The Spoilerific Telltale WALKING DEAD Thread so we don't spoil the game for people who want to ask if 'Stacking' is good

Ooooh I want to talk about this game SO MUCH

First thing I want to talk abt is what I am pretty sure is BY FAR THE MOST BRUTAL SCENE IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY which is I think at the beginning of Ep.2 where you have to cut off the gym teacher's leg. I actually played this part w/ my left hand over my mouth in horror.

Zombie Clementine upset/scared the shit out of me. I'm way more invested in Clem, my character and Carley (oops) than any of the people in the comic/TV show.

Yeah, someone at work was asking me how it stands w/ the comic and tv show and I can say w/o hesitation that it blows the show out of the water, and imo it's even more appealing than the comic (altho I only read the comic through to... whatever was after the prison, and even then that was back when they just released the TPB after the prison). The characters are just SO MUCH MORE SYMPATHETIC. Zombie Clem was on the RV/nightmare scene right? That scene was so perfectly cut together. Are you done ep5 yet?

I just finished up Ep3. Made myself stop before starting 4, I don't want to get swallowed up for six hours tonight.

this spoiler thread seems too spoiler-free

only made it to the beginning of ep 5 before I put the game down. I'll finish it off soon, I hope.

too spoiler free bc nobody else so far has copped to finishing ep5 AND I JUST WANNA TALK ABOUT THE PART WHERE CLEM GETS A SNIPER RIFLE AND SHOOTS TREVOR IN THE FACE

idgi w/r/t why these games are 'a thing'

in which sense? because if you're saying point/click telltale-style games I would largely agree with you, but this game in particular did such a good job of telling a story i was interested in listening to, that adding the necessity of me "choosing" (yes false choice) to do things manipulated me into feeling a lot more than I should. I go back to that moment at the beginning of episode 2 (really one of the best set pieces in the game IMO) where you can choose to cut that guy's leg off -- if it were just an animation you wouldn't feel any ownership if Lee just decided or didn't decide to do it. But since I decided to do it, and the game made me click (yeah, I know, just CLICK) 4 times to hack the guy's leg off with the axe, and I had to keep clicking to progress even though he was screaming and it was so futile and so clear that it just wouldn't work... if I had seen exactly what I saw minus the video game HUD in a cartoon or a TV show, I wouldn't have covered my mouth in horror during the entire scene. but I did.

I am usually not a big defender of games and story and how the immersion adds a new layer to storytelling because it is usually so clearly false but in this case and this game I think they actually make a great point for how this can work. much better than a lot of games that get credit for this (BioShock I'm looking @ you).

I thought BioShock was an okay shooter but the supposed moral weight of killing/saving the little girls was bullshit.

With the Walking Dead, a number of the small deaths (Chuck!!!! I really thought we'd see him again) have affected me more than fictional deaths usually do.
Also, I've dreamt I'm Lee (or Lee-like) three straight nights.

I sort of want to complain about the controls/POV being clunky for when you have to move in action sequences, but I feel like that was a thing with the Monkey Island/SpaceQuest games back in the day, too, it's not something avoidable.

i assumed he meant the "would u kindly" thing or whatever it is

that sounds interesting. 'agency in videogames' is an interesting thing i mean er whatever. i will if not play these will get someone who owns them to walk me through them quickly. yes this totally defeats the point i guess.

not a fan of the show at all but fell in love with this game. rented it for xbox on a whim, expected some FPS zombie hunt cheap jollies. then when this point-and-click style adventure game started up I was like wtf? but the characters and story and ethical choices became really engaging. having a limited amount of time to choose how your character will respond verbally causes the thrills to come from decision-making rather than from battle. first person heated argument! the conflicting loyalties, moral dilemmas, self-worth issues, caretaking focus, and self-preservation cruxes are emotionally involving. good uses of ambient quiet moments, and real suspense.

the device gets overused, but there were times when characters told lee "you're a good man" and I started to well up a bit. and I was crushed after I chose to ventilate one of the st john bros w/ a pitchfork, then turned and realized clementine was watching the whole thing. I've never psychologically owned a character's backstory like this.

