The Walking Dead- Amid the Irrelevant choices (Hated it)
( Before reading this is my opinion on the episode and may or may not reflect yours. Either way you're all awesome people! )
For my opening statement amid the ruins perfectly describes how this season is going to turn out if it continues going on this route. There are many moments in the episode where I felt completely frustrated at certain parts of the game because I never felt like my choices EVER mattered. Lets name a few examples so far.
Sarita = I have no clue what telltale where thinking. The previous episode there was a character whose whole purpose was to show us that amputees can live! And when Telltale give us the option to chop her hand off who wouldn't? They teased it throughout the episode! So when I saw that Sarita dies in the first minute I was more than pissed to find out that the existence of Reggie was completely meaningless! Unless you count showing Carver as more of an antagonist than he already showed us in the first half an hour counts!
Nick = No lasting effect,poorly executed '' death scene '' and no dialogue. A character who was going to prove his worth after endangering Clementine and most of the group... Im sorry this sounds awfully familiar?.. Wait a second its a Ben clone. They show way too many similarities however Ben's death showed more meaning than Nicks death in either episode 2 or 4 making me class Nick as a Ben wannabe.
Arvo = All your choices with him are meaningless and that's a fact. If you rob him or not he still accuses you of robbing him and has a shootout with your group anyways. Thank you Telltale for giving me the idea I am playing a game with a story that changes to how I play it. If you don't rob him he just says '' I wish we could of met differently Clementine. You are kind and its not common to come across someone like you''. Wow what a big change right!
Rebecca = She has gone from '' Wow I hate this character'' to a really likeable character. It's a shame that not only the baby's is Carver which is a completely stupid decision on Telltales part but she also dies regardless of any choice you make! I think I am beginning to notice a pattern here?
Sarah = This is where I think Telltale completely gave up and decided to kill her off because of ''emotional impact''. THEN DON'T GIVE ME A CHOICE TO SAVE HER AND GIVE THE MOST INCREDIBLE WELL WRITTEN SPEECH OF THE WHOLE EPISODE IF SHE IS GOING TO DIE LATER IN THE EPISODE! But the most stupid thing was is that the quote '' Fallen but never forsaken '' never fit in this episode at all! Literally Sarah fell and we forsaken her. Pun intended.
Also if episode 5 is just going to be a hostage situation with another irrelevant choice of killing the baby even though it will happen anyways eventually I will flip my &^%$. Also TWD season one all the choices never change anything apart from dialogue or facial animations never changing any major plot points OR the ending. Same case with season 2 all of my choices feel completely irrelevant and I think Telltale should seriously rethink making these sorts of games. They might of as well just made both seasons an animated series.
If you're making games that the game will be tailored to how I play it I expect it to be Heavy Rain sort of levels especially when i pay 15 pounds for this but instead I just get an illusion of what I do changes anything but it does nothing major at all.
A completely disappointing episode 3/10. Maybe I might give it a 5 if any of the choices impact anything major at all. Thanks for listening to my frustrations community it feels great
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Comments
Not all the characters are going to have heroic deaths. Not everyone can be saved, and not every character will be remembered. Who really remembered Mark as a positive character from Season 1? How about Brie? Stephanie? Leland? The St. Johns are remembered for being cannibals, but remember they were doing their part to survive, and it corrupted them into villainous people.
People have this concept where choices are going the change the game's plot. That isn't the case, and never has been the case. It's not about "Player choosing the narrative". It's always been "Player reacting to the narrative".
Oh, boy. Your 3/10 score is even worse than IGN's. Yeesh, it isn't THAT bad. Not worse than Jurassic Park!
I've been saying this a lot: The illusion of choice could have been presented so much better. Even with having S1 remind us that choices ultimately don't pay off in different ways, they still feel like they mattered.
Think abut that, community. It does not even *feel like it matters anymore.
Illusion, not real choice, is what this series had always presented. When that illusion fails, we're in trouble.
