The Walking Dead (from Telltale Games) - Catch All

Just finished up. Very satisfied with the entire ride. The ending was definitely tugging hard on my heart strings.

Now I can go back and read the spoilers in this thread!

wanderingtaoist wrote:

Well it was tense and touching at the same time. Really enjoyed this one, well the whole season. Several things:

Spoiler:

I was glad I saved Ben, his shouting match with Kenny really cleared up a lot in the last episode.

Spoiler:

I didn't save Ben. What gets cleared up?

I finished all 5 episodes. Great game. Spoiler time.

Spoiler:

Really? As a fan of noir fiction or fiction where everybody dies, I thought it was cliche for Lee to be bitten. Everything was tense up to that point but half the tension dropped when he got bit. I enjoyed the conversation with the stranger at the end but I thought it was too wordy and unnecessary. I felt it would be have been more true to the milieu(?) if it came down to Lee sneaking into the Marsh Hotel and shooting the stranger in the head immediately. No explanation, no words. Just bang, grab Clem and get the f**k out. I did shoot him immediately as soon as the choice was offered.

Spoiler:

Huh. I thought my decision to kill both brothers at the dairy farm was gonna be a popular one. Nope. I was one of only 17% of players who killed them both - first bro with the pitchfork and then the second bro with a kick and an electric fence. Bzzzzzzzzzz. I was gonna kill their mother no matter how it went down. Even if she surrendered that b*tch was dead. She was the Enemy. She was eaten by a hungry zombie. Adios, b*tch-face.

Spoiler:

I'm sorry. Only 17% of players killed both dairy farm bros? What the hell people?! This guys were f**king with you and yours! They killed one of your group! (in my game at least). And they ate him! F that noise. Time for the Bullet Boogaloo. And it wasn't a revenge thing. It's just, you mess with me, you die. What am I gonna do? What are you gonna do? Throw them in prison? Put them in front of a jury of their peers? Killing them wasn't even justice. It was necessary in the same way tying your shoes is necessary.

demonbox wrote:
Spoiler:

I didn't save Ben. What gets cleared up?

Basically,

Spoiler:

Ben just explodes at Kenny... saying that at least Kenny was with his family and knew what happened to them. Ben talks about how he has no idea what's going on with his family and he flips out a bit. Does a fairly good job of making him a bit more sympathetic to the player (YMMV).

SommerMatt wrote:
demonbox wrote:
Spoiler:

I didn't save Ben. What gets cleared up?

Basically,

Spoiler:

Ben just explodes at Kenny... saying that at least Kenny was with his family and knew what happened to them. Ben talks about how he has no idea what's going on with his family and he flips out a bit. Does a fairly good job of making him a bit more sympathetic to the player (YMMV).

[spoiler]In my version Ben falls and seems to break his back. The fall down is really pretty.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn2x-...

Also, I went searching for Clem alone. Made

Spoiler:

cutting my arm off by myself

one of the tensest moments in the game.

Strangeblades wrote:
Spoiler:

I'm sorry. Only 17% of players killed both dairy farm bros? What the hell people?! This guys were f**king with you and yours! They killed one of your group! (in my game at least). And they ate him! F that noise. Time for the Bullet Boogaloo. And it wasn't a revenge thing. It's just, you mess with me, you die. What am I gonna do? What are you gonna do? Throw them in prison? Put them in front of a jury of their peers? Killing them wasn't even justice. It was necessary in the same way tying your shoes is necessary.

Spoiler:

I left the second one beaten, broken, and surrounded by a horde of zombies. Seemed less merciful than killing him outright.

Bonus_Eruptus wrote:
Strangeblades wrote:
Spoiler:

I'm sorry. Only 17% of players killed both dairy farm bros? What the hell people?! This guys were f**king with you and yours! They killed one of your group! (in my game at least). And they ate him! F that noise. Time for the Bullet Boogaloo. And it wasn't a revenge thing. It's just, you mess with me, you die. What am I gonna do? What are you gonna do? Throw them in prison? Put them in front of a jury of their peers? Killing them wasn't even justice. It was necessary in the same way tying your shoes is necessary.

Spoiler:

I left the second one beaten, broken, and surrounded by a horde of zombies. Seemed less merciful than killing him outright.

Spoiler:

But that's the thing. I didn't kill him out of revenge. I killed him 'cause that's what you do when there is no law, no courts, no cops, no prisons. You kill, you live.

I haven't read anything in this thread, to avoid spoilers, but I wanted to share this from Kirkman's Twitter feed today.

