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Decline The Walking Dead (SPOILERS)

Tommy Wiseau

Arcane
Joined
Apr 7, 2012
Messages
9,424
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.

"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

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.

My take was that they were trying to find excuses to not waste supplies on her. I did think their logic was absurd since you don't need to get a zombie bite to get an infection and a fever, but the characters started panicking the moment they found out she was bitten. They claim they had a similar incident when they helped a stranger and lost someone from their group because of it IIRC.

That said, the setting basically relies on some of its characters making some incredibly irrational and cowardly decisions to advance the plot so I was never entirely sold on its 'realism' pitch.
 

Name

Cipher
Joined
May 24, 2013
Messages
866
Location
Glorious Nihon
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.

"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

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.

My take was that they were trying to find excuses to not waste supplies on her. I did think their logic was absurd since you don't need to get a zombie bite to get an infection and a fever, but the characters started panicking the moment they found out she was bitten. They claim they had a similar incident when they helped a stranger and lost someone from their group because of it IIRC.

That said, the setting basically relies on some of its characters making some incredibly irrational and cowardly decisions to advance the plot so I was never entirely sold on its 'realism' pitch.

General irrationality and cowardice is considered realism I guess. At least emotional realism.
 

aris

Arcane
Joined
Apr 27, 2012
Messages
11,613
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?
I only learned about the walking dead after the last episode was released, so I played pretty much through the whole thing in one sitting. I can't remember episode 1 all that clearly, but I think it was more self-contained than this one.

And I do remember that you could open several quite lengthy dialogs with characters, something you weren't allowed to do even once in this episode. Something that worries me a bit.
 

Whisky

The Solution
Joined
Feb 22, 2012
Messages
8,555
Location
Banjoville, British Columbia
Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera
Yeah, the game is an absolute mess. I can understand, somewhat, Bioware cheating at choices, since their games are something else entirely, but when a game's entire draw is the choices and those are the only things you have any say in, they should fucking matter. Telltale has made more money off of Walking Dead than anything before, they can afford to expand their production. Season 2, instead, got worse.
 

Tommy Wiseau

Arcane
Joined
Apr 7, 2012
Messages
9,424
Only on the Codex will people conflate (a lack of) multiple-choice branches with substandard writing.
 

Whisky

The Solution
Joined
Feb 22, 2012
Messages
8,555
Location
Banjoville, British Columbia
Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera
I made a longer post complaining about the writing as well. Both lack of C&C and the terrible writing are serious problems.

Of course, the main issue with the writing is that every character is retarded and that with the slightest bit of awareness and communication skills, half the shit wouldn't happen. But that is apparently a franchise-wide thing (Hell, all zombie movies.).
 

Tommy Wiseau

Arcane
Joined
Apr 7, 2012
Messages
9,424
Of course, the main issue with the writing is that every character is retarded and that with the slightest bit of awareness and communication skills, half the shit wouldn't happen. But that is apparently a franchise-wide thing (Hell, all zombie movies.).

This is more or less what the franchise is about and in a sense, understandable since it suggests a fairly bleak perspective on humanity and its entire plot revolves around a struggle for co-operation. If you can suspend disbelief on some parts of the aforementioned, the game has stronger writing than a good portion of the comics, let alone the television series.

Conflate? It has both problems. Substandard writing and no meaningful C&C. Having at least the former would have redeemed it as a (modern) adventure game. Having at least the latter would have redeemed it as a VN/CYOA.

It doesn't have both problems, just one. That's why it passes in most people's eyes.
 

aris

Arcane
Joined
Apr 27, 2012
Messages
11,613
The first season had easily some of the best and multifaceted characters ever written for a video game. Easily. And what's more, that couldn't be recreated by putting it in a series or a comics, not in the same way, like some people claim. I can agree with C&C, even though it has more C&C than pretty much every game that the codex thinks has C&C, but it wasn't good enough. But writing? Hell no. It was rock solid.
 

aris

Arcane
Joined
Apr 27, 2012
Messages
11,613
you're confusing "dumb characters doing dumb things" with bad writing. In a more recent example lauded for it's good writing, breaking bad, it had tons of "dumb" characters certainly doing dumb things all the time. Also, what other "obvious" tropes did they use? I'm not well versed in horror, but I don't think the cannibal farm is that common.
 

Darklife

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 24, 2012
Messages
1,041
Location
Mexico of Europe. The northern one.
Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera
I caved and bought it on the Steam sale, since obviously it will NEVER be on sale ever again!

The story was fine enough, although the only part that really surprised me was how the entire dog plotline developed. I was certain he would be a companion. The only time all of this felt too familiar, was at the very ending, when we're forced to make an almost identical choice as in the first game. I hope to God, that it doesn't result in one character getting axed.

