There will be no truly important decision in episode 5
At least not if Clementine is coming back for Season 3.
If Clementine comes back for Season 3, there will be a set canon for Season 2. There will be no living determinant characters at the end of Season 2.
Telltale won't spend the money to script Season 3 characters that can die in Season 2. Or, a character that was determinant in Season 2 will die at the very beginning of Season 3.
Think back to Season 1 Episode 5. What decisions mattered?
Ben is dead regardless. Kenny survived regardless.
The only possibly important decisions have to do with Lee. Lee is either completely dead or a zombie. If he's a zombie, he's got either one arm or two. He may have had to tear one off to break free of the handcuffs, so then he'd either be a 1-armed or an armless zombie.
They didn't even give us any important decisions regarding Christa and Omid.
Clementine ends up with Christa and Omid regardless of anything Lee says. They didn't even bother to make Christa or Omid determinant characters in Season 1 and they still felt that it was necessary to kill off Omid and otherwise dispose of Christa at the very beginning of Season 2.
Maybe if Clementine's story is over we'll get a nice epilogue depending on our choices.
But if not, let's just get used to it. These are not games where our choices matter.
Comments
Honestly, now i think they can't just end Clem's story arc after two seasons.
But i don't understand why you need to make a thread on this, it has been said already.
If no one should say anything on this board that's already been said, there likely wouldn't be any discussion.
The main theme of this game is the illusion of choice.
Really, the illusion of choice is the only real option game companies have. This isn't like a "choose your own adventure" book where an author can put as many different possibilities as the author wants to. Games have limited resources, and thus limited outcomes and plots. It would be nice for the gamer to have radically different situations dependent on choices, but it would be a nightmare for the programmers and designers who have to build things that could possibly only be seen by 3% of their players. I do think season one had a better illusion than season two mainly because the determinants lasted longer and they all died relevant on-screen deaths...well except for the homeless guy. Anyways, that's why there will never be world-changing choices in video games. It doesn't make sense financially or with time constraints.
I know that Telltale has disappointed many of us with the lack of consequence or reward for our decisions in-game and that they don't always seem to matter. But I have faith in Telltale to make a great game, The Wolf Among Us had determinants that lived until the end and should appear in a second Season, so I think that The Walking Dead Season 2 can and should.
I like that our choices tailor how things happen and personalities do change. They can't write a satisfying finale with sequels if there are like four completely different finales. So long as it's emotional and well written it'll be good. I agree that S1 has a better illusion of choice so far though
That's why I like the games even after seeing through many of the flaws.
Well, that's mostly true with the modern use of voice-acting and cut-scenes. Adventure games have always had that, for the most part, but they were always less about choice. RPGs mostly went with text and art, with limited voice-acting and cut-scenes, and could have far-ranging consequences to several choices.
But, still, even today, it's doable. I have a lot of issues with Mass Effect, but Bioware did a pretty good job of making choices matter from one game to the next. Determinant characters from Mass Effect 1 still had huge roles to play in Mass Effect 2 and 3. And if those characters died in Mass Effect 1 or 2, someone new would step in, but would take the entire galaxy in a different direction.
Both Ashley Williams and Kaiden Alenko had significant screen time in Mass Effect 2 and 3 if left alive in Mass Effect 1.
The destiny of the entire Krogan race was largely dependent on the influence the Shepard had on Wrex in Mass effect 1.
And there are several other examples. Any number of companions can die in Mass Effect 2 but can have a huge impact on the galaxy in Mass Effect 3 if kept alive.
Maybe the budget just isn't there to create real branching. But it really cheapens the value of determinant characters when you always know that they are going to end up dying anyway.
Also, small thing, but Lee can tell Clementine to cuff the guard instead of him, meaning a zombie Lee could be shambling around with both his arms.
Thanks, I didn't realize that. That seems like a pretty silly choice, but I guess the option is there.
I do agree that part of the consequence is simply who your character is becoming. And that's a legitimate consequence. When it comes to determinant characters, though, sometimes I'd rather have no choice than a false choice.
I don't think branching is impossible. The climax could be essentially the same, but with potentially different characters, but we could have significantly different ending cut scenes.
And, if this is indeed the end of Clementine's story, we could get a substantially different ending cut scene depending on our choices.
Ironic thing, i actually found out WEEKS later that i can handcuff Lee XD
The illusion was better maintained in season 1. I mean, at least some dialogue changed and determinant characters could play some role in the plotline before dying. Neither Carly nor Doug spent Episode 2 as borderline mutes waiting to die for real.
Same with Ben. He got a significant part in episode 5.
Pete only gets a short scene at the beginning of s2e2. Sarah only lives for others to talk about, and to scream. Nick is mute. It's just laziness, unless S2 sales were too low, which I doubt.
