I am also disappointed in the 400 days tie in. It feels like they had no idea where the story jfrom that would go, and as a result the implementation into twd feels lazy
They were probably hamstrung by a limited number of people having played 400 days. I don't know how well it sold, but I know I loved SE1 and still wasn't sold on buying a single mini episode myself.
My problem with Season 2 is that it mostly is devoid of exploration scenes. Wandering around and finding stuff is always my favorite parts of survival games. Like, the scene with the dog in S2E1 was pretty great, but since then it's been so linear. Lee did a lot more hacking around and looting.
Looting is an important job skill that Clementine needs to learn more of.
My problem with Season 2 is that it mostly is devoid of exploration scenes. Wandering around and finding stuff is always my favorite parts of survival games. Like, the scene with the dog in S2E1 was pretty great, but since then it's been so linear. Lee did a lot more hacking around and looting.
Looting is an important job skill that Clementine needs to learn more of.
Eh. That whole segment in the convenience store in S1 was more annoying than fun, especially the parts where you need to find some random thing that happens to be the solution to some other thing.
What I would like to see is:
More decisions that are actually good or bad. Like, based on either reason or remembering some previous information, there is an option that is actually correct and produces a better outcome.
More things that require actual skill. The QTE segments are okay, but some timed puzzles or something, so that there is actual gameplay beyond just click the next thing in the sequence. And have them again produce better or worse results, not just pass or fail (retry).
For example, from The Wolf Among Us:
You can stop the prince from shooting himself in that one scene, but you need to be observant and quick to react.
HamHamJ on
While racing light mechs, your Urbanmech comes in second place, but only because it ran out of ammo.
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NocrenLt Futz, Back in ActionNorth CarolinaRegistered Userregular
edited May 2014
Quick! First one to PM me gets a copy of 400 Days.
For Steam.
My problem with Season 2 is that it mostly is devoid of exploration scenes. Wandering around and finding stuff is always my favorite parts of survival games. Like, the scene with the dog in S2E1 was pretty great, but since then it's been so linear. Lee did a lot more hacking around and looting.
Looting is an important job skill that Clementine needs to learn more of.
Eh. That whole segment in the convenience store in S1 was more annoying than fun, especially the parts where you need to find some random thing that happens to be the solution to some other thing.
Even if they aren't everyone's favorite parts of the game, I feel like they did good things for the pacing and flow.
I really enjoyed 400 Days on its own, and could get behind an entire season told anthology style from the POV of multiple characters with some Rashomon-style contradictions and overlaps involved, but so far the connection between it and Season 2 seems disappointingly slight.
While I truly enjoyed this episode, I do have to echo the sentiments of it lacking hub/exploration areas, being overtly linear/railroady and short. It does appear that the fear the quality of Telltale games may be impacted because they have taken on too many projects at once is coming to pass.
They're making the best of it with this new 90 minute episode rule, but it kind of sucks. This episode really could have benefited from another 30 mins to an hour of game time. At the very least, the extra time could have been used to give the 400 Days characters more screen time. Maybe we're not done with them yet though. It's hard to say.
Despite this though, it was a strong episode. I get the feeling that Telltale really wanted to yank us along by the arm without any time to stop and smell the roses, whether we liked it or not.
I know people are annoyed that this group is kind of incompetent, but I feel like that is the point. This group never learned to survive on their own. They were in relative safety for too long. This season has a lot more desperate situations than the prior one, which is driving the group to make stupid decisions because desperate times call for desperate measures.
Musings:
This was the first episode I've ever used the silent options... though, I was shocked when Clem got slapped by Carver for staring him down. I really did appreciate how this episode really polarized the differences between the two kids, Clem and Sarah. Clem took that slap like a champ, but Sarah broke down. Sarah was pretty much non-functional this entire episode. Poor girl.
I have a soft spot for Sarah because she is a dead ringer for an IRL friend of mine. It's kind of spooky actually. I just can't fault Sarah for her behaviour. Her father failed to prepare her for this new way of life like Lee and Rick prepared their children charges... and it caused him to pay the ultimate price in the end.
