Feeling Let Down
First off, I would like to say I love TellTale games and I only hope to see them continue to prosper, yet I feel really let down by some of the writing in season 2. When I played season 1 of The Walking Dead I thought the way the characters express their emotions seemed so natural. Almost every critical event seemed thoroughly explored and discussed between the characters, however Season 2 feels really lacking in this department, episode 4 especially. SPOILERS AHEAD: For example in the down time after the baby is born i was really hoping the characters would have some time to discuss all the horrific things that had happened in the episode so far. Nick is dead, Sarah came to a gut wrenching demise, jane is gone, yet nobody seems to care. You would think Luke would have more to say about Nicks death, they were life long friends after all, but astonishingly he only has one line of dialogue regarding Nick's death. As a matter of fact Luke seems more upset about the departure of Jane, whom he had just met! After Jane leaves when Clem was sitting on the staircase and Luke asks if "she is ok" when I saw the dialogue to say "no I'm not" I thought for sure that would strike up a conversation. I mean there is so many potential things to talk about: Clem's survivors guilt(Sarita, Lee, Omid), janes departure, Sarah's gruesome death, Nick's death, Kenny's current situation. But all he has to say is something along the lines of "yeah shitty day, can't wait to 'scout' with jane though". What?!? Sometimes it feels like the characters have short term memory loss and they don't remember the crazy stuff that had JUST happened. When Sarah falls off the deck and gets shredded to pieces by the horde all Clem has to say is "I wish things went differently" or "thanks for trying Jane". The expressions on Clem's face show she is clearly traumatized by this, yet there is no expression through dialogue, and I feel like I've barely scratched the surface on this. I don't even know if TellTale even reads through these discussions or if I'm just wasting my time, all I can do is hope for better writing in future episodes. I'll always be a fan of Clementine and TWD, it just pains me to see my favorite series fall short when I know it could have been so much better. 
Comments
there's too many of these..
God dammit, Concerned Fan.
It's just silly written. The only ones who really know Sarah was Rebecca and Luke. The others are dead, and even then, they never really got to know her that well cause Carlos sheltered her and she's quite anti-social I believe.
Luke didn't care about Nick cause of the silly writers wanting to ger rid of Nick. He had alot of potential and there could be a interesting story if he had lived.
Yet another thread that criticises season 2 because its not season one... This happens a lot.. People will get picky... its like a reflex action.. You will compare a sequel to its predecessor.. Honestly I was on the edge of my seat the whole episode...
Shut up.
Maybe because Season 1 was better handled to other people.
Yeah, I defend a lot of the things in this episode that people find problematic, but I can't defend the lack of reaction to character deaths. I mean, fuck, even Brie got a more of a mention in the exchange with Lee and Vernon. Goddamn Brie.
There were problems like this in the first Season as well though. Remember Episode 2? (Yes) Remember Mark? (Kind of) Remember when anybody gave a shit that Mark died a horrible suffering death despite living with him for like a month (No).
Lee at least mentioned it, and well everyone saw that Mark was dead, they then get knocked out and other important stuff is on their mind, they were a bit more freaked out that they were eating a human and being kidnapped by cannibals, that is a bit of flaw, but I think its handled worse in S2 episode 4.
^this
The only reason why I would think TT would make the characters react less to the deaths is because maybe their trying to make it seem like the people are becoming numb to all the horrors around them?
If that is what they are aiming for, they are really doing a poor job of it.
Actually, everyone didn't see that Mark was dead. Everyone (except Carley and Ben) saw Mark crawling on the ground alive and without any legs, and afterwards none of them asked what happened to him. Only Lee and I guess Katjaa actually saw that he was dead.
I do think it was worse in Episode 4 though because Luke and Nick were childhood friends and Luke just didn't show any signs of mourning. You need to have him break down a little after something like that.
Lack of reaction: The characters are used to death by now. In season one, every death was shocking. Now you play the game just waiting for the next character to die.
Did you see Clementines reaction to Rebecca and also... in season 1 there was lots of deaths that weren't given much attention. When Chuck died it was not a big deal. Marks death wasn't a big deal no one cried over it.
