The Walking Dead: The Final Season (Episode 1)

August 16, 2018August 15, 2018 Izlain

I knew it was coming, but it surprised me to find out that the last season of Telltale’s The Walking Dead was upon us. I guess I never really paid attention to the release date. I hurriedly picked up my copy of episode one of this four episode final season, and played through it ASAP. We’re seeing Clementine’s journey come to an end, and there was a beautifully rendered introduction that allowed us to relive key parts of that journey. It’s been four separate games and a number of years since this adventure began, and though I am sad to see it beginning to come to a close, it will be interesting to see where this little girl turned fierce woman ends up. Picking up where The New Frontier left off, Clementine had been reunited with AJ once again and were back on the road. Our story follows them scavenge for food when of course they come across trouble. They end up in a school run by kids and find a rather tight knit group — though something doesn’t seem quite right.

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The graphical engine is a bit more refined than I remember in the last season, but for the most part the game plays the same as others. I felt like there were more action oriented combat sections, but there were plenty of slow dialogue-filled scenes as well. I won’t completely spoil things but the results of my season will. You should probably avoid the next screens and my reasoning to follow if you haven’t played this game yet.

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The major choices in this episode were varied. I chose to kill the couple in the train station to get the key off of one of them (they were both walkers at this point, when they were still people they poisoned themselves). Otherwise I could have chosen to send AJ into the room behind the locked door, but I didn’t want to send him on his own. I was with the majority of players on this. I didn’t go with the crowd on the next choice, which was whether to hunt with Aasim or Louis. Louis seemed to try to hard to throw himself at Clem so I went the other way. During our first night at the school AJ insisted that he sleep under the bed. I told him he didn’t have to but he begged so I let him. Looks like most people convinced him to try the bed (side note, he sleeps in bed on the second night). Later, we go back to the same train station where shit went awry the first time around, and Clem is confronted by a raider who wants the same food we had come for. I chose to push his ass out the window for walkers to feed on. Fuck that guy. Lastly, during the final confrontation with Marlon, I chose to petition Violet to help me out, and she came to my aid. AJ took matters into his own hands, though.

This season was different from all of those that came before in that there were some missable trophies and I didn’t realize that until I completed the chapter. There are a few collectable items, and certain dialogue choices that lead to trophies that I missed. As disappointing as it would be to have all the Platinum trophies for this series and miss out on this one, I’m not sure I want to go back and play through to find them all. I suppose if I do I will do so before the next episode releases so that I can be more mindful of this the rest of the way through. Either way I enjoyed the episode and The Walking Dead is still my favorite of Telltale’s series. Let me know if how your episode ended up, if you’ve played.

A New Frontier Episode 5

June 1, 2017 Izlain

This week marks the completion of the latest Walking Dead series from Telltale. Regulars will know that I have a mixed relationship with the company, in that I have loved some of their series, but I have become a bit burnt out on the gameplay style as a whole. I couldn’t help but want to see what happened next with Clementine and some of the various characters from the lore who have dotted the series, so I did pick up what could be called “Season 3.” This episode is the conclusion of that series, and as usual, we get to examine our choices made throughout the episode. This time around the concluding episode came with some other interesting stats that I hadn’t seen in other series from Telltale, and I’d like to share my personal results as well. To get things started, here’s the traditional ending screen with the choices from episode 5:

It seems that in most cases, players had similar responses to me. I’m surprised that less people fessed up to being into Kate, and that less people had Clementine stay around. I have treated Clem with the utmost respect throughout the series, and watching her grow has been fascinating. Regardless, the stats are interesting. What was even better was all of the additional information they added in subsequent screens:

I’m curious what the different results are and despite the fact that I know I could probably Google that shit, I’m not going to. If you have played the game and would like to share your experienced results, comments are open. I ended the game having had a Dysfunctional relationship with my brother. It’s not as if the game didn’t already set that up to be the case, but apparently I kept that dysfunction going. I tried to walk the line with him, but by the end he had proven to be an asshole and died anyway. So I guess the result doesn’t matter all that much in my case, but perhaps other endings exist where he lives. I see in the main header graphic that I used it appears that Kate is a zombie, so perhaps things could have swung another way.

