We are entering the homestretch in this series with one episode left, and Guardian of Gotham focuses on Bruce and his inner turmoil as he attempts to take down the Children of Arkham and Harvey Dent, who seems to have completed his transformation into Two-Face. After the ending to the last episode when Bruce viciously attacked Oswald Cobblepot, Bruce is now locked up in Arkham Asylum where he has time to contemplate his situation.
A familiar villain makes his debut at the Asylum, and I’m sure fans will be excited to see who it is. He never gives out his real name, but it’s clear to the players by his green hair, pale complexion, and smile that it’s the Joker. During Bruce’s extremely short stay at Arkham, Joker attempts to befriend Bruce by defending him and offering him information. His motives are unclear, but he knows a lot more than he should, and that makes him dangerous. Although I felt like he was underused, hopefully he will pop up next episode. I can’t see Telltale taking such an iconic villain and only reducing him to a minor role near the end unless they have bigger plans for him. If this is actually all we get to see of him, I’ll be a bit disappointed.
After Bruce learns that he has more in common with Vicki Vale than he previously thought, he is freed from Arkham Asylum when he is deemed a liability. Later while attempting to learn more about Vale by visiting her parents, Batman is attacked by the Penguin, who is hacking into Wayne technology and making Batman’s equipment malfunction. All of Bruce’s problems seem to be coming to a head as he finds out shortly after that Harvey Dent now wants to seize Wayne Manor. Taking on Vale, Cobblepot, and Dent is no small feat, but in order to gain some control over the situation, the player can choose to talk to Harvey as either Bruce or Batman.
Although Dent has moments of clarity where the rational part of his mind speaks out, I feel he’s already past the point of no return. As much as I wish Bruce could help, nothing gets through to him, and Harvey is hell-bent on taking down the Children of Arkham even if he destroys Gotham in the process. In his mind, the end justifies the means. So long as the Children of Arkham are dealt with, Harvey doesn’t mind sacrificing innocent lives. Watching his transformation into Two-Face over the course of series, wonderfully performed by Travis Willingham, is tragic.
What stands out to me the most is that Vicki Vale is surprisingly not in this episode. There is one section where Batman is at a crime scene and using his detective work, we see holographic images of Vale as he pieces together what had happened, but that’s it. After the huge reveal at the end of New World Order, I expected her to be in Guardian of Gotham in some capacity. We heard a little more of her backstory thanks to an unlikely, but welcome, newcomer, it just didn’t seem like enough. No doubt she will have a major presence in Episode Five, and maybe her absence is only preparing us for a bigger introduction when Bruce finally sees her again, but it felt odd when I was anticipating her arrival the entire time and she never showed up.
Summary
Guardian of Gotham is a strong penultimate episode even though a key character was absent. Picking himself up from a low point, Bruce deals with at least one of his problems by the end of the episode. A final decision with wildly different outcomes will leave him in a difficult position at the start of the next episode. I honestly have no idea where Telltale will take the story now, but I look forward to seeing its conclusion.
Jennifer is a games journalist, former games journalist and PR Manager at Gearbox. They contributed 234 articles to ICXM between 2015–2017, focused on opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news: went on to write for Windows Central and later managed PR for Gearbox Software.