Batman The Enemy Within Guide

In the season finale for The Enemy Within, an exhausted, bloody, and beaten Joker asks Batman a question: "Did you ever think of me as your friend?" It's a spark of vulnerability in a character that is typically sowing discontent and wreaking havoc. Unlike many of the other decision-making points, there's no timer pressuring you to respond, and in that moment I reflected on the choices I had made up until then. I asked myself whether I feigned friendship with him in the pursuit of justice, or if it was genuine. Telltale's Batman: The Enemy Within convincingly presented me with the idea that I could find salvation for the Joker. That I could use the Dark Knight's unwavering sense of justice as a guiding hand, hopefully to shape him into something other than the maniacal Clown Prince of Crime. I was wrong, and I failed. In the end, events played out as they always do: A cackling clown and a man dressed as a bat standing on different sides of the law. This is a disappointing bait and switch, but only because I let myself think things could be different--I saw hope where there was none. The fact that I bought into the idea speaks to the strength of the writing and performances throughout the series. Despite this letdown, Episode 5 remains a compelling end to a story in which Batman becomes a participant in the creation his greatest adversary.In possession of a deadly virus and being hunted by an out-of-control Amanda Waller, John Doe comes out of hiding as a vigilante calling himself Joker. That's the person I shaped though my actions as Batman. Wherever possible, I put my faith in him, trusted him to do the right thing, and gave him the benefit of the doubt, hoping it would have a positive impact. In response Doe modeled himself after Batman, complete with Jokerangs, a grapnel gun with chattering teeth, and the overwhelming compulsion to see justice served. Batman's rigid code of conduct and unwavering morality erodes Joker's sense of what it means to be a hero and conflicts with his need for reparations. The result is is a mentally unstable figure that acts on violent impulses and lives by a twisted sense of self-serving principles. Instead of dropping John Doe into a vat of green chemicals to create Joker, Episode 5 presents your influence as Batman to be one of the reasons Joker is born.

Same Stitch manages to be introspective and thoughtful, while also providing plenty of levity. Joker's stint as Batman's sidekick is incredibly memorable, thanks to excellent voice acting and more than a few funny lines. Joker behaves as you'd imagine any Batman fanboy would if given the opportunity to go on a mission with the Dark Knight, revelling in going back to back with his idol, running through the ridiculous superhero names he considered before arriving at Joker, joyfully riding in the Batmobile, and taking pleasure in being mended by Alfred. Sadly, the fun and games are short-lived, as before long he's on the warpath. Episode 5 also gives Alfred a more prominent and meaningful role. Having been there for every step of Bruce's journey, from orphaned child to vigilante superhero, he's begins to realise that perhaps he's also been a negative influence, enabling Bruce's destructive lifestyle and failing in his job as a surrogate father. Telltale takes some bold steps to change the dynamic between the two characters, and it will be interesting to see how this carries over into future seasons, if they happen.

The Enemy Within's final episode of season two picks up three weeks after the last time we joined Telltale's Dark Knight. Joker, now fully realized and ready to abandon the John Doe identity, has been up to no good in that time, plotting a new devious plan to throw Gotham into chaos alongside his literal partner in crime, Harley Quinn. Depending on how you birthed Joker in the run-up to this finale, you'll either get a new and unseen vigilante Joker, who styles himself as another Batman (but without the functional moral compass), or a classical hyena-like Joker, bombastic and filled with puns that would make even dads cringe. The former is yet another interesting Telltale remix that will likely be interesting for anyone who finds themselves on that route. The latter is the same Joker we've all known for so long. Even casual Batfans know enough about Joker to find this version of him familiar and perhaps even stale. For a series that has so far prided itself in interesting remixes, roughly half of all players will find themselves in the traditionally villainous Joker timeline, and with that will probably feel like they've seen it all before. To be fair, you can only repaint the same statue so many times before you reuse previous colors. Telltale's effort is still rather commendable, and even in the been-there-done-that version of events, the staging for the climax and final fight scene is well done. To have so many players involved in the conflict felt like a big deal, as it should, and more Batman and Catwoman connections are always compelling in Telltale's version of these characters. It does feel a bit strange to see so little of actual Batman in this episode and it focus almost entirely on Bruce instead, but that's what the story called for, so there's really no way around it. Joker's voice performance was concerning in season one and seemingly only mildly improved in season two, but in this finale, self-actualized as he is in my timeline, Anthony Ingruber's Joker delivers something much stronger and memorable. His iconic laughter is spot-on and the shoddy Telltale engine even did a decent job of selling Joker's elastic and energetic movements. Through it all, he even remains a bit conflicted, too, which is the one bit of nuance Telltale adds to the villain Joker track that keeps it different from tried-and-true Jokers over the past half-century. Like most Telltale games, the game features a similar episodic format found in other titles (such as The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us and Tales from the Borderlands).