I sincerely hope we get a chance to turn Sarah into a competent survivor. I don't want to see her just die after all of this. The trailer at the end made it seem like we're building towards a group split where Clem will have to make a choice between leaving Sarah behind or staying with her and potentially dying because of it. Jane says: "She's gonna get us killed!" and "Don't let these people drag you down, Clem." in the trailer. It gave me chills.
This episode almost should have been called "Redemption" as Kenny really shined in this episode. Him getting knocked out at the start gave me a chuckle. It was such a wink at the fans, I couldn't help but laugh. Typical Kenny. He was hot headed throughout and did have some poor ideas but I sympathized with him. It was a desperate situation and everyone else was pretty much resigned to their fate. While I normally gave pause to his ideas in the past, they were the only ones we had this time. Trying anything was better than living under Carver. When he stepped up and took that beating for Clem, in my eyes, he basically washed away all his past transgressions. He's a badass (soon to be eyepatch wearing badass). To take that beating and just walk it off, shit man.
Luke just fell apart this episode... though, I just can't imagine any scenario where he was going to save the whole group regardless. I think he's been bitten though. His agitation and personality shift seems very extreme to just be exhaustion/hunger. He looks pale like Lee did in the final episode.
This episode was dark. I'm afraid for Clems mental state. She's become slightly unhinged but she's got at least a shred of humanity still. She was very confident about watching Carver's death at first, but it was clear she didn't like what she saw. It'll be interesting to see if Telltale explores her mental state or just leaves it up to the players interpretation.
I'll leave it at that for now. I feel like I'm rambling.
While I truly enjoyed this episode, I do have to echo the sentiments of it lacking hub/exploration areas, being overtly linear/railroady and short. It does appear that the fear the quality of Telltale games may be impacted because they have taken on too many projects at once is coming to pass.
They're making the best of it with this new 90 minute episode rule, but it kind of sucks. This episode really could have benefited from another 30 mins to an hour of game time. At the very least, the extra time could have been used to give the 400 Days characters more screen time. Maybe we're not done with them yet though. It's hard to say.
Despite this though, it was a strong episode. I get the feeling that Telltale really wanted to yank us along by the arm without any time to stop and smell the roses, whether we liked it or not.
I know people are annoyed that this group is kind of incompetent, but I feel like that is the point. This group never learned to survive on their own. They were in relative safety for too long. This season has a lot more desperate situations than the prior one, which is driving the group to make stupid decisions because desperate times call for desperate measures.
Musings:
This was the first episode I've ever used the silent options... though, I was shocked when Clem got slapped by Carver for staring him down. I really did appreciate how this episode really polarized the differences between the two kids, Clem and Sarah. Clem took that slap like a champ, but Sarah broke down. Sarah was pretty much non-functional this entire episode. Poor girl.
I have a soft spot for Sarah because she is a dead ringer for an IRL friend of mine. It's kind of spooky actually. I just can't fault Sarah for her behaviour. Her father failed to prepare her for this new way of life like Lee and Rick prepared their children charges... and it caused him to pay the ultimate price in the end.
I sincerely hope we get a chance to turn Sarah into a competent survivor. I don't want to see her just die after all of this. The trailer at the end made it seem like we're building towards a group split where Clem will have to make a choice between leaving Sarah behind or staying with her and potentially dying because of it. Jane says: "She's gonna get us killed!" and "Don't let these people drag you down, Clem." in the trailer. It gave me chills.
This episode almost should have been called "Redemption" as Kenny really shined in this episode. Him getting knocked out at the start gave me a chuckle. It was such a wink at the fans, I couldn't help but laugh. Typical Kenny. He was hot headed throughout and did have some poor ideas but I sympathized with him. It was a desperate situation and everyone else was pretty much resigned to their fate. While I normally gave pause to his ideas in the past, they were the only ones we had this time. Trying anything was better than living under Carver. When he stepped up and took that beating for Clem, in my eyes, he basically washed away all his past transgressions. He's a badass (soon to be eyepatch wearing badass). To take that beating and just walk it off, shit man.
