[SPOILERS]The Walking Dead episode 5 and entire game REVIEW thread

[Sisterofshane]

Holy Cow! Now THAT is how you end a game!

The emotional roller coaster put me in a tailspin for the better part of my morning. I'm pretty sure that I need to lock myself up in my bathroom and cry it out for awhile. I seriously can't think of anything bad to say.

Congrats to Tell Tale on this fantastic game, it certainly deserves it's nomination for Game of the Year, and here's to hoping that it wins!

[Aptonoth]

Thanks Telltale! I just want to congratulate you on making such an amazing first season, I can't wait for season 2. I wish you all the best luck in your future endeavors. I think your taking story telling in games to a whole new level. Thanks for everything!

[Plan_R]

I just finished the game and I would like to let Telltale know that they are bastards, magnificent and glorious bastards. This game was amazing, in over 20 years of gaming I have not experienced a more gut wrenching, and soul shattering story. This games dificulty level is pretty much null, but this was the hardest game I ever played. I physically had trouble begining episode 5 knowing what emotional horrors you might have had in store for me. You left me in tears, you left me wishing I had never pressed start, and you did not dissapoint. I can not recommend this game highly enough, in terms of story you have surpassed any game ever made, you even left most books,movies and tv shows in your dust. I did not just cry at the end of your game, I wept.

10/10, bring on Season 2!!!!

[2-_-DEAD]

Absolutely loved the game! My only gripe is that I beat the last episode so quickly. A "finale" should always be longer not shorter than the rest of the episodes. I gave it a eight as a whole. Can't wait for the next season!!!!!

[Wrighty]

Originally Posted by Vainamoinen

YES! YES! You saw that correctly!!

I'm sad I didn't notice that. Sorry but I was too busy holding back tears. :P

Anyway the entire series and especially the last episode were simply amazing. Nothing better than when a games ending holds up to a already high standard overall. Amazing storytelling, voice acting and just all round awesome.

I'm kind of sad it ended and we no longer have new episodes to look forward top but oh well. Something this good cant last forever.

[thestalkinghead]

Omg so sad

[SuperMeatBoy]

This may be one of the greatest games I've ever played in my entire life, I'm dead serious. It started of smoothly and it was quite predictable, I thought it was great back then though it needed some more action. In episode 2, they show a lot more graphic and frightening content, and in episode 3, they flat out say: We're not fucking around here.

Many may consider the gameplay style dull, since it differs a lot from any other game on the market. I really appreciate how it's for the most part story-based, and that they focused a lot more on that than on any other aspect. It didn't lack anything, the music was awesome, the graphics were great considering that they made it look like the comics. The highlight of the entire game is the story, and all the decisions/consequences. I have never ever felt so much empathy while playing a game! I love how during the later episodes, you never know what to expect. Anything can happen.. people can die, a walker may turn up out of nowhere. So beware!

This is a game that everyone should play, it is by far the most emotional game I have ever played, and might be one of the most emotional games to have been made. It never gets tiring nor dull throughout the episodes. Constant action and tension along with great story, dialog and decisions.

Don't doubt, just play!

[Doctanian]

Absolutely masterful series. That said, I do have a harsh review. I loved the episode, but I seriously need to point out some problems.

I have six main complaints with episode 5

1) WAY too short.
2) It felt rushed/Campman's motivations.
3) Lee's arm.
4) Lee's death/zombification.
5) The epilogue was horrible.
6) The concept of "choice".

1) Is it just me? Or is this the shortest episode? I mean, I railroaded through this in what seemed to be maybe an hour and a half? Most episodes reach over 2 hours. Episode 3 had to be the longest. Hoping for a longer experience.

