The Walking Dead (Game) Discussion [Mega-Spoilers]

[icedwarrior]

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:

By the first act of episode 5, there were 32 variations due to past player choices that they had to write towards.

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.

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?

[Blueobelisk]

We did have this one thread where we were all criticizing walking dead because this guy thought it was a revolution in gaming. But fuck that thread, this one's fine. (That one wasn't actually about the game itself anyway, just the gameplay).

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...t=walking+dead

Which platform did you play the game on? I played it on iPad. I'm just curious.

Uhhhh illusion of choices was kind of stupid, you could branch out a little but the conclusion would be the same no matter what so your choices weren't THAT important. And lol the poor developers...Calm down. It's not like they had to program some crazy action sequences or even making your character move well, the story and choices was the only thing they had to do.

And uhhh I always thought it'd be cool to play the game a few times making different choices each time, just to experience what would happen. Go do that.

[icedwarrior]

Which platform did you play the game on? I played it on iPad. I'm just curious.

PC, of course.

Uhhhh illusion of choices was kind of stupid, you could branch out a little but the conclusion would be the same no matter what so your choices weren't THAT important. And lol the poor developers...Calm down. It's not like they had to program some crazy action sequences or even making your character move well, the story and choices was the only thing they had to do.

I'm not saying that you should be crying for them, but planning for thirty-two different stories has got to be ridiculous, regardless if it's "just story and choices".

And uhhh I always thought it'd be cool to play the game a few times making different choices each time, just to experience what would happen. Go do that.

I might do that, but the major turnoff for me doing that is that I know the plot already; I know what happens with Clem and Lee, I know about The Stranger, and all that. I think I'll just youtube / wiki the rest.

Any specific choices stand out for you, Blue? Such as telling Clem to not trust anyone / seek out Omid and Christa? I told her to not trust anyone.

[Blueobelisk]

Not really, I barely remember my choices lol. But I always remember "wtf this guy is gonna remember what I said? I don't even know what I just said" because I usually picked stuff on impulse.

[Blackdecker]

"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."

Worst thing about the game.

[Blueobelisk]

I heard they're gonna make the second game kind of a continuation f the first game and possibly make t so that your choices in the first game affect stuff in the second game.

[Stede]

1) Characters were great.
2) The ending was great. It was emotional, and teased at an upcoming sequel. Clem's story may not be the next one, but the developers have promised that they will be coming back to it. They know how invested people are in that character.
3) I was lucky that I didn't encounter any glitches
4) The last chapter can go down several different ways. I really don't blame the devs at all that they all kinda take you to the same place. We're not talking red, blue, and green here. Carley dying made me do the same thing as you, and I was kind of disappointed. But honestly, a lot of that disappointment was due to the fact that I had owned Lee's character so much. I was him. And I wanted to go back and save Carley. Up to that point, I had a lot of trust in being able to control the game because Lee's actions that I chose had expected consequences.

Honestly, if the game hadn't been so amazing prior to that point, I might not have cared. But as I played past it, I kinda understood it. I really think Telltale did a great job, even though Carley couldn't be saved.

5) Yeah, it won GotY from a lot of places. I liked how they did Lee's past. I wouldn't want them to go overboard with it, because the tension would likely feel manufactured. The mystery around that part of Lee almost gives the player more license to define their Lee how they want, rather than being guided by his backstory.

All in all, I'm a huge fan of the game and can't wait for more. It's been a long time since I've been so invested in a game's story. Yes, I know some folks think it was on rails, and yes I know some folks didn't like the combat. But, idk - I enjoy the interactive storytelling - especially how Telltale did it in TWD:The Game.

[McNeil]

Amazing game, rated it a 9/10 myself aswell. Could've been 10/10 if the choices mattered more, some other characters getting better development, and the save function fixed. I like how a zombie game can be amazing without having you get equipped with guns from top to toe, and headshot everyone in your way. The ending made me cry manly tears, I choosed to let Clem shoot Lee in the head. It may traumatize her a bit, but I know she wouldn't want Lee to become a walker, ever.

I vastly prefer the game over the TV series aswell. Lee is so much better than Rick, and Clementine is so much better than Carl.

Really looking forward to episode 2. They have also said we would get another episode before season 2:

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/02/...efore-season-2