Contents:
- Episode One—A New Day
- Episode Two—Starved for Help
- Episode Three—Long Road Ahead
- Episode Four—Around Every Corner
- Episode Five—No Time Left
The Intro
Title: The Walking Dead: Season One
Release year: 2012
Developed by: Telltale Games
Genre: Graphic adventure
Platform replayed on: PC
If you’ve read any of my previous blogs, this next choice of title might surprise you. Up until now, the most recent game I’ve replayed has been from 1996. The Walking Dead: Season One started in 2012. Don’t worry—I haven’t run out of games from the 90s (and I definitely played a lot of games in the 2000s as well), but this game has been calling me for a replay.
Let me explain…
I first played The Walking Dead: Season One when it came out in 2012. I hadn’t been a fan of the franchise up to that point: I had never read any of the comic book series, or started watching the show on TV yet. So how did I come to play this?
Two words: Telltale Games
One of my favourite games from the 90s is Sam & Max Hit the Road (1993). It is a crazy point-and-click adventure game, featuring the Freelance Police: Sam, an anthropomorphic dog, and Max, a hyperkinitic rabbity thing.
Despite its success, and potential for sequels, fans of the series would have to wait until 2007 to see it continue. Long story short (and there is a story), Telltale games acquired the licence to Sam & Max in 2005, and began work on an episodic release. Sam & Max: Season One (later known as Sam & Max Save the World) released through 2007 in six episodes. Each episode can be played through in a couple of hours, and forms part of the larger story arc throughout the season.
Fast-forward to 2012, and I had played through two seasons of Sam & Max, as well as Back to the Future: The Game (2011) and Jurassic Park: The Game (2011)—all developed and published by Telltale Games.
Joining the dots, playing Sam & Max Hit the Road back in the 90s led me to playing The Walking Dead: Season One in 2012. I don’t think there are many connections I can trace like this in my gaming history. It’s certainly interesting to reflect on.
The Game
The Walking Dead: Season One is a graphic adventure game. But what do we mean by that? Well, it’s somewhere along the continuum of point-and-click and interactive fiction games. Sam & Max is more of a classic point-and-click adventure game, where there are puzzles to be solved, usually involving the management of an inventory of items. The Walking Dead is more on the interactive fiction end. There are no puzzles to solve, and it’s always obvious where you need to go or who you need to talk to in order to advance the story. There’s very limited inventory management.
Okay, so what do you actually do in this game? Well, this game is based around the idea of choice: making choices, and dealing with the long-term implications of these choices.
You play as Lee Everett, and you join him as he’s sitting in the back of a police car on his way to prison.
But not all is well in the state of Georgia. The zombie apocalypse has begun, and Lee soon finds himself on his own and needing to survive.
Lee’s not alone for long though, and soon he meets an eight-year-old girl named Clementine. She has been stranded in her house, with her parents out of state and her babysitter gone. Lee and Clementine’s journey and relationship becomes the central story from then on.
Coming back to the choices you make, it is most often in dialogue with other characters. You can choose what you say, and in certain fixed situations, this will have an impact on Lee’s relationships and future interactions. An early example is where Lee must choose whether or not to lie about who he was with prior to meeting Clementine.
There are also scenes where you find Lee in life-or-death situations, and these are implemented in-game with quick-time events.
There are periods where you can explore the environment Lee is in, while talking to others and/or collecting items. These are usually very short sequences, in between dialogue scenes and cutscenes.
That’s essentially it for the gameplay. At this point you might ask how much you are really in control of, and how much is scripted. I know, as I have asked myself the same questions. You’re told going in that your choices matter—but how true is this? Well, let’s find out.
The Replay
Before I start with my replay, a word of warning. In the immortal words of Resident Evil: this game contains scenes of explicit violence and gore. I will tone down the screenshots used in this blog to avoid showing the worst of it here. If you’d like to see a playthrough of Episode One, you can do so on my YouTube channel.
Right, with that out of the way, let’s begin. I’m going to break the playthrough down into each episode of Season One. As always, I’ll be giving my thoughts and opinions throughout. I am playing the Telltale Definitive Series version of the game.
Episode One—A New Day
As stated above, you play as Lee Everett, and you join him on his way to prison. The police officer driving you tries to engage in smalltalk, but it’s pretty clear you’ve joined Lee on probably the worst day of his life.
You don’t immediately know what Lee has done to be in this position; that comes a bit later in the episode. Anyway, let’s just say that Lee doesn’t make it to prison. Instead, he ends up alone and surrounded by the walking dead.
