Potentially a step in the right direction? (Ep. 4 Spoilers Ahead)
So, I think I can honestly say that episode four has been my favourite of the season so far.
- There was a more noticeable balance between action and dialogue
- We got some intrigue with regards to Richmond and our own group members
- The last act was as tense as they could've possibly made it
Kenny and Jane got the fairer treatment they deserved. Despite not really adding to the overall plot, it was still a nice little treat to hear their voices, and yes, to see some actually *improved models for them.
But the thing I think Telltale was really trying to hit us over the head with this time, I think, was the your choices matter thing. I haven't really felt the impact of our choices like this for a good, long while.
The characters really seemed to respond more to what you were saying, notably with characters such as Kate, Tripp, Ava and (to an extent) David. If you were a dick, they'd let you know, and their actions towards you would show it. We weren't taking a backseat to what was going on within the group this time around, and the tension among people that were supposed to be our "friends" was pretty palpable.
But the biggest impacts that I felt came in the form of our actual choices, like:
Lingard not giving Clem the info she needs if you don't agree to help him overdose. This one was pretty interesting, since AJ's essentially Clementine's reason for being in this season, but I suppose we'll have to see whether this info (or lack of) will have an impact in the finale
Your relationship with Kate - finally, I can put the final nail in the coffin for this No, Kate, I will not go out with you, no matter how painfully obvious you made your attraction towards Javi throughout much of the season. She gets pissed at you, sure, but honestly, that seemed to be a running trope for episode four. They might as well have called it Episode Four - How to Lose Your Friends in an Hour and a Half
The fallout with Tripp and Eleanor if you had shot Conrad. Even though Gabe (the little shit) decided to squeal on me at the worst possible time, the fact that a choice we made (which felt like so long ago now) came back to haunt us like that was pretty refreshing. It may have pissed me (and I'm sure others as well) off, and some people may even be cursing Gabe's name as we speak, but the fact that that actually had a significant effect on the narrative was pretty impressive.
And finally, the final confrontation, and the big choice between Tripp and Ava. God damn it Telltale, why u do dis to us?? Whoever you pick to save is shot, and the one that actually lives is no doubt pissed off at you for essentially sentencing them to death. I didn't expect that coming. I mean, we knew that Joan was a politician and everything, but that was straight up savage. She messed with our heads and killed the person we cared about more, and tried to teach us a harsh lesson - betrayal's a bitch.
Well, two can play at that game, Joan. Pretty sure you've just been exposed to the New Frontier for the monster you are.
You know, with all the backlash this game in particular has received, all the disappointed fans, numerous staff changes and different rewrites that went down, I thought for sure that this whole series was going to tank. The writers could've thrown in the towel and given us a lackluster episode that didn't do anything to counter our negative opinions on ANF.
But I don't think they did. They stepped up, took some responsibility and (somewhat) listened to what the community at large was telling them. We've been saying for years that our choices were all just an illusion, and although that may still be true to an extent due to the limits of an episodic video game, I can commend them for at least putting in some effort for this back half.
That's not to say that episode four was an absolute masterpiece - far from it. They're still struggling with the concept of hubs being used as character development, especially compared to what we could do in season one. Eleanor seems to betray you even if you didn't shoot Conrad, which was utterly ridiculous, and Clem and Gabe... well, that depends entirely upon how you feel about it. It's nice to see Clem actually enjoying herself, and watching the two of them playing euchre and just being a couple of kids for a change was cool, especially considering all the shit that Clem's gone through. I personally don't care for a romantic relationship between the two, and Gabe's recent actions have really only cemented that fact, but the little things like playing games and chatting about non-death-related things are nice.
The only other major concern I have is that, while I really appreciated the choice aspect this time around, it might be too little too late for the series. We've only got the finale left in what's felt like a very short season, and making this at this point might seem to some as simply a way to appease the angry mob Telltale might've gotten outside their door. I hope they can still salvage this, since I really want this series to do well. The Walking Dead has become such a big part of my life, whether through this game, writing my own stories or watching the TV series, and it'd be a shame to see it stumble after all this time.
But anyways, as Kenny would say, "Enough sap, Leafs! Go back to your igloo already!"
What did you guys think of the episode? Is it too late to bring this season on par with the previous two? Were there any other aspects of this episode that you guys liked?
Comments
This is the first episode of ANF that I enjoyed. The opening scene with David and Javi made me feel something for those characters for the first time, it wasn't much, but it was something. Seems that Clem was with me more than previous episodes, and she thankfully acted less like an edgy badass. I think the pacing was good as well, although I would've liked to have some more optional dialogue in the hub areas.
I'm glad they made the Javi x Kate romance optional, and Gabe and Clem are pretty cute together as well. I'm sure she can make a man out of him one day...
I didn't really think about the soundtrack for the most part, which means it did what it was supposed to and wasn't distracting, except the fading at some parts.
It was very nice to hear Clem do the 'previously on' segment, but I would've like a 'next time on' one as well.
Guess I agree with IGN's rating for once, 6,5/10. A huge step up from episodes 1-3.
I'm really digging the David-Javi stuff, too, especially that initial flashback with them at the batting cages. They've really got a complicated relationship, and even though they don't seem to agree on most things, most of the time you can tell that they care for each other somewhat. I'm wondering though what they're going to do with David in the finale.
Haha, man if you agreed with this 6.5, I can't imagine what you'd give the other episodes
I'll start with the fact that I haven't been this invested in looking up alternate choices in a long time--and there are a relative lot to look up, too.
