This review contains full spoilers for Fractured Mask and previous episodes of Telltale’s Batman series
Synopsis:
As explosions rock Gotham, Batman races to meet a new foe, but encounters a force that may cause even the Dark Knight to fall. In the guise of the billionaire, Bruce meets John Doe’s ‘friends’ and becomes enmeshed in a plot where the only way out is to go deeper in. But at what cost?
Fractured Mask, the third episode in Telltale‘s second Batman season, The Enemy Within, moves the plot along nicely, while also giving a lot of character moments I had been looking forward to. It may feature two tedious puzzles, but it’s still another great episode in this great Batman story.
When Catwoman was left as the big cliffhanger in the previous episode, The Pact, I wasn’t sure if Telltale was going to try to swing a 180 turn on her character from where I had left her last season. But it was nice to quickly find she’s just as uncomfortable around the group of misfits as Bruce is, and her way into the group was through The Riddler, which was an interesting plot point. Having Selina back gave me several great moments this episode. I enjoyed Bruce’s growing romance with her. The conversation the two had after I brought Selina back to the Bat-Cave was great for both characters — two loners, feeling like they’re getting a teammate in one another.
The plot moves forward at a decent pace this episode after episode two slowed down to introduce and have Bruce interact with all the villains. Finding out exactly what Harley is after — a virus of some sort — and also that Amanda Waller’s group had been involved in its creation was a good tie-in reveal, especially since I still don’t trust Waller at all.
Bruce has to play the duality more this episode, especially when he’s having to choose between bribing a detective (cameo of Detective Bullock) or having John knock him over the head — which, either way you look at it, is bad. Then, of course, running around with Selina and John before running off to be Batman only to bump into John again. Bruce is doing an amazing job at playing all the roles, but I’m wondering how long it could have gone on even before I reached the end of the episode, which we’ll get to shortly.