You escape with Lee, and find yourself in the backyard of a house. Desperate for help, you enter the house. It’s here where you discover a little bit more about what’s going on. Inside, there’s blood on the floor, and increasingly desperate messages left on the answer phone from Clementine’s mother. Her parents are out of town, and the situation isn’t good where they are either.
Soon, Clementine comes to your rescue, and the story really begins.
You soon end up on a local farm, and come to meet a group of survivors. This is the first of many occasions where you can walk Lee around and talk with others.
The pacing of the game is generally good—you don’t have to wait long until there’s some action. There’s also an abundance of conflict. You see, some people know who Lee is and his troubles with the law.
I feel like the conflict was a bit forced at times though; conflict for the sake of conflict. There are multiple times through this episode where people pull Lee aside and tell him exactly what they think of him.
On top of that, Lee also ends up being the one to make important choices as well. I get that Lee is the protagonist and the main playable character. But it really felt like your loyalty between others was being set up for Lee to always have to choose a side, and also make those life or death decisions.
In other words, the idea of choice was always being thrown at you. In my first playthrough at the time of release, I enjoyed it. But this time around, it seemed very obvious and broke the immersion in the game. And immersion is what this game’s about, being more on the interactive fiction end of the adventure game spectrum.
There were also a couple of occasions where I questioned the narrative decisions. For example, the image above where Carley is confronting Lee about who he is and what he did. What you can’t see, is that Clementine is in the room. I found myself wondering why a reasonably level-headed character would have such a conversation in front of a vulnerable young girl. Another example was when Lee’s group is helped and sheltered by another group of survivors. Immediately, one of Lee’s group starts taking control and giving orders, which members of the other group start obeying. That didn’t make sense to me, not seeming like a normal response—to start taking orders from a complete stranger.
Playing through to the end of the episode, the stage has very much been set. In that sense, the episode was successful. You’ve joined Lee, you know about his past, you’re protecting Clementine, and have formed a group of survivors and set up camp at a local motel. What’s next? Well, let’s see where the next episode takes us.
I also liked how at the end of each episode you are shown a list of choices you made throughout, and the percentage of other players who made the same choices. Now I like the idea of this, but what this also shows, is that the choices are binary: one or the other. And at the end of each episode you still end up at the same place. So how meaningful are these choices? Well, it’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about since playing this first episode.
But I don’t want to get too deep now. I’ll return to this in The Verdict below, after I’ve played through all the episodes.
Episode Two: Starved for Help
Before I continue this replay, I’d like to address the issue of spoilers. For those that haven’t played and are thinking about playing, I’ve tried up to this point not to give anything major away. As I continue through the next four episodes, this will become more difficult. After all, this is interactive fiction, and this is “my” Lee’s story.
If you would like to avoid any further spoilers, you can skip straight to The Verdict, where I will sum up my overall thoughts on the game. I’ll keep that section spoiler-free.
With that said, let’s join Lee and Clementine three months later, after they’ve settled into the motel…
Episode Two starts off quickly, with Lee involved in the rescue of a couple of strangers.
This leads into an argument within the group when Lee returns to the motel with more mouths to feed. Food is running low at the motel, and some don’t appreciate the extra burden.
This is a common situation you’re faced with—do you take the opportunities to help strangers, or do you protect your own?
Lee ends up in the middle of an increasingly hostile relationship between Lilly and Kenny. Lilly and her father prefer to stay put at the motel, while Kenny is looking to get an RV up and running so he can escape with his wife and young son, Duck.
There’s a power struggle for leadership between the two, and you’re often forced to take a side, at the expense of damaging the relationship with the other. You can’t even stay neutral without getting called out.
It’s clear this temporary stability at the motel isn’t going to last. There’s a shortage of food and medical supplies, bandits roaming the land, and tension within the group. Something’s got to give!
A couple of brothers from a local dairy farm approach Lee’s group for some gas, and in return offer some food. It turns out, the gas is used to power electric fences surrounding the farm, keeping the walkers out.
The remainder of the episode sees the group relocating to the farm. But all is not what it seems at the St John Family Dairy. I don’t think it comes as much of a surprise that the group doesn’t settle down and live happily ever after.
What Lee uncovers is disturbing. The St John family are cannibals. Now, I knew this was coming, having played this before. But the first time I played this? Shocking.
The St John family try to justify their behaviour by putting it down to survival, and only eating those already dead. The group doesn’t see it that way, and you end up captives on the farm.