I’m not sure how I ended up with Mixed Signals for Kate. Honestly, I poured it on thick with her while the game was just getting started, and later on I did things as politically correct as possible to avoid tensions with David, up until the point where I finally had to confess, but they were on the road together for years raising kids that weren’t theirs… I don’t know anyone in that situation who wouldn’t have done the same. It’s no different than Rick’s Wife and Shane really, it was the “once the secret’s out” bit that unfolded differently.

Really curious to know how else Clem could have turned out, but I’m proud to have had this effect on her development. The end of the game presented us with a single sentence: “Clementine will Return” or something with similar sentiment, so I think we’ll see another season eventually. How this could affect future developments of the story could be sweeping, but with these sort of curated experiences, I doubt it will be so exaggerated. Perhaps though, these stats will affect something on a grander scale. Time will tell I suppose.

This episode also came with a handy body count, for your reference:

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Again, I’m curious to see what others got for their results. If you happen to have played through the game, drop something in the comments!

A New Frontier Episode 4

April 26, 2017April 26, 2017 Izlain2 Comments

Episode 4 of TellTales latest season of The Walking Dead series was strange. It simultaneously felt like there was less playing time (less QTEs and less exploration) than any of the other episodes in the whole series, but it felt like one of the most intense episodes. TellTale has mastered this storyline, and has dropped in subtle tie-ins to previous seasons that will tie bits of the story together and tug on your heartstrings. The little details are the most striking, and the fact that every little choice you make will come back to haunt you is superb. Things I had forgotten doing came to light in this playthrough, and that alone will catch you off guard. There are little sub-stories going on here too, like falling in love with Kate, seeing Clementine grow into a young adult (even “becoming a woman” so to speak), and the rivalry between two brothers. I really love the lore of this game series, and it really captures what it means to be human, and how it can tear you apart if you aren’t careful.

My choices were mostly in line with others, though it seems that some people held a grudge against Tripp (I just thought perhaps I would earn his forgiveness for taking out Conrad). Others held a grudge against Joan, which makes complete sense, though I was banking on David doing something stupid to screw things up for himself. The cliffhanger here is not knowing what happened to Kate at the end of the episode, and knowing that David is likely still alive. I managed to keep one of his kids upright, and would likely take better care of him, but he still wants his father, and well Kate wants Javi, so that makes things complicated, doesn’t it. We’ll see how things wrap in Richmond soon enough, but like each season before it, I don’t want it to end. Here were my choices, officially:

It’s been nice having something Walking Dead related to keep me going now that the latest season of the TV show has ended. That was a hell of a cliffhanger ending too, and it’s a long wait until October to find out what happens next. All I know is that I’ve grown tired of the Telltale formula for the most part, but can’t get enough of this series. I hope a new season is to follow in the coming years. I’ll be back when episode 5 drops to wrap things up.

No Going Back

August 27, 2014 Izlain5 Comments

Wow. Just wow. The finale for the second season of The Walking Dead series by TellTale Games was simply fantastic. It had tense moments, it had tear-jerking moments. There was betrayal, there was action, there was a lot of good and a lot of bad. I wish it wasn’t over. I know that there has been the announcement that a third season is in the works, but judging by the gap between the first and second seasons, we have some time to wait. Perhaps Tales from the Borderlands and the Game of Thrones series will hold us over well enough. A second season of The Wolf Among Us should be in there somewhere too. But I digress. On with the continuation of my playthrough: (SPOILERS AHEAD)

They changed the colors on the above screen, so it didn’t really agree with my cell phone’s camera. I couldn’t get a good shot of it, but hopefully you can still make my choices out.

