toblix

The Walking Dead

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Just finished it, and loved it. Some thoughts:

  • I preferred the more actiony sequences to the slower ones. Walking around the farm felt sort of like Simon the Sorcerer 3D, with lots of space to traverse with little to actually do.
  • I didn't notice any problems with the audio quality this time around. I don't know if that means they've improved it, or if I'm going deaf.
  • I don't know what's going on with the hotspots. They're too small and weirdly placed. So many times I was stuck because I couldn't find a hotspot anywhere. Even when I knew had the right idea, I often couldn't find the hotspot for it and thought I was wrong.
  • Again, the Steam achievements keep shitting all over the game. I know it's probably a Steam thing, but, knowing that they'll pop up at the worst possible occasions, I wish they'd at least choose less hilarious titles.
  • The last part with the video was a bit too on the nose, I think.
  • All the screw loosening was great.

As I said, it was great. Looking forward to Episode 3. Presumably that'll be a Rodkin/Vanaman one?

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  • All the screw loosening was great.

Haha, yeah. The secret nemesis of episode two!

Definitely a great episode, this game continues to deliver. Really did not feel good about some of the choices I made, and the hurried shit-is-happening-and-all-your-options-are-bad framing keeps working for me.

Also, the weather changing and when it comes in the episode was kind of dramatic, but I liked it. When the clouds were moving in and I was looking around upstairs in the house and I just knew I was about to find something awful and Lee said "there's a storm coming" I replied, out loud, "damn right there is". The doom and creepy, distrustful mood just builds and builds in this episode.

I'm curious as to how people handled each of the brothers, by the way, and also what everyone did about the car full of supplies at the end. When I finished it said it was a 52/48 split on that last choice.

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I'm curious as to how people handled each of the brothers, by the way, and also what everyone did about the car full of supplies at the end. When I finished it said it was a 52/48 split on that last choice.

I killed the first brother, getting really pissed at him and not realizing Clementine was right there behind me to see it. I regretted that immediately. I think he had to die for what he did, I just didn't like the way I did it. Though I dodn't see how a fair trial would have been arranged. I stopped beating up the second one cause it seemed so pointless. But perhaps leaving him to the walkers was crueler than killing him myself.

I didn't take anything from the car and sided with Clementine to compensate for her seeing me kill the first brother.

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I killed the first brother for the exact same reason as Erkki. I also immediately regretted it. Poor Clementine.

However, I let the second brother live exactly because I knew he'd eventually die to the walkers, with no brother or mother to help him. Fuck that guy! I actually expected him to live to the end of the episode, though, not die right away.

I took that food. Gotta feed Clem non-human-meat foodstuffs!

I've never played a game that makes me hate making choices as much as this game does. Fucking Christ.

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I also killed Danny, but I think I might actually be a worse person about it than you guys. You killed him in the heat of the moment and then regretted it once you saw yourself through Clementine's eyes, whereas I stopped for around 5-10 seconds and considered whether he needed to die, before deciding that the situation was still too tenuous to jeopardise by allowing him to live and potentially fuck things up further. So I murdered him, and just considered it a shame that Clem saw it, not that I made that choice. It was pretty uncomfortable later on when she asked me if I had to kill them, though.

Oh, I also let Andy live, because at that point he was no threat, the situation was under control and we were just getting the fuck out. Seeing his zombified mother stumbling down the hill towards him as the camera pulled back made me wince, though.

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Another thing I forgot to mention:

Did anyone else think the transition from overly nice to spectacularly creepy was a bit sudden? Obviously these people could not possibly be as nice as they seemed at first, but after that very nicely done sequence in the woods with the camp, where things were implied, etc. suddenly he's making out with his rifle. It struck me as jarring, at least.

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Another thing I forgot to mention:

Did anyone else think the transition from overly nice to spectacularly creepy was a bit sudden? Obviously these people could not possibly be as nice as they seemed at first, but after that very nicely done sequence in the woods with the camp, where things were implied, etc. suddenly he's making out with his rifle. It struck me as jarring, at least.

Now that you mention it, it did seemed sudden. The seem normal until that scene.

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Another thing I forgot to mention:

Did anyone else think the transition from overly nice to spectacularly creepy was a bit sudden? Obviously these people could not possibly be as nice as they seemed at first, but after that very nicely done sequence in the woods with the camp, where things were implied, etc. suddenly he's making out with his rifle. It struck me as jarring, at least.

Partly agree. I thought Danny was always a bit creepy, but he didn't actually get much screentime before the camp in the woods bit, where he took a fairly sudden turn. It would have been nice to have him speak/be around more before then so you could get a sense of him being a bit off, and maybe even become comfortable with it in order to then be shocked out of your comfort again later. The scene after the camp with his rifle definitely felt a little gratuitous, and moved away from the hints that stuff might be wrong (such as with Andy asking you not to go into the barn) and went into full-blown "at least one of these people is probably crazy, turn suspicion on immediately".

