(SPOILER) I played and Beat The Walking Dead Part 1

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CAREFUL, YO! I MIGHT JUST LEAK A SPOILER OR TWO.

I'm not writing this as a focus on the last episode, but an overview on the choices that I made along the way to the end.

About an hour ago when writing this, I had just finished up Telltale Games' The Walking Dead's 5th Episode. The episode, named "No Time Left", was the last in it's first season, signaling the conclusion of protagonists Lee and Clementine. Not even five or six minutes into the chapter, I had already felt the punch that Telltale likes to deliver every episode, saying; "Look here, you cunt. You're back into /our/ hell. You better sit down and enjoy every millisecond of it." Not a single second past when my thumb was literally absorbed into my mouth, myself filled with dread. I'm just going to say it now: Telltale Games' The Walking Dead is one of the best adventure games of all time, and without a doubt the best zombie-apocalypse themed title available.

Yes. Even better than Zombies Ate My Neighbors!.




With beginning the game about a couple of weeks of it's first release, I originally felt little to no excitement for the title. For one, the entirety of the game went into the dark after development, and I wasn't really all that impressed with Back to the Future: The Game. Regardless, this was a Telltale game. I was going to hop into this title with a lot of optimism.

This is where I fucked up.

In the beginning scene with the officer, the general direction I wanted to take Lee was him to be a comment avoiding dick. Which worked. The officer didn't like me. I hate cops, in and out of games. That's beside the point. When I get to the scene after killing the officer and went to Clementine's house, my main focus was to clean that place of anything and find out what was in that treehouse. I did the expected stuff--drank the water, check the messaging machine, looked for any signs of life. The impact-deciding choices really kicked off with Clementine being a complete sport and helping me kill the zombified babysitter.

My thoughts of Clementine at first were that of hope. Knowing that this is a comic-inspired Walking Dead, my first goal was to patch this leg of mine up and protect Clementine. Again, not much of a choice at all. We waited for Nightfall. Bad idea, yeah, but hell that turned out well for me (aside from that one fat guy who never shows up in any other episode) and we rode the gravy train straight to Herschel's place.

I'll be straight--I don't like Herschel. Fuck Herschel. Herschel's a complete ass. So, I did the "DOUCHEBAG LEE" approach, similar to the comment avoiding dick approach I did with the officers. (Note: Old people in this game are assholes.). It worked out well. I wanted Herschel to hate me. Fucking /despise/ me. I didn't even save his bitch ass son. Fuck you, Herschel. Fuck. You.

...

(fuck you)

ANYWAY! To Macon! Where we meet even more old people and dicks. I didn't like Lily and her dad. Carley and Glen were cool, though. "DOUCHEBAG LEE" returns yet again to absolutely hate Lily and Larry. Kenny was my bro. We were gonna beat fucking heads in. Bros in hell, for life.

Getting more into the level, I reached the band-aid scene with Clementine and Lee. I got more of a chance to know Lee's character and, in turn, Clementine's thoughts of Lee. The atmosphere of the scene was that of extremely thick and unbearable air. You could easily tell that Clementine felt somewhat awkward around Lee compared to later episodes, which is what I appreciate of the first episode when looking back. They all had their own agendas instead of banding together for both Lee and Clementine.

Then Glenn left and went off to be bald and lame and shit.



This epsiode was my most hated. Not because it was a bit underwhelming compared to other episodes, it's because of the general environment. I hated the Dairy Farm. Fuck the Dairy Farm. Fuck that happy shit it tried to pull on me.

Anyway! This episode was really had my interest in one specific character--Ben. Believe it or not, I liked Ben more than Kenny or, hell, even Lee in some moments. He was in the same situation as, say, Clementine. He's jusst a kid who has little to no knowledge of what the hell is going on, and his only adult figure is virtually destroyed from being wrecked by a Bear Trap. Shit sucks. Not only that, but the entire group virtually uses him as a paperweight, which really is relieving when hearing his final words in Episode 5. I would've wished they could do more with his character, but I feel much more relieved with bringing him along for the ride.

One of the things that irked me of the episode? The new guy that just 'magically' appeared between the events of Episodes 1 and 2, only to be eventually killed by being eaten alive by Lee's crew (EXCEPT CLEMENTINE HA SUCK IT). I mean, in a game like this, having simple filler characters only to meet their demise without really pushing the story forward is kind of a waste. Like Glenn and that one fat guy in the previous episode.

Speaking of Glenn, I wonder how the events of the game--which is meant to be canon to the comic book continuity--will effect the comic. I haven't read the comic since Carl had his face blown off by an accidental gunfire blast in that one commune they were in, so I wouldn't even know of Glen's fate. Though, I don't think it really matters.

I hate Lily even more, though.



And here, my brotherhood with Kenny is really contested. And shit just goes downhill so fucking fast. It was so bad, there were moments into me playing where I just had to pause the game, get a drink and recollect what the fuck happened, and head back into the game trying to make the right decision. It was more of those moments where my choices felt extremely weighted and the only outcome was either going to be shit or EXTREMELY shit. Just the rapid succession of the shit that hits the fan so...fast...it's overwhelming.

Some bonds who I wanted to make stronger, like with Carley and Lily (the former moreso), were virtually shattered because Lily didn't get over it. But that same symbiosis that I had developing with the unlucky high-schooler, Ben, would prove to be dominant in this chapter, and is just another gold star in Telltale's stellar writing. In reality, Ben's just a scared and confused kid, doing as much as he can in his own self to protect himself because virtually, himself is all that he has as of now. Sure, I sympathize with Kenny, Kat and Duck's eventual despair, but I find isolation more troublesome than, say, loss. In all honesty, Episode 3 was more so Ben-focused because he was still going through that experience of gaining back trust with Lee after revealing to Lee how everything went to shit.

[Insert Clementine/Lee bonding segment here that is always important.] Gurl he cut yo hurr so gud.

Then we're introduced to Omid and that one girl who's name escapes me because she was about as bland as burnt toast. For now, we'll call her Rochelle. She reminds me of Left 4 Dead's Rochelle. So fucking bland. But this isn't about her. Omid reminds me of that guy who tries to make everything less awkward, and it works! Works so well. I started growing thoughts of sympathy for the poor guy because A) his leg gets fucked up, and B) he has to deal with Rochelle.

Anyway, the Clementine/Lee scouting mission was one of the best that displayed the cooperation, dialogue, and emotions felt between Lee and Clem. She was a real team member more than she was in previous installments, which is always nice.

My thoughts of the first three chapters are as follows. To prevent this from being an overly large blog, I will write seperate blogs on Episodes 4 and 5. They're going to be pretty big.