So when we left off, #myclementine had just shot the Rebecca zombie square in the head, and the Arvo’s Russian buddies opened fire on my group. As the new episode opened, we were in the midst of that fire fight. Everyone had taken cover, Clementine ended up on her belly in the middle of the stand-off, and realized the baby needed rescuing. Luke was off behind a low wall, calling for Clem to head to safety, but I knew that baby needed to take precedence. I chose to rescue the baby before taking cover, as did the majority of players.

Luke was going to go help Kenny who was pinned down behind a tree. He asked that Clementine cover him, so she popped off a shot, but Luke was hit anyway, in the leg. He took cover again. After a while, Kenny was still trying to take out the last Russian, when Jane appeared out of nowhere, stabbing the guy in the neck. We were surprised to see her, but it was nice that she returned. Jane and Clem had started to build a relationship before Jane had left in the last episode. The last Russian left was Arvo, who was sobbing over his sister’s body, when she turned and Clem was forced to shoot her. He went into a rage but Kenny quickly put him in his place. Arvo told the group of a house where they were staying with lots of supplies, and the group decided to follow him there. Kenny was very abusive towards Arvo, but in the end I sided with Kenny, because for one I’m loyal to him, but also because Arvo seems like a shady asshole.

The group headed forward, stopping for the night at a small electrical outpost, that was nicely fenced in. Luke declared it was his birthday as far as he could tell, and he was now 27. Bonnie procured some Rum from her sack and everyone had a drink to celebrate. Jane and Kenny had separated themselves from the group, and Clementine was able to convince them to join. Mike seemed to be a little too disagreeing with Kenny over the treatment of Arvo, so the happy camp didn’t last long. Soon, it was the next day and the trek to Arvo’s hideout resumed.

Finding the house, the group realizes that it’s a half-finished house that someone was probably working on before the apocalypse. It was across a frozen river, which Arvo insisted was safe. As the group crossed, the ice started to crack, and with Luke having an injury, he was bringing up the rear. He ended up partially falling through the ice, and worse yet, a group of walkers was closing in. Bonnie suggested I help Luke, everyone else said to leave him, including Luke. I went against the better judgement to go help Luke, but Clem ended up falling through the ice. Luke followed in shortly after, and walkers that had fallen in during their pursuit attacked them. Clem was pulled out by Jane, while Luke was dragged to the bottom. I can’t believe how selfish most players were, they didn’t even try to help him. Unfortunately he died anyway, but at least I tried.

Clementine was freezing at this point, and Arvo had tried to run during the distraction. Kenny caught him though, and once inside Arvo was tied up. A fire was started (though I will note that no one seemed in much of a hurry to help out Clementine at this point, except for Jane and Kenny), and Clem falls asleep next to it. Upon waking, Kenny is outside trying to fix a pickup truck so the group could move on. Kenny had attacked Arvo because he assumed that the supplies were a lie so Arvo could save his own skin. Turns out the supplies were real, but only a couple of duffle bags and not really sufficient. Mike, Bonnie and Jane all expressed their distaste for Kenny’s behavior, but I stayed true. Clem helped him working on the truck, but to no avail. She went back inside to check on the baby, and talks with Jane, who is considering leaving again, mainly because Luke died and she had a sort of attraction to him. Suddenly, Kenny gets the truck to start and everyone discusses what comes next. Basically, Kenny wants to continue north, to find Wellington, which is why they had come this way in the first place. Everyone else wants to go south and get out of the snow. They decide to sleep on it.

Clementine wakes in the middle of the night. She hears noise outside and upon investigation, sees Mike, Bonnie and Arvo grabbing supplies and loading up the truck. Pulling her gun, she asks what they were doing. At this point Mike starts to try and convince her to leave the others behind and to leave with the truck and supplies, but I decided to have her yell out for Kenny and Jane. Arvo then shoots Clem, and Kenny comes running out of the house screaming when things go dark. Apparently the option to leave with Mike was present here, but I chose against that, which was in line with the majority.