Luke just fell apart this episode... though, I just can't imagine any scenario where he was going to save the whole group regardless. I think he's been bitten though. His agitation and personality shift seems very extreme to just be exhaustion/hunger. He looks pale like Lee did in the final episode.
This episode was dark. I'm afraid for Clems mental state. She's become slightly unhinged but she's got at least a shred of humanity still. She was very confident about watching Carver's death at first, but it was clear she didn't like what she saw. It'll be interesting to see if Telltale explores her mental state or just leaves it up to the players interpretation.
I'll leave it at that for now. I feel like I'm rambling.
There are a lot of good points here, and some of the stuff you bring up is why I'm hoping there's a payoff in Eps4/5 for some of the groundwork they've laid here in this episode. If there isn't, its only going to make this episode worse in retrospect imo.
I haven't finished the episode yet, but I have to say that....
Making it so that time you spent in the previous DLC making sure that you will dislike any of the choices you made during the DLC was both a brave and stupid idea at the same time.
“I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
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Ov3rchargeR.I.P. Mass EffectYou were dead to me for yearsRegistered Userregular
The best way I can describe Season 2 is that it's all flash and no substance.
The series is suffering from the absence of Gary Whitta and Sean Vanaman. Season 2 lacks the nuance of Season 1, as if the new writers are trying to ape Whitta and Vanaman's writing style without understanding what made it so memorable. Season 1 had several quiet moments often before and after huge plot altering events, you'd have time to chat with the characters and examine the environment. (often rife with symbolism)
But season 2 comes up short, as a result of that I couldn't give less of a shit about any of the characters, specifically the deaths of
Pete, Alvin, Carlos, etc.
have all gotten little reaction out of me. There's simply no reason for me to care about these characters since the game has given me so little time to learn and interact with them. I find it amusing how the game expected me
to be happy to see Luke in Episode 3 despite there being no real meaningful interaction between him and the player (Clementine.) Other than "he was nice to me."
Compare with
Kenny, who has been an asshole to me more times that I can count. I still care about him more, because I empathize with him. I've seen him lose everything, I've seen him in his darkest and brightest moments. Even if he is a hotheaded moron, I still care about him. I wasn't surprised in the least when the majority chose to sit with Kenny over Luke, and I won't be surprised if Kenny holds the majority for any future decisions between the two.
I have considered the possibility that this may be an intentional story choice to emphasize how Clementine has become disconnected from the people and world around her, but at the same time if Clementine is disconnected, then I as the player am disconnected twofold. I still believe it wasn't the right choice to make Clementine the lead in Season 2 for this reason and many others.
Despite the previous paragraph, I still really like Season 2, and I recommend it to anyone who even marginally liked Season 1. However, Season 1 shook me to my core, made me think about who I was as a person, it made me look at life differently. Season 2 is a theme park ride, and nothing more.
The best way I can describe Season 2 is that it's all flash and no substance.
The series is suffering from the absence of Gary Whitta and Sean Vanaman. Season 2 lacks the nuance of Season 1, as if the new writers are trying to ape Whitta and Vanaman's writing style without understanding what made it so memorable. Season 1 had several quiet moments often before and after huge plot altering events, you'd have time to chat with the characters and examine the environment. (often rife with symbolism)
But season 2 comes up short, as a result of that I couldn't give less of a shit about any of the characters, specifically the deaths of
Pete, Alvin, Carlos, etc.
have all gotten little reaction out of me. There's simply no reason for me to care about these characters since the game has given me so little time to learn and interact with them. I find it amusing how the game expected me
to be happy to see Luke in Episode 3 despite there being no real meaningful interaction between him and the player (Clementine.) Other than "he was nice to me."
Compare with
Kenny, who has been an asshole to me more times that I can count. I still care about him more, because I empathize with him. I've seen him lose everything, I've seen him in his darkest and brightest moments. Even if he is a hotheaded moron, I still care about him. I wasn't surprised in the least when the majority chose to sit with Kenny over Luke, and I won't be surprised if Kenny holds the majority for any future decisions between the two.
