Batman: The Enemy Within - Episode 1: The Enigma

The Enigma offers plenty of teases for the season ahead while also improving upon the combat and presentation for Telltale’s take on the powerless superhero. Those mere hints are all that separate this episode from feeling like a standalone story, though, albeit an intriguing one at that. Once the full season comes into play, this debut episode may feel a little less out of place, but for now, The Enigma represents a strong start for Bruce Wayne’s latest struggle to keep his city, and his relationships, intact.

The first episode of Batman: The Enemy Within marks a strong start for the second season of Telltale’s DC-centric series.

The Enigma provides a promising start to this new season of Telltale’s Batman story. The episode wraps up the opening act in a satisfying manner, whilst still leaving enough intriguing questions to ponder for the next. Who are the members of The Pact? What are their goals? How will your chosen alliances affect the events to come? The major alliance choices will hopefully be the basis for some interesting deviation in the narrative of the upcoming episodes. Well, as much deviation an episodic Telltale game can offer, at least.

Gameplay and production-wise, Telltale Games doesn't reinvent the wheel with "The Enigma." But what the studio does, it does well. The game tells a new story that can grab the attention of both old and new fans of the Batman. Let's now hope that the following episodes will be as interesting.

At over two hours, Batman: The Enemy Within – Episode 1: The Enigma is meaty instalment which picks up as strongly as the previous season left off. As a self-contained story, the Riddler’s unique brand of psychotic behaviour makes for a satisfying arc – but it’s the bigger picture involving Bruce and the deranged John Doe that promises plenty for the remainder of this series, and we’re excited to see where it goes.

The Enigma lives up to its name of being difficult to understand from start to finish. Telltale is all over the place in this episode, but the desire to be gritty and different is exposed too much, and the story suffers from it, feeling more like an odd one shot than the first part of something larger. Mysteries abound, however, and enough engaging narrative threads are left dangling to potentially right this second season’s direction.