The remainder of the episode sees Lee and the group figuring a way to escape from the farm. But not before you end up in the middle of Lilly and Kenny again. While being held captive in a meat locker, Lilly’s father has a heart attack. The discussion soon turns to what to do if he turns into a walker—they’re locked in a confined space. Do you ensure Lilly’s father is dead, or do you see if he recovers? It’s another “whose side are you on” choice, with the inevitable fallout from whose side you don’t take.
It’s a chilling escape, full of confrontation, and the end of the seemingly idyllic St John Family Dairy.
So, how’d I do?
Episode Three: Long Road Ahead
Episode Three begins with Lee and Kenny leaving the safety of the motel to go into town to take supplies from the drugstore—always a dangerous affair.
It’s not long before you’re faced with another choice over the fate of a survivor. Like in the previous episode where you had to decide whether to hack someone’s trapped leg off to save them, this time you’re faced with putting someone out of their misery at the expense of your own safety.
I’m split on these minor choices. On the one hand, it doesn’t really impact the story much, and it’s just another choice you have to make from two bad options. On the other hand, this is your version of the story that you’re telling, so in the end you make your choices and at the end you have your own unique version of events in the larger story arc.
Back at the motel, it’s a familiar conflict: Lilly and Kenny arguing over the fate of the group. Do you stay or do you go?
There is a complication however, as it soon becomes apparent that there is a traitor in the group stealing medical supplies. Lee begins an investigation after being informed by Lilly, and does end up confirming her suspicions.
There’s this strange little “side-quest” that pops up as Lee is investigating the missing supplies. Carley pulls Lee aside and asks him to come clean about his criminal past with members of the group, fearing that a stressed-out Lilly might do it for him. You can decide to do this or not, but to me it felt a bit out of place. Nobody else’s past really comes up, so I feel it was all largely irrelevant. The name of the game is survival; the past is gone. It felt awkward having conversations with the others basically saying “By the way, I’m a criminal. Are we good?”
As you can see from the image above, I told Clementine. This is a nice segue into the relationship Lee and Clementine have. I got to this point in my replay, and thought that Clementine had largely been a passenger in the story. You rescue her, and keep her safe, but that’s really it. I made an effort to speak with Clementine whenever I was given the chance, and tried to play Lee as a protector/caregiver.
As this whole story centres on Lee and Clementine, I suddenly thought that for two episodes not much has happened between them. The focus does shift as you move into the second half of the story, but for me this was an interesting observation at this point in the game.
Back to the current events, there’s not much time to find the traitor, as the motel is attacked by the local bandit group.
This attack takes the decision to stay or go out of your hands, as you and the group make a hasty exit in the RV. After a little first-person-shooter action, that is.
On the road, Lilly can’t leave the traitor situation alone, and thinks it’s either Carley or Ben. This brings us to the choice in the game that I really struggle with. And what’s interesting is, it’s not a choice you have control over: it was a narrative choice.
Lilly takes matters into her own hands, and shoots Carley point-blank in front of the group.
I liked Carley as a character. I didn’t like Lilly as a character. So I know I’m biased here. But in the conversation right before, Lee has choices to support or blame Carley or Ben. I supported Carley, and told Ben to tell the truth. It doesn’t matter. Carley still ends up with a bullet in her head.
At least in the end, you can choose Lilly’s immediate fate. I chose to leave her behind. I think the decision was mostly made out of frustration from a narrative choice that was forced upon me, as opposed to thinking what “my” Lee would do in this situation.
Back to the story, the situation goes from bad to worse for the group. During the escape from the motel, Kenny’s son Duck got bitten by a walker.
Lee knows what will need to happen, like with Lilly’s father. This is another heavy-hitting theme, following on from the cannibalism from the previous episode.
Of more immediate concern, is a large train blocking the road. But this turns out to be a blessing. You end up getting the train running, as well as finding another survivor.
Lee’s relationship with Clementine also develops during this train journey. You must speak with her about what’s happening with Duck. There are certain points during the game, where you must choose how to interact with Clementine. Do you be honest with her, try to shield her from the truth, or remain indifferent? I’m not really sure it matters too much. In the big picture, what’s going to happen is going to happen (Duck is going to die, for example). But I come back to the fact that this is your version of the story you’re playing. Your choices create your version of the story, let’s put it that way for now. As I said, I’m split on these minor choices.
Having spoken to Clementine about what must happen to Duck, attention turns to how Kenny and Katjaa are going to handle it. This is genuinely upsetting, as you witness Kenny struggling to come to terms with reality, and Katjaa trying to make him understand as the time draws near to when Duck would turn. Katjaa finally decides to take Duck off by herself to end it. However, she cannot do it, and takes her own life instead.