I have considered the possibility that this may be an intentional story choice to emphasize how Clementine has become disconnected from the people and world around her, but at the same time if Clementine is disconnected, then I as the player am disconnected twofold. I still believe it wasn't the right choice to make Clementine the lead in Season 2 for this reason and many others.
Despite the previous paragraph, I still really like Season 2, and I recommend it to anyone who even marginally liked Season 1. However, Season 1 shook me to my core, made me think about who I was as a person, it made me look at life differently. Season 2 is a theme park ride, and nothing more.
I think that this season is a "theme park ride" deliberately. It's the Roller Coaster of Feels. There really hasn't been much, if any opportunity to stop and interact with the people or environment. It seems to me that there is a consistent driving force in each episode that pushes the cast along without rest. Whereas the first season dropped the cast into situations where they could settle down and rest rather consistently.
Though, I will agree with you on the quiet moments. While there has been a couple, they were brief. Ep.1 had the best one with the campsite. A lot of horror writers ignore quiet moments in their pacing. If you don't give your audience anytime to breath and absorb the horror inflicted upon their senses and just overwhelm them with shock after shock, it all blends together into an unmemorable mess. The lack of quiet moments is what killed the new Evil Dead movie for me, for instance.
However, much like any theme park ride, it's hard to judge until you've stepped off at the other side of it. S1 had a pretty clear goal, where S2 still does not. I'm not quite sure what this season is building up to.
I think I mentioned it in this thread but maybe it was the SE++ TWD game thread - Episode 3 really, really is lacking those moments where you can catch your breath and just interact with people. Not even a calm-before-the-storm kind of thing but just a chance for the player to see how everyone ELSE is dealing with stuff.
I think I mentioned it in this thread but maybe it was the SE++ TWD game thread - Episode 3 really, really is lacking those moments where you can catch your breath and just interact with people. Not even a calm-before-the-storm kind of thing but just a chance for the player to see how everyone ELSE is dealing with stuff.
I was peeved when I started looking around the prison yard and wasn't even quite done checking everything out and an event kicked in. A hidden time limit works in certain cases, but not when I'm trying to just get my bearings after a major plot shift.
Hmm. Finished this tonight. The whole thing felt like trash ninja zombie, and the best thing about it was the song during the ending credits.
Pretty sure most if not everything in detail that I'd have to say was already covered. But my notes.
The entire cast of 400 days was wasted, to the extent that if they have some kind of extra DLC episodes this season, I'm not sure if I'd even buy them. Seriously. The token appearances of some of the other characters was just annoying. Nothing would have been lost from the experience if they simply introduced Bonnie as a somewhat sympathetic character and nameless rando'd the others.
Clem helped Sarah, told bonnie, and admitted to having the walkie. Because those were all of the things that Lee would have done.
My Clem was one of the 18% who didn't watch Carver get killed. Didn't want to give him the satisfaction. Kenny not being able to be talked out of killing him was one of the more annoying things in the ep though.
She cut off Sarita's arm though because well... Lee would have tried that too.
tastydonuts on
“I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
Just finished season 1. I'm gonna be over here NOT crying.
How big are the changes from different choices, I assume they are worth replaying for?
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Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
Episode 5 is fairly highly variable;
in terms of who goes with you, and what Lee's status is. A lot of minor tweaks to the action for if Lee's got both hands or not, and the scenes leading up to the hotel are totally dependent on who is with you. Ben? Kenny? They make a biiig difference. ;D
Luke is just the most worthless sack of crap. At least Kenny is good for the moments where pragmatism is necessary.
Being able to talk Kenny out of killing Carver would be dumb. This is a guy who has been hunting down your group over long distances to enslave them, brutally beat them within an inch of their life (Kenny would have been dead were it not for Bonny's timely intervention), and murders people when he feels like they have slighted him somehow. Literally pushed a guy off the roof because he didn't pick enough berries. Did these people think leaving him alive was going to result in him letting bygones be bygones or something?! He needed to die.