Waking again, this time in the back seat of the truck, the group is reduced to Kenny, Jane, Clem and the baby, who has been named Alvin Jr, or AJ, which I failed to mention. They are driving down a highway and arguing incessantly. Jane wants to turn back, to go back to the camp where they had basically been prisoners. Kenny wants to stay the course. I did my best to get the two of them to stop arguing, when we came to a road block of sorts, a bunch of smashed up cars. Kenny gets out to check it out, and says if anything goes wrong to meet him at the rest stop up ahead. Clem gets into the driver seat, and Jane keeps on about leaving him behind. Gun shots. Walkers appear but no Kenny. Jane puts the truck into gear and tells Clem to step on the gas, which she does. Soon enough they have a walker smashed through the windshield and have crashed the truck. Jane bails out with the baby, and after shooting the walker Clem follows. Jane rushes off leaving Clem behind, where she has to navigate through a blizzard and a bunch of walkers. Eventually Clem finds the rest stop.

Going inside, she finds Kenny, but no Jane. Kenny starts to freak out, when Jane becomes visible. She doesn’t have the baby. Kenny runs outside looking for AJ, while Jane tells Clem that she’s going to show her what a monster Kenny is. When he comes back, he and Jane get into it, first with words, then physically. The struggle ends with Kenny on top of Jane, pushing her knife into her chest. I was presented with the option of shooting Kenny, but I chose to look away while the deed was done. Kenny’s my boy, and has been through a lot with me through two seasons. Seems to be an even split on this decision.

Afterwards crying is heard, and it turns out that Jane had stashed the baby in a nearby car, where the pair found him. Relieved, Kenny explains his reasoning for everything, and I happily agreed with him. Sure he loses his temper sometimes, but overall he is a good man that has had to deal with a lot of terrible things. I see that. I understand. We knew that Wellington had to be close, so we headed off. 9 days pass.

The snow has subsided. Coming to the top of a hill, we see the heavily reinforced walls of Wellington. Approaching, a warning shot is fired from the wall. A woman shouts that we need to drop our weapons and approach. Then she gives the bad news. Wellington is indeed a sanctuary for people who happen to make it that far. Unfortunately there isn’t enough room/supplies for more people. Our hearts dropped. Kenny pleads for her to talk to someone and ask if they will take the children — a noble sacrifice. He tells Clem that she must, that she can take care of AJ and they’ll have a chance to survive. When the woman returns, she says that yes they will take the children, but not him. I refused. There was no way I was letting Kenny wander off to die. He’s my best friend throughout all of this. Everyone else has come and gone. Besides Lee, he had done more for my Clementine than anyone else. I chose to stay with him. The woman gave us two packs of supplies and welcomed us to come back in a couple of months, when they might be able to spare some room. Kenny, Clementine and AJ walked off towards the horizon, and the 3rd season ends. Apparently most people chose to either kill Kenny earlier, or to stay in Wellington. I’m a member of #teamkenny. And that’s how it will stay.

#thewalkingdead #myclementine #teamkenny #telltale

Amid the Ruins

July 24, 2014 Izlain

Amid the Ruins is the fourth episode of season two of The Walking Dead Game, by TellTale. With very little downtime, this episode ended up being pretty chaotic from start to finish, and brought more deaths along with it than most of the other episodes. Usually a choice will come about where you decide who lives and who dies. In this case, multiple choices and multiple deaths were possible. First, we’ll start with the results: (SPOILERS AHEAD)

Right away, we see a life and death choice, but I’ll get to that in a bit. The final choice from the last episode revolved around whether or not you attacked a walker that had bitten Sarita, or chopping off her arm. For reasons I already explained, I ended up chopping off her arm. I assumed that would mean she would live, or at least get out of the herd and die later, on her own terms. This wasn’t the case. Instead, attacking her caused her to recoil from Clementine, and walkers collapsed on her anyway. Kenny sees what happened, blames you for Sarita’s death, and you wander off through the herd with Jane and Rebecca. There are some QTEs and tension, but it goes rather smoothly.