SommerMatt wrote:
demonbox wrote:
Spoiler:

I didn't save Ben. What gets cleared up?

Basically,

Spoiler:

Ben just explodes at Kenny... saying that at least Kenny was with his family and knew what happened to them. Ben talks about how he has no idea what's going on with his family and he flips out a bit. Does a fairly good job of making him a bit more sympathetic to the player (YMMV).

Spoiler:

Talked to a co-worker today who played and Ben was the only one who went with him to rescue Clem. Made me wonder how many permutations there are.

demonbox wrote:
Spoiler:

Talked to a co-worker today who played and Ben was the only one who went with him to rescue Clem. Made me wonder how many permutations there are.

Spoiler:

Judging by the end of season 4, any permutation of Kenny, Ben and/or Omid and Christa together.

You know in retrospect every episode of the Walking Dead game has a very clear common theme.

Spoiler:

The Walking Dead is a game about parents and their children. Children who die before their parents and parents who die before their children.

Not an uncommon theme in the zombie apocalypse genre, but this game really seems to focus on it.

Spoiler:

Huh. I took the food without question. If that meant others would die, well, I shouldn't flap my arms then because I could cause a tsunami in Japan or something.

Spoiler:

Lee's Instant Kill Policy, Chapter 1: There are no police officers, no courts, no lawyers, no prisons and no physical system of justice he could turn to. There was his gun and what danger he could end with it. If something is dangerous or considered dangerous it dies or it is destroyed.

Spoiler:

I don't know how much the comic influenced me. In the comic, Rick's character had this simple revelation. "You kill, you live." You don't wait for sh*t to happen to justify your action.

I absolutely loved this game. The ending was pitch-perfect, just what I expected without being totally predictable. My decisions:

Spoiler:

I brought the whole group except Kenny with me, and had Christa cut off my arm in the hopes that it would be enough to let me live. I was a little surprised at how well Lee could get around, jumping from building to building with only one arm, but it did make sense to have him take the biggest risks, since there was no way of knowing if the amputation worked. When Ben fell, I knew what Kenny intended, but I couldn't make myself try to talk him out of it. I noticed that we never saw him die, but I don't know if there would be a point to saving his character - although it might be fun to see him in the TV show or comic.

When I got to the hotel room (I went first across the sign), I bluffed the guy and kept my weapon. I saw later that I was in the minority there, which surprised me. It was a little frustrating, not being able to tell the guy that we called out when we found the car, and I took the lack of reply to mean that the owner was dead. Honestly, that was one of the hardest decisions for me to make in the game, tied with kicking Ben out (but not letting him drop to his death) and helping Kenny in dealing with Larry. All the rest of my decisions that he called me on I was pretty comfortable with the inquiry: I made the best call I could at the time, except for abandoning Lilly. She was unstable, dangerously so, but leaving her alone was wrong, I could only point out that he didn't have the whole story, though. After Clem hit the guy with the bottle, I was able to knock his gun away and choke him out, one handed. I shot him in the head, too, but didn't want to lose a bullet. Then the fake-out at the door... Evil trick to play. It actually fooled me into thinking that Lee had a chance, for a little while.

When we were walking down the street, and Clem stopped, I knew it had to be her parents and my heart broke for her. When I noticed how off the color of Lee's face was in that scene, it broke a second time; and then Lee fainted. I had Clem handcuff me to the radiator with my one hand, and I saved her the agony of having to kill me, knowing that Lee would be gone, but his one-handed body would live on, chained to a radiator until it couldn't move any more. It was one last kindness I could do for a little girl who I just wanted to protect. I told her to find Christa and Omid, who agreed to take care of her, I choose to believe that those are the silhouettes she sees atop the hill. It was really a wonderful story, I'm so glad I played it.

I think complaints about your decisions not fundamentally altering the ending of the game are missing the point; the old expression about it being the journey, not the destination that matters. Honestly, knowing that the broad strokes for the whole story are mostly the same for everyone makes it a lot easier to talk about it, even when details are different.

Atras wrote:

I absolutely loved this game. The ending was pitch-perfect, just what I expected without being totally predictable. My decisions:

[spoilery stuff]

That's how it played out for me too.

Atras wrote:

I think complaints about your decisions not fundamentally altering the ending of the game are missing the point; the old expression about it being the journey, not the destination that matters. Honestly, knowing that the broad strokes for the whole story are mostly the same for everyone makes it a lot easier to talk about it, even when details are different.