got halfway through eps 2, then bought the rest of the series for the ipad. it's the best ipad video game I've played. since the controls are so limited the gameplay actually works better on a tablet. you don't have to scan the environment looking for objects - they're highlighted whether you're looking at them or not, which is good since half of them are usually garbage ("hmm what an interesting EMPTY BOX"). the puzzle-solving stuff was the most frustrating aspect on xbox, I scanned every inch of that goddamned drugstore twice before noticing the brick laying just outside the gate.

read some of the wiki for the first two eps and spoiled some things for myself, gonna try to avoid any more spoilers until I'm done, tho I have been going back to scenes I've played through to see what some of the alternatives are (does lee really have to lose his love interest? uh yeah apparently). after playing through eps 2 a second time I realized the "decisions" don't matter much - first time I didn't save the teacher, second time I did, and both outcomes were essentially the same: ben comes back to camp and the teacher and second student both end up dead.

They're not the same because _you_ after different doyousee.gif.

Are, not after.

if you choose not to save him you don't see the axe scene which is ffffffafafafafafuckkkked

iirc when I didn't save the teacher it was made more horrible by the fact I futzed around with the chain and trap too long, so I ended up hacking halfway through his leg and then leaving him for the walkers. glad I could make your last moments on earth as horrific as possible.

also SPOILER I ended up shooting duck in the face after his father couldn't bear to put him down like a sick farm dog wtff

I wound up hating Kenny so much I just want to go back through the game and fuck with him the entire time. Kill your own kid, asshole!

at one point he left me trapped under a broken door while walkers piled on top of it, I was like I SAVED UR SON U OWE ME 4 LYFE ASSHO

yes that was one of the dialog options

Is there a way to make him not fuck you there? I was solid as fuck to that guy until like that episode when he became the worst and he still trapped me under there.

Lee is attacked just as they are escaping the drugstore, and depending on his relationship with Kenny, Kenny will either help him fight off the walkers or attempt to leave Lee.

I guess if you kiss kenny's ass 24/7 he will help you

eps 3 is def the worst so far, kind of a slog. eps 4 picks up tho.

got bit. sawed own arm off.

Yeah, I was frustrated that whenever he got bitchy you don't get to remind him that you killed his zombie-son for him.

I guess the game wants you to kiss his ass because he's the constant (aside from Clem) but fuck that.

kinda wanna play back through this in chaotic fuck you mode but that's a real time commitment

finished this. i feel like there's a lot i have to say about the game, but i'm not sure what to focus on

so let's start with chapter 5, shit, anthony perkins judging your choices like this is that bit from Chrono Trigger WHAT, so creepy - if i ever meet the designers i'd ask them if they played Killer7. (maybe that's the only other game i can think of that has a terrifying final climax in a hotel involving tense one on one conversations)

the degradation of Lee during this chapter was visually very well done. i didn't cut off the arm, but since he lost feeling in that arm anyway he had to use one arm for most things anyway

clementine... damn. i was really so attached to her by the end of the game, the last scene was so fucked up and sad. i guess by the start of the chapter you know how this is pretty much gonna go, but i am not gonna lie, it was utterly heart-wrenching

the direction of certain moments in this series is just really damn strong; the whole sequence of smearing guts on Clementine and the subsequent walk through the zombie parade was really well done, just the look of this bit was great

kind of weird that the game ends like that (well, for me, a gunshot into title card - another nicely directed bit) where you don't even know what happened to Omid and Christa. wondering if i could've saved Kenny and the stupid kid or not. but it does allow the end to be laser-focused on Lee and Clementine

the device gets overused, but there were times when characters told lee "you're a good man" and I started to well up a bit. and I was crushed after I chose to ventilate one of the st john bros w/ a pitchfork, then turned and realized clementine was watching the whole thing. I've never psychologically owned a character's backstory like this.