And anybody who didn't cut off the arm at the end either wanted her to die or don't understand how the infection works. Even if the game is the only experience you have with TWD 'verse, there was a guy in that episode who lost his arm and pointed out that it saved his life after getting infected. There's no excuse for taking the other option.
And really that's kind of my main beef with the episode. I'm fine with the illusion of choice, as long as the choices presented all seem reasonable and logical for different reasons. All the choices in this one seemed really straightforward right choice and wrong choice to me. I didn't agonize over anything.
It doesn't tend to show them for a few hours after release, I guess until they have enough data to make it meaningful. If you go back into it tomorrow it'll show up.
I'm surprised and a bit annoyed that they are being even more aggressive in invalidating any and all choices the players are allowed to make than they were in season 1. Every character you have a meaningful interaction seems to get killed off or removed as soon as possible. It is starting to look like when the dust settles, the only consequence of five episodes of supposed player choice will be how angry Kenny is at you, on a sliding scale from "slightly" to "quite a bit".
Unless it was actually possible to save Sarah at the end there, sacrificing Jane. I very much doubt that though.
Edit: The more I think about this episode, the less I like it. I spent most of the episode interacting with Sarah, Rebecca and Jane. Each had the potential for an interesting story arc, the scared girl finding the will to live, the widowed single mother learning to be strong for her child, the loner with a heart of gold. But none of that happened, of course.
It's still possible for Jane to come back, I suppose, but it still feels like the player choices in that episode were essentially meaningless by the end of it, which is fast even for telltale writing.
Yeah, Ep 4 continues this season's wavering schizophrenia...
...on whether Clem is an adult and should be treated like one, or a little child that can't handle the pressures of life in the apocalypse. In my save, she goes from being reduced to tears because Kenny was a little mad to bonding with Jane (whom I dearly hope is next season's protagonist) about how capable the two are together, to slapping some sense into Sarah (what a worthless "choice" that turned out to be) and generally being a badass... to being a clueless child again.
Also, I'm pretty sure Ep 4 is bugged, because
I didn't steal shit from Arvo, and that bastard still accused me of taking his supplies? Fuck him, dude is getting an icepick in the spine.
Final choice spoiler:
I shot Rebecca, because fuck all these worthless people and their goddamn incompetence. I asked Jane to take me with her, it's too goddamn bad she wouldn't take me (see: "Clem is a kid/dult schizophrenia, cont."). Though I did feel slightly bad, because neither Kenny nor the baby ("Lee", in my headcanon) deserves to be saddled with such assholes.
jane keep arvo's gun in your run? that's technically stealing.
Hmm...
..actually, no, she didn't. She didn't give it back, but she left it on the deck. And there's a massive difference between "She took my gun" and "They stole our giant bag of medical supplies", which was not addressed.
Ov3rchargeR.I.P. Mass EffectYou were dead to me for yearsRegistered Userregular
edited July 2014
As someone who has been vocal about his distaste for Season 2 so far, I LOVED this episode.
I'm glad the writers didn't dwell on Kenny being pissed at you for Sarita (I cut off her hand but I'm going to assume he gets mad either way.) Because if there's a road from Season 1 I don't want to go down again that's it. I do appreciate how they did effectively make me feel bad for cutting off Sarita's arm. I wish they would have given me the option to tell Kenny that I needed him, I got it by accident but Kenny needed to hear it and the way I was roleplaying Clem he was the last thing that meant anything to her. I knew Nick's death was coming but the way it was handled choked me up, he was my favorite new character from Season 2 and I'm glad his death was handled in a way that made me feel like he mattered to someone besides myself. And Arvo, oh god I agonized over that decision, but my group needed it, but the game really made me feel bad about it. (As it should) I genuinely wanted to redo that choice but I have a rule and I'm going to stick by it. Finally Sarah, HOLY SHIT I refused to abandon Sarah but when I spoke to her afterward and she started to talk about Carlos, I teared up, I'm not afraid to admit it. Now granted, any kind of father-daughter story will cave my chest in but this is the first time since the death of Doug that I had to pause the game and walk away, I was a mess. Then she died... screaming for Clementine and her father as she got torn apart by zombies, just, fuck. I still can't believe Telltale had the balls to do that. I'm disappointed that Jane left at the end of the episode especially since they didn't turn her into an edgy Mary Sue like most were predicting and gave her a soft side that resonated with me. I would venture to say she was the most characterized of Season 2's original cast next to Nick. I'm also a fan of the sense of pacing this episode had, there were a couple of locations to explore (which this season has been in desperate need of) and there were plenty of quiet moments for the player to reflect on what had happened before. There was still Telltale's bullshit cliffhanger ending but complaining about that is pretty much akin to complaining about the sun rising at this point.
