comparison to tv series and comic
i really love this game. season 2 was the best piece of fiction i ever had the pleasure to experience.
so i finally had a look into the rest of the franchise. and what i found really shocked me.
i know i get accused of just being a troll but in all honesty:
the tv series was in my opinion pretty much the biggest pile of garbage i had seen in a long time. i hoped it would get better in the second season. but it somehow just managed to get even worse.
can someone explain to me why it is so popular? it seemed to fail in pretty much everything the game succeeded.
the character's are so forgettable. when it came to a tear-jerking goodby between two of them i honestly asked myself "are they in anyway related"? i could not remember them ever interacting.
the story seemed to be build on stupid actions of characters and coincidences.
i questioned some actions of season 1 game characters and season 2's group's nativity can be excused by them being sheltered. but in the tv series only the most stupid people seemed to have survived.
how can a polygon child seem more real then real children!?
why would they reveal the ultimate zombi camouflage from the start?!
thinking this might be one of this "violating the source material" - cases i checked out the comic but saw immediately signs of similar flaws.
i read only the first few issues so i don't really want to give up on it just now. but could someone tell me a little about the comic? does it get better? more similar to the games?
Comments
Please bring some examples? I don't think the TV show at all failed in where the game succeeded. Both are highly enjoyable, but I guess its just a matter of opinion.
And the comics arent anything similar to the game. Its gets really dark in later issues.
Well, if you think season 2 of the game was the absolute height of quality for the series, then there's no going back (heh) from that, really. It was almost as poorly written as season 2 of the TV show, and also included examples of bad things happening because the characters were stupid or motivated by plot convenience (example: Bonnie walking onto the ice despite Luke's pleas for her not to, getting him killed; Kenny hating you even when you killed the walker that bit Sarita just for the sake of contrived emotion; Kenny being so essential to the pregnancy despite Clementine supposedly being there when Christa's baby was born and apparently died; Bonnie and Mike betraying the group which ran contrary to everything they had shown beforehand, and more). The main difference between the two season 2s is that the TV show one was just dull almost from beginning to end and full of minor inconsistencies; Telltale's season 2 was full of inconsistencies also, but had so much obvious potential staring right at us that it was sad to watch as they squandered it from episode to episode.
Also, season 1 of the show was largely very good, with the pilot being one of the best in recent memory.
Because Clem was the major focus most of the time so her development was a big part of the story, whereas the show is meant to have something of an ensemble cast, so early on, the kids didn't get much development. Carl has become much more of an important character in recent seasons. For all its faults, season 2 of the show did make use of almost every character except for poor Token-Dog, it's just that the storylines and dilemmas were largely stupid to begin with.
Because the characters were smart enough to figure it out. This isn't a flaw in any way, shape, or form.
No, it can't. Not after two years. The whole "trapping Clem in the shed" thing was a decent idea, but executed stupidly in hindsight which made the cabin group look like idiots.
i thought i just brought some examples.
but ok. i did not watch it that recently and it did not left much of a lasting impression but i will try to recall some of it.
the zombis do not appear threatening
the protagonist is confronted in the first episode with the worst possible scenario. everything after that seems just like a inconvenience. the zombi camouflage is discovered in episode 2 taking even the least pit of threatening presence from them. and if that was not enough they even had a scientist explain zombis.
the unknown is always more frightening then something you know everything about.
lee knows nothing about what is going on. he is confronted with an increasing number of walkers. he finds out slowly more and the camouflage trick is literally the last thing he learns.
the characters are totally forgettable
it seems they have just randomly put some character's in the group. that woman that just seemed to be there to mention some underground tunnels, the redneck with the crossbow, that black guy whose entire identity consists of being black and being a guy.
come on. the walking dead game is probably the most diverse game out there, giving us the best ethnic character, best female character, best child character,... and none of them is defined by their race, gender or age.
had the people that wrote the tv series ever had encounter children? they just seem so unnatural.
the season 2 group has or rather had in total quiet the number of people in it. and everyone had their distinct personality.
i can not even name any characters in the tv series group.
the protagonist seemed to me from the beginning to be a naive fool and still more intelligent then the people around him. he slept though the apocalypse but immediately becomes their leader. how did they of all people survive all this time?
the greatest tread in a zombi apocalypse are not the zombis
it is people. it brings out the worst in them. the game knows that. the tv series seemed to have forgotten it completely. they even showed the opposite. i believe there was some gang that took care of a old folks home, or something like that.
and this coincidences - of all the people in the state his son, wife and friend survive. and the way his kid was shot was just incredible.
that is all i can remember for now.
