Poll: Let's talk about Telltale's The Walking Dead (Spoiler Alert! S1 & S2)

[small]

i loved both seasons and to be honest i hope thats where they leave clementines story and move onto different characters in season 3 like christa.

one of my favourite scenes in season 2 was when clem is sneaking around the house getting medical supplies to treat her dog bite, kills the zombie and they all rush out open the door stunned and clem is standing there "STILL NOT BITTEN" *glares*

 

[Kopikatsu]

I think Telltale made a huge mistake bringing Kenny back for Season 2. His character was just a more extreme retread of Season 1, and an easy source of conflict. From Episode 3 onward, everything revolved around keeping Kenny from going dangerously crazy and it just felt extremely lazy.

The only character I really liked was Jane, so my final choice was made relatively easy. Though I feel the way the game went about it was done very poorly. See, all Jane needed to do was say 'Hey Clem, you wanna ditch this crazy guy and come along with me?', and I would've jumped at the oppertunity. But then Jane has to go and goat Kenny into trying to murder her by hiding the baby under the assumption its dead, just so I have to shoot him. Again Jane, you could've just fucking asked.

Anyway, Season 2 kinda sucked. It had none of the heart the first one did. Also, what the fuck happened to Christa!?

Christa died. If you choose not to help her, she gets shot. So I imagine she dies regardless of whether you 'experience' it or not, since her returning would be a major development that I doubt Telltale would waste so many resources into making happen.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Christa died. If you choose not to help her, she gets shot. So I imagine she dies regardless of whether you 'experience' it or not, since her returning would be a major development that I doubt Telltale would waste so many resources into making happen.

Yeah, but if you do help her (which I did) she just disappears, presumably alive, and it seems a bit lazy for Telltale not to follow up on this choice for the players who made it.

But then I thought them getting rid of Omid and Christa so soon wasn't the best idea either.

 

[tippy2k2]

Christa died. If you choose not to help her, she gets shot. So I imagine she dies regardless of whether you 'experience' it or not, since her returning would be a major development that I doubt Telltale would waste so many resources into making happen.

Yeah, but if you do help her (which I did) she just disappears, presumably alive, and it seems a bit lazy for Telltale not to follow up on this choice for the players who made it.

Even if you do the distraction so she runs, you hear a gunshot as you're running (and it's not at you since there's no whine or anything that indicates a bullet coming at you).

I suppose they brought Kenny back from certain doom so you could do the same with Christa but since there is a death scene for her with one of the choices, I'd be surprised.

 

[Dagda Mor]

When Jane told Clem not to interfere, she put just enough doubt in me to let the timer run out when the choice came. And I don't regret it. As messed up as Kenny is, I firmly believe that he could work through his issues if it was just him and Clem, without anyone for him to pick fights with. Hell, in the Wellington endings, it seems like he's already improved--the Kenny from earlier in the season might have kept trying to get in until the situation exploded. Whatever choice you make, Kenny shows genuine regret for his actions, but Jane never admits that she shouldn't have antagonized Kenny, she only says that she didn't think he'd go that far. I might have saved her if I thought she genuinely lost AJ by accident. I don't feel good about letting her die, but she just couldn't get my Clem to shoot Kenny.

I think I might regret letting Kenny walk off without Clem, though. Family brings out the best in him, and if he's still alive, he might head down another bad path. Or he'll find a new surrogate family. That is the ending with the most emotional torque, though, imo.

Would a season where you play as Kenny work out? I think it'd be pretty cool.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

I let Kenny kill Jane, then bailed from Wellington to stick with Kenny.

I (mostly) liked Jane, but holy shit is she a manipulative psychopath. Seriously... she's willing to leave a defenseless infant out in the cold, alone and surrounded by the undead, just to prove a point? She's willing to push the buttons of a man clearly still hurting from his loss, just to prove a point? Hell, she's even the one who escalated the situation. It was a heated confrontation, sure... but it didn't turn violent until she drew her combat knife on Kenny. Not to mention that she could have ended it at any time by coming clean, and even once the tables turned against her she still continued to fight, never once letting Clementine or Kenny in on what's going on. What if AJ hadn't cried loud enough to be heard after the fight? What if a walker had gotten to AJ while everyone was distracted? Is Jane really that cold-hearted, or just that dumb?

