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This thread has been linked to the game 'The Walking Dead'.
The Walking Dead is back! No, not the series, or the really mediocre 3D shoot-em-up game. I'm talking about Telltale's award winning adventure series, based on the zombie comic of the same name. The Walking Dead: Season 1 was lauded for its storytelling, character depth and overall emotional impact. Though for me, the game's real selling point was that, as is the case with the comic, no character was safe. The first season contained a large number of character deaths, many of which came out of nowhere.
One character to survive the first season was Clementine, the young girl who the season's main character was charged with protecting. But this time around, she's the game's chief protagonist. No, really. She's only a couple of years older than she was in Season 1, and while she can handle herself a bit, she's still very much a child. This actually works quite well since it makes you feel somewhat vulnerable. Actually, make that 'extremely vulnerable' because, as the game begins, you, as Clementine, are totally on your own.
As was the case with The Walking Dead: Season 1, Season 2 is made of of several mini-episodes, the first of which is this episode, 'All That Remains'. You control Clementine with the keyboard and mouse or joypad, depending upon whether you're playing on a console or PC. The gameplay typically involves moving around, manipulating objects and so forth, talking with characters and stabbing zombies in the face when necessary. Each scene of the game typically takes place in one location so there's no to-ing and fro-ing frantically hunting for the right object. There are also a few quicktime event style action sequences which aren't as intrusive as they might otherwise be. The game’s graphics are as good as always, and are still cell shaded, though the interesting thing is that the zombies look slightly more realistic this time around.
The Walking Dead: Season 1 is really strong on storyline and you'd expect Season 2 to be the same. Does it deliver? Sort of. There are plenty of surprising and shocking moments in this episode, but on the whole it isn't as strong a first episode as Season 1's first episode. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, the episode introduces a lot of new characters at once, few of whom are immediately memorable. Walking Dead's first season, on the other hand, had Larry, Kenny, Lily, Glenn (who was admittedly from the comic series), Carlie, Doug and others. Episode 1 of that season managed to introduce you to all of these distinctive characters in one single episode.
The other problem with 'All That Remains' is that it just stops. I don't mean that it ends on a cliffhanger - it doesn't even do that. Instead, there's a brief decision scene - where you get to choose between saving one character and other. This ability to choose is often put forward as one of Season 1's best features, though in all honesty your decisions don't really affect the storyline, only the way the other characters react to you. But as soon as you make this decision, and see the brief results, the game fades to black. None of the other episodes in Season 1 finished this way and it actually feels like the developers ran out of time.
That's not to say that All That Remains is terrible. It’s still a fairly enjoyable game/episode in its own right but it doesn’t match the standards of any of the previous episodes. I’m hoping Season 2 is just finding its feet, and that things improve with Episode 2. Even if you’re a hardcore Walking Dead fan, you might want to hold off till Episode 2 to see if things improve.
Score: 6 out of 10.
Pros:
It does have enjoyable moments.
Clementine is back!
Cons:
It ends really suddenly.
It’s not up to the standards of the previous episodes.
None of the characters are particularly memorable.
One character to survive the first season was Clementine, the young girl who the season's main character was charged with protecting. But this time around, she's the game's chief protagonist. No, really. She's only a couple of years older than she was in Season 1, and while she can handle herself a bit, she's still very much a child. This actually works quite well since it makes you feel somewhat vulnerable. Actually, make that 'extremely vulnerable' because, as the game begins, you, as Clementine, are totally on your own.
As was the case with The Walking Dead: Season 1, Season 2 is made of of several mini-episodes, the first of which is this episode, 'All That Remains'. You control Clementine with the keyboard and mouse or joypad, depending upon whether you're playing on a console or PC. The gameplay typically involves moving around, manipulating objects and so forth, talking with characters and stabbing zombies in the face when necessary. Each scene of the game typically takes place in one location so there's no to-ing and fro-ing frantically hunting for the right object. There are also a few quicktime event style action sequences which aren't as intrusive as they might otherwise be. The game’s graphics are as good as always, and are still cell shaded, though the interesting thing is that the zombies look slightly more realistic this time around.
The Walking Dead: Season 1 is really strong on storyline and you'd expect Season 2 to be the same. Does it deliver? Sort of. There are plenty of surprising and shocking moments in this episode, but on the whole it isn't as strong a first episode as Season 1's first episode. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, the episode introduces a lot of new characters at once, few of whom are immediately memorable. Walking Dead's first season, on the other hand, had Larry, Kenny, Lily, Glenn (who was admittedly from the comic series), Carlie, Doug and others. Episode 1 of that season managed to introduce you to all of these distinctive characters in one single episode.