Yeah, I meant everyone at the dinner table, Carley afterwards sort of asked about it when she talked to Lee, other characters I guess sort of didn't want to talk about it. I think the issue here is that Mark was a bit of a flat character and wasn't that interesting, while Sarah and Nick had so much potential to be good characters and they end up getting the same kind of treatment Mark got, it's a little frustrating.
In my opinion, the characters that died could've been a bit more developed before their deaths, Nick didn't get to do much at all, Sarah only really developed Jane's character a bit more and Rebecca was my favourite character in that episode, so I have to say it wasn't like I wanted it to be, but I still loved the episode.
In Sarah's case, I think it's just because the emotional dynamics given everything happening is just hard to balance. You have the entire group that just succeeding in bringing a new life into a world that has been filled with seemingly nothing but death and heartache. How do you react to that in any other way than absolute jubilation? I do think they dropped the ball by not having a later moment of reflection over their losses, though. The "Are you okay" exchange should have been the most heartfelt of heartfelt exchanges. But it wasn't and for the life of me I just can't figure out why.
Nah. People were not as hyped for season one. Now, when each episode is released, they play the episodes and wait for a moment like this:
Instead of just enjoying the game. When playing episode four, a lot of people sit back and think: "Time to impress me, telltale." That's a mistake.
Good point on Sarahs death. The lack of reflection on the dead is mainly what bothered me. Chuck at least got "He didn't deserve that." ( I don't remember the exact quote) and that staircase talk would have been the perfect time for that.
Well, quite a alot of folks are disappointed for what season 2 is giving them and its kind of frustrating to what happened in episode 4, it's opinions, and why can't Telltale impress? They've done better in the past.
Yeah, because back then, people played Season One and thought: "Well, this could be nice". Now people play the second season and are like: "THIS BETTER BE THE FUCKING BEST GAME OF ALL TIME; YOU MORONS!"
If you let Sarah die in the mobile home, there's a good 3-5 minute discussion about it and the guilt they were feeling on the walk back.
Same here. I thought it was the best episode so far this season. I guess I'm in the minority lol
I'm pretty sure people were expecting an experience just as good as Season 1 or least have a story where there was good character development and not lazy and forced writing. Only my opinion though, so you don't have to agree.
I think season 2 has great character development. I'm emotionally evolved and look forward to every episode. I did not see any lazy or forced writing so far; Nick's offscreen death was sad, but guess what, shit happens.
Well, good for you then.
Oh great, another one of these.
The non-reaction to Nick's death, I found rather agitating.
Has any episode had this many complaint posts after it before?
I think you make a good point because I saw a lot of posts about the feels, the feels. Even comparingTWAU unfavorably because it didn't have enough feels. After season 1, people expect to cry a lot.
This is a forum, people share their thoughts.
I lost so many people i stopped caring, if Clementine died in the next episode i would feel nothing at this point in the game.
I think people should stop complaining so much.It's getting on my fucking nerves.
People complaining other people are complaining is getting on my fucking nerves, you can't silence opinions.
People complaining is part of life, I personally like the episode 4.
Complain about these posts all day if you like but the fact is S2 just hasn't cut it, S1 the writing was solid, in S2 is very wishy washy, best friends not being that bothered about ones death? Parts of the already weak storyline just being forgotten (crista's baby/becca's baby).... clem turning into robocop and doing everything while still trying to play the "what should we do now kenny", simply because TT thought it awsome for us to play clem..
Im not expecting S1 part 2 but come on.... its weak and lazzy, and tbh im getting slighty annoyed by the whole S2 thing..
Love him or hate him kenny is the only true relationship we have and we are in EP4 here folks!!! I mean come on!! This series is STILL feeding off a S1 relationship, so don't come here telling me all this because we are expecting S1 part 2, its TT that are still feeding from S1 success....
Luke we know nothing of him, I could watch him get chomped and not feel anything and the same goes for all the characters now bar kenny (for some) we are expected to feel when becca turns but we have no relationship with her, shes been in since ep1/2 there is no excuse, end of story..
We had more of a click with nick due to the night in the shed, but no TT just stick him on a fence, its weak, its been weak since EP1.
Ive said it before and I will say it again, the choice of controling clem was a HUGE MISTAKE, it changed the dynamic way to mutch and its led to some silly gameplay and writing.... if you enjoyed S2, all power to you, but the fact still remains what made S1 what it was is no longer there..
