Decline The Walking Dead (SPOILERS)

[Metro]

I read about 50-60 issues of the comic book and it's pretty fucking shit. It's basicly ridiculously melodramatic soap opera with zombies, haven't watched tv-show but can't imagine it being any better.

If it were really that bad I doubt you'd get through 50-60 issues.

 

[Shadenuat]

Admit I kinda got attached to Clem in the end. Probably because she is such a perfect waif daughter archetype - she does not cry, does not bitch, does not faint or panic... compared to pretty much every character in the whole game, maybe with exception of that indian couple, she has Iron Will, 19 DEX and takes 10 on every perception check.

As for C&C, I started to suspect something the moment in the second episode character I saved with C&C suddenly "stayed in camp because plot" to only be seen again in the end, and then just got, well, you know, shot quickly so developers could save their money there. Also note at how hilariously useless your group will be in the end. Levels are designed for Lee to do anything himself - jumping, ladder climbing, and so on. They are just actors playing a bit at pre defined points.
Now I remember Blade Runner with it's fuckton of endings from completely miserable to ones which actually felt bittersweet good, and I wonder what the hell is the problem.

I was disappointed Lee did not do this to his cut arm:

 

[tuluse]

Admit I kinda got attached to Clem in the end. Probably because she is such a perfect waif daughter archetype - she does not cry, does not bitch, does not faint or panic...

Just finished ep2 last night, and I was just thinking this. She's what, 8 years old? And she never cries because zombies are eating everyone she knows. Her parents are gone, and it barely fazes her.

The only thing that's annoying so far is explaining, yes you stupid little girl we're taking the food left in the car right in our path.

Thoughts on ep2:

I like how not taking any food yourself has no effect. There is never a time where your character is too weak to do something (unless they're really subtle about it, which given the rest of the writing seems unlikely), or anything else.

I also like how the dialog options indicate that Lilly is the "smart" and "rational" one while Kenny is the "emotional one", while their ideas about what to do are the complete opposite. For example, Lilly wants to stay at the motorinn because "we know what to expect", wait what? What does that even mean. Meanwhile, Kenny wants to leave because there is no food. A nice solid logical reason.

Once again retardation is forced on the main player through inaction. Like you can't say, "no don't bring the whole group to the creepy farm, lets scope it out first". You can't demand to see Mark.

I chose "it was an ambush" when I got back from securing the fence, and it never let me bring up the fact that the electric fence got turned on while Mark and I were out.

 

[aris]

1. Season 2 out for pre-order on steam now!
2. Seems like the first episode will come out in November!

 

[aris]

First episode of season 2 is out!

Downloading it now!

 

[Whisky]

Whoa, calm down there Gaudy.

Well, I'm probably gonna play it too, despite finding Season 1 brain poison for the most part. Not sure why I'm even bothering.

 

[Eyeball]

Because adventure games are largely dead and this is what we get instead.

 

[aris]

in the intro credits it's actually called an interactive story. And it's not one or the other, it's a development of the interactive story genre.

IMO telltale were never very good at making adventure games. They have shown themselves to be damn good at making interactive stories though.

Also inb4 Metro and his usual attempts to gather KKK from games he allegedly don't care about.

 

[Tommy Wiseau]

Episode 1 was p. good. I liked most things about it.

oh and inb4

 

[aris]

I must say that it didn't grab me so much. And it starts to feel a little too... formulaic, maybe even predictable. But we'll see how the rest of the season pans out.

And also, the "moral" choices were mostly pretty lame. There was no moral grey area like in the first season, and they weren't at all hard to make, which also goes to show by the fact that 92% agreed on all the choices I made. The other 8% were probably roleplaying an evil character of something.

 

[HanoverF]

lol I got a phone call so me and 6% other players didn't accept the guy's apology. I wonder if they got distracted too, or are just assholes...

I wish they would have done away with the "So-and-so will remember that" then in the very next scene they die


Also I had a dog named Sam, fuck you, Walking Dead.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

I must say that it didn't grab me so much. And it starts to feel a little too... formulaic, maybe even predictable. But we'll see how the rest of the season pans out.