I've gotta finish eps 5, then I will read yr post

so I finished this up - final scene was heartbreaking but also kind of anti-climactic? was hoping for something bigger (no not explosions, just more resonance). there's a moment when you stop controlling lee and are suddenly clementine, I got jazzed that there'd be an extended sequence where you finish the game out as her, a shocking but logical shift in the FP narrative... but no.

season 2 theories are floating around, how cool would this be

http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/6194/mollyclam.jpg

i hope season 2 is almost entirely unrelated b/c i am really worried about "pleasing the fans" too much w/ this new one.

I am actually really happy w/ how it ended, so anti-climactic and just painful and no control over her. I think it works better that you do your best to sort of "set her in the right direction" but by giving the player control of her after that, it'd be like... nah, you have to just see her off and hope she doesn't fuck up. that impotence is what makes it so powerful.

I think it's been confirmed that the story will follow on, somehow, from this one.
I don't know if controlling one of the other two, protecting Clem, will be nearly as powerful as controlling Lee was, a lot of that impact was set up in the way they came together (if you just stepped into ep 3/4 you wouldn't know why he gave a shit) - and if you'll be controlling Clem that could be weird unless they age her five or six years.

i found that last part where you're directing her through Lee to be really moving and powerful too

telltale has been vague about it, but they made some mention about using your save game from Season 1 into Season 2, maybe they'll use who survived or didn't

i'm with Will here in that i was really happy with the ending, i didn't find it anticlimatic at all - just brutal and coldly logical end in the face of everyone else's death or abandonment in the series. (especially thinking about how almost all the people you choose to save die anyway!)

honestly, i would rather do a season 2 with a completely new story and set of characters, with maybe a cameo or two from someone who survived season 1 if they must

note: in the post-credits ending I saw- Clementine is alone and never met up with Christa/Omid - she sees a couple of people off in the distance - clearly she's ventured far from Savannah on her own by now - but it's unknown who the strangers are other than that they're armed. i assume everyone sees that ending?

yup

okay, so i'm not reading SHIT on this thread yet, but i tried this on ipad and PS3 and it did absolutely nothing for me. Then i tried on PC and it really clicked. Just finished ep2. FIgure to finish the series by end of week and then i suppose i'll be hooked. this is FAR superior to the show.

I can't imagine it being nearly as fun on console and definitely not on iOS... glad you were able to get into it!

the point and clickyness of it is just not right for joypads or touchscreens i guess

i could see it working with console/pad - you don't really need to click stuff much, just the ability to scroll through objects on the screen with the triggers. plus as a "big-screen" game i could definitely seeing it work. that said, i've never seen it on console

i congratulate your perseverance - this game is absolutely worth it

weird, my first time playing it was on the xbox, the appeal of the "gameplay" was totally lost on me until I got sucked into the story. finished it out on the ipad and it seems designed for that form factor. it's almost one massive interactive cut scene, passive playstyle perfect while kicked back on the couch, retina screen made long jags easy on the eyes, and there's no button-mashing involved in tapping a verbal response. plus on the ipad the items you can interact with in the environment are always highlighted. spent sooooooo much time on the xbox wandering around rooms looking for things to grab, often overlooking them because you don't get a visual hint unless you're right on top of them.

either way, gets an alltime top 3 ranking on any platform from me.

just finished the third ep; amazing how it's the quiet moments that make this game

yeah, kinda makes suspenseful games like bioshock seem like child's play

yup yup

man when you shoot the kid, i spent a couple of seconds looking around for another option, not in a completist way but because I DIDN'T WANT TO SHOOT THE KID
even if it only buys a few seconds of that level of immersion, that's a hell of a feat for a game.
and the dream of zombie clementine was scarier than any resident evil moment of the last decade

i chose to shoot him; so there's no way to make the other guy do it, huh?

and yeah zombie clementine dream was a wonderful moment

i wasn't clear if you could get kenny to kill his kid and i didn't try. there's a lot of that kinda stuff where i'm not sure how they resolve if you zig instead of zag but i have very little interest in replaying to find out.