It was bloody short though. I guess that was to be expected, but I went through episode 1 in like two days, so being deprived after like two hours felt kind of cheap.
 

Whisky

The Solution
Joined
Feb 22, 2012
Messages
8,555
Location
Banjoville, British Columbia
Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera
I hope to God, that it doesn't result in one character getting axed.

One of the characters is likely bitten and from what I hear, during his scene in the preview he's about to chop off his leg, so I think you know the answer to that already.

But if they honestly make the two characters roles completely different, I'll do something unbelievable.
 

aris

Arcane
Joined
Apr 27, 2012
Messages
11,613
Episode 2 out right now. Downloading as we speak. Let's see how this episode is, if they listened to the critiques of the first episode.
 

aris

Arcane
Joined
Apr 27, 2012
Messages
11,613
Just finished the second episode. This one was thankfully A LOT better than the first one. It even contains a pretty huge surprise for those who played the first season. I enjoyed it.
 

Whisky

The Solution
Joined
Feb 22, 2012
Messages
8,555
Location
Banjoville, British Columbia
Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera
That was actually pretty good, especially compared to the previous episode. Minimal idiot plot stuff too.

I guess they've completely given up on normal dialogue trees though.

Though Kenny was not really a surprise. The stinger from Episode 1 could only have been him or Krista, and Telltale already said that Season 2 would go into his fate.
 

Eyeball

Arcane
Joined
Sep 3, 2010
Messages
2,541
So I got around to playing the first season since it was on sale, haven't touched the second season but it looks like I probably won't.

This "game" was widely praised for its emotionally resonant storytelling, but I found it very difficult to care about characters that I had no meaningful control over. None of my gameplay decisions mattered in any noncosmetic way. If I save someone, he or she dies anyway or disappears, it doesn't make a difference. All the notifications that he or she noticed this or that thing I did or said, were pointless distractions. I found I could only enjoy it if I thought of it not as a proper game but as a very linear visual novel. If I were to judge it as a visual novel, it also fails miserably. There was no meaningful branching. The narrative is full of red herrings and deus ex machina. Most characters in the large ensemble have little to no development. The big bad guy comes out of nowhere, and disappears just as quickly. It's lazy writing, doubly so because of the licensed IP.

Fuck Telltale. If this is how they'll do ASOIAF, they might as well not bother.
That action tree was pretty depressing - half the time, the "big meaningful choices" you had to make would result in the same damn thing. Give someone a gun? They shoot themself. Don't give someone a gun? They steal it from you and shoot themselves anyway. It doesn't matter, the game will have its Deep emotional dramatic storyline, God help it!

Compare this with Hammer & Sickle's storyline tree: http://i.imgur.com/BVzhkca.jpg
A million times more advanced, offers real, gameplay-impacting choices and never spells out what to do. And HS isn't even an adventure game!

Zero points, Telltale.
 

aris

Arcane
Joined
Apr 27, 2012
Messages
11,613
Now with less gameplay than ever.

Yes, fairly good episode.
same gameplay as before, it is to be expected by now, they even classify it as a interactive story in the intro, so this criticism is kind of moot by now. You also had way more oppurtunities to stop and talk with people in this episode.
 

imweasel

Guest
Episode 2 was a lot better than episode 1 and I enjoyed it. The writing isn't great though, it was much better in season one.
 

Darklife

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 24, 2012
Messages
1,041
Location
Mexico of Europe. The northern one.
Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera
I dunno, I felt like I had a lot less impact on what was going on. Although that makes perfect sense when the protagonist is an 11 year old girl.

Not that crazy about the plot though, it doesn't really feel like there's a central arc. Also, I still know next to nothing about the people in the group, season 1 did exposition much better.
 

Tommy Wiseau

Arcane
Joined
Apr 7, 2012
Messages
9,424
It was always mainly about surviving. The over-arching plot is to head north, so I assume that's where the game will be taking us.
 

DemonKing

Arcane
Joined
Dec 5, 2003
Messages
5,958
I enjoyed episode 2 but there wasn't exactly a lot of adventure going on - I was either doing quick-time games with zombies or making dialog choices. I did LOL when Clementine picked up a rifle and fired it only to land on her ass from the kickback though.
 

Metro

Arcane
Beg Auditor
Joined
Aug 27, 2009
Messages
27,792
Just watched it on YouTube. Closest thing that came to a 'puzzle' was the wind turbine thing and a two year old could have figured that out. Why you people buy this is beyond me. Just watch it.
 

Deleted member 7219

Guest
I enjoy playing it. I don't want to watch a stranger play it.
 

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