You are forgetting that the second episode of the show takes place 3 months into the apocolypse, around the same time Lee finds out about the camouflage technique. So thats one point invalid.
The protagonist (Rick) is nowhere near a "naive fool." He barely knew anything about walkers but knew how to survive in life-or-death experiences (as his life as cop before), which is obviously why the others probably looked up to him. Plus, his friend Shane was already leading the Atlanta group in the woods, so when Rick and him reunited it only reinforced the bond of Rick being leader.
And the show's first and second season are the only ones who don't follow the threat of other people. The second season touches upon it a little (ex. the men in the bar and Shane turning crazy), but the third season we meet the Governor, someone who is more sociopathic than Carver. Then we meet Joe's gang, a group of rapists and thieves. And now we meet the Termites, the possible cannibals.
How is that any different than Clem being reunited with Kenny after around 2 years of being separated? How is it any different than when Clem got shot in the shoulder and had no bandage or anything, yet is able to kills walkers and fight either Kenny or Jane off in less than 24 hours?
I'm sorry but none of your points are really that valid or true. Don't think I don't love the Walking Dead game, but I don't love it any more than I love the show.
Did you miss the part where the camouflage washed off from the rain, resulting in the zombies practically running after Rick and Glenn? If anything, they had much more of a threatening presence in season 1 than any later seasons. Also, Jenner didn't explain zombies, he just explained what the virus does. They even straight up asked him what it is, and he said he didn't know. It could be a virus, microbial, fungal, or the "wrath of God". The characters still don't know what is going on.
And season 2 of the game gave us a couple farm boys and an old man, a Spanish guy and his daughter, a big black guy (this big), and a pretty little pregnant lady. That's a pretty random cast too. Guess what? That's what zombie apocalypse groups always are. Random. That's the beauty of having social constructs being torn down in an apocalypse.
Won't deny T-Dog had bad writing as a character, at least in season 2. There was actually more to him in season 1.
Season 1 of the show was very diverse as well, and the characters were not defined by their race, gender, or age either. Rather, previously held social constructs were shown to come out of the worst people of the group, Merle and Ed. To paraphrase Rick from episode 2: "Things are different now. There are no (n-words) anymore, and there's no redneck, white trash pieces of shit anymore either."
That's called not paying attention. Not a failing of the writing.
This is what happens when you don't watch the rest of the series. The TV show has human villains so often now that people complain there's not enough zombies, for fuck's sake. Plus, did you forget Merle and Ed? Nevermind, you obviously did, but they were two assholes who held onto racial and sexist prejudices because the world had gone to shit and there were no rules. Also, the Vatos who took care of the old people were so distrusting at first because they had been fighting raiders and "people who take by force". Yeah, the human threat hadn't fully come into the mix yet, but it didn't come fully into the mix immediately in season 1 of TWDG either. You need to establish the world first (a world with no hope besieged by zombies) before you immediately start getting survivor villains.
Necessary coincidence to get the story going, just like how in season 1 of TWDG Kenny's truck just happened to stop in front of Lee's parents' store. And just like how Clementine just happened to run into Kenny again despite being in a completely different state than before in season 2, easily the biggest goddamn coincidence in the game so far. Really huge luck is needed sometimes to get the story moving.
Damn, this is why these forums need to give a notification when someone has already made a good, detailed reply or something. -_- Good post.
season 1 was just to predictable. i was sure from the beginning lee would be bitten and sacrifice himself to save clem.
everything between meeting clem and that felt interchangeable.
my choices felt limited. (like putting an axe the the head of that bear trap guy) and the time limit just made it worse. i just do not feel guilty when i make a bad choice because i was not given what i needed to make the right one.
i really hate it to lie to children. and to let clementine for months in the believe her parents where still alive was unbearable. the interactions with clementine just lacked something for me.
i have never felt more attached to a character then season 2 clementine. there where some nice choices. like putting an axe to serita's head or telling luke to just shoot carver. but mainly because this felt like her story. character development seemed far more important this time. and the character where so much more interesting. even if they made just a short appearance like rechy and walter they left a far better impression then the guy that just appeared to be eaten or that bum that just appeared to tell your to get your fat ass up and finally teach clem to survive.
i know more then one person that would act as stupid as bonny.
why must clementine have been there when the baby was born?
mike's (and co.) betrayal was totally in character. he said he would not follow kenny's wellington plan and wanted to protect arvo. what is there so difficult to understand?
i can not remember the situation how they found out about the camouflage. in what possible situation would that be the logical conclusion?
why?
it does not change that zombis loose on one side the threatening presents in the beginning and and on the other at the end.
months into the zombi apocalypse all around people went through more life or death experiences. and in a zombi apocalypse everyone is a master marksmen anyway.
i guess shane was the other policeman? if he was actually an established leader, why would they all follow that new guy, just like that?
be honest. would you actually follow him?
two entire seasons without an essential part of the zombi apocalypse?!
being reunited with a single one of all the characters clementine has met along her journey is not that unrealistic, especially with everyone traveling to wellington and not much being up there.
bandages belong beneath the clothes.
she kills this walkers with a gun.
she was not able to fight kenny or jane off. her actions during this fight have no effect on it whatsoever.
