Maybe I'm just an untrusting person... but I felt something wasn't right the minute I stepped foot in that farm. After the two brothers began acting weirder and weirder, the bizarre interaction with the crazy lady in the woods, and "Momma" making off-handed comments about "dinner" all the time.... I had a hunch something was really fucked up here. After that whole incident in the barn, I knew for a fact it was time to give these people the smackdown.
I was kind of bummed out that I figured it out right away. I just caught up with the comics so the cannibal element of it was fresh (no pun intended) in my mind. Once they required us to come with them to do the exchange I knew it was bad news. I wish TellTale had been a little more subtle about the whole thing honestly.
Knew it was cannibalism from the very beginning. I've read enough post-apocalyptic fiction and seen enough movies to just automatically assume cannibalism whenever somebody boasts about having "plenty of food". Didn't make the episode any less awesome though.
I'm a bit ashamed to admit I didn't guess the cannibalism part at all.
I suspected something fishy immediately when I saw the two brothers, there was nothing sincere whatsoever about them, but I couldn't pin it down. The electric fence coming on and Andy's excuse made me certain they were up to no good - Mark hadn't even shouted before the fence came on. Still, cannibalism didn't cross my mind.
Their constant talk about supper didn't make me suspicious of cannibalism either. People are pointing out it's a dairy farm, not a ranch, but... did they ever mention it would be a meat-based meal? If yes, I must've overheard it in both of my playthroughs, but if not... why shouldn't it be possible to cook a good meal from the foods of a dairy farm? You could have cooked potatoes, pizza, roasted bread, grilled corn... nothing odd about it.
Jolene just brought further confirmation of something being up with the St. Johns, but I just thought they were collaborating with the bandits in some way. The back room of the barn had obviously been used to cut people to size, but I still didn't realize cannibalism was going on, I just thought the St. Johns had been murdering other survivors previously camped out on the farm, and chopping down the bodies to dispose of them more easily.
Even after I heard Mark say "Don't eat dinner" I still didn't come to think of cannibalism... I thought the meal was drugged due to the amounts of morphine I saw earlier in the upstairs closet. As to Mark, I thought maybe Danny had been starting to chop him up but hadn't told Brenda he was already doing it, so Brenda rang the dinner bell and Danny had to leave the job unfinished and come eat to make it look unsuspicious.
I only actually realized what was going on when I saw the dialogue option "you're eating human meat".
There were no surprises in this episode for me. None.
I didn't like the look of their faces (or their eyes) when I met the brothers on the road -- didn't trust them from the start. Trusted them even less when they began asking about the motel, who the leader was (which they persist about later on), how many people were there, etc.
When you get to the farm, its obviously "too good to be true" (and so it probably is.) I wondered immediately how they could "trade" enough for the gas they needed.
I guessed they were cannibals as soon as I spoke to the mother -- I mean, the *very first time* (I was certain as I could be without experiencing the rest of the story.) I didn't like her face either.
The rest of what happened was just confirming what I knew (or "suspected", to be technically precise). What the bandits were yelling when they attacked you: "Give us our food", the mother's refusal to let you see Mark, the crazy lady: "I KNOW what you are!" and so on and so forth.
I enjoyed myself, but I was expecting better after episode 1. And I wished they hadn't
killed Mark, he was cool.
Spot on good sir/madam. Spot on.
I knew something was funny from the questions of "how many people are in the group." and "Who is the leader." I think they also asked questions about how well armed we were. I answered as defensively as I could. I just knew something was up...all too nosy if you ask me.
But I was suspicious before that. I dunno, maybe its because of the game atmosphere or maybe I am like that in life. Something about how they made the deal seem so one sided like it only benefited the group and not the two brothers. It was like a mirage in the dessert. You tell some half starved people you have plenty of food and safety and all you want is gas, something they have no immediate use for (and the brothers could get it without the group) its a win/win for the group. Sounded like a bunch of salesmen.
So as the above quote said everything else after that, the bandit attacks, the barn, the crazy lady it was all confirmation that something was up. It was not until I met the mother and she talked about cooking food that I knew they were chomping on people. They mentioned they only have one cow, no mention of pigs or chickens, just one cow. So where is the meat?
It was still fun playing it none the less, when i saw the barn (back bloody room) I knew I was right on target.
Hey telltale throw a curve ball next time eh? Include a dame...guys are suckers for a dame.
