We are here. Finally. At the road fork. Season summary/review and few words for TTG. Spoilers
5th episode of 2nd season was great. Tough choices; balance between dialogs - exploration, gripping - calm parts, narration - gameplay. The confrontation - something what was not so obvious, because it was in that group. Jane and everything she did because of her sister. Kenny and his transformation - which was not really transformation. Fire and the calmness moment, dream moment and its purpose, its meaning.
As a minus - there was no ending (come back to it later).
Unfortunately the entire 2nd season was not so good. 1st ep. was, but 2nd and 3rd were not. There were its moments, but nothing more. What was so bad? - Governor man(Carver), bad balance... (look above in text), featureless supporting characters, no goal (come back to it later), in some way - bad Clem character build (come back to it later).
We all know that 3rd season is coming and you (TTG) are at road fork. The Walking Dead (game form TTG) is brilliant. You have created series that is seen as one of the best by various groups of people. Gear of War, Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed players can play and experience it as well as I - a men who love games like Silent Hill 2, Metal Gear Solid 2, Knock-Knock, Tension.
After 1st season ending I place it between best games I have ever played and I wrote that The ending was the most emotional and simply the best moment in the history of video games and nothing has changed. 1st season is still here.
2nd season can not be placed there... because it is not finished. The story is not completed like it was in 1st. Of course Clem is still with us and here story continues, but Lee story had the goal (or rather purpose), the goal that was accomplished. Through whole game we tried to keep Clem save, to find her parents. In 2nd, when we play as Clem it could not work that way anymore. Players do not care about their character (they know there are saves and so on) as well as about character that can be deleted form game permanently at any time (e.g. Carley).
You can tell us that TWD world is about survival, food, travel and shelter and that is our goal, and even when it is true, we can see that conception burnt up. We see that in TV series as much as in comic book. It is being schematic now - new threat, new people, new place... time to destroy that... and again - new people... It is like Game of Thrones... schematic - time to kill someone, time to place someone new, time to kill someone and so on. Of course - it keeps us in suspense and it is entertaining but if you look at it closely it has no value that will be existing in 10 year from realses day. In that point season 1st was much better and you should look for something like this in 3rd - the GOAL, the AIM, the PURPOSE and great story that will bring us to that destination.
The story has branched in many ways, what is great, but few questions come up with it:
- Will you cope? You have got 3 other projects and now you will have much more to do if you want to keep it branched. So maybe...
- ...Will we play as Clem? I think we should, because her story is not finished, because we get used to it. But it is not easy for you. In 1st season, after 2nd or 3rd ep. you said you want to make Clem more likeable, more human. Did you abandon this way or it is that we are playing as her now? Either way Clem is still only matured between adults. Because of that we could noticed something that we probably would not if we would played as adult - how many things are built to be done by player and how stupid could be our companions (Wind turbine - s02e02), just to let us interact with game. You had problem with it through that season. Only in 1st and 5th episodes you did it right (eg. Clem during quarrel between Kenny and Jane in car or while Kenny was “talking” with Arvo).
And remember she is not kid anymore, but she is not adult as well. Make a room for her - to make a mistake. Sure - she lives in tough times, she has to change, but she is not adult.
I know in 2nd season you focused on narrative part but I think we need some puzzles (like door in the barn from s01e02) and a little more exploration/wondering around moments (museum from s02ep04) as well as those fight moments, time limited moments (grocery from s01e03), and moments of calmness to bound with group (during road in s02ep05, or talking with Carley during road to dairy s01ep02). These seems like we need everything, but those moments help players to being a character. To implement them you should make episodes a little longer and better balanced as it was in 1st season.
Balance of suspense and implementation of gripping moments.
In 2nd season you had big problem with suspense/gripping moments.
1st good examples:
- in 1st season: - during travel to the dairy We could talk with Carly. We were not in any dangerous (there were no sights of zombies, there were many people) so the suspense was low, but suddenly we heard some people, then one man shot another and the suspense rapidly grow up.
- Carley death - it was brilliant.
In 2nd season there is lack of those moments.
Bad examples:
- in 1st ep we could predict that dog will bite us, because of that food, so level of the suspense stayed pretty high.
- in 2nd ep, by binoculars, we could see that Carver is coming. You tried to catch our attention at Kenny and kept tension low, but for me the result was terrible. I could not focused on Kenny - I was waiting for moment to told them about what I’ve seen and because of that the suspense was pretty high all the time so when Carver came there wasn’t any jump of the suspense level.
- even at 5th episode there was a bad example how to not create a suspense - frozen lake + zombie behind.
- And finally the worst scene in the series - last decision form 3rd ep - about cutting Sarita arm. For decision that should have been made split second we had like 15 seconds? That killed immersion, that killed all feelings about what we have done.
You should also look more carefully to season concept. I know that there are many writers but that story has to be more consistent. At this point I miss Sean’s V. writings.
Summing up - We (You, I and other players) need purpose, we need closed and consistent story, we need better balance of narration elements (suspense, exploration, dialogs and so on), we need Clem.
But what is most important - We do not need schematic story like in comic book or TV series.