At least Kenny is a predictable psychopath. He's only going to go all berserker rage mode if you slander his family or threaten to harm the people he cares for. The things that are going to set him off are pretty straight-forward and obvious. Jane on the other hand is a complete wild card, and after her little stunt with AJ, I don't know how anyone could trust her in any situation.

As for why I chose to stick with Kenny rather than join Wellington... I dunno. I figured that he'd probably commit suicide after leaving the town's sight. After all he was willing to sacrifice to protect the ones he loves, I don't think I could abandon him so easily.

 

[Kopikatsu]

Would a season where you play as Kenny work out? I think it'd be pretty cool.

I doubt it. Telltale had to LITERALLY turn Jane into a baby killer, and still many people chose her over Kenny. (She didn't kill the baby, but at the time you don't know that). I don't really get it. I chose Kenny without hesitation, but I'm surprised so many people would choose Jane over the one person who keeps being proven right and actually cares about Clem, regardless of his temper.

 

[tippy2k2]

I doubt it. Telltale had to LITERALLY turn Jane into a baby killer, and still many people chose her over Kenny. (She didn't kill the baby, but at the time you don't know that). I don't really get it. I chose Kenny without hesitation, but I'm surprised so many people would choose Jane over the one person who keeps being proven right and actually cares about Clem, regardless of his temper.

I think part of it though is the heat of the moment (or at least that's what I thought going through it; now seeing other people's stories and how it ended makes me greatly question my choices).

At the time, I thought Jane had lost AJ trying to get to the rest stop (tons of Walkers around in a snow storm; wasn't out of the question that something happened to a baby on the mile journey). It didn't occur to me until after the fight that Jane did what she did with AJ to prove the point and by that point, it's a little too late for me to change my mind.

With that, I was genuinely afraid of Kenny. My own Dad was the same way when I was growing up; he would be perfectly fine and great but you were always a little on edge because ANYTHING felt like it would set him off. Much like Kenny, my Dad never actually struck any of us but as a kid, there was always that fear (on the plus side in real life, my Dad has quit drinking and therefore is much better to try to bring the room back up )

Ultimately, I stuck with Jane more for practical reasons after the fact. Knowing what I know now, I probably would have gone with Kenny and went to Wellington but Kenny was dead, Wellington didn't exist, and I'm a twelve year old with a baby. I probably shouldn't but I trust Jane as much as I can trust anyone in the game for some reason.

 

[Kopikatsu]

I doubt it. Telltale had to LITERALLY turn Jane into a baby killer, and still many people chose her over Kenny. (She didn't kill the baby, but at the time you don't know that). I don't really get it. I chose Kenny without hesitation, but I'm surprised so many people would choose Jane over the one person who keeps being proven right and actually cares about Clem, regardless of his temper.

I think part of it though is the heat of the moment (or at least that's what I thought going through it; now seeing other people's stories and how it ended makes me greatly question my choices).

This will probably come off as antagonistic, but I'm more curious than anything.

What heat of the moment? Jane deliberately antagonized Kenny (both before and after hiding AJ), she started the fight, she escalated the fight by drawing the knife, she fought dirty against a crippled old man (Like ramming her thumb into his injured eye), and she was getting what she wanted (Told Clem not to interfere no matter what. And it's not even a matter of her misjudging the situation, because when Kenny says 'I'll kill you!', she yells back 'I KNEW YOU WOULD!'). Like, I can't see any way that Kenny is in the wrong there.

 

[tippy2k2]

I doubt it. Telltale had to LITERALLY turn Jane into a baby killer, and still many people chose her over Kenny. (She didn't kill the baby, but at the time you don't know that). I don't really get it. I chose Kenny without hesitation, but I'm surprised so many people would choose Jane over the one person who keeps being proven right and actually cares about Clem, regardless of his temper.