Editor:
I can't wait to play it in front of my girlfriend. She is a very clever young woman and I am keen to know if she catches on as early as I did. I haven't spoiled a thing for her.
lol did anyone actually go to dinner without checking on mark?
On a second play-through I tried to eat some Mark tenderloin but whenever i tried to walk into the dining room Mark would say something upstairs and it would not allow the player to join the rest.
when mark told me that they shouldn't eat the meat i also thought it was drugged so that the family then could chop everyone into peaces. I also thought that because the game made me race to the diner room to make sure clem wouldn't eat any of the food. I mean of course it isn't nice to have eaten human food but it's not exactly like she would have died from it. Would the game have been over if i wouldn't have gotten to the dining room in time? I just thought this whole "OMG SPIT IT OUT " thing was a bit too much.
I also guessed the cannibalism thing pretty early and thought it was rediculous that lee would go to diner with andy after he discovered the chopping room and andy just standing there creapily saying "It's dinner time" with a murderer's gaze. But hey he said it's for chopping animals and not my friend who dissappeared a while ago.
But anyway, i think it would have been kinda cool if everything would have made it seem like they were cannibals but in the end they would have only had a normal dinner and mark would have walked in and there would have been an explanation for everything. And then when you think everything's ok you could have let the family do some other non cannibalistic bad stuff.
Or even better: Lee and the group could have killed the family or just tried to and let the zombies destroy the farm in the process because they were sure that the family were cannibals only to later make a discovery that the family was normal and that it only was in their head because the situation made them paranoid.Would have also been a great way to play with the expectation of the player and mirror his own "paranoia" in the characters. And maybe mark would have been illed BECAUSE they thought the family were cannibals. would have been very ironic
My first thought was that the brothers were somehow in league with the bandits -- that the confrontation in the woods on the way to the farm was a setup for our group's benefit, and that all the talk about "safety" was intended to lure our group to the farm for exploitation of some sort by a larger group. I also noted (and confirmed on my second playthrough) that while Andy claimed he turned the fence on AFTER Mark yelled, in fact Mark was shot after the fence was turned on.
But I hadn't yet gotten to Volume 11 of the comics (just did yesterday), so cannibalism wasn't the first thing that came to mind. I was thinking something more like capture and enslavement to keep the farm operating -- we could see enough deterioration to think that the family was operating more out of need than kindness. I didn't start to think cannibalism until I started to notice that the "dinner" repeatedly mentioned was remarkably non-specific, and then of course the back room in the barn made the nature of the threat clear.
I knew from the second they offered the deal. I just knew and when the group made me go to Andale, I'm sorry did I say "Andale"? No that can't be right, that's the place in Fallout 3 with all the Eerily Happy, and Cordial, Cannibals... No, as soon as the group made me go to The Farm, I knew. Before the oddly intrusive questions on the road, before Brendas creepy "They grow em good" comment about Macon, before the deals with Bandits, before the odd mention of former workers not adding up, Before Danny's suspicious reply to the camcorder and food boxes, before the crazy lady ramblings, and before Kenny and Lilly getting a bad feeling.
So 2 guys are coming down the road. And they don't exactly look threatening.. They just want some gas and they're offering food in exchange.
Considering the only thing the group was missing - or at least the #1 ergency- was food, sure let's make a deal. BUT
why should anyone from our group leave to go to the farm? You go back to your farm, bring some food and we give you the gas. We don't know these people, maybe there is no farm at all or they have no food. Right there it was a deal breaker and bad news for me. But all the rest of the group was like let's get going.
There should have been more skepticism. The survivors were listening to their stomachs, not their heads.
Kind of reminded me a little of the old people in The Book of Eli too, i figured it out but i didnt realise they were cannibals until i put the wheelbarrow and the bloody room together with Jolene's ramblings.
The St. John Brothers had an answer for everything until the end. The door in the barn was locked to stop bandits (but isn’t the electric fence for that?). The blood wheelbarrow was an accident according to Danny. The bloody room in the barn was slaughtered animals that were killed in the woods.
Jolene sounded crazy and she refused to identify herself when I asked her. She didn’t seem like a good source for information.
Yeah all those questions from the start, like how many in your group, how many guns etc...
They could have been curious, but those questions are very personal. If they shared information about themselves in proportion to the information they asked from Lee, I would have felt more comfortable.
