So, before I go any further, two things.
One: I will be discussing the plot. This means there will be spoilers. Turn away now if you don't want to hear the ending.
Secondly, I looked for a megathread for this to go in. I only found this one, with a total of one post. Feel free to throw it in there, mods.
With that out of the way, I'd like to discuss the game. Easily a 9/10 for me, but it was difficult for me to say this, because I feel that with a few tweaks, it could have been bumped up into the "masterpiece" category. A few things stood out for me, namely:
1.) Characters. True, every character was excellently written and felt like they were a genuine person, but...I found it difficult to care about people that constantly wanted me dead / out of the group / pissed off at me. I played the game as I would if that were me out there; I saved every one I could, sided with the most logical / non-heat of the moment choice I could, and attempted to remain loyal to the group members I liked the most (Clem, Carley, and to a lesser extent, Kenny (in that order)). In the end, however, there was clear tension between Kenny and I, and I have no idea why. After all, the only decision I went "against" Kenny on was killing Larry...so why was he saying that I wasn't being loyal to him? I had been. The entire game. But I'm getting a bit off-track; my point that I wanted to make was that I feel that the story would be immensely better if I genuinely cared about the characters in my group. Let's go down the list, here:
- Clem: obviously will be liked. No further explanation.
- Lee: although a troubled past, should be liked.
- Hershel/Shawn: I can't comment on, as I saved Duck.
- Kenny: While he has a hot head, and definitely causes rifts amongst the group, he's pretty damn loyal and "redeems" himself with Ben. I assume that even if you hate him, the whole Ben thing at the end would at least give you some form of respect for him.
- Katjaa: She seemed pretty underdeveloped to me; she felt like a mother...that was...well, a mother. Some sort of conflict, a failing marriage with Kenny, something, anything, would have made her a better character, imo.
- Duck: A goofy kid. As he's a kid, I assume that he'll be "liked" by default. It's a shame he wasn't really more developed as much as Clem, although I can certainly understand why he wasn't.
- Glenn: Since he's only active for less than one episode, it's difficult to comment on him. I had to wiki him to even remember who Glenn was, which is a shame.
- Carley: She was easily my favorite character, outside of Clem and Lee. A strong woman, who's not a damsel in distress? Sign me up. She can easily blackmail Lee, but chooses not to, genuinely cares about anyone and everyone in the group, comes to Lee's aid during moments of need, defends her comrades (Ben, I'm looking at you...), and if you make the right decisions, it's apparent Lee and Carley develop romantic feelings for one another: she kisses him on the cheek, and flirt: "You're small." "You're small!" It enrages me that she is killed (to Lilly, no less!)...it's been a long time since I've consulted a wiki mid-game to try and (seemingly)try to fix a mistake.
- Doug: Can't comment as I saved Carley, but he felt like a stereotypical "nerd" character. I could easily be wrong, though.
- Lilly: Well, mixed feelings here. On the one hand, she's clearly written to be a "bitch" who, while is a...well, bitch...she's trying to look out for the group. I can respect that. But she crosses the line, and kills Carley with absolutely zero evidence. I forced her to stay behind, which is a testament to what she's done, as I very rarely act on emotion like that.
- Larry: Very difficult to find any redeeming qualities about him...at all. I suppose he was designed this way for the meat freezer scene, but I feel that they could have made him just a wee-bit less dickish, and they could have still had the same -- if not more -- impact.
- Ben: This character I hated the most. Even more than Lilly and Larry. Bad choice after bad choice, it can only last so long, and one of them leads to the death of my second-favorite character...Honestly, after each time I defended / saved him, I began to question if I should be doing so.
- Charles: A no nonsense character. If he had lasted longer, and I could have gotten to know him more, perhaps I would have grown to like him.
- Christa: Along with Omid, what do I know about her? She dislikes Civil War History...and...umm...she's a woman?
- Omid: Alongside Christa, I don't know nearly enough about her to make a decision.
- Molly: I rather liked Molly, but again, she leaves far too early. She can easily hold her own against anyone -- including Lee -- which is a definite plus. The fact that she'd basically sell herself for medicine for her sister shows dedication as well.
To me, that's what's frustrating: you clearly have a capable crew of writers, why have a cast of characters that (well, I didn't anyway) really didn't form a true "connection" with you? For example, a decision between saving Clem or Lee would have a hell of a lot more feels than a decision between Lilly and Larry. Moreover, it felt like at the half-point of the game onwards, you never really got to reform your party...or connect with anyone; it was either talk with Kenny or nothing, it felt like. If the game had characters that were more like Carley and Clem, how much more amazing would this game be?
2.) The ending. I understand they are coming out with a new season, but I felt that the game would have been immensely better if it had ended before the credits. Why did they even have the ending, unless you're going to have Clem be in the second game? While Clem was definitely a great character, I'm not so sure I want her back in the second game. Personally, I was rooting for an alternate ending, something along the lines of Clem being bitten, and they wait it out in that building, becoming zombies together.
3.) While I'm sure not everyone got this, I was met with an unfortunate glitch: during Chapter 2, when Brenda has Katjaa at gunpoint, I was unable to initiate the third dialog...which means that I kept getting cinematically shot. At first, I was confused, as I thought that perhaps I was missing a contextual command, or that I should inch my forward, ridiculously slowly. Turns out, it's a relatively widespread issue (according to google and youtube)...and the only way to fix this is to pause the game when the cinematic starts. Fun stuff.
4.) "Illusion" of choice: this is a tough one. On the one hand, it's got to be difficult to account for so many choices. After all, wikipedia says:
That sounds like a nightmare for the developers. On the other hand, it's tough to know that even though you want X person (in my case, Carley) to survive, there's nothing you can do about it, even though the game is predicated around choice. Or that Chapter 5 is going to occur pretty much the same way, no matter what you do. That, to me, is disappointing, although I in no way hold it against the game.Originally Posted by wikipedia
5.) Three things that I can think of, off the top of my head, they absolutely nailed in the game: showing the percentage of people that played the game chose X choice over Y, at the end, it shows a quick summary of what happened to the characters (what a moment of reflection...should I have done that character differently? ...), and the dialog with the Stranger character was pretty good. No matter what, he'll find fault with what you've done, and it's great to have a non one-dimensional character with some actual baggage. My only wish is that they would have explored Lee's past, other than "he killed a person". Sure, that's a big event, but for the significance of it, it should have been explored more.
Anyways, I've rambled a bit here. I hope it wasn't to "wall-of-text" for you to read. What are y'all's thoughts, specific, or general?