This is pretty much how I feel about this, too. I mean, as a game programmer I couldn't imagine trying to program a specific scenario for every combination of choices that are out there for a game like this. I approached this game pretty much knowing that the end game was going to be basically the same for everyone, but there would be these pivotal moments that really end up being the focus of the discussion more than the culmination. Maybe that's the wrong way to think about it, but I kind of look at it like a DM of a D&D campaign. The DM has an idea of where the party will end up, but ultimately knows how the adventure is going to end.

Atras wrote:

I absolutely loved this game. The ending was pitch-perfect, just what I expected without being totally predictable. My decisions:

Spoiler:

I brought the whole group except Kenny with me, and had Christa cut off my arm in the hopes that it would be enough to let me live. I was a little surprised at how well Lee could get around, jumping from building to building with only one arm, but it did make sense to have him take the biggest risks, since there was no way of knowing if the amputation worked. When Ben fell, I knew what Kenny intended, but I couldn't make myself try to talk him out of it. I noticed that we never saw him die, but I don't know if there would be a point to saving his character - although it might be fun to see him in the TV show or comic.

When I got to the hotel room (I went first across the sign), I bluffed the guy and kept my weapon. I saw later that I was in the minority there, which surprised me. It was a little frustrating, not being able to tell the guy that we called out when we found the car, and I took the lack of reply to mean that the owner was dead. Honestly, that was one of the hardest decisions for me to make in the game, tied with kicking Ben out (but not letting him drop to his death) and helping Kenny in dealing with Larry. All the rest of my decisions that he called me on I was pretty comfortable with the inquiry: I made the best call I could at the time, except for abandoning Lilly. She was unstable, dangerously so, but leaving her alone was wrong, I could only point out that he didn't have the whole story, though. After Clem hit the guy with the bottle, I was able to knock his gun away and choke him out, one handed. I shot him in the head, too, but didn't want to lose a bullet. Then the fake-out at the door... Evil trick to play. It actually fooled me into thinking that Lee had a chance, for a little while.

When we were walking down the street, and Clem stopped, I knew it had to be her parents and my heart broke for her. When I noticed how off the color of Lee's face was in that scene, it broke a second time; and then Lee fainted. I had Clem handcuff me to the radiator with my one hand, and I saved her the agony of having to kill me, knowing that Lee would be gone, but his one-handed body would live on, chained to a radiator until it couldn't move any more. It was one last kindness I could do for a little girl who I just wanted to protect. I told her to find Christa and Omid, who agreed to take care of her, I choose to believe that those are the silhouettes she sees atop the hill. It was really a wonderful story, I'm so glad I played it.

I think complaints about your decisions not fundamentally altering the ending of the game are missing the point; the old expression about it being the journey, not the destination that matters. Honestly, knowing that the broad strokes for the whole story are mostly the same for everyone makes it a lot easier to talk about it, even when details are different.

Huh.

Spoiler:

Kindness? I disagree. This kid now lives in a world where new rules are in play. You shoot your dead loved ones in the head. That is actually easier for a child to learn and accept than it is for an adult (believe me - children are sponges this way). All I kept thinking when I was RPing Lee, was what is going to make things safer for Clem?

Spoiler:

I love that this game generates these conversations. What fun.

Strangeblades wrote:
Spoiler:

I had Clem handcuff me to the radiator with my one hand, and I saved her the agony of having to kill me, knowing that Lee would be gone, but his one-handed body would live on, chained to a radiator until it couldn't move any more. It was one last kindness I could do for a little girl who I just wanted to protect.

Huh.

Spoiler:

Kindness? I disagree. This kid now lives in a world where new rules are in play. You shoot your dead loved ones in the head. That is actually easier for a child to learn and accept than it is for an adult (believe me - children are sponges this way). All I kept thinking when I was RPing Lee, was what is going to make things safer for Clem?

I love that this game generates these conversations. What fun.

Spoiler:

I have kids, so I know what sponges they can be; it's scary sometimes. The thing about shooting every walker you see is that you are not going to realistically ever kill all of them. Save your ammo for dangerous people. Kill walkers quietly, noise will draw more of them. If you can lock one away and not have to deal with it, do so. They were pretty cavalier with their ammo and gun noises in the game, so maybe it just didn't really apply, but I think shooting Lee is wasteful and causes unnecessary pain to Clem.

Atras wrote:
Strangeblades wrote:
Spoiler:

I had Clem handcuff me to the radiator with my one hand, and I saved her the agony of having to kill me, knowing that Lee would be gone, but his one-handed body would live on, chained to a radiator until it couldn't move any more. It was one last kindness I could do for a little girl who I just wanted to protect.