I realised immideatily that there was something horribly wrong with them when Andy jumped on me for trying to go to the barn before fixing the perimiter.
I fixed the perimeter before approaching the barn, but your experience was a good warning sign.
I was incredibly naive and didn't pick it. I knew something was up (but I didn't clue into them being cannibals until I was heading up the stairs towards the bedroom), but I kept giving them the benefit of the doubt, probably for the following reasons:
- I wasn't suspicious about dinner cause I'd seen all their crops out back and thought we'd just be eating vegetables.
- I didn't key in to what Jolene was rambling about, just thought she was crazy and I was a bit focused on the crossbow.
- I didn't notice Danny was sitting by the swing and didn't get to have that creepy conversation with him.
- Andy's explanation for the bloody tool room seemed like it could have had merit.
- I haven't read the comics and so I'm not quite conditioned to the "if its too good to be true it isn't nature".
And personally I think that made it better for me. I imagine keying into it alongside Lee felt way creepier and atmospheric than guessing it from the start.
I completely agree, except I did talk to Danny about his gun. Odd, but I’ve heard of gun owners naming their weapons.
i think it would have been kinda cool if everything would have made it seem like they were cannibals but in the end they would have only had a normal dinner and mark would have walked in and there would have been an explanation for everything. And then when you think everything's ok you could have let the family do some other non cannibalistic bad stuff.
That would be a good idea for future episodes. Suspicious characters turn out to be trustworthy while non-suspicious characters have dark secrets. That will confuse the player about who to trust.
I also noted (and confirmed on my second playthrough) that while Andy claimed he turned the fence on AFTER Mark yelled, in fact Mark was shot after the fence was turned on.
That is one of the biggest warning signs. I didn’t Andy’s timing error because the conversation was cut short when the group showed up.
They were too nice and polite....
When people act like that... They have done something so bad that even their mom wouldn't forgive.....
But in this case....
Their mom was in the same shit.
lol did anyone actually go to dinner without checking on mark?
I didn't !
The opportunity to have that conversation is only when Kenny and Lee have hatched a plan to look into the back of the barn. I saw Larry and Brenda flirting it up and, if I thought anything about it, I thought, "Good, she's distracted, too." I went straight to figuring out the generator and moved right on, not seeing Brenda again until dinner.
I've only seen the first two seasons of The Walking Dead. So, actually, I really thought they were keeping Brenda's husband as a Zombie in a room somewhere. I swallowed the "Mark is resting and I already brought him up dinner" hook, line, and sinker. I didn't try to wash my hands, and I was suspicious, so i zigged upstairs right away. I knew something was behind that door, and for some reason, totally ignored the "Why isn't mark up here?" Or even maybe thought they were feeding him to husband zombie. (I've played through 4 times, so my initial thoughts are pretty fuzzy.)
So, I was totally shocked to see a chopped up mark with no zombie in sight. Then he said not to eat dinner and oh my gosh, I was out of there like lightning to keep Clementine from eating mark.
I honestly wasn't suspicious until after I met the mother. She creeped me out in all number of ways. I scrutinized the whole farm, looking for any number of reasons to not trust them. The only thing I found suspicious was when I knocked on the door, and talked to Brenda again, and asked her how many rooms the house had - she immediately got defensive (I honestly didn't think it was that weird to ask someone who had offered us to stay with her how many rooms she had).
Andy's comment about hearing us "yell" rang SOME alarm bells, but then I thought it could have been possible that he heard the bandits yelling. At Jolene's camp, Danny seemed honestly relieved that the boxes from the dairy were empty (why?), and also that the camcorder didn't work. Then talking to Jolene, I paid careful attention to her words, and Danny shot her before she could say what she knew the farm family had been doing.
I was definitely not trusting them now. The first thing I did back at the farm was ask to see Mark (was told no). I talked to everyone else that I could, and then snooped around the barn. I found the pile of dirty clothes first. Then I opened the barn door and the first thing I asked after being caught by Andy was "Why is there so much blood in there!". From there it was only natural to continue snooping inside the house, and to try to find Mark.
Now, one of my first thoughts was that they were cutting up people to feed to the bandits (a lot of emphasis was put on the "deal" they made to keep the farm safe). It wasn't until I thought about the "special dinner" comments as I was searching for Mark that made me think that they were cannibals.
Luckily i was not one of those who guessed it out.
