darkSpyro

Telltale: Hey, how do we incorporate Season 2's endings? Oh I know! Let's just shoehorn a two minute flashback scene during A New Frontier and completely disrespect the player! How dare they think their choices in Season 2 mattered!!!

Okay, I love how effectively Telltale can make choices in this franchise so difficult and so gut-wrenching all the time- my previous post probably gives a good idea of that- but the whole universal bond that Telltale keeps tying for their Walking Dead games is just getting ridiculous now.

If you went off alone, all that happens is Clementine loses a finger. If you stayed at Wellington, it gets raided and Clem has to run off with AJ. If you went with Jane, Jane hangs herself after finding out Luke made her pregnant. If you went with Kenny, he just haphazardly dies after a car crash in an extremely rushed fashion.

Because THAT'S what we need, right? I thought Jane was alright but she had her fans. Telltale is really just going to throw her away so suddenly and rushed like that?

AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THE KENNY SCENE. Kenny is hands down the most important character in all the games when you don't count Lee and Clementine. He seriously just suddenly dies too? HIS DEATH IN SEASON 2 WAS BETTER HANDLED THAN THIS.

AJ is only in the flashbacks. What the hell happened to him? Is he dead? is he with another family?

This isn't telling me"well you don't know the whole story just yet." This is telling me "my choices never mattered and Telltale is writing out a lot of Season 2's importance for plot convenience."

Admittedly this has been a problem since the first game. But it's so glaring and frustrating here because Season 2 had multiple endings.

I was okay with this whole "universal knot" (if I can describe it in any way) that Telltale made for the games because the games followed a general storyline where you shape the characters. Instead of making it so that there were multiple stories, they chose to make a linear story where choice dictates characterization more than it does story. And that's what I loved about the first two games. Your choices dictated the story because character interaction was always different.

But Season 2 had five different endings. Five different ways Clementine's story could unfold. They kind of had to find some way to make the story branch into different directions. The whole universal knot they made for this game seems so forced and lazy because it's saying that the path Clementine chose doesn't matter at all; she will always end up in this exact same situation with Javier.

Season One made sense- either shoot Lee or leave him. All that did was help shape Clementine's character and that was it. Season Two's endings would've had to either take the story into drastically different directions based on the ending chosen, or decide to nullify the endings entirely to make them all come to head in A New Frontier. If Telltale was really willing to make multiple endings and have them all put Clem in the exact same spot in A New Frontier, then what was even the point of giving Season 2 multiple endings?

Which brings me to Clem herself: Now I started geeking out when I saw Clem again. I was so happy to be seeing one of my favorite video game characters again. And during the beginning part with her, what Telltale was going for is very effective. I was honestly shocked at some of the things Clementine did, such as shooting Eli by accident. it was really crazy seeing that my choices made a character like this, seeing it from the perspective of Javier.

BUT SHE'S ONLY PLAYABLE FOR A GRAND TOTAL OF TEN MINUTES, IF THAT AT ALL. AND THAT'S IN BOTH EPISODE 1 AND 2.

My problem isn't with Javier being the playable character this time around. I like him. I think he's a cool character and I like his family. My problem is that Telltale is taking Clem, who is their most important and popular character for ANYTHING they've made, and making her a side character. I really can't express how disappointed I am that Clementine is barely playable so far.

The first two episodes of A New Frontier weren't bad by any means. They have what makes Telltale's games so good and so much fun. I really do like Javier and his family. I like how quickly I can connect with him and these characters. Telltale has always done a good job with it's characterization(well, for the most part). I LOVE the choices this game presents to you. I hated every single choice I made, just like a great Walking Dead game usually does. I like the story so far too. I like seeing how far the world of the Walking Dead has come. The game looks great graphically, it's such a huge improvement over Seasons One and Two. And most of all, I love seeing Clementine again and seeing how much she's grown and changed as a character. My only other real complaints with the game are that the music isn't all that great and the episodes are really short compared to previous games.

But I'd be lying if I didn't say I was also disappointed with what I played. The first two games to me are gaming masterpieces. And it sucks for me to say I don't feel that way about A New Frontier. If I had to rate the game in its current state(since I don't want to officially do that until all episodes are out), I'd probably give it a 7 or 8.

It's at least better than the Michonne series(not to say Michonne was bad though).