2) Also the way the story wraps up was rushed. I mean, Campman's motivation made little sense to me. Sure, he says you stealing the stuff led to his family's demise, but was that really enough for him to go through with his Rube Goldberg idea? And how was he able to track them down in the city, Clem didn't have the radio with her. Why the fuck wasn't the Marsh Hotel filled with zombies? And what the fuck was Campman going to do if Lee came with everyone? How could he have possibly beaten Lee, Kenny, Christa, Omid, and Ben? Especially if they were armed? Waaaaaay too many plot holes. Very, very sloppy writing. I would've gladly waited another month or two for a better written story.

3) I didn't cut my arm off, because in the back of my mind I knew it was absolutely pointless. And low and behold, it was. My friend messages me saying he got Lee's arm amputated and he STILL dies. Thanks for being complete dicks with that one, TellTale, teasing a possible determinant death. Also, Kenny and the others seemed to know cutting it off might help. My question is, why the fuck didn't they suggest that when I first showed them the bite?

4) I was expecting Lee to die. But the way people were hyping the ending up made me think Clem was going to die too. Not that I wanted that. It's the last thing I wanted. It's just people were saying this was the most heartwrenching thing they've ever seen. So I'm like "Clem must be the one that dies". I mean, everyone loves Clem and that's the only death I expect people to have such a strong reaction too. I love Lee, but still. I guess the fact that I expected Lee to die took a bit of the emotional sting away. I got so attached to him and Clem. I'm glad to see Clem alive, but knowing they'll never be together again makes me much more angry than it does sad.

5) The epilogue is complete trash. I hate that TellTale keeps trying to be ambiguous. First Lilly. Then Molly. Then Vernon and his piece of shit group. Then Kenny's "death". And then Clementine. Is it too much to give the player some closure? I mean, it is a season, but from what TellTale was saying after the game's success, I don't think they had a season 2 planned. So was this cliffhanger ending supposed to happen or was it added in at the last minute to hook people for season 2?


6) Choice never mattered with this game. You can feed me that "the theme is helplessness/hopelessness" stuff, but that's some bullshit. It was cost effective and time saving. Period. I was really expecting them to come through and give us multiple endings for this one episode. I could tolerate things like Carley dying and Ben's lackluster death if you save him, as long as they gave me the option to end the game in a couple different ways, but no. It's like being able to choose different types of fast food. You may get a different taste, but it all ends in a heart attack regardless.

I know I'm coming down hard on a downloadable game that probably didn't have much funding and resources behind it, but TellTale should've never suggested that your choices actually matter and therefore have a profound effect on the story when they really didn't mean anything. Doug, Larry, Carley, Ben, Duck, Katjaa, Chuck, and Lee are doomed no matter WHAT you do. Molly, Lilly, Christa, Omid, Kenny, and Clementine's fates are unknown thanks to a literary cop-out (ambiguous endings).

They should've just said it's a story and you're along for the ride, but instead it gives the phony illusion of choice. We can argue all day whether it's intentional or not.

I really hope season 2 is much, much more ambitious and far-reaching. Hope Clem, Lilly, and Christa and Omid come back. Kenny, if he's alive too.

That said, I still adore the game. It's going down in my top 20 favorite video games of all time.

[Marumochi]

Just finished playing...

I'm bawling my damn eyes out. Oh god... I didn't want it to end like this. ;___;

[Scelous]

I've defended this game against other people's complaints, and I have really enjoyed it. However, I was left feeling pretty disappointed by episode 5.

First off, it was pretty short. That could be forgiven, however, if they hadn't made it so that:

None of your choices mattered. I didn't steal from the station wagon. So what? The guy is still angry. I chose to bring along Omid and Christa. So what? Kenny still ends up coming along. Does it even matter where you tell Omid and Christa to meet you? Or what you tell Clementine to do?

I don't know. I enjoyed myself, and I will definitely buy a season 2, if and when that comes out. But I guess all the complaints about your choices not mattering -- all the complaints from my friends, who I disagreed with -- were right. And that kind of leaves a bad impression on me, lowering my opinion of the series as a whole.

[anonymau5]

I really enjoyed the game. I have seen tons of people complaining about the Stranger.

