gotham at this point. Regardless of what you pick you wind up leaving John Doe and Arkham behind but it’s still a memorable collection of scenes that were a stand-out in my playthrough.

"Batman: The Enemy Within " plays with that friendship between Bruce Wayne and John Doe, it’s the whole point of the game. There are other characters and relationships that you can juggle around and play with but the core of the game’s story comes from John Doe’s slow transformation into The Joker.

John adopts the Joker persona no matter what but the way you treat him through Bruce Wayne influences the kind of Joker he’ll grow into. Having spent his entire life in Arkham Asylum he’s unsure of the world around him when he’s released. You first meet him at a funeral and instead of bringing flowers, or even wearing a suit, he walks in laughing, cracking jokes, and shouting at mourners. He wants to be liked, to be the funniest man in the room, he just has no idea how to do it. In this scenario you can either be friendly to John, you can treat him like a pest, or you can be outright rude to him.

If you’re nice to him he’ll take selfies with you (with the flash on) during the eulogy and yell about how great your friendship is.

If you brush him off, he’ll seem upset and disappointed.

If you’re rude to him he’ll project that rudeness back onto other people by yelling at mourners or threatening them in the middle of the service.

In John’s first appearance alone there are at least three different outcomes to the way his character can grow and these outcomes play a part on your next encounter with him. He’ll either call you out or treat you like you’re his best friend when you catch up later.

Your relationship with John Doe also has lasting ripple effects on those closest to Bruce Wayne. Alfred Pennyworth, your father figure and faithful butler, will slowly lose grip and become less involved in your crime-fighting career. Tiffany Fox, daughter of Lucius Fox, can either become your protege or another enemy you’ll have to track down. Amanda Waller can either be your partner, your overbearing boss, or your worst enemy. Your friendship with Jim Gordon can erode based on what happens between Bruce and John.

At the same time, if you’re too passive to John he’ll become more villainous and see you as an enemy. One of the game’s hardest plot threads, and the part where the game starts to lose its steam, is when you go undercover for Amanda Waller. Bruce is forced to use John as a means to an end which makes your relationship much more grey. Are you John Doe’s friend or are you just using him and his connections? During Bruce’s time undercover, I tried to be a positive influence to John. Since he’s surrounded by other villains in the Batman mythos, one of them even being Harley Quinn, I thought it would be better for him if I were there to steer him away from the “dark path”.

Every time John and I would have a scene alone I chose dialogue options that helped reinforce the good in him over the bad. True, he was unhinged but I sought to maybe, somehow, prevent John Doe from becoming my greatest enemy. My favorite scene of all comes from the cafe where you can either encourage John to be himself or teach the subtle art of manipulation.

Both outcomes are interesting but for the sake of my first playthrough, I encouraged John to be himself. I constantly gave him words of encouragement as both Bruce Wayne and Batman, even allowing him to have a personal training session with Batman. At a point, he even made the connection that Bruce Wayne was Batman and I chose to trust him with that secret.

Eventually, John is left with nothing except his friendship with you. The supervillain gang Bruce and him have been a part of falls apart and he finds himself on the run. At this point, my Bruce Wayne was feeling isolated as well. In order to get closer to John Doe, I’d ostracized everyone in Bruce’s life. Jim Gordon, Tiffany Fox, Amanda Waller; I’d even set aside closer allies like Catwoman and Alfred to get closer to John Doe. The Joker fan in me initially loved the idea of teaming up with the soon-to-be Clown Prince of Crime.

After getting closer, however, I noticed that my decisions impacted how John saw his circumstances. His abusive and one-sided relationship with Harley (who in this story was the abuser rather than the other way around) was replaced with a genuine and heartfelt friendship with my version of Bruce Wayne. It became less about figuring out the villain’s plan and more on trying to help John Doe live up to his potential. When the time came to bring him in I just couldn’t do it.

Near the end of the game you’re given one final decision before the last act; arrest John or protect him. If you choose to arrest him he runs off with Harley Quinn and becomes the comic-book Joker we’ve all grown to know. If you choose to help him escape he takes all of the skills you’ve taught him up until this point and becomes a Batman-inspired vigilante who just happens to call himself Joker. Given how nice I’d been to John and that my relationship with him was one of the few meaningful ones I had remaining I chose to help him escape.

In the game’s final act I worked with Joker to take down Amanda Waller and her new “Suicide Squad” type team that was ordered to bring us in. It felt so refreshing and I have to give props to Telltale Games for creating one of the most unique interpretations of The Joker I’ve ever seen. Making him a villain was one thing but making him Robin was something I didn’t see coming. He carries around a Joker-style grappling gun, smoke bombs, “Jokerangs” and other gadgets that pay tribute to weapons the traditional Joker would use against Batman.

Joker even gets his own Joker-mobile, a car John and Bruce had stolen together earlier on. He’s a Batman fan trying to live out his fantasy of being a hero and it’s heartwarming to see John find his way as Joker. Once you decide to negotiate with Waller for John’s freedom everything goes off the rails, though. My Batman had to fight off the Suicide Squad and had to keep Joker from getting himself (or me) killed. After this encounter, my Joker went from the protege I wanted him to be to a liability that dropped Batman off a five-story building and destroyed a police precinct.

From here, Telltale delivers a Batman story we’ve all seen before. The city is calling out to their hero to take The Joker down. This time, though, I didn’t want to take him down. He wasn’t a vicious gangster like the Jack Nicholson version or a brutal terrorist like the Heath Ledger version. He was my Joker, I created him. So as we sat there face to face and he asked my Batman that final question I couldn’t help but well up a little bit. This was destiny, John Doe had to become The Joker. My Joker became the villain of this story when he deserved so much more than that. He deserved to have his time in the sun as Batman’s sidekick and soak in all the glory of being a hero.

Every element of "Batman: The Enemy Within,"especially regarding the Bruce/John relationship, is nearly flawless. Telltale’s formula might not mesh for everyone but I’d recommend playing this game for the writing and story alone. "Batman: The Enemy Within" forces you into decisions that actually matter in the grand scheme of things. Your choices can either reinforce friendships or push people away from you. I went back and replayed the game, instead choosing to do the opposite of what I did, and the results are completely different. Every choice branches into a series of new story beats and character interactions you wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.

Slowly crafting John Doe to become a villain rather than a failed hero in my second playthrough was just as satisfying as the first. Instead of trying to be his friend I was dismissive, rude, and let him continue down the dark path he’d been going down. By the end of the game I’d maintained all of my relationships but given how awful John had become as The Joker it hardly felt like a positive. The game is out in its entirety for $20 and I’d say it’s beyond worth your time and money.

All of the voice acting is top notch, too. Industry regulars like Troy Baker and Laura Bailey are always a treat but the real, career-defining performance comes from Anthony Ingruber’s John Doe. His range is amazing and seeing him develop this character is something spectacular to behold. Ingruber borrows from every great Joker performance while still managing to make it his own. Telltale has expanded on their game formula to create a solid Batman experience and one of the most complex Joker origin stories ever told.