Allthough i got suspicious when those bandits started rambling about food. And i found the slaughterhouse. But it wasnt until i found Mark that i realized they were cannibals.
The whole point of the dinner timing problem just seems to be whether or not Clem eats it. You can stop her, but everyone else just chows down. The game continues.
I think we have some conceited people on here. Im not saying ALL of you are lying but I dont think there was ANY indication of cannibalism at first interaction. The true first indication that something was up for me was a combination of the locked barn door and the way that danny(or was it andy lol) that creepily said "its going to be a good dinner". I had suspiscion when the mom didnt let me see mark but I thought the game didnt want me in the house yet. As for the cannibalism, I didnt realize until the option popped up saying "Its people! people!". I too thought they drugged the food or something. Either way besides that I dont remember any significant indicators. I thought they were nice people. Im actualluy really good with guessing what will happen in movies/ shows/ games (not bragging haha) but this one surprised me actually. So far in Ep 1 and 2 I havnt been able to guess any of the main conflicts. Side note: The games spontaneous-ity reminds me of Red Dead Redemption, which is my favorite game of all time!
I clocked that there was something up with them the moment I saw Danny, he was clearly designed as a 'creep' as was his mother, so there was very little doubt that they were up to something. I realised it was canabalism when the Crazy Lady mentioned something about dead bodies, and realised it was Mark (i'd actually forgot about him by this point) we were going to eat when the mother said something along the lines of "I assure you he's all right" during a convo on her porch.
I was a little dissapointed that everything was made so obvious tbh, I would have much prefered a true shock reveal.
I think we have some conceited people on here. Im not saying ALL of you are lying but I dont think there was ANY indication of cannibalism at first interaction. The true first indication that something was up for me was a combination of the locked barn door and the way that danny(or was it andy lol) that creepily said "its going to be a good dinner". I had suspiscion when the mom didnt let me see mark but I thought the game didnt want me in the house yet. As for the cannibalism, I didnt realize until the option popped up saying "Its people! people!". I too thought they drugged the food or something. Either way besides that I dont remember any significant indicators. I thought they were nice people. Im actualluy really good with guessing what will happen in movies/ shows/ games (not bragging haha) but this one surprised me actually. So far in Ep 1 and 2 I havnt been able to guess any of the main conflicts. Side note: The games spontaneous-ity reminds me of Red Dead Redemption, which is my favorite game of all time!
Even this girl, who isn't all that bright, had it figured by first interaction.
It's all about being genre savvy. I aspire to be a writer myself some day, I saw this coming a mile a away. They were too nice and together, it's the apocalypse... Take a look at all the Nice Together Simple Folk in this Genre:
The old couple from the Book of Eli, The people from Andale from Fallout 3, etc.
It was pretty obvious... Who invites desperate, hungry people who pulled guns on you to your Dairy Farm during the Apocalypse? It's like it hasn't registered to these people that the world's ended... That's the biggest red flag there is.
Even this girl, who isn't all that bright, had it figured by first interaction.
It's all about being genre savvy. I aspire to be a writer myself some day, I saw this coming a mile a away. They were too nice and together, it's the apocalypse... Take a look at all the Nice Together Simple Folk in this Genre:
The old couple from the Book of Eli, The people from Andale from Fallout 3, etc.
It was pretty obvious... Who invites desperate, hungry people who pulled guns on you to your Dairy Farm during the Apocalypse? It's like it hasn't registered to these people that the world's ended... That's the biggest red flag there is.
No i agree with you there I just felt that in case of a zombie apocalypse there may be some, like myself, that would just want to help people out. I dont think its too far of a stretch too seeing as they live on a well defended farm.
No i agree with you there I just felt that in case of a zombie apocalypse there may be some, like myself, that would just want to help people out. I dont think its too far of a stretch too seeing as they live on a well defended farm.
Yeah, but it's a game so it will typically conform to a Genre. However, IRL I would be cautious anyways. And the Questioning would really set me off.
they do just want to help people out. but they also need food to live to keep helping people and protein for the strength to keep helping them. Heck maybe after mark was eaten they might have had the others working on the farm and only sacrifice one if they couldn't make meat quota
I never fully trusted them. It was just too good to be true. I only predicted the cannibal thing when the back room of the barn was opened. I had suspicions of many things before that moment, but that's the moment when I just went "Oh shit, cannibals". Then I realized that the food was Mark when Brenda stopped me from going to see him.