I actually really liked him. It gave me a chance to reflect on my actions, and what I had done through the course of the game. What seemed completely justified at the time suddenly seems like a monstrously cruel thing to do.

[Emmerd]

So I finished episode 5 a like 30 minutes ago and let it all sink in.. I just don't know what to think.

I get the whole point that Telltale tried to make here.

The episode seems shorter, because there is 'no time left'.
Still it felt too short to statisfy me..

At the start they really got my attention.. I mean.. You start out pretty dramatic! It also seemed like all the choices I made really mattered and were going to give me a totally different playthrough and a different ending. I was starting to imagine that there were going to be different scenarios, different cutscene.. It would be real fun to do a second playthrough!
Loved all those little details that they put in, how they made the characters so loveable.. I didn't had Kenny with me but it felt great to be reunited with him later.

Great scenes like slashing through zombies.. Slicing a zombie kids head..
It was so intense.. They really got me excited!

Even a choice that we might all have forgotten, taking food from the car..
But from there..
I lost it.

The man did not give a damn about my choice (I did not steal from the car).
Yes I know this is realistic, he was insane. Of course he did not care.. But from there it went downhill for me.. It was getting too predictable..
The head in the bag was shocking too btw.
Also loved the fact that they smeared themselves with zombie blood and flesh.. The memories of the comic!

Anyway, from there..
Everything felt so pushed.
You knew what was going to happen.. And I know that's the point of the game.
You have no time left, so there is no time to get a more emotional scene with clementines parents, they're just waddling around there without a real story.
There is no time to get into Lee's story, about what happened to him! It doesn't matter, because the world ended! You're not a kid, woman, man, murderer or sick person anymore, you're alive and that's all what matters.
I get that.
But
It did not work for me.

Yup it was realistic that Lee had to die
And it was realistic that we couldn't see what would happen to Clem, because our character was dead or a walker, he couldn't know.

I get the whole fact that Telltale was trying to send us the real message of the end of the world but.. I expected more!

I couldn't really feel anything for the end, because I was still waiting.
Waiting for something to happen..
Being excited after the credits, to finally see Clementime in the open field.. And then be dissapointed again.

It did not touch me, not at all.
Great message here, but I just expected more after 5 episodes of making intense choices.

Anyway, I would still recommend this game to all my friends.
I really enjoyed the first 4 episodes and had a great time.
Started to read the comics and watching the series and I'm loving it!

And other people might have shed buckets of tears and found the ending amazing, which I can understand!

So I hope you all had a great time, please don't be mad at me for having an opinion, I'm not bashing on the game.
Feel free to share your experience too!


P.S.: Excuse me for my English, it's not my mother language.

[Doctanian]

Originally Posted by Emmerd

P.S.: Excuse me for my English, it's not my mother language.

For it to be your second language you're doing very well, friend. You should work on your paragraphs and sentence structure, but other than that, you're doing fine! I agree with majority of your points about the game. Very rushed, very sloppy writing.

[Emmerd]

Originally Posted by Doctanian

6) Choice never mattered with this game. You can feed me that "the theme is helplessness/hopelessness" stuff, but that's some bullshit. It was cost effective and time saving. Period. I was really expecting them to come through and give us multiple endings for this one episode. I could tolerate things like Carley dying and Ben's lackluster death if you save him, as long as they gave me the option to end the game in a couple different ways, but no. It's like being able to choose different types of fast food. You may get a different taste, but it all ends in a heart attack regardless.

I know I'm coming down hard on a downloadable game that probably didn't have much funding and resources behind it, but TellTale should've never suggested that your choices actually matter and therefore have a profound effect on the story when they really didn't mean anything. Doug, Larry, Carley, Ben, Duck, Katjaa, Chuck, and Lee are doomed no matter WHAT you do. Molly, Lilly, Christa, Omid, Kenny, and Clementine's fates are unknown thanks to a literary cop-out (ambiguous endings).