The player controls Bruce Wayne and his alter-ego Batman, with the game evenly split for both characters. The game features a branching narrative, similar to past Telltale games, giving the player options in approaching a situation and having that choice affect later events in the game. If the player had played the previous game, choices made, such as saving certain characters or stopping a criminal, may also be imported, though the game can be played as a standalone title. The game includes action sequences that are resolved similar to Telltale's other games, using quick time events. The series also includes investigation sequences, allowing the player to use Batman's detective skills to investigate areas. Sections of the game also present situations to the player where they may choose to approach as Bruce Wayne or as Batman. Crowd Play, a feature implemented in the predecessor, also returns for The Enemy Within, allowing streamers to let their audience interact with their session with the game.

Approximately a year after the defeat of the Children of Arkham, Batman continues to patrol Gotham while slowly regaining his reputation as Bruce Wayne. While targeting arms dealer Rumi Mori at his casino, he witnesses the return of the Riddler, one of Gotham's first costumed criminals. Confronting Riddler with help from Gordon and the GCPD, he fails to capture the criminal; the Agency and their operatives arrive to help clean up. During their clean up, Batman meets Amanda Waller, the director of the Agency, who take over the investigation and offer to assist him in tracking Riddler. After returning to the Batcave with a puzzle left by Riddler, Bruce solves it, though is fazed when discovering a signal emitter. When Lucius Fox, the chief of technology at Wayne Enterprises investigates, he is mysteriously killed in an explosion. At Lucius' funeral, Bruce reunites with former Arkham patient "John Doe", who has been released for good behavior. John, having made a number of "friends" after his release, asks Bruce to meet and joined his group, which he refers to as "the Pact". When finding out that Bruce is searching for Riddler, John gives him a lead to investigate in Gotham's East End. With Gordon, Batman follows the lead to discover Riddler's lair, where he discovers clues to his plans and a death trap to solve. He also finds a radio wave guided homing missile and deduces that the signal was actually a homing guide and had drawn a missile to its location if allowed to play long enough, resulting Fox's death.

 By Episode Five from Batman The Enemy Within, you’ve either proven yourself to be a master manipulator or the purveyor of a reluctant ruse. Batman can be coldly pragmatic, and the way he treats his friendship or “friendship” with John can be uncomfortably calculating. Frequently, characters will suggest that your machinations have led John down the path of increasing violence, and some will acknowledge their own culpability. Whether you reject these accusations or not, the birth of The Joker has led to a lot of psychological fallout from everyone involved. Same Stitch is all about these consequences and the relationships you’ve fractured because of previous choices. As a vigilante, The Joker is unhinged and impulsive, adhering to a twisted version of Batman’s moral code. As a villain, he’s brutal and gleeful in his sadism, killing hundreds without even so much as a wince. In both scenarios, though, he’s fixated on Bruce’s friendship. And in a depraved sort of way, you truly believe that Bruce hurt John by rejecting him.It’s that sense of personal responsibility that makes Episode Five really stand out. Even when The Joker is acting as a classic over-the-top psychopathic villain, you can’t easily divorce his horrible actions from your previous decisions. The vigilante path finds you and Joker squaring off against Amanda Waller as she pursues the clown prince of..uh…do-goodness after the explosive events of the previous episode. Layering plot twist within plot twist, this episode also takes chances with Telltale’s version of Gotham. Bruce and the Joker make jokes with one another, bond, and fight rows of thugs as the Joker squeals happily when he gets to sit in the seat of the Batmobile. However, vigilante Joker still retains some of the menace and the insanity that makes him so memorable, like when he barks at Waller for threatening Batman. It’s a well-balanced act that ends with a barrage of sequences that filled me with dread and wonder, including one lingering shot that’s both grotesque and elegant. The villain path pits you against an evil, cackling Joker looking to torment Bruce and Gotham for slights against him. While this might sound more boring than vigilante path, Telltale make sure the things that made John Doe so interesting, like his whimpering monologues and his desperate need for Bruce’s friendship, remain in this version of the story. The Joker is still evil, but he sees his villainy as an exercise to earn Bruce’s love, resulting in a twisted (and violent) game of cat and mouse. Several scenes indict your choices throughout the series without being clumsy about it. One of my favorites is a tense sequence in a dining room involving a game of Never Have I Ever. I won’t say more than that, but as a whole, the villain path is diabolical and ends with a devastating, explosive showdown.

