Batman: The Telltale Series: Episode 3 - New World Order continues to take the Batman franchise in some interesting directions.

When we last left Bruce Wayne, he, as Batman, was forced to choose between saving his friend, Harvey Dent, and Catwoman from an attack by a newly arisen terrorist group calling themselves the Children of Arkham. While the events leading up to the attack and the Mayoral debate led players to believe Oswald Cobblepot was the leader of this revolution, a new figure appears to reveal a horrible secret that Bruce's parents kept from their son.

New World Order is all about the consequences of your choices in Children of Arkham, figuring out exactly what the organization is planning, and trying to work out some kind of damage control after the nature of Thomas Wayne's past has been laid out to the world.

As I've stated in reviews of past episodes of this game, Batman: The Telltale Series is fairly unique in it's Batman storyline in that it isn't all about The Dark Knight. Bruce Wayne is heavily affected by the events happening in Gotham, and unlike most games focusing on this character, you will spend as much time, if not more, in a business suit. Episode 3 - New World Order is no different in that regard.

With the reveal of Thomas Wayne's dark dealings, many people of Gotham have lost faith in the Wayne name, and even worse, it looks like Wayne Enterprises is also looking to distance themselves from Bruce as their CEO. So, while Bruce/Batman is scouring the city trying to figure out what the Children of Arkham are planning, he learns that the Board of Directors is about to hold a meeting to decide if Bruce should step down and who will replace him. Will you choose to accept what the company decides for the good of Wayne Enterprises, or will you fight back and demand that what is best is that they stand behind you? When it comes time to confront your rival, how will you deal with him? While, I'm sure some of your reactions to these events will cause some characters to feel different ways towards Bruce as the events play out, these choices unfortunately don't seem to create any truly branching storylines. That being said, how it all plays out should lead to an interesting fourth episode.

Meanwhile, the Batman side of Batman: The Telltale Series: Episode 3 - New World Order has The Dark Knight searching for the Children of Arkham. With some help, he is able to not only find one of their staging grounds, but also uncover what their plans are for the chemicals previously seen at the Falcone warehouse and at the Mayoral debate. While the investigation leads to a pretty intense action sequence, the events afterwards seem to drastically change how Harvey and Catwoman look at Bruce Wayne/Batman in the coming times.

Your time in the cape and cowl does lead to a choice similar to that seen in The Wolf Among Us. In that game, you had a couple of different directions you could take your investigation, and going to one site first over another meant that you only saw the aftermath of the other location's events. There is a similar decision in New World Order where you are forced to choose between two different simultaneous events. While it doesn't look like missing either event leads to drastically different outcomes, there are subtle changes and the path that Batman takes to get to the episode's final sequence changes some. While I was hoping for a somewhat bigger impact in this particular decision, it looks like the overall plot moves one with only slight variations between playthroughs.

Batman: The Telltale Series: Episode 3 - New World Order ends at a rather stunning event that will put Bruce in a tough spot come the start of Episode 4 - Guardian of Gotham. A reveal at the end of New World Order will cause several pieces to fall into place, and with the city doubting the Wayne name more and more, it will be interesting to see how either of Bruce's identities will come out of these events unscathed.

While Telltale is typically known for forcing the player to make hard decisions and seeing how those will drastically affect the story, it seems like Batman: The Telltale Series is keeping pretty closely to the story they want to tell. That isn't to say that the choices you make in the game don't have consequences, they just don't feel quite as big as some of the company's other games. All that being said, I am really enjoying the story and I can't wait to see how it all shakes out. If you are looking for a solid Batman adventure game, then this title is definitely shaping up to be an experience not to be missed.