I apologize for any spelling or grammatical errors, I finished this episode ten minutes ago and needed to get my thoughts down while they were still fresh in my mind. The writer's really seem like they've finally gotten into the swing of things, it's unfortunate that there's only one episode left to go, this does make me hopeful for Season 3, if there will be one.
Yeah, I don't think I've ever been so torn in a Telltale game as that last moment. I don't care for the lazy, decision invalidating/ignoring means they took to get there, but man that situation.
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Ov3rchargeR.I.P. Mass EffectYou were dead to me for yearsRegistered Userregular
I don't see the player choices as being about affecting the plot, it's more about shifting Clem's morality. You're choosing ways to justify things, what you think is important. The choice is what matters, not the outcome. For me while playing making those choices is the interesting thing, what happens afterwards doesn't matter to smuch.
Your Clem and my Clem might at end up at the same place but we'll have different ideas about who she is based on her choices.
I liked the fact that this episode finally let me look around places. First time since S2E1 that you get a chance to do that without a hidden time limit.
I liked the fact that this episode finally let me look around places. First time since S2E1 that you get a chance to do that without a hidden time limit.
I will totally give them credit on this point. I actually felt a twinge of regret when
I went off to go find Bonnie and Mike and saw Sarah off to the side by the memorial and realized I could have gone to talk to her again but missed the opportunity since I had clicked through to leave the area.
My main problem with the episode was that it killed off the only characters that had any interesting development. I understand it's The Walking Dead, and killing off characters is par for the course, but it's left me with no characters I'm attached to in Ep5, apart from Kenny.
Speaking of Kenny... the first moment that made my blood run cold was when you enter the tent after getting back with Luke, Jane and maybe Sarah. The way he was sat with his back to the entrance, not moving, with a pool of blood in front of him made me think he'd offed himself for a few seconds. That shot had to be intentional.
The other moment was when the baby wasn't breathing. Good god, that would have been horrific, if the baby was stillborn.
I liked the fact that this episode finally let me look around places. First time since S2E1 that you get a chance to do that without a hidden time limit.
I will totally give them credit on this point. I actually felt a twinge of regret when
I went off to go find Bonnie and Mike and saw Sarah off to the side by the memorial and realized I could have gone to talk to her again but missed the opportunity since I had clicked through to leave the area.
About that...
Talking to her results in Clem saying hey and Sarah giving you a glance before looking back down at the floor. I don't think it affects anything.
Oh, and as an Englishman -
What the hell was the significance of the confederate jacket?
Posts
I'll have to give it a go tonight...
Does "Tavia" appear in it?
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Looting is an important job skill that Clementine needs to learn more of.
Eh. That whole segment in the convenience store in S1 was more annoying than fun, especially the parts where you need to find some random thing that happens to be the solution to some other thing.
What I would like to see is:
More decisions that are actually good or bad. Like, based on either reason or remembering some previous information, there is an option that is actually correct and produces a better outcome.
More things that require actual skill. The QTE segments are okay, but some timed puzzles or something, so that there is actual gameplay beyond just click the next thing in the sequence. And have them again produce better or worse results, not just pass or fail (retry).
For example, from The Wolf Among Us:
For Steam.