I think part of it though is the heat of the moment (or at least that's what I thought going through it; now seeing other people's stories and how it ended makes me greatly question my choices).

This will probably come off as antagonistic, but I'm more curious than anything.

What heat of the moment? Jane deliberately antagonized Kenny (both before and after hiding AJ), she started the fight, she escalated the fight by drawing the knife, she fought dirty against a crippled old man (Like ramming her thumb into his injured eye), and she was getting what she wanted (Told Clem not to interfere no matter what. And it's not even a matter of her misjudging the situation, because when Kenny says 'I'll kill you!', she yells back 'I KNEW YOU WOULD!'). Like, I can't see any way that Kenny is in the wrong there.

Sorry; to be more clear

When I'm referring to "Heat of the moment", I'm referring to my own actions. Maybe I'm the only one but I did not see what was about to happen coming. I attempted to get in the middle of it constantly (against Jane's wishes) and when Kenny had the knife over her chest, I knew he was going to kill her.

I know I probably should have expected it to go down the way it did but I sure as hell didn't. So when I refer to the heat of the moment, I'm referring to the second or two the game gave me to decide whether to shoot. I choose to shoot (as I referred to earlier in my OP, I was almost hoping something would happen to Kenny because I figured I'd have to choose between the two at some point). It didn't occur to me that I had been manipulated like that until after the fact and by then it's too late...

Sorry Kenny

 

[Windcaler]

I think telltale's found a good niche with the interactive movie style supported by good writers. Before walking dead they were best (perhaps only) known for that god awful Jurrassic park game. However with walking dead and then Wolf among us (personally I enjoyed wolf more) theyre making a good name for themselves. Im not sure how tales from the borderlands and game of thrones will work for them but Im hoping they turn out good

Anyway, as for walking dead season 2 I have to spew blasphemy here and say I dont think it was as good as the first one. The fact is it was rather predictable the whole way. So much so that my fiance and I turned it into a drinking game after the first part. Predict how the plot goes and you take a drink, we were both pretty drunk by the time it was over. It really did seem like instead of creating an interesting narrative Telltale just went with whatever the saddest possibility could be or whatever would cause the biggest drama between the characters. For me, that really hurt the narrative.

The first "choose who lives/dies" moment still annoys me. We've known the characters for 5 minutes, the uncles kind of cool, Luke seems to be a jerk or at least suffering from whats commonly called survivors guilt or maybe PTSD, and you knew that the entire group was hiding something from you even though they were fine with you staying. Why would I trust either one of those guys? I couldnt see any reason to save one over the other which again hurts the narrative for me. I ended up picking the uncle on the sole basis that he said he saw a way out (even though I suspected he was bitten and oh look I was right again). This is not a meaningful choice, you have to characterize people to get us to actually like or dislike them. You cant just give us an arbitrary choice and tell us we have to empathize with them.

Perhaps the worst part of it was the ending. There was no way to save Kenny and Jane or talk some sense into either one of them. Rather then behave like rational human beings were forced to pick one when the whole thing could have been stopped if they just sat down and talked it out before a major fight broke out.

I felt something for all the characters in the last season but this one just didnt do a good job characterizing anyone or creating an interesting narrative. For all its attempts at tugging heartstrings I left season 2 feeling like I had seen it all before

 

[Kae]

Christa died. If you choose not to help her, she gets shot. So I imagine she dies regardless of whether you 'experience' it or not, since her returning would be a major development that I doubt Telltale would waste so many resources into making happen.

Yeah, but if you do help her (which I did) she just disappears, presumably alive, and it seems a bit lazy for Telltale not to follow up on this choice for the players who made it.

But then I thought them getting rid of Omid and Christa so soon wasn't the best idea either.

Killing off Omid and Christa s early was an awful idea, they could have done something really interesting with that, I think they shouldn't have killed Christa's baby at least and make the reason for Clementine and Christa's separation that Christa had to choose between guarranteeing the baby's safety or helping Clementine (Think of the opening reversed, the one that's captured is you) and she chooses her baby, would have been way more depressing.

