None of your decisions matter (spoilers EP1-EP5-400 days)
(spoilers EP1-EP5-400 days)
Great game. I felt the ending hit me like I did a lot of the emotional parts. But none of your choices matter when you think about it...
It doesn't matter if you leave during the day or wait it out until night time to begin. You end up running into Shawn regardless.
It doesn't matter if you save Doug or Carley they both die at the exact same spot later regardless.
It doesn't matter if you have feelings for Carley you can't save her.
It doesn't matter if you side with Lilly or Kenny you end up leaving the Motor Inn either way.
It doesn't matter how you decide to deal with Larry whether you want to placate him with food or take a tough stance with him... he meets the same fate regardless with you standing right there unable to do anything.
It doesn't matter if you take the supplies or not you end up stalked for it regardless.
I thought that different choices would have different gamers in entirely different locations at the end of the game. Some may try to get to the coast, some may just stay at the Motor Inn, some may try to track down Clem's parents. The game does a great job giving the illusion of choice while funneling gamers down the same path no matter what.
I just hoped that the game had multiple endings.......
Comments
The game never tells you that there are multiple endings or branching storylines.
Look, let's imagine you're going to work or school. And you have a choice to make. Are you going to walk, drive, ride a bike, in a helicopter, in a private jet or while riding a horse? Basically, you have the same ending: You end up at school/work. Although, depending on your choice, minus changes will occur. That's what TWD is made of. Per example, if you save Doug, he'll tell you a very interesting fact about chalk.
Telltale already takes long enough to release each episode with their faux choices. Imagine how long we would be waiting if choices actually made an impact on the direction of the story. Not to mention how short the episodes would be (think S2E1 length for all episodes).
This kind of bothered me as well. Every time you load-up the game you see this "The game tailors to the decisions you make" message. That really kind of led me to believe that the story would branch out in different ways - ie putting you in different situations depending on the choices you made. As it turns out, you end up in the same exact situations as the OP described (plus more) no matter what you ultimately decide.
All together though, it is somewhat a minor criticism of the game to make, as overall Telltale's Walking Dead was pretty damn good. However, you got to admit that if a game was somehow possible to branch out the story in such a manner as the OP discussed, that it would be pretty cool. Imagine the possibilities if you could for instance...
Stay on Herchel's farm
Leave the motor inn with Kenny
Drive away with Lilly in the RV
...plus so many other situations I'm sure people could think of.
I don't think the technology is quite there yet but, one day I hope somebody will be able to bring this idea to life.
Thoughts?
Imagine the development. Imagine the amount of writing and mathematics that already goes into the game. Now imagine parts of the team working on every branch, making them all fit together, with no weird bizarro branches that don't make sense. That would be a living nightmare.
I feel my decision to save Doug mattered he survivved two more episodes. Not only that but instead of a very battered walker going round Macon he is at peace with a bullet in his brain. Maybe not a perfect choice but thats okay.
Day and night leads to a charcaters possible death
400 days does have an effect seeing as people end up at different places. Also two characters can be dead or alive through your decisions.
I really dont expect a massive split in season 2 either maybe a short while or maybe a few different characters. I would love several characters to survive that depend on your decisions.
i said the technology doesn't exist but, wouldn't it be cool if it did? did you even read my full post before you started writing your comment???
The game had me on the edge a number of times, forcing me to make difficult decisions. I'd be sitting there for a minute or two weighing my options and finally I would make the call I'd have to live with. It had me torn but it was exciting. However those difficult decisions became irrelevant once the person I saved dies in the next chapter or later in the current one. I could close my eyes and press a random button, because who cares? They already chose their fates before I pressed a button.Makes me feel really powerless.
And for example in heavy rain the choices They really matter. Your choices can actually kill main characters, and once they're dead, they're dead.Plus there are multiple endings.Same beyond two souls it counts 11 distinct finales to the story.
I did. But even if the technology was there, the development would not be.
Yeah I somewhat agree, but the technology is already there but the development isn't. I am a programmer and it is possible to create events that branch off and all lead to different endings, we have seen many games have multiple endings, but yeah the development isn't there as it would take a lot more work to do and would need to be bug tested like crazy as all the numerous possible branches would need to be fully tested before release, so yeah it is possible to do but it would take telltalegames a lot longer to be releasing more episodes. I do agree though that I would of liked that some of my choices mattered. I honestly didn't want a few characters to die that did die and you didn't have the option to save them when you know you could have. But honestly telltalegames still did a good job on their games.
I think the journey is actually more important than these decisions that leads to 'nowhere', like what happens when you leave at night in episode 1, yes the destination is the same farm but the journey is slightly different.
I agree with the OP; except I just see it as a limitation of the format. TWD is released episodically and it would take an insane amount of time to account for all of the possible branching out over multiple episodes and now multiple seasons. There are games like Fallout that show how your choices affect a variety of factors, and even have some things that can only be accessed at certain points in the game, however that those are single games that are massive and released in one go. While the choices may not have a huge effect on the overall arch of the story, it still is pretty fun being put in the hotseat and seeing what choices you will make. I'll admit though the choices in S2E1 weren't as thrilling though; if you look at the stats most of them have more than 85% of players choosing the same thing (only one is 50/50 and another is still 70/30), which is exactly what Telltale wanted to avoid.
Just read a Choose Your Own Adventure book. The technology has existed for decades!
This is exactly what i was talking about.....
http://venturebeat.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/the-walking-dead-graph-by-gamesbeat.jpg
Just saying to all those who think its hard to make branching storylines, as a developer I know its really easy
. Within a month for the Frosty Four Digits competition I made a branching game with 30mins of gameplay, and many branches that last the entire episode, take you to different places and make you see completely different aspects of the gameplay, and this was just one person. I think the difference is that when telltale makes all their choices, they also have a ton of dialog options as well which takes almost as long as all the major choices. My game was a bit easier to handle as the dialog options only came up every so often, but with very different outcomes and continuous branching.
If you want a link to the game just ask, I just wasn't sure if it may be considered spamming.
I think 400 days will change a lot of things in season 2.
Lol I have...most of them are not very good. Would love to see a "Make your own adventure" story in a game though...that would be amazing.
Lol that is actually spot on from what I can tell