BATMAN - The Telltale Series - Episode 4: Guardian of Gotham Reviews
The ball that is given to the Caped Crusader in Batman: The Telltale Series - Episode 4: Guardian of Gotham initially looks the most interesting yet; however, he takes it… and does nothing with it. Once again, this feels more like "another day in the life of Bruce/Batman" rather than an epic superhero story, with an exciting beginning, a riveting middle, and a dramatic finale - which, after the mediocrity experienced so far, makes hoping for the latter to be any good quite hard.
The writing team is doing a decent job with the direction and script of 'Batman: The Telltale Series', but the severely strained engine rears its ugly head at every opportunity. Telltale's formula and tech both are very familiar by now and have their flaws, which we've been able to overlook for the sake of an otherwise enjoyable story. The lag has nearly reached a critical mass, however.
Given how strong the writing has been for the previous three Batman episodes, I’m still incredibly excited to see how this whole season will wrap up. Unfortunately, Guardian of Gotham didn’t really do much to make me more excited.
Telltale's poor fourth episode run continues, but delivers the potential of a solid series ending.
Guardian of Gotham continues on downward trend of this rickety episodic series. The script is sometimes too hasty, full of omissions, insignificant moral choiches and insipid plot twists.
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A solid enough penultimate episode, but the overall quality of this series hinges on how Telltale brings the threads together to finish it.
This is the worst episode in a great season, but it doesn’t seem as though it’ll tarnish the entire package too much. It’s inoffensive at best but feels very much like a way to artificially extend the story without any real substance.
Batman – The Telltale Series Episode 4: Guardian of Gotham definitely has a lot of good going for it, being a part of one of the best series Telltale Games has crafted to date. But it is definitely the weakest episode up to now for this otherwise stellar game.
This review will contain spoilers for all previous episodes and the current episode of Batman The Telltale Series. Here are our previous reviews for episode 1, episode 2, and episode 3.For everything that Guardian of Gotham does right, it makes all the wrong moves to get there. The story reaches a precipice of intensity after a very slow burn over the last three episodes, and the dire situations at hand seem impossible to resolve within a single finale, with far too many threads left open after the conclusion of this penultimate episode. I really wish that the story had built to this level of intensity much earlier instead of waiting this long, but it’s great to finally see this Batman tale coming to fruition with real stakes for the dark knight, even if it has to come through forced storytelling and a poor use of the engine.
While this is the weakest episode in Batman’s Telltale series yet, my investment in the unpredictable, multi-layered plot hasn’t wavered, thanks to the critical state of each of Bruce Wayne’s relationships. Episode four’s first act felt like it was just filling in time for the season finale, but some conflicts have still been built upon, including showcasing how the people of Gotham are reacting to the intense political climate. I’m still excited to jump into the season finale - especially to see the consequence of the series’ weightiest decision.
I may not have been impressed with Episode 4: Guardian of Gotham, but it leaves a lot of mystery surrounding The Joker and his motives. And with this, I hope Episode 5: City of Lights can prove that the season will close with an intense and thrilling finale.
I'm still really excited to see how it all gets wrapped up and love the fresh takes on the Batman characters, I just felt this episode fell flat.
"As the story of Telltale’s Batman series draws toward a close, Guardian of Gotham displays the problems inherent with some of the series’ structural techniques. It’s far too easy to act in a way and make some choices that will spread your investment all over the place, which doesn’t happen if you pick a clear path with clear goals and stick to it. This isn’t something that’s easily done over the span of five months. Nevertheless, some lazy writing aside in regards to some trivial matters, the episode is enjoyable, has a lot of colorful characters and builds up the finale in a way that could prove interesting, as you confront one of two antagonists. It remains to see how well it succeeds next time."
A good but not great episode, Batman: The Telltale Series - Episode 4: Guardian of Gotham is not quite as strong as the last couple, but it sets up the stage for a climactic finish and does suffer from some of the usual problems that other penultimate episodes in Telltale Games' titles experience.
Something is off in the fourth episode of Telltale's Batman series, which is the first episode that didn't ensnare me with its unique take on the Batman mythos. With that being said it is still worth playing if you've already invested yourself into the series.
I went into the fourth episode expecting intense turmoil that would lead to an exciting finale, but instead came out thinking, 'Oh, that's it.'
While the problems of previous episodes in regards to the slow story and the lack of influence on it based on the choices made remain, Batman: The Telltale Series - Episode 4: Guardian of Gotham is considerably more enjoyable. As is often the case with Batman, the villains end up stealing the spotlight here, and seeing both Cobblepot and Two-Face truly come into their own is superb. Then the finale delivers a decent cliff-hanger, and a branching option to set up the final episode. Maybe Telltale can pull this back after all!
An enjoyable experience with a disappointing final act. There's still plenty of potential left, if Season 2 ever comes along.
Clocking in at about an hour and a half, episode four did what it had to do to drive the story along without overstaying its welcome. While I would have liked a little more explanation from one of the plot points that was skimmed over way too quickly, Guardian of Gotham was otherwise a prime example of Telltale’s character development and relationship expertise.
While it may mark a slight bump in the road, Episode 4 nonetheless still offers plenty of great action and suspense that builds on what has been offered so far, and with only episode to go I’m still looking forward (more than ever) to see where the path leads in the finale to Bruce and Batman’s story.