In any case Season 2 was pretty bad with choices since most of them do absolutely nothing, there's only one character that you can have a determinant relationship (Think Kenny, Lilly and Ben in Season 1) and that's Sarah, everyone else will give you the exact same attitude no matter what you do not, I mean your previous decisions have no effect in the conversation unlike Season 1.

I could also mention that some characters like Rebecca and Carlos are pretty damn inconsistent, but like I said before I really enjoyed the game so I played it too much and noticed a lot of flaws...

In any case Season 1 was definitely better when it comes to choice and writing at least.
[sup][sup]I would talk more here, but I spent like all day ranting about Kenny somewhere else, besides I'm being really negative about Season 2 right now, even though I liked it, it's probably because it has a lot of flaws and while it was enjoyable I want Season 3 to be better.[/sup][/sup]

 

[Mikejames]

Still love the first season, but I'm afraid I'm still disappointed with season 2 in the end. Lots of good ideas and interesting potential for the new group, but so many story arcs were dropped prematurely, and nearly everyone abruptly dies for shock value.

In season one you really feel the character's relationships shift and how you're influencing Clementine's perspective on the world, but alternate endings aside, I didn't feel like I was making much of an impact on anything in season 2.

I was probably one of the only people who let Sarah die, but she was a GIGANTIC fuckup who got multiple people killed over her stupidity.

You spelled Ben wrong.

I think Telltale made a huge mistake bringing Kenny back for Season 2. His character was just a more extreme retread of Season 1, and an easy source of conflict. From Episode 3 onward, everything revolved around keeping Kenny from going dangerously crazy and it just felt extremely lazy.

Yeah... Even looking past his nigh impossible survival in season one, I really think Kennny overshadowed where the story was originally headed. It wouldn't be as much of an issue if the episodes were longer and could juggle more character arcs, but after he shows up, the rest of the group's development is pretty much side-lined.

 

[Kopikatsu]

I was probably one of the only people who let Sarah die, but she was a GIGANTIC fuckup who got multiple people killed over her stupidity.

You spelled Ben wrong.

I think most people were sick of Ben and couldn't get rid of him fast enough. I've seen a lot of comments defending Sarah though. 'But she's autistic! Clearly that excuses the fact that she is a plague upon the group!' The moment she got someone killed and showed no signs of changing, that was the moment she should have been tossed at the walkers as bait. But no, instead she has to get half the group killed. (Alvin because she left the picture out for Carver to find, Reggie for not being able to figure out how to do something extremely simple on her own, Carlos and Sarita because she wouldn't stop freaking out, and probably someone else that I'm forgetting). Like seriously, Carver should have just thrown her off the roof instead of Reggie. I liked Reggie. He was a cool guy.

At least Ben kind of didn't fuck up so badly. Had he not been giving the bandits supplies, they would have attacked earlier, and Kenny wouldn't have had the trailer fixed when they did. Don't get me wrong, I left him to die at the earliest opportunity, but I don't think he deserved it as much as Sarah did.

Edit: Oh, right, she also got Nick killed. And she almost got Clem killed because Carlos would rather let Clem die than risk Sarah finding out about the outside world.

 

[Kae]

I was probably one of the only people who let Sarah die, but she was a GIGANTIC fuckup who got multiple people killed over her stupidity.

You spelled Ben wrong.

I think most people were sick of Ben and couldn't get rid of him fast enough. But I've seen a lot of comment defending Sarah though. 'But she's autistic! Clearly that excuses the fact that she is a plague upon the group!' The moment she got someone killed and showed no signs of changing, that was the moment she should have been tossed at the walkers as bait. But no, instead she has to get half the group killed. (Alvin because she left the picture out for Carver to find, Reggie for not being able to figure out how to do something extremely simple on her own, Carlos and Sarita because she wouldn't stop freaking out, and probably someone else that I'm forgetting). Like seriously, Carver should have just thrown her off the roof instead of Reggie. I liked Reggie. He was a cool guy.