This brings us to another “Lee’s choice” moment. Do you let Kenny kill his own son to prevent him becoming a walker, or do you save him the burden?
I encouraged Kenny to do it, and he did. What I didn’t realise until later in the game, was that all through the game, your actions with Kenny are being measured. This comes to a head later in the game, where Lee calls on Kenny for help. Depending on how much you supported Kenny, he’ll either help you or not. I’ll come back to this, only to say now that looking back I feel I made the “wrong” decision letting Kenny kill Duck. “Wrong” refers entirely to looking at this from a game perspective—narratively, I still made the decision I wanted to, acting out what “my” Lee would do.
Coming back to my point earlier about Clementine being a passenger in the game up to this point, it’s in this episode where Lee takes responsibility for teaching her how to survive. Lee teaches her how to shoot, and cuts her hair short so it will be more difficult for walkers to grab her. I liked this section, as it added depth to the relationship.
The episode closes out with the (now smaller) group encountering a track blockage, and a couple of new faces.
I couldn’t help but feel like the new characters we’ve seen in this episode were replacements: Chuck appears not long after Carley is killed, and Christa and Omid show up just after we lose Katjaa and Duck. The timing was a little too convenient, and there wasn’t much time given to reflecting on the losses.
On a lighter note, this episode does give us some humour. Clementine calls Lee out if he evers swears in front of her, but apparently Omid gets a free pass.
The episode closes out as the blockage is cleared, but a quick escape is needed—a horde of walkers is approaching.
But it couldn’t end without one more choice, could it? With Christa and Omid running to catch up to the moving train, trailed by walkers, you need to decide who to help up first. I chose, but “chose” is a bit strong here. I didn’t have time to decide, just clicked on the closest person to my on-screen cursor, which happened to be Christa.
But this was the “wrong” in-game choice, as Christa was upset that I didn’t help Omid (who was injured). It doesn’t matter—Omid soon jumps on by himself, and so Lee just ends up with Christa upset with him.
Finally, as they approach the coast, Lee and Kenny hear someone contacting Clementine on her walkie talkie (which she’s had from the beginning of the game).
The plot has taken another disturbing turn. But it’s a cliffhanger ending! That’s all for Episode Three.
Episode Four: Around Every Corner
Wow, so much was packed into Episode Three. Following on from the cannibalism in Episode Two, the group faced a bandit attack, a daring escape, murder of one of its own, suicide, euthanasia, and taking a train out to the coast where it appears someone has been waiting for them (or more importantly, Clementine) to arrive…
The group arrives in the city of Savannah, which is actually where Clementine believes her parents will be. More important for Kenny though, is finding a boat to escape on.
The group soon finds a house to hole up in to regroup. Omid is pretty badly injured from a fall he took in the previous episode.
The most disturbing scene for me occurs here in this new shelter. Lee finds Kenny up in the attic, where he has discovered a young boy who has become a walker. He had hidden himself up here, but had died of starvation. An incredibly moving scene, where I had “my” Lee put the boy out of his misery for the final time.
I come back to the previous episode, where I feel like I made the “wrong” in-game choice letting Kenny kill Duck. It turns out I did here too, essentially getting the choices around the wrong way. Again, narratively, I have no problem with my choices. But soon, the results of these choices are going to impact enjoyment of “my” story.
But let’s get back to more immediate concerns.
Soon enough, Lee and Kenny head for the port, and encounter the locals…
You create an uneasy alliance with both Molly and Vernon, and are told what has happened in Savannah. A group has walled themselves off within the city, in an area known as “Crawford”. The inhabitants modelled their new society using a “survival of the fittest” motto. There was no room for children or the sick. Vernon and his group are cancer survivors who weren’t welcome.
You convince Vernon, a doctor, to come back to the house to help Omid. Vernon is concerned about the welfare of Clementine as well.
Having not found a seaworthy boat at the port, Clementine surprises everyone by discovering one in the shed of the house they’re staying at. What a coincidence!
Though, it’s needing a few parts, and this is where the group decides it needs to infiltrate Crawford to find them.
A big choice is whether to let Clementine come with you.
I chose to bring her, deciding to treat her like the rest of the group and not a child. To me, this fit in with the survival training Lee gave Clementine in the previous episode.
Inside Crawford, you discover that the community has actually fallen, and is now filled with walkers.