I knew the brothers were shifty the moment I saw 'em however we needed food. Then when they said that people have visited before my alarm bells rang. Why would anybody leave this perfect set up? Then I began questioning where this food comes from when there's only 1 cow... Surely 1 cow wouldn't sustain 3 people plus bandits for months... 3rd suspicion was when Brenda wouldn't let me see Mark.
By this time the Texas Chainsaw Massacre vibe began. 4th suspicion was when (Andy?) said 'good' when I said the camera has no batteries. 5th was the woman and Andy's reaction. Not to mention the glee he had. 6th was the locked room and bloody clothes, by this time I just knew they we're killing and possibly eating people. Opening the door pretty much confirmed my suspicion but by 3rd suspicion I already had it in my head they're redneck cannibals. The blatant Texas Chainsaw Massacre vibe was too much
Yea, I thought they would try to harm us right in the beginning when they asked so many questions, making statements about if we are armed, how many we are etc...
And when the bandits talked about they didn't forfill their deal I thought the St. Johnsohns are only using people
And danny always looks like a psycho. Obviously the incident at the camp showed us something was up. It doesn't help the way he talks to his gun or the creepy way he talks about supper. I thought for sure that something is wrong with supper, that they will poison us or drug us. I didn't even think about the cannibalism tho,as they had plenty of food (you can see all the vegetables near the farm).
depends on the st johns idea of injured going to die anyway..
they tried to fry lee and mark then some how he gets an arrow...
by that reasoning if say mark get a paper cut or a splinter from the fences and still died you know any injury no matter how small will be used as an excuse to chop em up.
now one thing i'm a little unsure about is where do they chop up mark ? can't of been the barn as lilly and larry would of seen them..so they must of done it upstairs..
depends on the st johns idea of injured going to die anyway..
they tried to fry lee and mark then some how he gets an arrow...
by that reasoning if say mark get a paper cut or a splinter from the fences and still died you know any injury no matter how small will be used as an excuse to chop em up.
now one thing i'm a little unsure about is where do they chop up mark ? can't of been the barn as lilly and larry would of seen them..so they must of done it upstairs..
Yeah I remember the bathroom was really bloody. Had to be in there.
Extremely predictable. I knew at the opening when they point out the trap had been altered that we were dealing with someone trying to catch people. I kind of figured it was cannibals and when the brothers walked up I was like yup thats them. Kind of figured the story was they were tracking the blood from the trap....
Extremely predictable. I knew at the opening when they point out the trap had been altered that we were dealing with someone trying to catch people. I kind of figured it was cannibals and when the brothers walked up I was like yup thats them. Kind of figured the story was they were tracking the blood from the trap....
Oh, I didn't get that those were their traps. Even though I saw them in the butcher room, I still thought those were the bandits'.
I knew that something was wrong when Danny got all wierd about shooting Jolene. I thought perhaps they were psychos who kill people for fun (they wouldn't let me see Mark), but I didn't think they would eat Mark and leave him still alive for second helpings.
The only time I suspected they were cannibals was when I went up the stairs and Mark wasn't in there. That was quite an intense moment for me.
@ZombieGoBoom - Holy shit... yes... that creeped me out so damn bad. I was screaming at my screen to make Lee run faster. And of COURSE he had to trip at the bottom of the stairs. Hahahaa.
i am glad i did not guess it from the start, it would just suck, so i guess it's your loss if you can read these things on the fly.
at first i actually believed these folks had good intentions, and the game sets them up as creepy to throw the player off, so i handwaved that. it was only after the fence incident that i really started to question their motives. at the time i thought they needed the group as some sort of a bargaining chip in dealing with bandits. but even then i felt relative security, as the family was definitely outnumbered, and acting nonthreatening.
later, during the confrontation with the crazy lady it became obvious something was up, but i still couldn't figure out how the group fits into all of this, plus danny was so openly giddy after killing the crazy woman right in front of lee, it kinda confused me.
the cannibal realization came at the slaughterhouse, and luckily by this point i was expecting to see something that will put all the pieces together. but to be honest, i completely forgot about mark at that moment. i thought that the family was chopping down farmhands, and that's what's going to be for dinner.
only when getting upstairs and seeing mark with no legs i had the full picture.
also of note - someone asked why they needed all the VI tubes - danny told lee right before he died (or not) that in order to keep the meat fresh, the victim should stay alive. poor mark.
being genre savvy can be hell on the player however it can also make you unnecessarily paranoid. If Danny and Andy didn't turn out to be psychopaths i still might have murdered them out of Paranoia
being genre savvy can be hell on the player however it can also make you unnecessarily paranoid. If Danny and Andy didn't turn out to be psychopaths i still might have murdered them out of Paranoia
That would have been awesome.