At least Ben kind of didn't fuck up so badly. Had he not been giving the bandits supplies, they would have attacked earlier, and Kenny wouldn't have had the trailer fixed when they did. Don't get me wrong, I left him to die at the earliest opportunity, but I don't think he deserved it as much as Sarah did.

The reason why I personally didn't want Sarah to die is because I felt the only reason she was useless was because Carlos sheltered her too much, I think that if he had prepared her like Lee did to Clementine she would have been useful and capable of at least defending herself and that scene earlier where I taught her how to use a gund really gave me hope for her, now that Carlos was gone I figure nobody would shelter her and she would actually learn how to survive, and to be fair considering she's just a girl it wasn't really a strange reaction to freak out that her father died in front of her in a ridiculously gruesome manner, do remember that she's mostly been sheltered from this kind of stuff so far.

I also gave Ben a second chance though, and I chose to try to save Larry too so it's entirely possible that I'm just too ideallistic.

 

[tippy2k2]

I also gave Ben a second chance though, and I chose to try to save Larry too so it's entirely possible that I'm just too ideallistic.

That's my thing too. I do everything I possibly can to save everyone I can. This might sound weird but what I would really want for TellTale at this point is to hurt me for that.

Let me explain...

A big reason I play the way I play is because I know that my choices are not going to really have THAT adverse of an effect. Sure, it might let someone die a little later or it might get someone else killed a little earlier but the overall story is going to stay the same. In fact, I kind of hope Season 3 is it for Clementine so that they have the freedom to let your choices REALLY mess with the story.

What I'd really like is for Telltale to FORCE me to think twice. I'll give an example from Season 2:

If you save Sarah in the trailer, she will later die anyway when the deck collapses. Knowing that Jane will live or die based on the story and not my actions, I of course sent her down there because there's virtually no risk to me. But what if that wasn't the case? What if you sending her down there causes Sarah AND Jane to die. Jane's own story she told hints at this ("We lost four people trying to rescue that one man who turned out to be bit anyway") and is something that I really wish Telltale would embrace.

I know that's a lot more complicated and a lot more work (since they'll have to account for Jane surviving or dying) but Telltale's trick with story telling is going to start feeling cheap if it keeps this up. Besides, at this point, Telltale has become successful enough that we can expect more from them

 

[Mikejames]

I think most people were sick of Ben and couldn't get rid of him fast enough. I've seen a lot of comments defending Sarah though. 'But she's autistic! Clearly that excuses the fact that she is a plague upon the group!' The moment she got someone killed and showed no signs of changing, that was the moment she should have been tossed at the walkers as bait. But no, instead she has to get half the group killed. (Alvin because she left the picture out for Carver to find, Reggie for not being able to figure out how to do something extremely simple on her own, Carlos and Sarita because she wouldn't stop freaking out, and probably someone else that I'm forgetting). Like seriously, Carver should have just thrown her off the roof instead of Reggie. I liked Reggie. He was a cool guy.

The idea of blaming Sarah for Carver being absolutely insane perplexes me. Picking berries is not a life-or-death situation, Carver was just a psycho looking for any reason to kill Reggie. The rest of his group straight up says that he never intended to let him back into the group. And Clementine left that picture there too (heck she might have taken it). You can't blame Sarah for Carver clearly knowing where the cabin group ended up.

And Carlos was shot in a random crossfire... It had nothing to with Sarah. Sarita's more debatable, but I wouldn't call a kid an idiot for having an emotional reaction to seeing her only family eaten alive. It's more relatable than the abrupt apathy that the rest of the group starts to show anyway.

At least Ben kind of didn't fuck up so badly. Had he not been giving the bandits supplies, they would have attacked earlier, and Kenny wouldn't have had the trailer fixed when they did. Don't get me wrong, I left him to die at the earliest opportunity, but I don't think he deserved it as much as Sarah did.