And also, the "moral" choices were mostly pretty lame. There was no moral grey area like in the first season, and they weren't at all hard to make, which also goes to show by the fact that 92% agreed on all the choices I made. The other 8% were probably roleplaying an evil character of something.

Exactly it is getting formulaic and empty. These forced "you have to make a difficult moral decision NOW!!!" points are also starting to be more grating than anything else. It is stupid that they highlight that "X will remember that you did "X, because obviously the player cannot be intelligent enough to notice it.

Also is it just me but did this episode have even less gameplay than in Season 1? It is basically either QTE, or click on stuff until you get to the next scene.

Even the cliched emo guitar solo at the beginning, somewhere in the middle, and at the end are really grating my nerves to no end.

 

[Whisky]

This really felt like it was just going through the motions. Did you notice there wasn't really a single time you had a normal conversation with a character? It was always timed responses.

And my god was there a lot of stupid shit.

Spoiler

"Hey guys, this girl has a gaping arm wound and we can't tell if this girl was bitten by a zombie or a dog."

"I'm a doctor and dog teeth are identical to human teeth."

"What'll we do!?"

"Don't treat it and lock her up in this filthy shed until morning. If she has a fever in the morning, that means it was a zombie bite. If not, then I guess we'll slap a band-aid on it..."

"GENIUS!"

and

Spoiler

Pete screaming, "I'M OUT OF AMMO!" after firing one shot. Really. Fucking really. There was no reason a functional person should have had any problem with this situation.

Yet I'm still playing, I dunno why. Maybe it's just to have something to discuss with people, this game is frighteningly popular.

 

[evdk]

Because adventure games are largely dead

... that's so not true it might actually be some kind of record.

 

[Whisky]

Because adventure games are largely dead

... that's so not true it might actually be some kind of record.

Yeah, they're not dead. There's quite a few independent groups making adventure games nowadays and they're doing better lately than they have been in a long time. It's just that the Walking Dead is all most people can see nowadays.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

They are dead to the extent where mainstream companies will big budgets making very polished adventure games are extinct, except for some fussy cartoonish ones from Germany.

 

[Name]

This really felt like it was just going through the motions. Did you notice there wasn't really a single time you had a normal conversation with a character? It was always timed responses.

And my god was there a lot of stupid shit.

Spoiler

"Hey guys, this girl has a gaping arm wound and we can't tell if this girl was bitten by a zombie or a dog."

"I'm a doctor and dog teeth are identical to human teeth."

"What'll we do!?"

"Don't treat it and lock her up in this filthy shed until morning. If she has a fever in the morning, that means it was a zombie bite. If not, then I guess we'll slap a band-aid on it..."

"GENIUS!"

and

Spoiler

Pete screaming, "I'M OUT OF AMMO!" after firing one shot. Really. Fucking really. There was no reason a functional person should have had any problem with this situation.

Yet I'm still playing, I dunno why. Maybe it's just to have something to discuss with people, this game is frighteningly popular.

Both cases are lampshaded by characters saying that they are low on supply. So it's not that stupid, just bad writing. At least the writers are self-conscious at those points.

 

[Whisky]

This really felt like it was just going through the motions. Did you notice there wasn't really a single time you had a normal conversation with a character? It was always timed responses.

And my god was there a lot of stupid shit.

Spoiler

"Hey guys, this girl has a gaping arm wound and we can't tell if this girl was bitten by a zombie or a dog."

"I'm a doctor and dog teeth are identical to human teeth."

"What'll we do!?"

"Don't treat it and lock her up in this filthy shed until morning. If she has a fever in the morning, that means it was a zombie bite. If not, then I guess we'll slap a band-aid on it..."

"GENIUS!"

and

Spoiler

Pete screaming, "I'M OUT OF AMMO!" after firing one shot. Really. Fucking really. There was no reason a functional person should have had any problem with this situation.

Yet I'm still playing, I dunno why. Maybe it's just to have something to discuss with people, this game is frighteningly popular.