The other problem with 'All That Remains' is that it just stops. I don't mean that it ends on a cliffhanger - it doesn't even do that. Instead, there's a brief decision scene - where you get to choose between saving one character and other. This ability to choose is often put forward as one of Season 1's best features, though in all honesty your decisions don't really affect the storyline, only the way the other characters react to you. But as soon as you make this decision, and see the brief results, the game fades to black. None of the other episodes in Season 1 finished this way and it actually feels like the developers ran out of time.
That's not to say that All That Remains is terrible. It’s still a fairly enjoyable game/episode in its own right but it doesn’t match the standards of any of the previous episodes. I’m hoping Season 2 is just finding its feet, and that things improve with Episode 2. Even if you’re a hardcore Walking Dead fan, you might want to hold off till Episode 2 to see if things improve.
Score: 6 out of 10.
Pros:
It does have enjoyable moments.
Clementine is back!
Cons:
It ends really suddenly.
It’s not up to the standards of the previous episodes.
None of the characters are particularly memorable.
Hannard wrote:
I'm guessing the explanation would be that those were Omid and Christa at the end of Episode 1. I'll probably do a review of the whole of Season 1, but the Season 1 didn't really let you influence the storyline, no matter how much it pretended to. Your actions only affected how characters reacted to you.
I don't think this is really a valid criticism of the game. I've spoken to various people who have done things differently and had a completely different view of certain characters. Permanent branching is too much to ask of a small developer and would force sacrifices to the story.
I'm guessing the explanation would be that those were Omid and Christa at the end of Episode 1. I'll probably do a review of the whole of Season 1, but the Season 1 didn't really let you influence the storyline, no matter how much it pretended to. Your actions only affected how characters reacted to you.
I don't think this is really a valid criticism of the game. I've spoken to various people who have done things differently and had a completely different view of certain characters. Permanent branching is too much to ask of a small developer and would force sacrifices to the story.
I'm guessing the explanation would be that those were Omid and Christa at the end of Episode 1. I'll probably do a review of the whole of Season 1, but the Season 1 didn't really let you influence the storyline, no matter how much it pretended to. Your actions only affected how characters reacted to you.
This one is a bit of a mixed bag. There's plenty to like about it, in terms of story it's a good start and there are moments where you'll wince and/or curse Telltale for what they put you through.
There are however a few complaints.
Firstly, it's simply too short and can be finished in under 2 hours.
Secondly, and this is a personal thing, but I didn't like how the story skips ahead twice. It added a real disconnect to be reintroduced roughly 6 months after the end of Season 1, and to then skip ahead another 16 months. It's very evident that Clem has grown a lot in this time and as her former parent, I feel cheated out of that time.
Thirdly, what the hell happened to the ending of Season 1? Looks like Telltale just abandoned it.
There are however a few complaints.
Firstly, it's simply too short and can be finished in under 2 hours.
Secondly, and this is a personal thing, but I didn't like how the story skips ahead twice. It added a real disconnect to be reintroduced roughly 6 months after the end of Season 1, and to then skip ahead another 16 months. It's very evident that Clem has grown a lot in this time and as her former parent, I feel cheated out of that time.
Thirdly, what the hell happened to the ending of Season 1? Looks like Telltale just abandoned it.
That's my night sorted then, assuming I don't get dragged into Minecraft.
The Walking Dead is back! No, not the series, or the really mediocre 3D shoot-em-up game. I'm talking about Telltale's award winning adventure series, based on the zombie comic of the same name. The Walking Dead: Season 1 was lauded for its storytelling, character depth and overall emotional impact. Though for me, the game's real selling point was that, as is the case with the comic, no character was safe. The first season contained a large number of character deaths, many of which came out of nowhere.
One character to survive the first season was Clementine, the young girl who the season's main character was charged with protecting. But this time around, she's the game's chief protagonist. No, really. She's only a couple of years older than she was in Season 1, and while she can handle herself a bit, she's still very much a child. This actually works quite well since it makes you feel somewhat vulnerable. Actually, make that 'extremely vulnerable' because, as the game begins, you, as Clementine, are totally on your own.