I REALLY doubt they were low, sorry but Telltale just got lazy and it's starting to get to me. If working on a few games at once is killing it then PLEASE just work on one. Lot of people saying that's not it but E5 is getting made extremely fast now that TWAU is done.
One thing I realized awhile back is if you didn't side with Kenny in Season 1 90% of the time he says," Lee and I had our differences that's for sure."The other outcome if you sided 90% of the time with Kenny he says,"He was a hell of a guy."
Is there been any meaningful decisions in S2?
There are no games where our choices matter huh?
Have you played Heavy Rain?
Heavy Rain isn't a TWD, and Heavy Rain sucks, like all David Cages games!
As we already know: Choices don't matter. I realized this at around Episode 4 Season 1. I don't play this game for the choices being different from anyone (even though if they did matter it would be a lot better game), I play for the storyline which is good enough for me.
Heavy Rain isn't a Telltale game.
My problem is that in Season 2, it's blatantly obvious that your choices don't matter. At least Season 1 did a much better job of hiding it, while also having a much more engaging narrative.
Yeah, but Spec Ops: The Line had choices that "didn't matter" either. They weren't there to show consequence or to give you a vague reward. They were there to play you against your emotions, and make you feel like you couldn't win. It broke you down, and I appreciate that. Cause it isn't easy to do. Mabey harder to write in a narrative than the latter honestly.
I wonder if the airforce girl will make an appearance in S2. E5?
What about the parkour girl from S1?
In S1 there was that illusion of making a difference but in S2 we have, no such illusion, weaker story, weaker characters, and lack of focus.
Take my like!!!!
Yeah, even though decisions in-game don't really matter or change the course of the story, it still affects you. Well, I know that the decisions affected me, since I've been doing allot of thinking thanks to TWD and it's decisions
That's not true at all though.
Witcher 2 is the best example of a game where choices matter immensely. Based on decisions made in the first act, the entirety of act 2 can take place in different locations and act 3 is heavily influenced by your choices in the first 2 acts, keeping in mind the variables multiply when you consider that MY act 2 choices are locked off to other players that experienced it in a different location.
Even the Mass Effect games, despite having a very obvious story to tell, did a good job of making my choices feel like they mattered. (Post extended cut)
Now I realize these are AAA games with millions of dollars behind them. But it definitely shouldn't be impossible for Telltale to have more branching. The Witcher 2 was made on a $10 Million budget, and easily has dozens of hours blocked off to certain players. Telltale can do better. Much better.
The big decision will literally be whether Clem wants pizza or ice cream. And Kenny and Luke will fight over the food she didn't want.
Season did do the illusion of choice a lot better than Season 2 has thus far I agree. Probably my biggest complaint about Season 2 is there doesn't seem to much of a point in making different choices because it doesn't really do anything. Season 1 had Doug/Carley, the Larry choice that altered Kenny's view of you, Ben, along with some others I'm probably missing.
What does Season 2 have?
I never actually played The Witcher for some reason. I may be wrong, but I figure it's light on cinematics. That's the real choice without a AAA budget - branching or a more cinematic experience. Companies don't want to invest in both even when they get afford to. Mass Effect did a pretty good job of providing some branching, despite wanting it to be a cinematic experience with a specific story to tell. Little things could come back and bit you in the ass, but not always in a cinematic sense. The biggest choice to make is Mass Effect was right at the beginning - Male or Female. Killer voice acting for FemShep, despite it being the character that likely far less than 50% of players would use. Most Bioware games have pretty good consequences for actions, at least compared to most games that strive for more cinematics. I don't think anything will top the epic choices available in something like Obsidian's Mask of the Betrayer -- fucking magnificent game -- defeating a curse or embracing it to devour gods. That was mostly just extra investment in writing, voice-acting, and some narration, though, not lots of pre-rendered cut-scenes.
I agree. Well developed characters with good arcs are better than the cast feeling expendable. Characters felt like that in S1 but Telltale wasn't that bad about killing them, we knew if they did it would mostly be for their arc. In S2 they're all Glen Mazzara on us (TWD S3 guy killing old and new characters just for drama even if they had arcs) I only say this because I enjoyed Amid The Ruins lots but the wasting of Omid, Nick and how out of character it was to not help Sarah just hurt the ep imo
Nick should be less hard to write than Doug and Carley also. They had very different dialogue determinate yet Nick is just one guy and writing dialogue for him is harder?
They always make it seem like it mattered what you picked, then you replay it with different options just to be disappointed.
Your telling me...that Heavy Rain sucks? Really?
David Cage is a really, really bad writer. I mean, almost impressively bad.
I haven't been impressed by the writing in TWD's second season, but compared to something written by David Cage its friggin' King Lear.