They should've just said it's a story and you're along for the ride, but instead it gives the phony illusion of choice. We can argue all day whether it's intentional or not.

I really hope season 2 is much, much more ambitious and far-reaching. Hope Clem, Lilly, and Christa and Omid come back. Kenny, if he's alive too.

That said, I still adore the game. It's going down in my top 20 favorite video games of all time.

THIS
EXACTLY
MY FEELINGS.

I was so angry about issue number 6.

:/.

[Emmerd]

Originally Posted by Doctanian

For it to be your second language you're doing very well, friend. You should work on your paragraphs and sentence structure, but other than that, you're doing fine! I agree with majority of your points about the game. Very rushed, very sloppy writing.

Heh thanks mate! c:

[FAVREFAN]

Sadness. I don't think I can play as anyone else. Seriously. I'll pass on Season 2. Well done though.

[Shoopuffs]

Having finished the game now, my overall like for the Walking Dead franchise in itself has diminished. I didn't hate it by any means, but I get really sick of being let down over and over again by so many people dying for seemingly no other reason than they just thought it was good to kill them off.

I was pretty pissed about Kenny's death at the end, it seemed like a total ripoff. I mean I chose to save Ben, so when Kenny pulled out the gun and said there was only one bullet, my immediate response was to just tell him to give it to Ben and get ourselves out. After all Ben had already said that was what he wanted, and he wouldn't have wanted to be the cause of Kenny's death anyway. Not to mention Kenny had literally just got done saying that what Katjaa did was selfish, and how you are supposed to stick around to help those you care about no matter what, then they let him go and off himself. BS. I get that it made sense, leaving Clem with Omid and Christa, but still it was a cheap death, and I'm getting pretty sick of those.

The thing with Lee was a major bummer for me too, I hate that they had to kill him off, and I seriously spent the time episode 4 was released to the time episode 5 was released hoping they would write it in as just a scratch and that he would be fine. Sadly that hope was for nothing. I ended up crying at the end of the episode, it was a mix of sadness and anger, and it just left me feeling almost betrayed.

The "villain" was absolute rubbish. He was basically mad at me for no reason, I wasn't guilty of any of the crap he went on about, it was like he was mad at me just for the sake of having someone to be mad at. It was ridiculously convenient how they wrote that bit too, there were no zombies anywhere to be found in the Marsh house until Clem fired the gun, and that only brought one single zombie. Also what would have happened if Omid and Christa hadn't have gotten separated from Lee, how would he have responded then? That part just had such a terrible story to it.

The final chapter just seems so rushed, there is literally no closure at all. I don't know what happens to Clem, Omid, or Christa, or even Lee really. I don't get why they couldn't just throw us a bone or something.

All in all the game wasn't too terrible, would I play it again? No probably not, but I did enjoy some parts of it. One of the absolute game killers for me was how often I would have to restart because of my save data being deleted. I likely wont purchase season two unless TellTale fixes the issues with the save data and starts being far less ambiguous.

[Zombiedude101]

To summarise:


Words cannot describe the depth of emotion in this Episode, nor can they describe the excellence. Even if it was a little shorter than that I expected, it was still the best damned game I've seen in a while.

[dustpuffs]

I really enjoyed playing The Walking Dead. Any complaints I may have about it are very minor. I also realized that I love the episodic format! I found that I really looked forward to getting a new episode and seeing what happened next; it was similar to having a favorite show come back in the fall after not being on over the summer. It was like getting a little present every month or two. I will be back for season 2, and if Fables is Telltale's next game, I'll give it a try.

[FAVREFAN]

Originally Posted by Doctanian

Absolutely masterful series. That said, I do have a harsh review. I loved the episode, but I seriously need to point out some problems.

I have six main complaints with episode 5

1) WAY too short.
2) It felt rushed/Campman's motivations.
3) Lee's arm.
4) Lee's death/zombification.
5) The epilogue was horrible.
6) The concept of "choice".