Both cases are lampshaded by characters saying that they are low on supply. So it's not that stupid, just bad writing. At least the writers are self-conscious at those points.

Only works to an extent

Spoiler

My main issue was them considering seeing if Clem had a fever the next morning a sure sign that she was bitten by a zombie. All that would show is that she had an infected limb from them acting like idiots.

Plus then later when they check on her after the zombie attack, the doctor says that she's obviously fine, despite it not being close to morning.

Spoiler

Ammunition part is still retarded because Pete's son blasted significantly more than one round and even having spares for reloading.

But yeah, we can agree on the bad writing part.

 

[Name]

My main gripe is that this episode constantly reminds me of the new Tomb Raider for obvious reason.

 

[aris]

I must say that it didn't grab me so much. And it starts to feel a little too... formulaic, maybe even predictable. But we'll see how the rest of the season pans out.

And also, the "moral" choices were mostly pretty lame. There was no moral grey area like in the first season, and they weren't at all hard to make, which also goes to show by the fact that 92% agreed on all the choices I made. The other 8% were probably roleplaying an evil character of something.

Exactly it is getting formulaic and empty. These forced "you have to make a difficult moral decision NOW!!!" points are also starting to be more grating than anything else. It is stupid that they highlight that "X will remember that you did "X, because obviously the player cannot be intelligent enough to notice it.

Also is it just me but did this episode have even less gameplay than in Season 1? It is basically either QTE, or click on stuff until you get to the next scene.

Even the cliched emo guitar solo at the beginning, somewhere in the middle, and at the end are really grating my nerves to no end.

Hmm. I can't really say that I disagree... What little there was of gameplay in the first season was welcome, now it almost seems condescending, making you click to take things out of the bag, light a fire etc. I can only hope that it improves.

 

[imweasel]

The writing of the first episode of season 2 is pretty bad, I am rather disappointed. Whoever directed the game also obviously has his head up his ass.

The milking of the series has begun much earlier than I expected.

My main gripe is that this episode constantly reminds me of the new Tomb Raider for obvious reason.

Shouldn't take long until they rename the series "Tomb Raider with Zombies".

 

[Humanity has risen!]

Oddly enough, only the tranny reviewer at Gamespot dares to points out the game's flaws, the other are mostly all gushing over how much of an emotionally engaging masterpiece it is:

http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/the-walking-dead-season-two-episode-1-all-that-rem/1900-6415605/

 

[aris]

The first episode of the new season, All That Remains, has a few harrowing moments and a gameplay sequence that will make you squirm as you uncomfortably empathize with a suffering character, but the element that made the first season of The Walking Dead so powerful--those quiet, heavy choices in moments of human interaction--is largely absent here. The episode's focus is clearly on setting up the characters and conflicts that might pay off in later chapters; it serves a narrative purpose, but isn't especially effective on its own terms.

This pretty much nailed it on the head. What really sucked me in, the first season where the many quite lengthy conversations you could have with people. It fleshed out the people and made you care about them and their motivations, and even understand them even though you didn't agree with them. The first episode felt just like action sequence after action sequnce most of it spent in solitude. Outside of the cutscene dialogs, you couldn't have a several dialog in the whole episode, which you could have plenty of in episode 1 season 1 if I remember correctly. It seems like the developer didn't quite get what made that first season great, it wasn't the action sequences, and it wasn't people constantly dying or having to chose which one to save.

I hope they realize it before it's too late.

 

[Tommy Wiseau]

Most reviews that point out negatives in the episode say that it's mostly exposition and doesn't follow a coherent plot. I don't know how the rest of the season will turn out but I think that exposition should be expected in the first episode of a five-part series. How was season 1 different in that regard?

 

[Name]

Exposition? Plot? I don't know, S02E01 is fairly character-driven, it's about a survivor is born

Spoiler

Clementine growing independent after losing parents, father figure, last friends and a dog

. S01 is more about a group of people trying to move to one place after another trying to survive, your standard zombie story. I expect more "coherent plot" will set in once other survival groups make appearance so they can generate more conflicts between groups of humans, a direction they will have to follow after comics and shows I guess?