I replayed a couple scenarios, some choices cause branching (mainly in how other characters treat you later), others are false choices (e.g. it doesn't matter what you do at the start of eps 2, you're going to end up with whiny ben).

there's a ton of false choices in the game, but it works anyway

okay, just beat this.
What a great final moment with clem realizing that the shells could mean that the couple on the hill are dangerous, could be omid and christa, could be walkers.
She's terrified of choice and the game has been instilling this in you from jump. Whenever it gives you an option, you have to live with the shitty choice it makes you pick. you're constantly in a state of having to make sad, frustrating determinations. It's an anti-game of sorts.
I'm know there's a gazillion thought pieces on this; i linked to them on coint and plick, so gonna go read. but final analysis, this is one of the best games I've ever played and WHY it is can be difficult to explain but it's reassuring that's such a shared experience.
Any new eps or DLC are day one buys for me from here on in until the quality dips.

forgot that this was posted in ILE, but i dug it up: Coint and Plick 2013 - The Sixth Annual ILX Video Game Poll

So 400 days is out. Anybody played yet?

It's not essential, but it's worth playing, and bodes well for the next "season". Due to its brevity (you can play through it in about two hours) and to the fact that it follows five different narrative strands, none of the characters really become as affecting as Lee or Clementine, but the writing is impressively economical.

, this is one of the best games I've ever played and WHY it is can be difficult to explain but it's reassuring that's such a shared experience.

YES

Gotta get that 400 days. Very excited.

tho i suggested otherwise not two weeks ago, I'll probably wait for s2 ep1 with the 400 days bonus kicker

i'll get it soon, just being kinda lazy about it

well that was a letdown

I liked it, but it definitely took a different approach than the main season. It felt like an anthology comic like Creepshow or Tales From the Crypt.

+ Goofy conversations in the car
+ Inevitable intersections of the stories
- The best characters are the ones you don't actually control

will this run OK on a 2011 MBP w/intel HD 3000 512MB integrated gfx yes/no

so apparently s2 is out

I was tempted to maybe start an ILGPA spoiler discussion for this, but doesn't seem like there was lot of interest. It's probably better to wait until the whole season's out anyway, in a year.

PC, not PA. We are not a player's union.

400 days was a total disappointment but I just played the s2 prologue and holy hell

Just blazed through the whole of Season 1 in a little over a week. My god, what a fucking rollercoaster. This really excelled at hitting all those emotional soft-spots in a way that the likes of Mass Effect struggle to - ok, so ME had a bit of tugging at heartstrings with e.g. how to deal with Mordin or w/e, but the choices I was making in that game tended to be of the "now how would my character, that I am role-playing, as I have imagined him, respond to this situation?" variety - everything sort of once removed. Whereas in WD there were so many choices (Ben in the bell tower, Clementine right at the very end in particular) where I was so heavily emotionally invested that I was personally conflicted to the point of breaking down. So many legit "WTF would I do irl in this situation?!" moments. No distance whatsoever between me and the character.

turns out I basically always did the right thing almost on instinct, but did occasionally let my temper flare up and get the better of me at several crucial moments when the general stress of shit had been getting too much, leading to statements and decisions that I massively regretted later but was forced to live with. This is almost exactly how I imagine I might respond to similarly strenuous circumstances in real life, which I find extremely impressive for a video game, b/c usually I'm of the "pick a character and play it that way"-school of RPG gaming.

Just started Season 2, was initially unsure of how I felt about continuing as Clementine but I can tell already from the fabulous bait-and-switch with the pet dog that these guys are going to keep playing me like a stringed instrument(THOSE MOTHERFUCKERS!)

Anyone else play through S2 in the end? I've got Wolf Among Us to play through at some point as well, though I think I'll save that until I'm finished up with WD.

I'm putting it off until S2 is completely finished

isnt s2 finished now?

i played through 3 and quit to buy it on pc so i could use my old save file (originally got on ps3 for some reason)

now that 1-5 are out for s2 i am gonna play this REAL soon

oh you're right! i should get to this sooner than later then

Omid then the woman then the dog?! Goddamn, S2 starts rough.

and like a fool i opened the bookmark lol
i've been dragging my ass on this one long enough

I rage quit and have to restart because I hit the wrong button in making a choice and can't just go back to a checkpoint to change because I wasn't saving.