The game Haunts me
FreddeN93
Banned
I first found The Walking Dead on Steam a month ago; The first of September to be precise. At first I didn't think much of the game as I've never been into Zombie Apocalypse games, but I heard people talking well about it so I thought I'd give it a try. After the first episode I was hooked. I completed the game in two days' time.
Something brief about me to make more sense; I'm very, and i mean extremely sensitive about children. A parent-character. I can barely manage to see parents yell at their children in stores. :P
This must sound pretty stange to you, but we all know this game is traumatic and I'd like to know if someone else feel the same. After having experienced Episode Five, I can't restore to normal everyday life. The game haunts me in my senses making it difficult for me to concentrate. This has been going on for an entire month now, and the thoughts refuse to let go. I tried to play the game a few times to try to fool my head and eventually make the game look boring and tedious. No luck in that. The soundtrack is stuck in my head, and the worst that can happen is Take Us Back by Alela Diane starting to play in my head. Then my whole day is ruined. I keep telling myself It's Only A Game and try to accept that but not been able to yet. The only ray of light for me right now is Season Two slowly approaching. I'm dying to find out what happend to Clem.
Before I found The Walking Dead I had a lot of games I loved to play; I have not played a single one of them since I started with The Walking Dead. The game also got me into watching the TV-series, (which is the only good thing it did to me I guess). Telltale Games really must add more warnings to this game for sensitive players. It is rated M for 17+ but I think it deserve more. No kitten-thearpy in the world can heal the wound this game mark on you.
What is your take on all of this?
Comments
Rated D for Depressing, M for mentally destroying, C for sadness, and for content contains Clementine, is that what you want on the back of the box? Because it would be a nice touch.
Haha. More or less.
Isn't that the sign of a good game? It must have taken about 2 months for me to get completely over it all and all the while I didn't feel like playing some other game that just didn't matter.
If you freak out when you hear parents screaming at their kids, you've obviously never had to take care of a child... Maybe not Clem, but God, kids are assholes.
Far from that. I work with children as an assistant nurse at my local hospital... Well, I USED to. Now I work with seniors, but they act like kids sometimes too. I think I've seen enough seriously upset kids in my time. ^^
I think that warnings they give are the average, because something should make a greater impression on you, and other - less.
There are so many things in the game that may touch your heart: friendship, care, betrayal,cruelty of others or, perhaps worse, your own self. For example, I have been thinking for days, even until now about certain events or choices made in the game. We are all stronger influenced by the things toward which we can relate the best. It all depends on our life experience and, lo and behold, it's different for each one of us.
That's why for some tribe that lives far from civilization and eats other tribes for breakfast, episode two would be rated as an E. But it's not the same for us.
One thing I keep thinking about is yet again they make us feel we're in the same situation. However, the game still walk us through the same tunnel even though we try to be ourselves and do what we think is right or wrong. I felt like dying at the end.
Game
Yep, brilliant game with a near-perfect story.
Too bad there had to be a sequel.
It's been almost a year since Episode 5.
I'm still not getting over Lee.
And probably never will
You don't have to play season 2 if you really don't want to, nobody is forcing you.
I'm lucky I started playing the game so close to Season Two. Don't understand how some of you managed to wait a year.
When you visited the page on Steam, was the title written in black marker? Was it cheaper than normal? Did it damage your computer in some way and start talking to you?D :
Man you need to watch insidious or aliens.
O_o?
I was writing my post purely on the title of the thread.
What? No.
Horror movies? Watched The Conjuring; It didn't affect me at all but this game did.
Season 2 has zombies.
We all took our licks
You were haunted by Aliens?
DUDE, spoiler...
Ain't it pretty obvious Season Two will have Zombies?
That was the intended joke in my post.
Humour doesn't always work on the internet, i guess.
Like I said, it's too obvious to joke about.
Then your copy probably wasn't haunted.
TTG makes games.
Except maybe Season 2.
What did you guys do by the way in an attempt to repress, or forget about the game? Heck, I tried to increase my activity at the gym, pay more attention to my job than the computer, take long walks, try new games... The list goes on but no luck in getting it out of my head. -.-
I don't know if repressing or forgetting is really the way to go about things. The more you try to not think about it, the worse it becomes in your mind. It actually might help to invest yourself more into it.
Create an outlet for your feelings towards the game and channel it into something creative. Lots of users have written fanfics, myself included. Others have written poems, created fanart, etc. I know another user here even made a short musical piece about how he felt.
Try to exhaust your passions rather than suppress them.
Thanks, that made alot of sense. For instance I feel alot better when re-playing the game, or talking about it here on the forum. I need something to keep my mind on that don't 'end', like another game or a book, but still remind me of the game. If I keep re-playing it's just gonna give me the same result at the end. I might give it a shot making a fanfiction. But I'm not a very creative individual, no idea how that would turn out.
Yea I was I think 6 years old when I watched Aliens in 1986 and it was pretty intense.
I actually think older movies like Aliens, Jaws, The Thing, Poltergeist are scarier then modern day horror movies. I know it's apples and oranges, movies compared to video games but I think the ratings on things are much too strict in some ways.
Back in the day Jaws and Poltergeist were rated PG. Now a days those would be rated R. Clearly TWD game that TTG released is a mature game but there are plenty of other games and movies that are rated too strict.
Totally agree. This was by far one of the best written games, or stories in general I've seen in a while, and probably the saddest. It's nice to see other people appreciating it as more than "just a game." As for me, it's been about two weeks since I finished season 1. I haven't been able to really get into any other game, I've bought 400 days, the Alela Diane album (which is actually pretty good), and started rewatching the show. As for getting over it, I agree with what DomeWing333 said about exhausting your passions than suppressing them. It's a truly sad story, but I'm still glad I heard it. I don't know if I'd be able to replay it though, knowing the ending and the fact that my choices really can't change the ultimate outcome for Lee or the other characters. I still can't wait for Season 2, though I'm trying to keep my expectations in check.
I totally understand what you're saying. It took me a good month before I could play it through a second time, and only after I found the forums and found debates on saving different characters, etc - because I wanted to see that side of the dialogue. I kinda wish that I hadn't played it through a second time and just lived with the choices I made the first time, though.
There were times when, the first time through, a choice I made haunted me so hard I felt like I had actually done it in real life and I felt really guilty about it for a while. Not shooting the girl in Macon during the supply run in S1E3, and having to listen to her anguished screams while she was being ripped apart, really bothered me for about a week.
I believe it's time for an update after all what's happened. Some weeks ago I started to learn to accept this feelings and actually accepting it's only a game; only a few pixels on a screen. I finally started to find light in other activities than gluing myself to my chair. However, on the 29th this month when they revealed Season Two I for some reason was sent straight back downhill where I started. I started feeling anxiety and my mood went completely blank, just like the feelings I had after finishing the first season's Episode Five. I think I wasn't prepared or expecting Clementine to be the new protagonist, (my favorite character in the game), and seeing her in the trailer and screenshots all alone without no-one to take care of her literally broke my heart. I'm glad -we- get to look after her by making she takes care of herself, but it can never replace the feeling of safety I felt for her when Lee was around. Well, I'm terrified what the game will do to me once released.