Even if they aren't everyone's favorite parts of the game, I feel like they did good things for the pacing and flow.
They're making the best of it with this new 90 minute episode rule, but it kind of sucks. This episode really could have benefited from another 30 mins to an hour of game time. At the very least, the extra time could have been used to give the 400 Days characters more screen time. Maybe we're not done with them yet though. It's hard to say.
Despite this though, it was a strong episode. I get the feeling that Telltale really wanted to yank us along by the arm without any time to stop and smell the roses, whether we liked it or not.
I know people are annoyed that this group is kind of incompetent, but I feel like that is the point. This group never learned to survive on their own. They were in relative safety for too long. This season has a lot more desperate situations than the prior one, which is driving the group to make stupid decisions because desperate times call for desperate measures.
Musings:
I have a soft spot for Sarah because she is a dead ringer for an IRL friend of mine. It's kind of spooky actually. I just can't fault Sarah for her behaviour. Her father failed to prepare her for this new way of life like Lee and Rick prepared their children charges... and it caused him to pay the ultimate price in the end.
I sincerely hope we get a chance to turn Sarah into a competent survivor. I don't want to see her just die after all of this. The trailer at the end made it seem like we're building towards a group split where Clem will have to make a choice between leaving Sarah behind or staying with her and potentially dying because of it. Jane says: "She's gonna get us killed!" and "Don't let these people drag you down, Clem." in the trailer. It gave me chills.
This episode almost should have been called "Redemption" as Kenny really shined in this episode. Him getting knocked out at the start gave me a chuckle. It was such a wink at the fans, I couldn't help but laugh. Typical Kenny. He was hot headed throughout and did have some poor ideas but I sympathized with him. It was a desperate situation and everyone else was pretty much resigned to their fate. While I normally gave pause to his ideas in the past, they were the only ones we had this time. Trying anything was better than living under Carver. When he stepped up and took that beating for Clem, in my eyes, he basically washed away all his past transgressions. He's a badass (soon to be eyepatch wearing badass). To take that beating and just walk it off, shit man.
Luke just fell apart this episode... though, I just can't imagine any scenario where he was going to save the whole group regardless. I think he's been bitten though. His agitation and personality shift seems very extreme to just be exhaustion/hunger. He looks pale like Lee did in the final episode.
This episode was dark. I'm afraid for Clems mental state. She's become slightly unhinged but she's got at least a shred of humanity still. She was very confident about watching Carver's death at first, but it was clear she didn't like what she saw. It'll be interesting to see if Telltale explores her mental state or just leaves it up to the players interpretation.
I'll leave it at that for now. I feel like I'm rambling.
But then all that happened was him getting caught. As for him being bitten... you would think Carver would have checked for that?
There are a lot of good points here, and some of the stuff you bring up is why I'm hoping there's a payoff in Eps4/5 for some of the groundwork they've laid here in this episode. If there isn't, its only going to make this episode worse in retrospect imo.
The series is suffering from the absence of Gary Whitta and Sean Vanaman. Season 2 lacks the nuance of Season 1, as if the new writers are trying to ape Whitta and Vanaman's writing style without understanding what made it so memorable. Season 1 had several quiet moments often before and after huge plot altering events, you'd have time to chat with the characters and examine the environment. (often rife with symbolism)
But season 2 comes up short, as a result of that I couldn't give less of a shit about any of the characters, specifically the deaths of
Despite the previous paragraph, I still really like Season 2, and I recommend it to anyone who even marginally liked Season 1. However, Season 1 shook me to my core, made me think about who I was as a person, it made me look at life differently. Season 2 is a theme park ride, and nothing more.
I think that this season is a "theme park ride" deliberately. It's the Roller Coaster of Feels. There really hasn't been much, if any opportunity to stop and interact with the people or environment. It seems to me that there is a consistent driving force in each episode that pushes the cast along without rest. Whereas the first season dropped the cast into situations where they could settle down and rest rather consistently.