As you search for the items you need for the boat, you pick up pieces of information about Crawford and its ultimate demise.
Molly’s background, for example, is further explored during this segment. However, in the end, I didn’t think it added much value—Molly doesn’t stay with the group, as she was never looking to join in the first place.
You do have to deal with Ben having a crisis of conscience right in the middle of the Crawford raid. Perfect timing. Ben wants to come clean with Kenny, and admit that he was the one stealing supplies and giving them to the bandit group back at the motel, which led to Duck getting bitten as they escaped. It felt so out of place narratively, that I found myself not really caring about what happened.
In the end, escaping from Crawford ends up with another “Lee’s choice”: do you save Ben?
I saved him. It did make me think about the characters Lee had encountered up to this point. I hadn’t really warmed to any of them, except Carley, and of course I’ve got nothing against Clementine. Well, I guess beggars can’t be choosers in the zombie apocalypse.
Having the choice here with Ben, I kept thinking, I wouldn’t have missed him much had he not lasted this long (since Episode Two). I don’t think he’s a particularly strong or interesting character, adding little to the story, so I’m not sure why he was so central to the longer story. Kenny, on the other hand, I understand. He’s clearly defined early as a major character, and is not one you can choose with.
This episode closes out with another cliffhanger: Clementine has been kidnapped.
Oh, and Lee gets bitten.
Episode Five: No Time Left
Well, how do we begin the final episode, with Lee having been handed a death sentence and Clementine kidnapped? With a quick recap of how we got here, that’s how.
At the end of Episode Four, Lee has a decision to make: does he come clean with the group about his bite, or does he hide it?
I decided to come clean. I’m not sure it was the choice I really wanted to make, but knowing anything about drama in general, you know that secrets always come out eventually. So I figured, let’s just get it over with.
Lee’s main priority now is finding Clementine. He suspects Vernon has kidnapped her, as he had told Lee that he wanted to take Clementine into his own group. So, the obvious destination is Vernon’s hideout.
But Lee will need help, more so now than ever given his time-bomb status.
I’ve discussed a couple of choices involving Kenny: choosing over who kills Duck, and choosing over who kills the boy in the attic who has turned into a walker. I’ve said that I think I got these choices wrong in-game; narratively, I have no issues with my choices (that’s the game: your choices make your story). This is why I got those choices wrong in-game: Kenny refuses to help me find Clementine.
At points in the game, your choices with Kenny are being measured, and if your score at this point isn’t high enough, he’ll refuse to help you.
Now, in my story, I thought I’d supported Kenny throughout. I’d supported his plan to escape to the coast, and I took his side against Lilly and her father. And I thought I was supporting him through losing Duck and Katjaa. But no, he chooses now to refuse to help Lee, or more importantly, help Clementine. Kenny’s choice just felt so out of place.
Time to move on though. The recap at the beginning of the episode focuses on Clementine and her hope that her parents are waiting for her in Savannah.
There’s also the walkie talkie Clementine has been carrying throughout.
Lee and Kenny heard someone trying to contact her on it at the end of Episode Three, and then at the end of Episode Four someone reveals to Lee that he has kidnapped Clementine.
Before you can do anything about that, the group must deal with the “Lee’s been bitten” situation. And there is one extreme solution.
With that sorted, and knowing that Vernon wasn’t the kidnapper, the group (which was minus Kenny, who refused to help—I know, I can’t let it go) returns to the house.
Turns out, Vernon and his group did want something: the boat.
It also turns out that the house is no longer safe.
Thankfully though, Clementine manages to get a message to Lee about her whereabouts.
Knowing where to go, the group now make their way to the Marsh House, where Clementine’s parents used to stay when they were in Savannah. Kenny even decided to join this time (okay—I’m over it now), but it turns out to be the end of the road for him.
Ben ends up falling from a roof and impaling himself.
Lee and Kenny go down to try and help, but realising that’s not possible, Kenny insists Lee climb back up to the roof while he holds off a bunch of approaching walkers.
It’s a suicide mission for Kenny, and I don’t really know why—I’m sure both he and Lee could have made it back to the roof together, either putting Ben out of his misery or not. Was it supposed to be some sort of redemption for Kenny not helping Lee earlier? I’m not so sure.
In any case, then there were three: Lee, Christa, and Omid.
And it doesn’t take long until it’s just Lee…
I guess you could see this coming: the final showdown with Clementine’s kidnapper. To get there though, Lee has to hack his way through a street full of walkers. It’s an action scene, as you control Lee and use a meat cleaver to clear a path to the Marsh House. He figures he’s got nothing to lose, he’s already been bitten. And he’s determined to get to Clementine.
