Two-Face has always been my favorite Batman villain: I’ve been fascinated by his asymmetrical appearance since childhood, and moreover, he was the Dark Knight’s friend. To mark Tuesday, February 22, 2022, and the upcoming 80th anniversary of his first appearance in “Detective Comics” #66 (published June 20, 1942), we thought it would be a fun idea to replay Batman: The Telltale Series, the 2016 video game that featured Harvey Dent (voiced by Travis Willingham) in a prominent role, as if we were Two-Face himself: we would base every major decision on the flip of a coin (provided by Google), no matter how unwanted or unpleasant the outcomes became.
Funnily enough, while playing, it became apparent the game’s choices aren’t as defined as being good or bad the way they are in some other prominent role-playing games, meaning whether an outcome was assigned to heads or tails was often a spur-of-the moment decision: regardless, we hope you enjoy our description of our (mis)adventure through Telltale’s Gotham, and join us again for our log of the second season, The Enemy Within, in two days’ time.
Episode 1 — Realm of Shadows:
The first big decision at the start of the game comes during Bruce Wayne’s fundraising event for Harvey Dent’s mayoral campaign, when Carmine Falcone shows up, and all eyes are on Bruce as to whether he will shake the mobster’s hand or not. Heads meant Bruce greeted him amiably; when asked about this the next day during the press conference over Arkham Asylum’s future, Bruce can simply respond Harvey invited him. Likewise, the coin’s head determined Harvey would join them during their talk in the parlor, despite Falcone’s disdain for the district attorney.
During the press conference, allegations come to light about Thomas and Martha Wayne’s involvement with Falcone, and Alfred starts frantically texting Bruce that the police are searching Wayne Manor, but the coin tail meant Bruce ignored him. When Vicki Vale asks for comment, tails similarly led to Bruce turning her down, which, together with the handshake, caused Jack Ryder to run a hatchet job at the end of the episode (usually, the report is much more sympathetic to Wayne.)
When Batman investigates the aftermath of a shootout between the GCPD and the mercenaries hired by Penguin, he has the option to break the arm of a survivor he finds and interrogates; I would normally avoid having Bats resort to torture, but the coin came up tails and he did it anyway. Heads led to Batman staying to greet Jim Gordon after his arrival, and he became upset about the merc’s arm; Alfred also comments Bruce is taking this too far, and expresses worry he could’ve killed him.
After decrypting the data drive Catwoman tried to steal from City Hall, Batman finds evidence of Mayor Hill’s involvement with Falcone, and can choose to give it to Gordon or Vale; tails led him to give it to her. During the final confrontation with Falcone, Bats can suspend him from the ceiling for the cops, or brutalize him; thankfully, the coin said heads, and Falcone was left relatively uninjured.
Episode 2 — Children of Arkham:
Bruce visits Falcone in hospital, where he tries to goad him into thinking of him as “family” because of his ties to his parents; Bruce can administer morphine to ease Falcone’s pain, which he did after the coin came up heads, but it proved pointless when a drugged and delirious Renee Montoya murders the old crook. Afterwards, Bruce learns Penguin is planning to kill Selina Kyle, and helps her fend off his thugs at a bar. He’s then given the option to kiss her, and the coin went heads, but she responded by putting a finger to his lips.
Bruce can choose to confront Mayor Hill over his ties to Penguin as himself, or Batman: the coin displayed tails, meaning he chose to scare the mayor, greatly displeasing Gordon. While driving away, Dent calls Bruce to tell him that he needs to disassociate himself as a result of the allegations about his parents, and Bruce proved understanding after the coin came up heads, promising to continue to fund Dent’s mayoral campaign quietly, instead of getting angry.
Continued belowDuring the climax, where Penguin and the Children of Arkham attack the mayoral debate between Hill and Dent, Batman faces a pivotal decision: stopping Penguin from dumping a studio light on Dent’s face, or preventing Catwoman from being cornered by his thugs. The coin said tails, meaning Batman dove to protect Catwoman, but at the cost of letting Penguin burn Harvey’s face — which, unfortunately for Harvey, meant this Two-Face playthrough would at least have a Two-Face, as opposed to, er, One-Face I guess?
Episode 3 — New World Order:
After Harvey recovers in the hospital, Batman is forced between protecting the newly elected mayor as he’s driven to City Hall, or intervening in a shootout between Montoya and the Children of Arkham; the coin went tails, meaning Bats went to help Montoya, forcing Dent to kill in self-defense, and widening the resentment between him and Batman.