Though, I will agree with you on the quiet moments. While there has been a couple, they were brief. Ep.1 had the best one with the campsite. A lot of horror writers ignore quiet moments in their pacing. If you don't give your audience anytime to breath and absorb the horror inflicted upon their senses and just overwhelm them with shock after shock, it all blends together into an unmemorable mess. The lack of quiet moments is what killed the new Evil Dead movie for me, for instance.
However, much like any theme park ride, it's hard to judge until you've stepped off at the other side of it. S1 had a pretty clear goal, where S2 still does not. I'm not quite sure what this season is building up to.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
I was peeved when I started looking around the prison yard and wasn't even quite done checking everything out and an event kicked in. A hidden time limit works in certain cases, but not when I'm trying to just get my bearings after a major plot shift.
Pretty sure most if not everything in detail that I'd have to say was already covered. But my notes.
Clem helped Sarah, told bonnie, and admitted to having the walkie. Because those were all of the things that Lee would have done.
My Clem was one of the 18% who didn't watch Carver get killed. Didn't want to give him the satisfaction. Kenny not being able to be talked out of killing him was one of the more annoying things in the ep though.
She cut off Sarita's arm though because well... Lee would have tried that too.
How big are the changes from different choices, I assume they are worth replaying for?
The Vita, PC, Mac, and PS3 in the US - 22nd
NA Xbox 360 and Europe - 23rd
iOS - 24th
No word on the Android version
Being able to talk Kenny out of killing Carver would be dumb. This is a guy who has been hunting down your group over long distances to enslave them, brutally beat them within an inch of their life (Kenny would have been dead were it not for Bonny's timely intervention), and murders people when he feels like they have slighted him somehow. Literally pushed a guy off the roof because he didn't pick enough berries. Did these people think leaving him alive was going to result in him letting bygones be bygones or something?! He needed to die.
And anybody who didn't cut off the arm at the end either wanted her to die or don't understand how the infection works. Even if the game is the only experience you have with TWD 'verse, there was a guy in that episode who lost his arm and pointed out that it saved his life after getting infected. There's no excuse for taking the other option.
And really that's kind of my main beef with the episode. I'm fine with the illusion of choice, as long as the choices presented all seem reasonable and logical for different reasons. All the choices in this one seemed really straightforward right choice and wrong choice to me. I didn't agonize over anything.
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
Loved episode 4, so much.
Unless it was actually possible to save Sarah at the end there, sacrificing Jane. I very much doubt that though.
Edit: The more I think about this episode, the less I like it. I spent most of the episode interacting with Sarah, Rebecca and Jane. Each had the potential for an interesting story arc, the scared girl finding the will to live, the widowed single mother learning to be strong for her child, the loner with a heart of gold. But none of that happened, of course.
It's still possible for Jane to come back, I suppose, but it still feels like the player choices in that episode were essentially meaningless by the end of it, which is fast even for telltale writing.
Yeah, Ep 4 continues this season's wavering schizophrenia...
Also, I'm pretty sure Ep 4 is bugged, because
Final choice spoiler:
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
Also on your bugged spoiler @jdarksun did
But point taken, you are correct.
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
I apologize for any spelling or grammatical errors, I finished this episode ten minutes ago and needed to get my thoughts down while they were still fresh in my mind. The writer's really seem like they've finally gotten into the swing of things, it's unfortunate that there's only one episode left to go, this does make me hopeful for Season 3, if there will be one.
Edit: Also I'm fucking sick of Luke holy shit.
I guess you can say...
Your Clem and my Clem might at end up at the same place but we'll have different ideas about who she is based on her choices.
I will totally give them credit on this point. I actually felt a twinge of regret when
Speaking of Kenny... the first moment that made my blood run cold was when you enter the tent after getting back with Luke, Jane and maybe Sarah. The way he was sat with his back to the entrance, not moving, with a pool of blood in front of him made me think he'd offed himself for a few seconds. That shot had to be intentional.
The other moment was when the baby wasn't breathing. Good god, that would have been horrific, if the baby was stillborn.
About that...
Oh, and as an Englishman -