It was probably the best episode of the season, at least so far. We finally got a mini-hub section where you could actually talk to characters of your own volition. Unfortunately, it didn't last long and despite the numerous characters present, we could only speak with a few of them, and only once each.
The 5 tracked choices felt rather weak to me, with the obvious exception of dealing with Carver. None of them had any real effect on anything. Help Sarah or don't? Who cares? She's spaced out anyway, and Reggie dies the same. Tell Bonnie about Luke? Who cares? She meets him the next time she shows up on screen anyway. Admit to possessing the ra-nope. Kenny took that choice from you before you can do anything. How to help Sarita? Doesn't matter. Leave her hand on, and she has a lethal bite to contend with, or cut her hand off with an infected hatchet and watch her scream to draw attention to herself. Dead.
The story had good points, but it felt... unfocused. When you go to work the first morning, you're just tossed around from person to person with seemingly no sense of doing any real work. One moment, you're loading magazines with Bonnie. Okay. That seems like something that needs to be done. Sure. Let's load maga-Nope. 5 minutes later, you're shipped off to the roof to pick berries. Okay, let's harvest some food. That's pretty impor-nope. Go back to Bonnie. Deliver a bucket of nails and watch Kenny be an asshole for no discernable reason.
I get that they were trying to make it look like you were doing a lot of slave labor, but it would help if the actual tasks were more grueling. Or better yet, make the player actually have to do the work. Pick up the bullet, put it in the magazine, press it in place, start another section of the conversation. I get that it would feel tedious and boring, but it would feel like work which is what is supposed to be going on.
I know this has been said many times before, but the 400 days characters got shafted, with the exceptions of Bonnie and Tavia. Brief, uninteractalbe cameos are not sufficient payoffs for getting to know these characters through the DLC. At the very least, Clem should have had the opportunity to speak with them for a short conversation.
Another thing that bugged me was my lack of control over my responses to certain things. I could not outright tell Kenny that I won't help him escape in the truck. I could not tell him I'm not going to search for a way out of the cell on day 1. I could not tell Luke that I'm not getting him a radio. Everyone else makes the plans and then they get Clem to do the hard part. Either treat her like a kid or give her more say please.
So, with all this criticism, how can I say this was the best episode in the season so far? It was full of surprises. We knew Carver was brutal, but from episode 2, it appeared that he only did it with specific intent. He tortured Carlos until Alvin and Rebecca came out of hiding. He only killed when one of his own was killed. This was the first time we saw him kill unnecessarily. He may claim it was, but we know better. For those who saved Alvin in episode 2, we see the result of even more unnecessary brutality as we see him passed out in the office, covered in blood. No way Alvin would have done anything to provoke that kind of treatment. All this stuff and many other scenes I didn't even mention added up to make the final scene with Carver gruesomely satisfying. All the downsides were worth it just for that, in my opinion.
Comments
The 5 tracked choices felt rather weak to me, with the obvious exception of dealing with Carver. None of them had any real effect on anything. Help Sarah or don't? Who cares? She's spaced out anyway, and Reggie dies the same. Tell Bonnie about Luke? Who cares? She meets him the next time she shows up on screen anyway. Admit to possessing the ra-nope. Kenny took that choice from you before you can do anything. How to help Sarita? Doesn't matter. Leave her hand on, and she has a lethal bite to contend with, or cut her hand off with an infected hatchet and watch her scream to draw attention to herself. Dead.
The story had good points, but it felt... unfocused. When you go to work the first morning, you're just tossed around from person to person with seemingly no sense of doing any real work. One moment, you're loading magazines with Bonnie. Okay. That seems like something that needs to be done. Sure. Let's load maga-Nope. 5 minutes later, you're shipped off to the roof to pick berries. Okay, let's harvest some food. That's pretty impor-nope. Go back to Bonnie. Deliver a bucket of nails and watch Kenny be an asshole for no discernable reason.
I get that they were trying to make it look like you were doing a lot of slave labor, but it would help if the actual tasks were more grueling. Or better yet, make the player actually have to do the work. Pick up the bullet, put it in the magazine, press it in place, start another section of the conversation. I get that it would feel tedious and boring, but it would feel like work which is what is supposed to be going on.
I know this has been said many times before, but the 400 days characters got shafted, with the exceptions of Bonnie and Tavia. Brief, uninteractalbe cameos are not sufficient payoffs for getting to know these characters through the DLC. At the very least, Clem should have had the opportunity to speak with them for a short conversation.
Another thing that bugged me was my lack of control over my responses to certain things. I could not outright tell Kenny that I won't help him escape in the truck. I could not tell him I'm not going to search for a way out of the cell on day 1. I could not tell Luke that I'm not getting him a radio. Everyone else makes the plans and then they get Clem to do the hard part. Either treat her like a kid or give her more say please.
So, with all this criticism, how can I say this was the best episode in the season so far? It was full of surprises. We knew Carver was brutal, but from episode 2, it appeared that he only did it with specific intent. He tortured Carlos until Alvin and Rebecca came out of hiding. He only killed when one of his own was killed. This was the first time we saw him kill unnecessarily. He may claim it was, but we know better. For those who saved Alvin in episode 2, we see the result of even more unnecessary brutality as we see him passed out in the office, covered in blood. No way Alvin would have done anything to provoke that kind of treatment. All this stuff and many other scenes I didn't even mention added up to make the final scene with Carver gruesomely satisfying. All the downsides were worth it just for that, in my opinion.