"Ya'll boys ready for cak - WOH MY GOODNESS! Lee! What have you done?"
"This isn't what it looks like!"
Even this girl, who isn't all that bright, had it figured by first interaction.
It's all about being genre savvy. I aspire to be a writer myself some day, I saw this coming a mile a away. They were too nice and together, it's the apocalypse... Take a look at all the Nice Together Simple Folk in this Genre:
The old couple from the Book of Eli, The people from Andale from Fallout 3, etc.
It was pretty obvious... Who invites desperate, hungry people who pulled guns on you to your Dairy Farm during the Apocalypse? It's like it hasn't registered to these people that the world's ended... That's the biggest red flag there is.
I hope the story line was not what the delay was all about.
Comments
That part wasn't really a red flag, actually. They weren't going with them to make the exchange, they were going to check out the electric fence.
Tho granted, this was before Ep 2 was out, so my money was on Kenny and his family going cannibal! XD
I suspected something fishy immediately when I saw the two brothers, there was nothing sincere whatsoever about them, but I couldn't pin it down. The electric fence coming on and Andy's excuse made me certain they were up to no good - Mark hadn't even shouted before the fence came on. Still, cannibalism didn't cross my mind.
Their constant talk about supper didn't make me suspicious of cannibalism either. People are pointing out it's a dairy farm, not a ranch, but... did they ever mention it would be a meat-based meal? If yes, I must've overheard it in both of my playthroughs, but if not... why shouldn't it be possible to cook a good meal from the foods of a dairy farm? You could have cooked potatoes, pizza, roasted bread, grilled corn... nothing odd about it.
Jolene just brought further confirmation of something being up with the St. Johns, but I just thought they were collaborating with the bandits in some way. The back room of the barn had obviously been used to cut people to size, but I still didn't realize cannibalism was going on, I just thought the St. Johns had been murdering other survivors previously camped out on the farm, and chopping down the bodies to dispose of them more easily.
Even after I heard Mark say "Don't eat dinner" I still didn't come to think of cannibalism... I thought the meal was drugged due to the amounts of morphine I saw earlier in the upstairs closet. As to Mark, I thought maybe Danny had been starting to chop him up but hadn't told Brenda he was already doing it, so Brenda rang the dinner bell and Danny had to leave the job unfinished and come eat to make it look unsuspicious.
I only actually realized what was going on when I saw the dialogue option "you're eating human meat".
Spot on good sir/madam. Spot on.
I knew something was funny from the questions of "how many people are in the group." and "Who is the leader." I think they also asked questions about how well armed we were. I answered as defensively as I could. I just knew something was up...all too nosy if you ask me.
But I was suspicious before that. I dunno, maybe its because of the game atmosphere or maybe I am like that in life. Something about how they made the deal seem so one sided like it only benefited the group and not the two brothers. It was like a mirage in the dessert. You tell some half starved people you have plenty of food and safety and all you want is gas, something they have no immediate use for (and the brothers could get it without the group) its a win/win for the group. Sounded like a bunch of salesmen.
So as the above quote said everything else after that, the bandit attacks, the barn, the crazy lady it was all confirmation that something was up. It was not until I met the mother and she talked about cooking food that I knew they were chomping on people. They mentioned they only have one cow, no mention of pigs or chickens, just one cow. So where is the meat?
It was still fun playing it none the less, when i saw the barn (back bloody room) I knew I was right on target.
Hey telltale throw a curve ball next time eh? Include a dame...guys are suckers for a dame.
Editor:
I can't wait to play it in front of my girlfriend. She is a very clever young woman and I am keen to know if she catches on as early as I did. I haven't spoiled a thing for her.
On a second play-through I tried to eat some Mark tenderloin but whenever i tried to walk into the dining room Mark would say something upstairs and it would not allow the player to join the rest.
I also guessed the cannibalism thing pretty early and thought it was rediculous that lee would go to diner with andy after he discovered the chopping room and andy just standing there creapily saying "It's dinner time" with a murderer's gaze. But hey he said it's for chopping animals and not my friend who dissappeared a while ago.
