Soooo can we make killing ****** matter as much as sparing him did?
With episode 3 out, lots of people are celebrating Conrad's treatment as a determinant. He has a couple lines, gives you a choice to keep his gun or give it back to him, can either die or survive the episode again, and can even kill Badger himself if he made it that far. Pretty cool, right? Definitely a step up, we haven't seen a determinant get this much love since Carley/Doug.
I have an issue though, and that is the fact that only around 10% of players originally chose to spare Conrad. To add to this he was pitted against Clementine, the most beloved character from this whole series, therefore making it a rather biased and one-sided choice. I remember many, many fans complaining about feeling forced to kill an otherwise likeable character due to the situation we were thrown into.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm really glad that Telltale is trying to make characters actually matter if you keep them alive. HOWEVER, I feel like killing Conrad (the route that 90% of players took) is severely lacking and unrealistic. Eleanor doesn't comment on Conrad's absence, nor does Tripp even mention what happened to him. Tripp seems to want revenge on TNF for Conrad's death, yet the guy who actually killed him is right in front of him yet he conveniently forgets this fact. You do get one dialogue where Tripp drops to his knees and seems really defeated, but then he is back to his normal cheery self right at the next scene.
So Telltale, could we just consider making killing Conrad as important as saving him was? I'd like to see Tripp being hostile towards my Javi and demanding to know exactly what happened in the tunnels. I want a Kenny/Lee style fight between Tripp and Javi. Maybe we can see a good Tripp or bad Tripp depending on our choices, like how Kenny was determinantly good or bad towards you in s1.
Rant over. Like most people I really did enjoy this episode more than the premiere. It was obvious that more effort had been put into the little things, like with Conrad. But PLEASE, don't just focus on the Conrad crowd. Give us Conrad-killers some more dialogue or a determinant scene in the future. Determinant material is fantastic but not if it leaves a large part of the fanbase missing out on cool material and feeling like their choices were neglected.
Comments
i must agree, I'm not sure what telltale were really thinking with the whole Conrad determination side of things. Pitting his fate up against Clems and Gabes was never going to work. And although I (like many others) have been very biased towards Clem this season, I actually chose to kill Conrad because he decided it'd be a good idea to hold a gun to Gabe's head. I don't care much for Gabe but he's been a son figure to Javi for the previous 5 years...
I can only imagine (and hope) that a reveal of Conrad's true end will come to light and force some serious drama between Javi and Tripp. God knows we need something to liven up this yawnfest
I was REALLY looking forward to telling David how TNF members killed Mari, as well as dropping all the truth to the other 3. I was also really looking forward to dishing all the dirt on Joan with Max and David's help. All three of these things I did with glee, and with no hesitation... and they were all pretty much brushed off by the other characters. In fact it seems to have been the case that no less than 1 minute after spilling news like this to characters who really should have cared they just went on with the script as if nothing had been said. I'm fearful that if Tripp does find out what happened to Conrad then we'll get a repeat - 1 minute of conflict before forgetting I mentioned anything
Yeah, I feel you. The rest of them must've put on a pair of rose-tinted glasses or something
I dunno about you, but I'm not so sure I'd want to still chat up the guy who killed one of my friends.
That being said, I also let Lilly back onto the RV after the Carley-Doug situation back in season 1, so maybe it depends on the circumstances.
I agree. One thing that disappointed and/or pissed me off about the way Nick and Sarah were handled is that neither side of their determinate choices really got much payoff for it. This essentially lets the guilty parties of their 1st deaths get off scotfree with no developments to punish and compensate for them, while the ones who chose to stick by them didn't earn much aside from a clear conscience and having them hang around doing very little in the background before their anticlimactic canon deaths. While I'm definitely among the handful who sided with Conrad and am more than happy that my gut feeling about it payed off for the most part, I feel the people who chose to kill him should get something for their choice, positive or negative.
Save Carley/Doug and Larry's death at Kenny's hands are the benchmarks for a reason.