Batman S2 EP2: My Thoughts

AChicken

Another great episode for an amazing season. If there's one thing that Telltale nails in this series (at least for me) is the weight of your reputation, both as Bruce and Batman. It is a really stressful job to keep everything in check.
Anyway, here's a bunch of notes of mine -- impressions straight from my brain, and things that displeased me, ripe for the reading..

• First off, I didn't like how there wasn't a "previously on" segment. I like those. They show you the scenes that occurred that will be relevant to this episode, and fills you in on where we left off. While the simple voiceover was faster and got you straight into the episode, missing that recap was sad. It's become a kind of staple for these games.
• One thing I didn't get was Waller telling Batman that Riddler's group might want revenge because of his death. But I thought his own group killed him. They "broke the pact" in his last words before he died. Maybe there's some other party involved? It's strange.
• The music that started just before Batman took off to stop the GCPD raid was great. Cool use of the trumpets (or trombones... whatever they were) The music was heroic. Perfect.
• I do think that the Bane fight escalated pretty fast, however. I beat up some of his guys, he walks out and then starts pounding me. That was fast and I was not prepared for it. I thought we'd talk a bit more first.
• Another great choice was presented with the Gordon vs. Waller. Trusting your longtime friend and ally, or the new kids on the block who are tearing your solid relationships to shreds... but they do have more influence. Very Tense.
• I would also like to point out that the News Feed should be chronological from bottom to top. Oldest news posts at the bottom, and the newest at the top. I had to scroll through all the other ones to get to te new stuff.
• John having a therapy circle is so great. I like (but also dislike) how John seems like this nice guy, but he's still kind of broken. I couldn't really tell if he genuinely had a weekly therapy circle or if that was just some delusion. I want to help him and support him, but I'm afraid of where that will lead me, or even him. Funny though.
• *On a side note, after asking him if he killed the Riddler, he was offended and told me that he wouldn't be capable of cold-blooded murder. I kind of believe him, and if that is true, well, we have an interesting Joker on our hands. Also, boy can he be funny... but there's some danger in that laugh. He really digs violence from what I've seen, and that isn't good for our poor John. I do not want a psychopathic Joker in this world. I want to prevent it. As far as I can, at least.
• The Phalanx key was a cool nod and tie-in to the previous season. Having it be the same kind of key that Selina almost stole... interesting.
• I was kind of misled on the job for Harley. I assumed that I'd just go in, take my own stuff that I have full rights to and go. But Telltale just had to throw that curveball in there of Harley and John following me. WHY TELLTALE? YOU TORTURE ME. I assume they came along because they don't really like subtle. They enjoy the chaos, whether or not I have a say in how things go.
• Seeing John be creepy and laugh at all the cruel things Harley does [or anyone else for that matter] is not fun. I don't like seeing him like that, and it kind of freaks me out. Knowing that he's relatively sane is cool, and I don't want him on the dark side. Come back John, don't go there...
• But I do have to commend the writers on that whole Elevator scene. Suuuper tense. Whether or not to check on the guard Harley smacked, Regina coming in and having to keep her from harm, Harley pulling all these sexual advancements in front of John... Ooh it gives me goosebumps.
• Of course Telltale threw the Lucius flashback in there to make us sad. They live off our tears.
• The fact that Lucius is the only person with access to the vault is dumb. It's Batman's toys too. Plus, if he's with Batman, it's a dangerous line of work. Why didn't he plan for when he died? Why doesn't Bruce have access to it in the first place? Also Tiffany being already in there is disappointing. How did she know we'd be there? Why is the one thing we're after the one thing she picks up? Aahhh... [frustration noises]
• Again. Need to commend the writers. Tense lab scene. Ooh.
• The next scene with Alfred was cool. Had some really good moments of the game showing off your choices (and they're dialogue, too!). But I must say the tone Bruce used when telling Alfred to "Do whatever it takes" concerning Regina's encounter with Harley was not good. I didn't expect such an angry reaction from Bruce, and it broke my heart. I want Alfred to fix it, but not like that...
• Does Avesta know who Batman is? I asked Waller on the roof if she knew who I was and she told me "Who do you think told me?" I wasn't sure if that was sarcasm or not. She's crafty, that Waller.
• Having the third villain to be Freeze was surprizing. I thought it was Hugo Strange all along... but I guess his "methods" don't fit in as well as them. I like the idea of his suit, though. Having his gloves emanate this freezing substance.
• [Bug] When solving the EMP for Freeze, when I was halfway through solving the first level, all the buttons reset back to green and I had to redo it. Annoying.
• I like John's wall of Selfies. It's clear he holds his friends dear and enjoys many life experiences outside. It's cool. But I'm sad that I'm not in one. I didn't trigger him to get a selfie last episode. One day, John. One day...
• It was great to try and get everyone on your side and persuade them. How do you help Freeze? What is your explanation to Bane? It was interesting. I like this "bad-guy" perspective on things.
• The street battle with the Agency was also great. Having to protect people from becoming casualties (I had previously told Waller "no one dies") by knocking them out [at least that's what I did] was an interesting moral dilemma.. at least concerning Bruce/Batman.

All in all this was a TENSE EPISODE. And a really good one at that. Possibly better than Episode 1. I'm interested to see what happens next, given that we have Riddler's corpse, a special unknown device, and Catwoman joining the fray. This is going to get even tenser.
If I were any good at rating things, I'd probably give this a 9.2 out of 10