[Review] I think EP4 overdid it in some areas... *MAJOR SPOILERS*
Yep, it's another rant thread, I won't deny it. But I'm still going to share my thoughts about this episode in a reasonable manner I hope to share:
- Of course, Sarita dies no matter what. I even predicted that she would die right there and then if we had cut her arm off (which made sense given the circumstances, but still...). A minor nitpick, since we were given the teaser video that explicitly showed Sarita dying in Kenny's arm, and she had her bitten arm intact, and I quickly accepted that she was going to die no matter what.
- Nick's fate if you choose to save him made me sad. I was even willing to accept his death, if it weren't foreshadowing Sarah's fate that even if a character would be saved, they'll still die with little to no payoff.
- The rest of the episode plays out marvellously until the finale event. This was a Telltale episode going in the right direction, we had areas to explore, a character we could choose to save, areas to go to. But then the finale arrived and made everything shocking and depressing for shock value, which just didn't sit right with me. Sarah's death made our earlier choice meaningless and just served to shock us, and nothing more.
- Luke's interaction with Jane in the finale felt rushed and came out of nowhere, suddenly the two go together and apparently flirt/make out in a shed and thus cause problems for the group inadvertently, and thus get caught and yelled by Kenny.
- By Episode 4, I'm starting to wonder if the writers favours Kenny and desperately wants players to side/like him and they'll willing to dumb down Luke just to create another Kenny vs [Character] event, and punish us if we don't side with him. At this point Kenny is infallible, everyone who sides against him or tell him off is wrong or dead, and the writers will make sure that will happen. Sure Kenny gets some hardships (losing his family and Sarita) and that's acceptable writing, but making certain characters wrong to glorify Kenny is starting to look childish and biased.
Don't get me wrong, this episode is far from terrible and there's plenty of good parts. The characters are well-written and believable (save for the Luke and Jane scene), the atmosphere and tension is incredible, the ability to explore and talk to our group (especially Mike, Bonnie, and Jane) was much needed. The episode was longer and had more content than just conversations and QTE events compared to Episode 3.
But I'm worried that Telltale is starting to get a little overconfident with the writing with Season 2, it's starting to lose its magic and is slowly descending into a misery porn experience. I understand that this is the zombie apocalypse and bad things do happen for no reason, but is starting to damage the experience and giving me little reason to care for the characters.