Batman: The Enemy Within

I don't think any individual moment in this is quite as effective as the Lady Arkham reveal was in Batman: The Telltale Series, and I do feel the first episode here is a little weak, but ultimately this is the better game overall. I must confess that I didn't have the highest of hopes for this when Joker (at that point just an Arkham inmate named John Doe) was weaved into the first game to set up this sequel, because truthfully I'm not a great lover of what most writers do with Joker, but it's precisely what Telltale choose to do with him that makes this story so compelling. They hold him back completely for a surprisingly long time, really drawing out his origin story, and in doing so, they invert the dynamic between him and Harley Quinn, making her the one to corrupt him (which makes Quinn's character more interesting than it usually is, too). Keeping him as the wide-eyed, impressionable John Doe lets the story really lean hard into his relationship with Bruce Wayne specifically, not just Batman - and depending on how you play it, Wayne might end up being the one that's responsible for creating and shaping Joker. I won't pretend to know anything about comics, but of all the Batman adaptations in other media I've seen, this feels like the most engaging Joker has ever been, and the deepest under his skin I've ever been taken - and it's probably the most gripping, complex interpersonal relationship in any Telltale game. Lee and Clementine may hit higher emotional heights, and the villains in Game of Thrones certainly inspire a more visceral disgust and hatred, but no dynamic has ever felt so weighty throughout. Each interaction with John Doe feels significant in its own way (and they literally are this time; there are two different final episodes, and which one you get depends on precisely what kind of Joker your decisions have created). Add in the presence of Amanda Waller and the friction between her and Gordon, the return of Catwoman, and what the events of the story end up doing to Alfred....once the game really gets into full swing, it's some of the very best work in Telltale's gameography. It ends on such a total, unexpected bombshell - one of the most dramatic decisions they've ever had their players make - that a sequel feels impossible, and while it's a great ending, it's also a shame; this has ended up being one of my very favourite takes on the Batman universe.