Outside the Marsh House, there’s a car parked outside.
Lee realises he’s seen this car before. It actually appeared near the end of Episode Two, where the group discovered it full of supplies. There was a split over whether to take them or leave them. At the time, I decided that “my” Lee wouldn’t take anything, but others in the group did.
Turns out, the supplies belonged to a family, as Lee soon finds out when he meets the father: Clementine’s kidnapper.
What follows is almost a confessional scene, where the kidnapper questions Lee over his choices throughout the game: taking Clementine on to a farm with cannibals, abandoning Lilly, and bringing Clementine into Savannah. Interesting how only one of those is a choice you had any control over (abandoning Lilly).
But how could he know all this? Well, he’s been following you ever since the group looted his car. His family broke down after this, and he ended up alone and bitter, blaming the group for his misfortune.
His plan is to turn things around though, by starting a new family with Clementine.
Cue the final fight…
…which Clementine finishes.
Now for the escape out of the city, which Lee knows he won’t be making. On the way, the pair encounter Clementine’s parents in the street. They’re now walkers. What are the odds? It’s impactful, sure. But really, I’m struggling to think of why this scene was there. It seemed like it was there to add a dramatic closure to Clementine’s optimism that her parents were still alive, but narratively it felt too convenient and out of place.
The final scene of the game finds Clementine and a weakening Lee holed up in a building. Lee isn’t strong enough to get Clementine out of the city, and we all know what is coming.
Lee’s final choice.
I told Clementine to shoot Lee, and she did. I mentioned foreshadowing above, in the scene where Lee taught Clementine to shoot. Well, this is where it was heading: Lee’s death, and the importance of Clementine knowing how to survive.
And that’s it.
Here are my final statistics:
Post-credits, you learn that Clementine made it out of Savannah.
She notices a couple in the distance, across a field. We’re left wondering if it’s Christa and Omid.
The Verdict
If you’ve made it this far, you’ll know that throughout my replay I struggled with the idea of choice in the game.
Did choice really matter?
I understand that ultimately, there’s a story to tell: it’s interactive fiction. In this game, the dominant part of that phrase is “fiction”. There is interaction along the way, but you’re not telling your story. You’ll still end up meeting the same people and going to the same locations.
Now, I don’t mind if a game is linear, if the story is good. But at this point, I realise the two issues I have with this game are the story itself, and the illusion of choice (gameplay).
I mentioned at certain points in my replay where I didn’t like the narrative choice that had been taken out of your hands, and also how certain events seemed too convenient. I also didn’t like most of the characters, but I realise this is very subjective.
The story is about Lee and Clementine. I just didn’t particularly enjoy the story unfolding around them. And this leads on to the illusion of choice. I just mentioned where at times as a player, you didn’t have a choice (for example, leaving the motel), and that I didn’t like it. But I can understand it—I know I’m being told a story where events, characters, and locations are predetermined.
It’s where you are given a choice, but knowing that it ultimately doesn’t matter that gets me. For example, Lee is asked if he wants to go to the St John Family Dairy in Episode Two. I said “no”, but it doesn’t matter: you’re going anyway. I mentioned early on that choice was being thrown at you, and throughout my replay I often felt that it was. And then sometimes it wasn’t there when you wanted it.
Is it worth building up the illusion of choice then, and being told that your choices matter? Again, there’s a story that will be told, no matter what you choose. It’s not, and could never be, a tabletop roleplaying game, where you have almost complete freedom to choose your character’s actions.
Now, at a couple of points above, I also said that you are building your version of the story, choosing what to say and what to do when you are given the choice. I think if you can accept this, it will be more enjoyable. Perhaps it’s a state of mind.
This state of mind is important. You may have noticed how I switched up the use of subjects in my writing. Sometimes I used “I” (meaning me), sometimes “you” (speaking as I usually do, to the audience), and sometimes “Lee”. I thought about trying to be consistent, but then made a conscious decision not to. I hope it highlights the challenge with interactive fiction. The simplest way to put it is that you’re telling your own version of Lee’s story. Two people playing this will have their own different versions of the story. But it is Lee’s story.
To close on a positive note, this game was a bold move for Telltale Games. It took an already successful intellectual property, and turned it into a successful video game series. It’s well produced: I like the visual style, and the voice acting is well done. I do want to see how the series continues, and I’m optimistic it gets better as a gaming experience.
It’s Clementine’s time now.
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