Meeting up with some of the other people from the group, it’s realized that Sarah has disappeared, and Luke and Nick go off to find her. You drop Rebecca off with Mike, Kenny and Bonnie, and go with Jane to look for the prior group. Coming to a trailer park, you find a already zombified Nick, and end him. Death #2 already. Inside the park, you create a distraction and get inside the trailer where Luke and Sarah are holed up. Sarah is catatonic, and Luke can’t get through to her. As walkers are busting into the house you are faced with the first choice above, and I managed to convince her to leave with us, but at the last possible moment. The majority of players did the same.

Arriving back at the temporary camp, Kenny is in bad shape. He doesn’t want to talk to anyone, and yeah, he’s blaming you for Sarita still. Eventually it’s decided that Rebecca’s baby is coming, and there are a few places nearby that might be suitable at least until she has had the baby. You go with Jane at the behest of Bonnie, who thinks Jane is useful to the group, but such a loner that she might “take off.” Bonnie and Mike head in the opposite direction to check out a Civil War museum. You and Jane head to an observation deck that has a gift shop. Once there, Jane is trying to break into the gift shop, when a figure approaches in the distance. You hide, and when he gets close enough, reveal yourself. His name is Arvo, and he has a thick accent, breaking into Russian every so often. He has a bag full of medicine he’s taking to his “sick sister,” but I chose to take the medicine for my group, because he seems alone and shady. It appears a large chunk of people didn’t do this, and I’m wondering how that would affect the end of the episode.

Jane threatens Arvo, and he leaves. She tells Clem to head back to the camp while she busts into the gift shop. Heading back you run into Luke, talk briefly, and then go back to the camp. Once there, Kenny is still pissed off, and the others tell you to go check on Mike and Bonnie. Off to the museum. Once there, you help them look around for supplies. You find a coat, and a locked up office with water inside. The door is locked, and a shutter is open part way. I volunteered to crawl inside and open the door, and of course a walker was inside. Mike ended up kicking the door down and coming to aid, and the walker was dispatched. Taking the coat and the water, the group headed back. At this point, it’s time to move and someone needs to talk to Kenny. I volunteered again, and he had calmed down a bit. He comes back to his senses, and we head to the observation deck.

We almost walk in on Luke and Jane getting it on. Kenny gets pissed at Luke, and they start arguing just like they always have. Then a rather large group of walkers is seen heading towards them. With the deck being so high, it seemed like they’d be safe, but then the deck starts to crack and fall away. In the process Sarah falls to the ground and Clem helped Luke to pull Jane up, who almost fell as well. Looks like helping Sarah before didn’t prevent her death after all. Death #3.

Soon, Rebecca has her baby, and everyone is trying to get some rest. At some point you are asked if you want to hold the baby, and I went ahead and said yes. This seemed a bit inconsequential, but I guess there could be something to it later. You find Jane outside and she says she’s going to leave. She’s a loner and that’s just what she’s going to do. Luke finds out afterward and gets upset, and then Kenny starts in on him too. Kenny wants to leave right away because this place isn’t safe. Luke thinks that Rebecca needs a couple of days to rest. I sided with Luke, and we stayed a couple more days.

Once we headed out on the road, it had started to snow. Rebecca wasn’t looking so good. We trudged on, and a familiar face appeared further up the road. It was Arvo. And he wasn’t alone. A bunch of burly Russian dudes pops out from around the group, all brandishing weapons and shouting in their native tongue. Arvo explains that because we robbed him, they would now take all of the group’s possessions. Tensions were high, and it appeared that there would be a shootout. Rebecca had sat down on the side of the road, and I watched as she turned into a walker. I could have shouted out, but instead my instincts told me to kill her and save the baby. Unfortunately my gunshot set off gunshots all around, and the screen went blank. Death #4.

The episode ended on that note. I hope we don’t have to wait too long to find out what happens next. I imagine the finale will be crazy.

#thewalkingdead #telltale #amidtheruins #interactivestory #narrative