For your first paragraph. Brie,Stephanie and Leland were all side characters that lets face it nobody ever really cared about I even forgot who Stephanie is. Mark however is different because in Starved for help he left more of an impact than Nick could ever fathom to bring in just one single episode than Nick did in 4. Marks death left an incredible impact on the player and we have never cringed harder in our gaming lives after Nick slowly crawl down the stairs. And of course the St John brothers were remembered as cannibals when that is what they were portayed through the whole episode.
Also if the case was just reacting to the narrative rather than choosing it why just not make it an animated series?
That's what I said about Carlos, but his entire character could've been handled better to add to his death. Now it happened to many more of the cast.
To quote Mike: "Well, that happened."
We are going to another extreme, where people start dying as -I believe the idiom goes- flies.
Nick's death was the only thing that pissed me off this episode, he's one of my favorite characters in the entire series. We could at least found him nearly dead, but still able to talk. I'm a very easy to please person but that just made me angry. Though, overall I liked the episode.
I agree heavily to that statement.
Who is Stephanie? I don't remember her.
That's very true. While I'm enjoying the season (because I just love Telltale games and TWD universe), you're so right. The writing is nowhere near on par with Season 1. Season 1's story had so much more impact. It was emotionally heavier, choices felt like they held more weight, I cared more about characters. I still care about the characters and I'm having fun with the game, but it hasn't approached the level of Season 1 for me. It feels like Season 1 Lite. Good, but a lot of missed potential too.
The 400 days girl in Shel's story. She tries to go Cabin Group on Roman, so he executes her.
Who know, maybe stealing from Arvo and Shooting Rebecca will make a big impact next episode.
I usually try to get at least one night's worth of sleep before making any rash remarks, but at the time I saw it, I can't deny I was pretty pissed off about Nick's fate.
If you can't juggle a specific number of characters in one episode, it's simple: Cut down the number of characters. And I don't mean having them eaten by zombies. Learn how to edit.
I don't agree with your statement about the baby being Carvers as I think that it doesn't matter much and there was always the possibility (plus my Clem said he looked like Alvin). And I don't agree with you crapping on season 1. HOWEVER, I agree with essentially everything else you say.
Me 2 years ago.
Wrong. The St. Johns were portrayed as a tragic family, two brothers and their mother, desperately clinging to an electric fence and resorting to drastic measures in order to stay on the family farm. Only in the 3rd act is their cannibalism discovered, but it doesn't turn them into monsters. They're just desperate, and it lured them into the wrong path. Andy St. John lamenting over the fates Brenda and Danny, asking Lee "What did you do!?" with a strong shocked expression... how he wanted Lee to kill him at the end upon realizing it, how he cries if you leave him alive... He's not depicted as a cannibal then, but as a brother, a son, that just realized his whole family on the farm may have been doomed, and that his family home is now a deathtrap, which he must abandon.
Also, how dare you ask me why Telltale, a game company, didn't just make Season 1 an animated series? Screw you, buddy. We wouldn't be here if they didn't make it a game; no, an interactive narrative. One of the best.
and also Arvo still accuses you of stealing because Jane stole his gun.
I'll agree on Nick. That seemed like a big waste, but I'll disagree on Sarah. A lot of times what is important in the game is not whether we succeed in helping others, but whether we even make the attempt. Pretty much what Itchy_Tasty said. Plus, not everyone is going to go out in some sort of big, memorable way.
Jane did actually rob Arvo since she took his gun, and would have taken the meds if Clem didn't stop her, so what he was saying was at least partially accurate. I'm guessing he had to explain to his group why he came back without his gun.
I also don't see how Reggie was meaningless because of what happened to Sarita. Sure, amputation can work, but Reggie had the advantage of a safe, relatively clean place with medicine when the amputation occurred. None of that applied to Sarita's case. Predictably, hacking off her arm in the middle of a herd just drew more of them, and reaching a safe place took too long, whereas Reggie's arm was amputated almost immediately.
I'm only crapping on the choices mate. The story itself was great AND the character development was handled much better than season 2.
Holy crap 2 years.
There could have been more choices. I guess I'd be more on your boat but considering I just played episode 4 of season 2, season 1 feels like heaven.