As was the case with The Walking Dead: Season 1, Season 2 is made of of several mini-episodes, the first of which is this episode, 'All That Remains'. You control Clementine with the keyboard and mouse or joypad, depending upon whether you're playing on a console or PC. The gameplay typically involves moving around, manipulating objects and so forth, talking with characters and stabbing zombies in the face when necessary. Each scene of the game typically takes place in one location so there's no to-ing and fro-ing frantically hunting for the right object. There are also a few quicktime event style action sequences which aren't as intrusive as they might otherwise be. The game’s graphics are as good as always, and are still cell shaded, though the interesting thing is that the zombies look slightly more realistic this time around.
The Walking Dead: Season 1 is really strong on storyline and you'd expect Season 2 to be the same. Does it deliver? Sort of. There are plenty of surprising and shocking moments in this episode, but on the whole it isn't as strong a first episode as Season 1's first episode. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, the episode introduces a lot of new characters at once, few of whom are immediately memorable. Walking Dead's first season, on the other hand, had Larry, Kenny, Lily, Glenn (who was admittedly from the comic series), Carlie, Doug and others. Episode 1 of that season managed to introduce you to all of these distinctive characters in one single episode.
The other problem with 'All That Remains' is that it just stops. I don't mean that it ends on a cliffhanger - it doesn't even do that. Instead, there's a brief decision scene - where you get to choose between saving one character and other. This ability to choose is often put forward as one of Season 1's best features, though in all honesty your decisions don't really affect the storyline, only the way the other characters react to you. But as soon as you make this decision, and see the brief results, the game fades to black. None of the other episodes in Season 1 finished this way and it actually feels like the developers ran out of time.
That's not to say that All That Remains is terrible. It’s still a fairly enjoyable game/episode in its own right but it doesn’t match the standards of any of the previous episodes. I’m hoping Season 2 is just finding its feet, and that things improve with Episode 2. Even if you’re a hardcore Walking Dead fan, you might want to hold off till Episode 2 to see if things improve.
Score: 6 out of 10.
Pros:
It does have enjoyable moments.
Clementine is back!
Cons:
It ends really suddenly.
It’s not up to the standards of the previous episodes.
None of the characters are particularly memorable.
One character to survive the first season was Clementine, the young girl who the season's main character was charged with protecting. But this time around, she's the game's chief protagonist. No, really. She's only a couple of years older than she was in Season 1, and while she can handle herself a bit, she's still very much a child. This actually works quite well since it makes you feel somewhat vulnerable. Actually, make that 'extremely vulnerable' because, as the game begins, you, as Clementine, are totally on your own.
As was the case with The Walking Dead: Season 1, Season 2 is made of of several mini-episodes, the first of which is this episode, 'All That Remains'. You control Clementine with the keyboard and mouse or joypad, depending upon whether you're playing on a console or PC. The gameplay typically involves moving around, manipulating objects and so forth, talking with characters and stabbing zombies in the face when necessary. Each scene of the game typically takes place in one location so there's no to-ing and fro-ing frantically hunting for the right object. There are also a few quicktime event style action sequences which aren't as intrusive as they might otherwise be. The game’s graphics are as good as always, and are still cell shaded, though the interesting thing is that the zombies look slightly more realistic this time around.
The Walking Dead: Season 1 is really strong on storyline and you'd expect Season 2 to be the same. Does it deliver? Sort of. There are plenty of surprising and shocking moments in this episode, but on the whole it isn't as strong a first episode as Season 1's first episode. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, the episode introduces a lot of new characters at once, few of whom are immediately memorable. Walking Dead's first season, on the other hand, had Larry, Kenny, Lily, Glenn (who was admittedly from the comic series), Carlie, Doug and others. Episode 1 of that season managed to introduce you to all of these distinctive characters in one single episode.
The other problem with 'All That Remains' is that it just stops. I don't mean that it ends on a cliffhanger - it doesn't even do that. Instead, there's a brief decision scene - where you get to choose between saving one character and other. This ability to choose is often put forward as one of Season 1's best features, though in all honesty your decisions don't really affect the storyline, only the way the other characters react to you. But as soon as you make this decision, and see the brief results, the game fades to black. None of the other episodes in Season 1 finished this way and it actually feels like the developers ran out of time.
That's not to say that All That Remains is terrible. It’s still a fairly enjoyable game/episode in its own right but it doesn’t match the standards of any of the previous episodes. I’m hoping Season 2 is just finding its feet, and that things improve with Episode 2. Even if you’re a hardcore Walking Dead fan, you might want to hold off till Episode 2 to see if things improve.
Score: 6 out of 10.
Pros:
It does have enjoyable moments.
Clementine is back!
Cons:
It ends really suddenly.
It’s not up to the standards of the previous episodes.
None of the characters are particularly memorable.