*Spoilers for "Batman: The Telltale Series - Episode 3: New World Order" below*
It's a new month, which means we have a new episode of "Batman: The Telltale Series" (here are my reviews for the first and second episodes). This third episode, “New World Order,” is definitely the best thus far.
“New World Order” deals with the fallout of the player’s choices from previous episodes. At the end of Episode 2, the player had to choose between saving Harvey Dent from being attacked by the Penguin (potentially preventing him from becoming Two-Face, his villainous identity from the comics) or rescuing Catwoman from thugs. In my main playing of the game, I chose to rescue Harvey; regardless of your choices, Harvey is now been elected mayor of Gotham, as his opponent was killed by the Penguin. This attack on Harvey’s life, however, has left him traumatized and psychologically scarred: if the player saves Harvey, he acts erratic and paranoid in between dissociative episodes (pardon the psych major jargon: essentially, dissociation is something that occurs when a person becomes disconnected from reality from any number of reasons; in Harvey’s case, that involves having conversations with an angrier, deeper-voiced individual inside his head and then vocalizing these conversations); if the player saved Catwoman instead of Harvey, the physical scarring of having half his face burned off along with the trauma he experienced push him over the edge into a behavior that vacillates from violently angry and belligerent to extremely paranoid, essentially being in full-on Two-Face territory (he’s not a “villain” yet, but he’s definitely there mentally).
All of this builds to a colossal climax in the episode’s denouement; upset that he hasn’t seen his girlfriend, Catwoman (except he doesn’t know he’s dating Catwoman because why would he?), Harvey visits her apartment, only to find his best friend, confidant and most trusted ally, Bruce Wayne, there (the context of which I’ll explain in a moment). Assuming the worst, Harvey flies into a blind rage, attacking both Selina and Bruce, breaking furniture, and speaking in wildly dissociative sentences. The sequence plays out the same way regardless of whether or not Harvey was saved in the previous episode. For me, it was absolutely heartbreaking, and some of the most psychologically compelling pieces of art I’ve ever seen; I have always been fascinated with Harvey Dent’s, Gotham’s White Knight, fall from grace into being the monstrous Two-Face, and “New World Order” puts an entirely deeper spin on it that is all the more complicated because I contribute to that descent.
On the topic of my contributions to that descent, let’s talk about Selina. Basically, the player gets to have sex with Selina. Yep, Bruce and Selina, Batman and Catwoman, get to take a visit to Pleasure Town. The scene itself is pretty tasteful, and I was especially impressed with how the game’s writers didn’t horrifically sexualize Selina (something, say, most everything else has been guilty of doing). In essence, the scene didn’t feel like, “This is our main man and our main woman who dress in skintight black suits and beat people up, so let’s have them make the beast with two backs,” but instead felt like a natural progression of both of their arcs thus far.
The scene starts out as such: Batman investigates the Children of Arkham, a terrorist group in Gotham causing a raucous that the Penguin is connected to, are responsible for unearthing the criminal activity of Bruce Wayne’s parents, are working to drug Gotham with a compound that removes inhibitions and increases behavioral susceptibility, and are just generally weird and creepy (their leader is pictured at the top of this article in the middle – seriously, the guy is creepy!). In doing so, Batman stumbles upon Catwoman, fights the bad guys, gets his butt kicked, and is rescued by Catwoman. At Selina’s apartment, Bruce is nursed back to health, he and Selina share a fireside chat, and sexy times may ensue. The player has the option to pursue and continue this but is also able to belay said sexy times; despite the fact that Batman and Catwoman is as close as I will allow myself to having an OTP, I belayed the sexy times because I’m such a bro and respect my suffering friend Harvey too much (I should also point out that I was in the vast minority – during the credits, the game presents you with a recap of your major choices along with the percentage of players who made those same choices, and I was one of the 10% of players who chose to not grab Catwoman by the, er, cat). Regardless, Bruce spends the night at Selina’s, Harvey finds him there, flies into a dissociative rage, and the proverbial excrement hits the proverbial fan.
The craziest thing about all this is that I’ve actually not mentioned stuff that happens in the episode: Players meet Lucius Fox, a trusted ally of Bruce’s skilled in all things science-y who knew his parents, Bruce is forced to step down as CEO of Wayne Enterprises, and Oswald Cobblepot, the Penguin(!), is appointed as interim CEO, only for Bruce to be drugged by supposedly trustworthy reporter Vicki Vale who reveals herself as the leader of the Children of Arkham and then goaded into attacking Cobblepot at the press conference announcing all this business-y stuff. Beyond that, Batman develops his relationship with Lieutenant Jim Gordon and the GCPD and the Bat-Signal – THE MOTHER-FLIPPING BAT-SIGNAL – appears. And because that’s not enough, we also find out that Bruce’s parents were murdered because his mother, Martha, found out about the shady practices of his father, Thomas, and wanted out. This episode was so jam-packed that I can’t fit it all into the confines of my word count that I’m likely already surpassing. Point is, I really stinking loved this episode and need the remaining installments yesterday.