I didn't blame Ben for giving supplies to the bandits, I blamed him for keeping it a secret. If we had known, we wouldn't have stopped the deal. Lilly might not have deteriorated from the paranoia, Carley might not have been shot, Duck wouldn't have been bitten, Katjaa wouldn't have been overcome by grief, etc. And that's just episode three... He was far worse for the group than Sarah ever was.

Despite all that, I still didn't kill him.

Edit: Oh, right, she also got Nick killed. And she almost got Clem killed because Carlos would rather let Clem die than risk Sarah finding out about the outside world.

Sarah didn't shoot Nick, or make decisions for her father. She's the one giving Clementine medicine against her father's wishes, not the one locking her up.

 

[Kae]

I also gave Ben a second chance though, and I chose to try to save Larry too so it's entirely possible that I'm just too ideallistic.

That's my thing too. I do everything I possibly can to save everyone I can. This might sound weird but what I would really want for TellTale at this point is to hurt me for that.

Let me explain...

A big reason I play the way I play is because I know that my choices are not going to really have THAT adverse of an effect. Sure, it might let someone die a little later or it might get someone else killed a little earlier but the overall story is going to stay the same. In fact, I kind of hope Season 3 is it for Clementine so that they have the freedom to let your choices REALLY mess with the story.

What I'd really like is for Telltale to FORCE me to think twice. I'll give an example from Season 2:

If you save Sarah in the trailer, she will later die anyway when the deck collapses. Knowing that Jane will live or die based on the story and not my actions, I of course sent her down there because there's virtually no risk to me. But what if that wasn't the case? What if you sending her down there causes Sarah AND Jane to die. Jane's own story she told hints at this ("We lost four people trying to rescue that one man who turned out to be bit anyway") and is something that I really wish Telltale would embrace.

I know that's a lot more complicated and a lot more work (since they'll have to account for Jane surviving or dying) but Telltale's trick with story telling is going to start feeling cheap if it keeps this up. Besides, at this point, Telltale has become successful enough that we can expect more from them

That would have been great, I kinda want that too, they keep insisting that being a "Good" person is dangerous but there hasn't been much evidence besides the Walter giving food to Bonnie thing and they killed him off before doing anything interesting with his character.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Would a season where you play as Kenny work out? I think it'd be pretty cool.

I doubt it. Telltale had to LITERALLY turn Jane into a baby killer, and still many people chose her over Kenny. (She didn't kill the baby, but at the time you don't know that). I don't really get it. I chose Kenny without hesitation, but I'm surprised so many people would choose Jane over the one person who keeps being proven right and actually cares about Clem, regardless of his temper.

Kenny is proven wrong just as many times as he's proven right, but the times that he's proven wrong don't stick with you as much because that's kind of par for the course.

Take for example Arno. Kenny beats Arno every single chance he gets regardless of whether he's done anything to him, he turns Arno into his own human punching bag. Arno leads you to his camp where he promises that they have supplies and then when Kenny sees the camp he beats the hell out of Arno on the assumption that Arno lied to them and that there's nothing there, and then they find the supplies. Kenny is wrong every single time he beats Arno and in the end it causes Arno to snap and shoot Clementine. That's Kenny's fault.

Jane might be selfish and pragmatic, but she's also level headed and more capable of surviving than Kenny. Like I said before, in 5 minutes that you spend with her she teaches Clementine more useful survival stuff than Lee managed to in the entire first season of the game.

Then there's the fact that Telltale didn't turn Jane into a baby killer, they didn't even imply it. Kenny asked where the baby was and Jane remained silent, and some players who were in the same mindset as Kenny immediately assumed the worst about Jane and figured that she purposefully let AJ die. Even if AJ had died I personally would have had a hard time blaming Jane for it considering the fact that she ends up walking through a blizzard, alone with a baby with walkers all around her. Babies make noise, they attract zombies, it's a freaking miracle that he didn't die during that section (well, less miracle and more plot armor).

So yeah, that's why people chose Jane over Kenny. Well that and the fact that a lot of people still hate Kenny from season 1 and they were just looking for an opportunity to finally kill him.

Personally if it had been a choice I would have given AJ to Kenny and let them go look for Wellington and I would have left with Jane.