But anyway, i think it would have been kinda cool if everything would have made it seem like they were cannibals but in the end they would have only had a normal dinner and mark would have walked in and there would have been an explanation for everything. And then when you think everything's ok you could have let the family do some other non cannibalistic bad stuff.
Or even better: Lee and the group could have killed the family or just tried to and let the zombies destroy the farm in the process because they were sure that the family were cannibals only to later make a discovery that the family was normal and that it only was in their head because the situation made them paranoid.Would have also been a great way to play with the expectation of the player and mirror his own "paranoia" in the characters. And maybe mark would have been illed BECAUSE they thought the family were cannibals. would have been very ironic
But I hadn't yet gotten to Volume 11 of the comics (just did yesterday), so cannibalism wasn't the first thing that came to mind. I was thinking something more like capture and enslavement to keep the farm operating -- we could see enough deterioration to think that the family was operating more out of need than kindness. I didn't start to think cannibalism until I started to notice that the "dinner" repeatedly mentioned was remarkably non-specific, and then of course the back room in the barn made the nature of the threat clear.
The St. John Brothers had an answer for everything until the end. The door in the barn was locked to stop bandits (but isn’t the electric fence for that?). The blood wheelbarrow was an accident according to Danny. The bloody room in the barn was slaughtered animals that were killed in the woods.
Jolene sounded crazy and she refused to identify herself when I asked her. She didn’t seem like a good source for information.
They could have been curious, but those questions are very personal. If they shared information about themselves in proportion to the information they asked from Lee, I would have felt more comfortable.
I fixed the perimeter before approaching the barn, but your experience was a good warning sign.
Brenda’s reason was that Mark was exhausted. That sounded plausible. I got suckered until the end. I should have been more skeptical.
Well, I thought the explanation was the farm hands were either killed or left to return to their families. That made sense.
I completely agree, except I did talk to Danny about his gun. Odd, but I’ve heard of gun owners naming their weapons.
That would be a good idea for future episodes. Suspicious characters turn out to be trustworthy while non-suspicious characters have dark secrets. That will confuse the player about who to trust.
That is one of the biggest warning signs. I didn’t Andy’s timing error because the conversation was cut short when the group showed up.
When people act like that... They have done something so bad that even their mom wouldn't forgive.....
But in this case....
Their mom was in the same shit.
I didn't !
The opportunity to have that conversation is only when Kenny and Lee have hatched a plan to look into the back of the barn. I saw Larry and Brenda flirting it up and, if I thought anything about it, I thought, "Good, she's distracted, too." I went straight to figuring out the generator and moved right on, not seeing Brenda again until dinner.
I've only seen the first two seasons of The Walking Dead. So, actually, I really thought they were keeping Brenda's husband as a Zombie in a room somewhere. I swallowed the "Mark is resting and I already brought him up dinner" hook, line, and sinker. I didn't try to wash my hands, and I was suspicious, so i zigged upstairs right away. I knew something was behind that door, and for some reason, totally ignored the "Why isn't mark up here?" Or even maybe thought they were feeding him to husband zombie. (I've played through 4 times, so my initial thoughts are pretty fuzzy.)
So, I was totally shocked to see a chopped up mark with no zombie in sight. Then he said not to eat dinner and oh my gosh, I was out of there like lightning to keep Clementine from eating mark.
Cannibalism never crossed my mind.
Andy's comment about hearing us "yell" rang SOME alarm bells, but then I thought it could have been possible that he heard the bandits yelling. At Jolene's camp, Danny seemed honestly relieved that the boxes from the dairy were empty (why?), and also that the camcorder didn't work. Then talking to Jolene, I paid careful attention to her words, and Danny shot her before she could say what she knew the farm family had been doing.
I was definitely not trusting them now. The first thing I did back at the farm was ask to see Mark (was told no). I talked to everyone else that I could, and then snooped around the barn. I found the pile of dirty clothes first. Then I opened the barn door and the first thing I asked after being caught by Andy was "Why is there so much blood in there!". From there it was only natural to continue snooping inside the house, and to try to find Mark.
Now, one of my first thoughts was that they were cutting up people to feed to the bandits (a lot of emphasis was put on the "deal" they made to keep the farm safe). It wasn't until I thought about the "special dinner" comments as I was searching for Mark that made me think that they were cannibals.