I will see out s2 only due to the fact I have a season pass, if S3 does get made I will want big changes before I part with my time on it..
EDIT.......
answer me this folks, if S2 had been S1 do you think TWD would have received the acclaim it did?
Actually, I care about a lot of characters. Sarah, Kenny, Bonnie, Mike and Jane. By season one, episode 5, I did not give two shits about Omid, Christa or Ben. Just my 2 Cents. I like the characters in this season far better. Season one had the better characters to begin with, but killing them off and introducing new ones didn't work.
The group we met in the first episode of this season was full of weak characters, but we got strong characters throughout the following episodes. It evens out, i think.
And yes, I think it would have gotten critical acclaim. This season's reviews are great as well. The fourth episode got a lot of 8's, 8.5's and 9's.
How can you like S2 characters more, and im talking about disliking a character or loving character? S2 characters just aint formed we know nothing of them or get any feedback off them, we dont always need 10 mins of backstory to achieve this, simple stuff like how people react to a given situation, we have non of this in S2, where is lukes feelings on nicks death? We got nothing, no eyes no regreats no self blame, we dont know who this luke character is because of the lack of this fundamental feedback to situations...
I remember group choices in S1 where siding with one over the other made u feel like crap, then in S2 luke looks at you all hurt if you dont side with him, I don't care luke, you can break down in tears for all care, in S1 if this happened it was because you disliked kenny, TT got you to dislike someone and thats as important and getting you to really like someone, but with luke and the rest of the S2 lot I dont have a opinion due to the fact we know nothing of them either by backstory or personal reactions to things....
Take ben in S1, he kept messing up bigtime, we learnt he couldnt be trusted and this was shown time and time again with the story, what we get with luke? Shit hits the fan and hes where? Whats the reaction from the rest of the group? No questions are ever asked and its never explained, that makes the player (us) question these things in our world taking us out of the twd world, its sloppy writing, doesnt matter how you cut your cloth its sloppy writing. At least we knew bens character, with luke we simply don't know, its never explained o e way or the other, is he yellow, is he saving the group behind the scenes, is he trading supplies for sexual favours..? We just dont know, this is meant to be a engrossing story not guess who...
Crista's baby and becca's baby....... it goes without saying clem was pressent when what ever happened to the baby happened, this would have effected clem in some way, would you agree? So why when becca is about to spit the baby out do we get nothing and I mean NOTHING from clem, not a word, not a sad face not a eye flicker, its just as tho it never happened, I dont care if TT have plans to come back to that plot line at a latter date, clem would have had reaction to that birth one way or another end of.. and we get zip... same all season, ive actualy come to expect it now, its just very poor.....
Its sloppy writing, if you able to enjoy a story that has no substance then awsome, but I need somthing that at least makes sence and has some depth... the story got wacky from the off due to us being clem, its been clem come assault the bridge with me, go I there and find food, bla bla bla, its all these things In the story that snap us out of the game and force you think huh?? Which ruin the believability of the story...
I could go on all night but the depth hasnt been there and there are glaring issues in the story, and when this is a story driven game doesn't bode well.. and whats anoying is that it isn't as though the chances haven't been there, its just lazzy..
Thats fine, but after a release this is all the forums are, complaining. You people have been 'let down' for 4 episodes now apparently. I wouldve thought your expectations would have dropped by now.
Complaining is also sharing your thoughts, sometimes it's bitching, but other times it's good criticism.
I'm aware, but whenever many of us want to talk about the baby or what happened to who, the threads always get pushed to the bottom because of threads like these. Im not saying criticism is bad, the vast amount of these threads that all have the exact same context as each other isn't very good.
I think you're just expecting too much. I can only repeat myself, the thing with the stranger at the end of the first season was lazy as hell. The character came out of nowhere and it did not make a lot of sense.
I get what you mean, but then again, the characters are a lot more used to death right now. And in my playthrough, Luke and Becca started crying after being able to calm down and reflect about Nick's death. Not a lot of time to mourn when Walkers might eat you any minute.
I get what you say, it's just that it does not bother me that much. I think the second season is a wonderful tale about a girl growing up in a zombie apocalypse, and while it's depressing and often hopeless, I enjoy taking this ride with Clementine.