At Wayne Enterprises, Bruce is asked to step down as CEO in light of his father being exposed as Falcone and Hill’s accomplice, and his proposed replacement is none other than Oswald Cobblepot. The coin came up heads continuously during the next few scenes, causing Bruce to be cordial with Oswald, and to insist Lucius Fox remain as his inside man, instead of leaving to work at Wayne Manor.
Batman and Catwoman battled the Children of Arkham’s leader, Lady Arkham, and eventually fled to her apartment. Interestingly, the option for Bruce to have sex with Selina didn’t appear, but regardless, Harvey comes to visit the morning after, and becomes enraged on seeing the injured Bruce is undressed. The coin displayed heads, meaning Bruce chose to dodge Harvey’s attacks instead of fighting back, causing him to eventually just break down from heartbreak.
During Bruce’s resignation speech, the coin went tails, meaning he refused to stick to the speech the board prepared for him, and warned Gotham that Cobblepot is a member of the Children of Arkham. Afterwards, funnily enough, the player has no control over what happens next: Vale greets Bruce and reveals she is Lady Arkham, by poisoning him with the same hallucinogen Montoya was injected with, causing him to attack Oswald.
Episode 4 — Guardian of Gotham:
Bruce wakes up to find he’s been committed to Arkham Asylum, and becomes acquainted with a pale, green-haired patient known only as John Doe, who knows Vale is actually Victoria Arkham. He agrees to help get Bruce out in return for a favor, and starts a fight with Victor Zsasz to distract the guards, so Wayne can use the telephone. The coin came up heads, meaning Bruce intervened, but Alfred still arrived to bail him out.
On the drive home, Alfred’s limo is accosted by the guards and angry civilians at a checkpoint: the coin was heads again, leading Bruce to bribe an officer into letting them pass sooner, instead of allowing the situation to escalate. Later, after Batman investigates Vale’s childhood home, Dent announces his intention to seize Wayne Manor and all its assets, meaning Bruce or Batman has to go speak to him: the coin came up tails, so Bruce went to meet Dent as himself, despite Harvey’s anger at him and Selina. After Dent declares martial law to deal with the Children of Arkham, he has Bruce taken away to be executed, but Gordon rescues him.
Penguin then begins hacking into Batman’s equipment as Dent launches his assault on Wayne Manor, forcing Bruce to choose who he’ll deal with first: usually I have him take out Penguin first, otherwise Batman would be rendered powerless, but the coin came up tails, so Two-Face (ironically) became the first major villain to be written out in our playthrough. After defeating Dent, Batman can suggest sending him to Arkham or Blackgate; the coin landed heads, so he was sent to Arkham for the psychiatric help he so sorely needs.
Episode 5 — City of Light:
There aren’t any major decisions in the first portion of the finale, since Bruce and Gordon have to deal with Cobblepot first; Cobblepot remaining in control of Wayne Enterprises also means Lucius doesn’t have enough time to prepare a new Batsuit for Bruce, forcing him to wear an earlier iteration of the outfit during the final confrontation with Lady Arkham.
Continued belowBefore Vale kidnaps Alfred, Bruce discovers Selina is skipping town with a stolen prototype from Wayne R&D, and asks her to return it. I generally role-play Bruce as someone who sees Selina as his soulmate, but when their farewell conversation concluded, the coin showed tails, and Bruce denounced her as nothing more than a thief.
During the reckoning with Lady Arkham, Vale demands Batman take off his mask, or else she’ll harm Alfred. The coin said heads, so Batman complied; Vale, unable to comprehend the selfless Dark Knight is also the self-absorbed Bruce Wayne, blasts him with her kinetic energy staff, chipping off a piece of his ear, a noticeable scar that gets carried over into the next game.
The final big decision involves choosing whether Bruce or Batman attends Gordon’s first press conference as Commissioner of the GCPD; since the game very much portrays Bruce as being Batman, rather than a facade for his fearsome persona, I assigned his attendance to heads, but the coin came up tails, and Batman went to provide support from the shadows of the daytime. Either way, a man makes an attempt on Gordon’s life with a van, and Bats saves the day, as John Doe watches the incident unfold on TV at a bar.
Overall, this was a fun experiment. It does highlight some of the pitfalls of scripting a game like this (no matter what, Harvey will go insane, and Vicki Vale will die after being crushed by a rock), but I still came away a bit glum Bruce rejected Selina, and glad that Vale didn’t blind Alfred in one eye. It’s inspired me to replay other choice-based video games I own the same way, including (surprise!) the sequel, which made up for the relative linearity of this with a bona fide two-in-one finale.