Allthough i got suspicious when those bandits started rambling about food. And i found the slaughterhouse. But it wasnt until i found Mark that i realized they were cannibals.
I was a little dissapointed that everything was made so obvious tbh, I would have much prefered a true shock reveal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an0v7CIHI_A&feature=relmfu
13:50
Even this girl, who isn't all that bright, had it figured by first interaction.
It's all about being genre savvy. I aspire to be a writer myself some day, I saw this coming a mile a away. They were too nice and together, it's the apocalypse... Take a look at all the Nice Together Simple Folk in this Genre:
The old couple from the Book of Eli, The people from Andale from Fallout 3, etc.
It was pretty obvious... Who invites desperate, hungry people who pulled guns on you to your Dairy Farm during the Apocalypse? It's like it hasn't registered to these people that the world's ended... That's the biggest red flag there is.
No i agree with you there I just felt that in case of a zombie apocalypse there may be some, like myself, that would just want to help people out. I dont think its too far of a stretch too seeing as they live on a well defended farm.
Yeah, but it's a game so it will typically conform to a Genre. However, IRL I would be cautious anyways. And the Questioning would really set me off.
I knew the brothers were shifty the moment I saw 'em however we needed food. Then when they said that people have visited before my alarm bells rang. Why would anybody leave this perfect set up? Then I began questioning where this food comes from when there's only 1 cow... Surely 1 cow wouldn't sustain 3 people plus bandits for months... 3rd suspicion was when Brenda wouldn't let me see Mark.
By this time the Texas Chainsaw Massacre vibe began. 4th suspicion was when (Andy?) said 'good' when I said the camera has no batteries. 5th was the woman and Andy's reaction. Not to mention the glee he had. 6th was the locked room and bloody clothes, by this time I just knew they we're killing and possibly eating people. Opening the door pretty much confirmed my suspicion but by 3rd suspicion I already had it in my head they're redneck cannibals. The blatant Texas Chainsaw Massacre vibe was too much
And when the bandits talked about they didn't forfill their deal I thought the St. Johnsohns are only using people
And danny always looks like a psycho. Obviously the incident at the camp showed us something was up. It doesn't help the way he talks to his gun or the creepy way he talks about supper. I thought for sure that something is wrong with supper, that they will poison us or drug us. I didn't even think about the cannibalism tho,as they had plenty of food (you can see all the vegetables near the farm).
they tried to fry lee and mark then some how he gets an arrow...
by that reasoning if say mark get a paper cut or a splinter from the fences and still died you know any injury no matter how small will be used as an excuse to chop em up.
now one thing i'm a little unsure about is where do they chop up mark ? can't of been the barn as lilly and larry would of seen them..so they must of done it upstairs..
Yeah I remember the bathroom was really bloody. Had to be in there.
Anyway no.. I didn't suspect them straight away.
Oh, I didn't get that those were their traps. Even though I saw them in the butcher room, I still thought those were the bandits'.
The only time I suspected they were cannibals was when I went up the stairs and Mark wasn't in there. That was quite an intense moment for me.
So I predicted it as well.
Lee: "What happened to your legs man!"
Mark: "Don't... eat... dinner..."
Me: "Oh sh*t!"
at first i actually believed these folks had good intentions, and the game sets them up as creepy to throw the player off, so i handwaved that. it was only after the fence incident that i really started to question their motives. at the time i thought they needed the group as some sort of a bargaining chip in dealing with bandits. but even then i felt relative security, as the family was definitely outnumbered, and acting nonthreatening.
later, during the confrontation with the crazy lady it became obvious something was up, but i still couldn't figure out how the group fits into all of this, plus danny was so openly giddy after killing the crazy woman right in front of lee, it kinda confused me.
the cannibal realization came at the slaughterhouse, and luckily by this point i was expecting to see something that will put all the pieces together. but to be honest, i completely forgot about mark at that moment. i thought that the family was chopping down farmhands, and that's what's going to be for dinner.
only when getting upstairs and seeing mark with no legs i had the full picture.
also of note - someone asked why they needed all the VI tubes - danny told lee right before he died (or not) that in order to keep the meat fresh, the victim should stay alive. poor mark.
That would have been awesome.
"Ya'll boys ready for cak - WOH MY GOODNESS! Lee! What have you done?"
"This isn't what it looks like!"
I hope the story line was not what the delay was all about.