Using evidence he finds, Batman deduces that Riddler plans to target the Agency, having hacked the agent's phones and making them send the targeting signal to call missiles to their locations. Determined to find Riddler, Bruce follows another lead and tracks him to a freight ship. After escaping a deadly game set up by Riddler, Batman manages to redirect the missiles and defeats the criminal. As he is interrogated by the vigilante, Riddler is shot with a poisoned dart and dies, revealing that he is also a member of the Pact. As the Agency and GCPD arrive, Waller takes over law enforcement in Gotham and reveals to Batman her knowledge of his true identity. Waller suggests that Bruce infiltrates the Pact as his alter-ego and gives him an ultimatum: work with the Agency to help arrest the Pact or risk having his identity exposed. Several moments later, a series of explosions go off throughout the city. Responding to an attack at the police arsenal, Batman battles another member of the Pact, Bane, who easily overpowers him with help from a steroid called Venom. Surviving thanks to help from either Gordon or Waller, Batman decides to follow the latter's advice and meets with John to accept his offer. The two meet at a bar, where he is introduced to John's former psychiatrist Harleen Quinzel, now the criminal Harley Quinn. Suspicious of Bruce, Harley gives him a chance to prove himself by stealing a prototype electrical skeleton key from Wayne Enterprises, with them joining him during the heist. Despite problems, including an unexpected encounter with Lucius' grieving daughter Tiffany, he is able to get the device to them and an EMP generator. After this show of compliance, Bruce is called to meet the other members of the Pact, Bane and Mr. Freeze, and convince them to vote him into the group. Successful, he joins them on their latest heist: a mysterious package guarded by an Agency convoy. With Waller refusing to help, Bruce is forced to assist the Pact and escapes with them. Upon returning to the group's hideout, the target is revealed to have been the Riddler's body and that his former ally Catwoman is also a member of the Pact. After copying Riddler's eyes, Harley reveals one of Riddler's laptops, which he had left in their possession, and Bruce, John and Catwoman head to his hideout to find the location of their mark. After solving another death trap hidden in the lair, Bruce and Catwoman discover a supercomputer linked to an organization called SANCTUS that Riddler was associated with. When they fail to complete a retinal scan, the computer self-destructs and Catwoman escapes with a decrypting drive, hoping to steal another laptop in Harley's possession. The Pact also begin to suspect a mole, due to the time it took for the job to escalate, and suspicions fall on Bruce. After retrieving the laptop through help from either Selina or John, Bruce finds that SANCTUS was one of the Agency's former divisions in charge of experimentation. The laptop contains evidence of a biological weaponry and the lab's location. Waller also relieves Gordon from duty after he tries to arrest Bruce, having suspected he was involved with criminal activities.

After the Pact learn of the lab's location at the Bodhi Spa, Bruce is forced to either give himself or Selina up as the mole, leading to the Pact attempting to execute them. Depending on the decision, Bruce either accompanies them during the heist and sabotages it or escapes from his fate and confronts the group as Batman with Catwoman's help. During the heist, Harley betrays the Pact, leading to Freeze and Bane being captured. While searching for her, Bruce learns that Project LOTUS was a failed restorative agent, with Riddler being the only known survivor of the experiment. The members of the Pact planned to use his blood to convert the virus into a healing serum to cure their own ailments. However, Waller had been aware of this plan, and was hoping to stop them by stealing Riddler's corpse and blackmailing them into joining the Agency with the promise of a cure. Unknown to all parties, using even the working version can cause insanity within the user. After following another lead given by John, Bruce finds him surrounded by agents' bodies. Claiming it to be self defense, John realizes the truth about their "friendship" and reveals his knowledge of Bruce's activities as Batman. Regardless of whether he believes him, Bruce leaves to help the Agency capture a volatile Harley Quinn. During the confrontation, John arrives and attack the Agency, escaping with the LOTUS virus and potentially Quinn, the latter depending on the player's choices.