I was fairly suspicious through most of the episode, and was enjoying the gradual arc into shit really going wrong, so it was a tad jarring to me too. I'm guessing this is really an issue with the episodes being relatively short, and the writers/directors feeling like it needed to move into a climax. It didn't necessarily have the luxury of progressing at a perfect pace all the way. Even so these two episodes remain better paced and continue to have more developed characters than most other games by a fairly long shot, in my estimation.

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Another thing I forgot to mention:

Did anyone else think the transition from overly nice to spectacularly creepy was a bit sudden? Obviously these people could not possibly be as nice as they seemed at first, but after that very nicely done sequence in the woods with the camp, where things were implied, etc. suddenly he's making out with his rifle. It struck me as jarring, at least.

Hmm... obviously everyone who replied already got the moment you were talking about, but I did not...

Did you mean the moment he shot the woman in the camp was the sudden turning point? Or something a bit later? Anyway, I don't remember it being sudden.

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Hmm... obviously everyone who replied already got the moment you were talking about, but I did not...

Did you mean the moment he shot the woman in the camp was the sudden turning point? Or something a bit later? Anyway, I don't remember it being sudden.

These double spoiler block posts are sweet. What I meant was

From the moment you hear them speak the first time, it's pretty obvious something's going to be terribly wrong with these people. They keep being super-nice, which to a cynical zombie story reader/player only increases the feeling of something being off, right? They invite everyone, now there's protection and delicious food, and hey, we'll fix the swing for the kids no problem! Obviously these people are going to turn out to be crazy maniacs. So you head to the woods in the camp, and you look around and this lady ambushes you. There's some dialogue that's about to get real interesting when blam he shoots her. So far, so good; there's been this nice, gradually increasing curve of uneasiness and knowing something's off and what was that that lady about to say, etc.? Next scene: this guy is caressing his rifle, talking about it like it's a lady and he's in love with her. That right there was the weird transition that felt very jarring to me. It sounds plausible that the length of the episode (or development cycle) forced them to maybe cut stuff out or hurry up the progression to get where they were going.

It just hit me I never figured out why the electric fence came back on while we were working on it. I didn't confront them with it when I could because the bow-and-arrowed guy seemed more important. Did anyone confront them about it?

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Next scene: this guy is caressing his rifle, talking about it like it's a lady and he's in love with her.

Ok, that was why I didn't get it then because I never saw that scene, or at least it didn't register.

It just hit me I never figured out why the electric fence came back on while we were working on it. I didn't confront them with it when I could because the bow-and-arrowed guy seemed more important. Did anyone confront them about it?

I did when I had to quit the game midway and the last save point took me back just where I could choose that dialogue line. It didn't change much, just some offhand comment that

he thought he got an "all clear" signal from us

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For the longest time, I thought the family was in charge of the bandits, or at least heavily involved. I even thought they set up this elaborate ruse ambush just to make everyone feel safe enough to bring the whole group in. I was like, "how the fuck can you trust these people after they CLEARLY set you up?" Fence turning on and all! GEEZ.

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Agreed. To Tanu's line way earlier because I was looking at an old version of this page.

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Oh yeah, what annoyed me was that I could go get that sweet zombie-killing crossbow from the bandit that gets shot by his friend in the woods.

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Better than the first episode, but a lot of this stuff has happened in the comic. Yeah it's been a hundred issues and there are only so many zombie-related conflicts that you can go to before they start to feel repetitive, but it still bugged me.

I also made a real cold choice to kill Danny. Sure, I was pissed off, but we were still in the barn and there were other people I had to try to save. He had to go. Plus, Clem already saw Larry get his head smashed. At the end of the world, kids will have to grow up real quick.

I loved the zombie mom walking out of the house at the end. Classic. I also took the food at the end. I thought about it for a minute, cuz the lights were on and it didn't look like there was a fight so it's possible that whoever was in that car would come back; on the other hand, the doors were open and the car was still running, so it's very possible that they ran away from something and are either already dead or are not coming back. It's the end of the world - free food is in front of me, I take it.

My only other problem with the game was when

Larry had the heart attack in the cooler. Kenny wanted to kill him right away. I told him to stop because I want to try to save everyone if possible, and Larry would definitely be an asset in the future. When Kenny smashed his head with a cinder block, I was stunned to say the least. Apparently I am also now his least favorite person, because I guess I took Lilly's side instead of him. All I wanted to do was to try to save Larry! I don't know if Kenny is a coward or just kind of stupid, but I think I may have to end up shooting him at some point. Or he'll do something dumb and get himself killed. Anyway, I'm really looking forward to the next episode. Looks cool.