Huh.

Spoiler:

Kindness? I disagree. This kid now lives in a world where new rules are in play. You shoot your dead loved ones in the head. That is actually easier for a child to learn and accept than it is for an adult (believe me - children are sponges this way). All I kept thinking when I was RPing Lee, was what is going to make things safer for Clem?

I love that this game generates these conversations. What fun.

Spoiler:

I have kids, so I know what sponges they can be; it's scary sometimes. The thing about shooting every walker you see is that you are not going to realistically ever kill all of them. Save your ammo for dangerous people. Kill walkers quietly, noise will draw more of them. If you can lock one away and not have to deal with it, do so. They were pretty cavalier with their ammo and gun noises in the game, so maybe it just didn't really apply, but I think shooting Lee is wasteful and causes unnecessary pain to Clem.

Spoiler:

As you've probably guessed walkers are not the problem. It's people who are the problem. And what constitutes a danger should be decided on a case-by-case basis.

Spoiler:

For some reason almost everyone in the Walking Dead world thinks it's better to be dead than a zombie. Having Clem kill Lee isn't a lesson about survival, it's a lesson about mercy.

Also, how crazy would it be if the two people at the end were...

Spoiler:

Kenny and Lilly.

Musings:

Spoiler:

I'm not sure I would want to see Clem in the next season. Over the course of Season 1, Clem loses her innocence. She's now killed zombies, seen people get killed, seen her parents as zombies, and had to (kill / leave behind) her adoptive father. She's no longer the child that a player can look after.

Clem as the protagonist? It doesn't seem too interesting if she's still 9. I don't know how far into the future the comics have progressed, but I could only see Clem as a protagonist if we fast forward at least 5 -10 years.

Spoiler:

I can't believe anyone cut their hand off. Too much time had passed. You'd just passed out from the virus spreading throughout your system. It was too late. You have to do it right away to even have a chance.

This game had me on the edge of my seat and feeling real emotions. I truly hope they do a 2nd season.

Double post for some reason

I completely avoided all comments before mine to avoid any potential spoilers.

I've waited until all the episodes are out before I played this. I'm only through the first part of the game and I am really looking forward to everything that is going to be happening in the next episode.

I will be playing this much more tomorrow.

Sorry guys, I haven't read through the comments yet, because I'm terrified of spoilers (and it would be reasonable to assume this thread's full of 'em). I will be back to discuss this game, though, because good grief, this game really really hits you hard. I've been completely wrapped up in the story and have been playing an episode a day (a few "what? it's past midnight already?" moments there...), and just completely episode 4 last night.

Some will say that I'm getting too emotional, but this game really has a few moments that left me quite shaken, and they cleverly used the gameplay to emphasize that (a few moments when you have to click over and over again to do and complete a certain gruesome task, there are a few examples). The tension is really well done, they don't overuse the "jump scare" tactic, it's really well done.

Will be back after I finish episode 5, definitely looking forward to discussing it in depths with Goodjers! (Also, shouldn't we be getting the spoiler section on the podcast soon?)

JillSammich wrote:
wanderingtaoist wrote:

And a question:

Spoiler:

If you let Ben die, how does Kenny die in ep 5? I suppose he dies anyway, that is.

Spoiler:

He goes down into a dark hole in the top of a building to save... someone... boosts them up, and gets chased away by zombies. You never know if he is killed or not, but it's kind of implied

Spoiler:

There's a good chance he's alive. They were at least leaving the door open.

wanderingtaoist wrote:

Also, I went searching for Clem alone. Made

Spoiler:

cutting my arm off by myself

one of the tensest moments in the game.

Spoiler:

How did you climb the ladders?

Eleima wrote:

Will be back after I finish episode 5, definitely looking forward to discussing it in depths with Goodjers! (Also, shouldn't we be getting the spoiler section on the podcast soon?)

Yes, they are going to do a spoiler section. Not sure if it's next week or the week after. They are waiting until all those who want to can take part.

Higgledy wrote:
Spoiler:

How did you climb the ladders?

Spoiler:

Very carefully.

spoiler-free:

In my perfect world the success of these 5 episodes would end the storyline of the characters.

Leave the characters alone. They are now immortal. Continuing their story is something I rather would not want to see. From now on, you can just ruin it?

But that is not how this business works. And business has suddenly been good to Telltale Games. Good for them. I would rather want to see them doing something completely new and fresh. Even if they would do another The Walking Dead round.

Also, one more time, shame on Bioware. THIS is how you do decision making. This is how you do a great ending, instead your RGB-color versions?!