1) Is it just me? Or is this the shortest episode? I mean, I railroaded through this in what seemed to be maybe an hour and a half? Most episodes reach over 2 hours. Episode 3 had to be the longest. Hoping for a longer experience.

2) Also the way the story wraps up was rushed. I mean, Campman's motivation made little sense to me. Sure, he says you stealing the stuff led to his family's demise, but was that really enough for him to go through with his Rube Goldberg idea? And how was he able to track them down in the city, Clem didn't have the radio with her. Why the fuck wasn't the Marsh Hotel filled with zombies? And what the fuck was Campman going to do if Lee came with everyone? How could he have possibly beaten Lee, Kenny, Christa, Omid, and Ben? Especially if they were armed? Waaaaaay too many plot holes. Very, very sloppy writing. I would've gladly waited another month or two for a better written story.

3) I didn't cut my arm off, because in the back of my mind I knew it was absolutely pointless. And low and behold, it was. My friend messages me saying he got Lee's arm amputated and he STILL dies. Thanks for being complete dicks with that one, TellTale, teasing a possible determinant death. Also, Kenny and the others seemed to know cutting it off might help. My question is, why the fuck didn't they suggest that when I first showed them the bite?

4) I was expecting Lee to die. But the way people were hyping the ending up made me think Clem was going to die too. Not that I wanted that. It's the last thing I wanted. It's just people were saying this was the most heartwrenching thing they've ever seen. So I'm like "Clem must be the one that dies". I mean, everyone loves Clem and that's the only death I expect people to have such a strong reaction too. I love Lee, but still. I guess the fact that I expected Lee to die took a bit of the emotional sting away. I got so attached to him and Clem. I'm glad to see Clem alive, but knowing they'll never be together again makes me much more angry than it does sad.

5) The epilogue is complete trash. I hate that TellTale keeps trying to be ambiguous. First Lilly. Then Molly. Then Vernon and his piece of shit group. Then Kenny's "death". And then Clementine. Is it too much to give the player some closure? I mean, it is a season, but from what TellTale was saying after the game's success, I don't think they had a season 2 planned. So was this cliffhanger ending supposed to happen or was it added in at the last minute to hook people for season 2?


6) Choice never mattered with this game. You can feed me that "the theme is helplessness/hopelessness" stuff, but that's some bullshit. It was cost effective and time saving. Period. I was really expecting them to come through and give us multiple endings for this one episode. I could tolerate things like Carley dying and Ben's lackluster death if you save him, as long as they gave me the option to end the game in a couple different ways, but no. It's like being able to choose different types of fast food. You may get a different taste, but it all ends in a heart attack regardless.

I know I'm coming down hard on a downloadable game that probably didn't have much funding and resources behind it, but TellTale should've never suggested that your choices actually matter and therefore have a profound effect on the story when they really didn't mean anything. Doug, Larry, Carley, Ben, Duck, Katjaa, Chuck, and Lee are doomed no matter WHAT you do. Molly, Lilly, Christa, Omid, Kenny, and Clementine's fates are unknown thanks to a literary cop-out (ambiguous endings).

They should've just said it's a story and you're along for the ride, but instead it gives the phony illusion of choice. We can argue all day whether it's intentional or not.

I really hope season 2 is much, much more ambitious and far-reaching. Hope Clem, Lilly, and Christa and Omid come back. Kenny, if he's alive too.

That said, I still adore the game. It's going down in my top 20 favorite video games of all time.

Quoted for Truth.

So much truth. I still enjoyed it. But it was the novel, not the game, or the choices, I would have had just as much fun and feels. Lee dies. I'm done, the book is closed.

OH NO! A wild season 2 appears. The whole idea of a Season 2 is just a cash cow, and given I might of tried it, had Lee not died. You can't kill Master Chief, and replace him with another Spartan. You can't kill Sam Fisher, and have his daughter fight.

It's bullshit.