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Sometimes I wish there was a "No, no, that's not what I meant!" do-over line in dialogue-based games when NPCs react in weird, unexpected ways to the line you pick. I often find myself wondering, if I select this line, will I get to clarify? Not so much in these games as others, though. I remember experiencing it a lot in the Fallout games, wondering if a dialogue line wouldl let me discuss further, or if combat.

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The person with whom I played this and I both really enjoyed episode 2. There were some tough choices, and it was very stressful (in a good way).

It's a little frustrating when you figure something out so far ahead of the person you're controlling in a game:

We knew they were cannibals immediately when they were offering a feast and only had one cow.

Then again, we're approaching the situation as people who are knowingly participating in an expression of zombie/horror fiction, whereas Lee is not. Were I really in his shoes, I doubt I would jump to that conclusion so readily.

I felt bad about some of the shit I did. My girlfriend thinks it's cute and maybe a little weird how much I care about Clementine. I find it nearly impossible to be dishonest with her, but I also wish I could insulate her from some of the grim reality on display.

Some of the choices have made me wonder about myself in a way that games generally don't. Like, when I have decided that certain people just deserve to be killed... I'm not thinking about them as video game entities.

I love seeing the statistical breakdown at the end. It feels more like I'm participating in a psychological experiment than a game sometimes.

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After playing through Episode 1 and being completely thrilled at what Telltale did, I went and read up through Volume 9 of the trade paperbacks. Those books are pretty great if you haven't checked them out yet. I've only watched the first season of the AMC show, but i thought it was pretty funny that everything that happens in that season takes place during the first volume... except that CDC crap. That was garbage (and what made me uninterested in the second season).

Haven't gotten into episode 2 yet, but I've got it ready to go. Did anyone run into the save issue where apparently your choices from #1 didn't carry over?

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We knew they were cannibals immediately when they were offering a feast and only had one cow.

That situation doesn't necessarily imply cannibalism to me. They're on a farm. The meal could have consisted of all sorts of other things that they had grown. I don't remember anyone using the word "feast," but practically anything at that point could have been a relative feast next to a couple packages of crackers and some jerky. And sure, at that time they only had one cow, but who's to say they didn't slaughter their stock at the beginning of the outbreak in order to preserve the meat and prevent the care of the animals from becoming a liability? The success of that would be questionable depending on how the story's world treats it, but I would say it's a reasonable course of action.

But, yes, being versed in zombie narratives does raise some signals that can telegraph those events. Like I said earlier, I thought it was going to be a zombie-husband, being kept and fed because they refuse to believe he's really gone. That one has been done far more in what I'm familiar with, so that was my immediate conclusion-jump.

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That situation doesn't necessarily imply cannibalism to me. They're on a farm. The meal could have consisted of all sorts of other things that they had grown. I don't remember anyone using the word "feast," but practically anything at that point could have been a relative feast next to a couple packages of crackers and some jerky. And sure, at that time they only had one cow, but who's to say they didn't slaughter their stock at the beginning of the outbreak in order to preserve the meat and prevent the care of the animals from becoming a liability? The success of that would be questionable depending on how the story's world treats it, but I would say it's a reasonable course of action.

Yeah

I interpreted it as lots of vegetables and bread since they were giving those out to the party.

The only part that really kind of annoyed me was at the very end when

you either have to take all of the supplies or none of them. After I had taken two packages worth, I wanted to leave, but didn't have the option, I feel like that's a missed opportunity there.

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The only part that really kind of annoyed me was at the very end when

you either have to take all of the supplies or none of them. After I had taken two packages worth, I wanted to leave, but didn't have the option, I feel like that's a missed opportunity there.

The main thing that annoyed me about that scene was that there was no option in the dialogue to

justify your actions with what I saw as the actual logical interpretation, which is that if they left their car out there with the doors open and the lights on, they probably aren't coming back. If the car's owners were in a state to be consciously leaving their car out there so they could come back to it later, they would have turned it off and locked it up first. Obviously that's not the only possible situation, but I didn't like that the dialogue exaggerated the two courses of action as real extremes, instead of allowing a fairly straightforward interpretation.

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I'm guessing they felt they had to tailor it somewhat to the X% did This, (100-X)% did That! thing, which seems to be an important element of the (marketing of the) game. I felt the numerical summary retroactively detracted somewhat from the experience, as, instead of letting the game be a contiguous series of events and decisions, big and small, it x-rays it to reveal the internal structure of the plot, depicting it as series of discrete A or B decisions, ostensibly revealing what data points are carried over between episodes. It's not a huge deal, since one decision is not necessarily better than the other, but it takes me out of the story, and I wish it'd at least be hidden behind a "statistics" button in the menu or something.

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Yeah, I kind of agree. Leave out the achievements and the stats screen and the game becomes even better.

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