This episode was really good with its surprises, for the most part. The Kenny and Jane flashbacks, the callbacks to prior elements and other characters (AT LEAST FIVE this time across 2 prior seasons), getting to reject Kate, the Tripp/Ava choice AND that whoever you chose to save is the one who died off, Conrad in general, this being the first time since Season One that a community fell in a believable fashion, David finally being fleshed out beyond Maybe Villain territory while still keeping us on our toes, people finally treating us appropriately based on our choices again, and to a small (small) extent, 4 determinant characters (and they seem to be actually determinant, not TTGTWD-determinant), characters having sympathy where you'd expect there to be none (Ava for Clem, Eleanor for Tripp if he's killed off). Oh, and AJ sounds fully like a baby again, even if it might obviously be stock voice clips that can be found online.
There definitely were some negatives, being the surprisingly abrupt music changes that don't seem to plague any prior Telltale episodes, Kate's likely death as seen coming from a mile away (almost literally), Gabe's wonky characterization (flip-flopped respect for Javi at the drop of a scene change), and the lacking runtime (although with what they did put out, they actually accomplished a lot for once). While I'm not sure how much I like this episode, it's definitely, from a storytelling and gameplay viewpoint, a great improvement on preceding episodes.
Now if only I could see some important flashback characters that HAVEN'T been as acknowledged ;w;
Also: HUGS! At least two! So glad to see those options, always love giving characters hugs!
Final note, depending on how the finale plays out, I may be tempted to try getting this ASAP even without price drop, so I'm guessing this'd probably be true for other customers as well, but I guess that also depends on how my finances play out.
There's no real way to salvage this, it's too late for Telltale to start giving a shit now maybe it'll go on a high note but that won't excuse bad storytelling from the beginning and the middle.
Don't expect me to join the lame, "OMG, Gabeintine's so adorable! Clem's periods are so cute! Argh, I love this episode because shallow spectacle and shock value give me so much emotion!!!!! ARGHHH!!!!!!"crowd anytime soon.
It's nice to see that you found a lot of things to enjoy about this one I didn't even clue in to the four determinant characters that we've got now, or the realistic fall of the community. Now that you mention it, that was actually really well done. For once, it wasn't entirely the walkers that were the problem for the community, but people tearing it from the inside out.
Haha yeah, I noticed that too
Which ones would you want to see?
Better to be in the salty "Ugh! Everything's shit. I'm not not gonna actually judge this fairly. I'll just say everything's shit and hope everyone else follows suit" crowd?
It's not better but it actually might be more realistic.
But no, we've gotta have more positive echo chambers for shitty storytelling.
You know, the funny thing is that S1 is guilty of that on more than one occasion, but everyone always turns a blind eye to that
What did you not like about it? I know there were a few things that bugged me, mostly having to do with the whole Eleanor thing and the fact that Kate looked as though she wanted to play matchmaker between Clem and Gabe.
You're saying that like this place isn't already an echo chamber, except for a bunch of jaded cynics patting themselves on the back for relentlessly shitting all over this game like its the bathroom in a Mexican restaurant
Don't pull that stupid stunt Delinto, it's not shallow spectacle when the characters have real depth and the story has meaningful stakes to it.
Drama isn't really that engaging because none of the characters have enough depth for me to care.
It's also pretty boring and Gabe is just a terrible character.
Well, you write a shitty narrative with one note characters and with zero meaningful stakes.
You'll get shit for it.
"Stupid stunt" my lily white ass
Far as I'm concerned, it's the truth, and everyone around here has their heads planted too far up their asses to realize it
Call me whatever you want, I've felt this way for longer than I care to admit, and every passing day on this forum just cements that feeling more and more
I'd say I'm sorry, but I've dealt with enough people trying to cram their fucking opinions down everyone's throat and dismissing anyone that disagrees
Truth, my lily white ass.
The only truth here is that S3 continues to fail in living up to its potential and my head isn't up my own damn ass to realize people don't like having dog shit fed to them monthly.
I'm stopping right here. I don't want to drag this out.
Mostly Christa and maybe Omid since we know next to nothing of the time they spent raising Clementine, but also the motor inn group during those first 3 months and (grasping at straws) the cabin group during the week they spent escaping Carver in A House Divided.
Yeah, Christa and Omid really didn't get as much attention as they probably deserved. I mean, Clementine must've learned something from them, right? Wasn't it 16 months or something with Christa?
A motor-inn reunion would be so cool! Not everyone would be dead, maybe we'd be able to see how they found Mark in the military base, and we'd get to see just how they survived and prepped the motel in the initial stages.
I'd love for some throwbacks to the cabin crew, but the only thing I could see happening is maybe for their hike over to the ski lodge, since I don't think there are any other time skips that they went through. Still, it'd be cool to chill with Luke, Sarah, Nick, etc. again
this episode was clearly the best episode in the season althought the stakes were not as high since i did not kill conrad like many people did the episode had hubs had some good choices we had a new flashback with the S2 Survivor ((Jane or Kenny)) with redone models .
There was a trick choice with tripp and ava that reminded me of the text adventure someone posted the link to in the forum where there was also a trick choice between 2 characters.
Overall this episode felt like a season 2 episode in a good way.
And also from what i ve seen in videos about the consequences of Conrad s episode 2 death i think it was funny because some people in the forum we re urging telltale to give them something for shooting Conrad and they got something they got Tripp to hate them.