Damn you, Yahtzee. (The Walking Dead spoilers--TellTale's, that is)

[Bertylicious]

I just saved Carly on the basis that in the event of an apocolypse it is best to be as knee deep in punani as possible, although if I was presented with three options of 'save Doug', 'save Carly' or 'save Carly's gun' I'd have chosen the gun everytime.

 

[BrotherRool]

To be fair, even in Mass Effect, your choices really didn't matter in the grandiose sense.

I disagree with this, in that at the end of Mass Effect even without the extended cut the universe can be a very different place depending on what you decide. Entire races of aliens can exist or be wiped out on your decision. The Krogans can be doomed to die off or exploding in a population boom. Everywhere various people in small ways are alive or dead depending on your decisions.

The universe is hurt and scarred and it's something of a fresh start for everyone (and destroying the relay gates might be going too far even if it heavily ties into the ideas of ME1 and ME2 that Legion talks a lot about*) but you get to choose who has that start and what their circumstances are going into it.


*These same changes are completely invalidated if you support the Geth in the most ludicrous and face-punching way

I'd also argue that most of the choices not changing the ultimate outcome works well with TWD's setting.

But I totally agree with this bit. The idea of having your control stripped away from you and struggling against futility is so much in tone with the setting. And the developers are aware of it ('Duck will remember that')

But for me struggling against futility needs a hope spot to work. I love doom and gloom, but only doom and gloom where there's a chance that tomorrow won't be like today and TWD lacks that a bit (Although I guess Clem represents it). I would have liked one or two characters who maybe didn't stick with you but at least went somewhere else or achieved something they couldn't have done else. Like Mass Effect, I don't mind everything having to begin again as long as smalls things can be different.


If they wanted everyone to be dead then the problem is still really easy to solve. What you do is you give Doug and Carley unfulfilled regrets. Carley mentions she's never seen a sunrise and Doug has a brother he couldn't find. And then in that extra week of that life Carley sits with you and watches the sunrise or Doug helps his brother escape the town, although he couldn't join him.


Then when they die at least that week mattered. You might be struggling against the futility, but that struggle is worth it because there's so much you can do with your lives before death. I know that's not TWD canon ('we are the walking dead') but it should be.


(Also incidentally, you're the same Phrozenflame from twentysided right? =D It's a pretty unique name. The TW stream was fun)

 

[antidonkey]

I saved Carly because she seems more useful being handy with a gun and all. However, since I played this on PC, I ran into the bug that changed that choice for me when starting chapter 2. A bit annoying but it didn't spoil my enjoyment of the game. I still need to get the DLC for it but I've hesitated since I know it's very short.