That makes no sense. The show begins three months into the apocalypse where Rick finds out about it all, and the game ends three months in, when Lee finds out about it all.
Not everyone in a zombie apocalypse would be a master marksmen or all know about life or death experiences (ex. Sarah). And yeah, Shane is the other policeman. Shane and him team up to lead the group, but after everyone starts to question Shane's sanity, they look up to Rick instead. And yeah, I would follow Rick. He is the best leader anyone in an apocalypse could ask for.
An essential part of the zombie apocalypse is actually zombies, which the show covers very well up until the third season. And its more realistic to meet some crazy psychos further into the apocalypse rather than the beginning.
Thats the thing. Rick reunited with his family where everyone in his town went to when the shit hit the fan. More likely than Clem coming across Kenny.
Do you see Carl killing any walkers with anything except with a gun? And it doesn't matter if her actions have any effect on the fight, its still unlikely she would be able to do any of that within 24 hours of being shot, especially since she is only 11.
Both game and show are great, I don't get why you are trying to prove one is better than the other.
so it ended bad this one time. so they never use it again?
any explanation makes them appear less treating. except for the fact that you become one of them no matter if you are bitten or not. revealing the survivors where the true "walking dead" would actually be nice note to end a season on.
that is not what i meant.
each of this character has her/his purpose, you get to know them all and their end perfectly fits to them and serves clementine's character development.
pete offers clementine the chance to save someone you own, you like, so on despite knowing in the end you can not help him. (up until this point we saw no indication amputation actually stops infection)
carlos's death seals sarah's fate and forces kenny to interact with the baby creating the bond that is essential for the plot.
sarah advances the lesson this entire season tries to teach clementine. especially if you do not want to learn it. i love the whole scenario when you send jane down to save her. almost sacrificing her for someone, you can not save and who does not want to be saved - by trying to do the right thing you do something really terrible.
even the minor characters get nice conclusions.
in the tv series it seamed like the roles of most characters could be taken over by another random characters.
these two where certainly pretty much the same assholes before.
as far as i remember, the conflict with the crossbow redneck was build up quick to end in nothing and his brother disappeared after one episode.
this characters were not defined at all.
robbing and murdering starts in days.
it seems totally ridiculous that people like them "prosper" like this and it ruins the atmosphere.
have such small towns many stores?
clementine just meeting a single person she knows randomly does not seem that impossible. and survivors dreams bring people together. i am sure they are not the first ones the journey to wellington has brought together.
What, you expect the people and the approaching walkers, to wait for you to decide whether, to cut of his leg, or not?
Lee had zombie blood on him after going through the herd surrounding the Marsh House, and killed a bunch to make a path, that's when lee figured it out, that's the answer.
for me the tv show is so fucking boring
i did not meant that specific situation.
in that situation i was pretty sure i wanted to put my axe to that guys head quiet early. that just made it that much worse when i got so much time for once, but not the right option
i thought we talked about how they found it out in the tv series.
The comics are great.
the time is completely irrelevant. why should it be?
the problem is, that the zombis loose much of their threatening presence at the beginning of the story in the tv series.
and still so / to many of them are. (letting the zombies appear as less of a treat)
sarah is an extreme case.
year, but they do not seem threatening here.
like i said. i do not remember that much. but i got the feeling they all just swarmed to the new guy without leaving shane any time to get insane.
does he become less naive further in the series?
and how many people died?
among all those people they are the ones that survive?
but that was actually not the coincidence that annoyed me the most. it was the stray bullet.
i am not sure myself. people just started defending the show, i like to discuss things and some comments were just such utter bullshit i could not possible ignore them. (defense of the bland tv characters)
i guess it just seems to me the tv show insults this game. i recommended it to a few people and they all just dismissed it because they see the tv series as a piece of shit.
and i can not even hold it against them, since i would have done the same.
I'm done here. You have no good arguments and it is a waste of my time to argue. And I should have known better than someone who thinks season 2 is "the best fictional piece of work I've seen."
For me, the TV show just doesn't have any likable characters and there is hardly any humor in the writing. Everything is so dead serious and there's no comedic moments. Glenn and Maggie are practically the same character at this point, both existing only for the other. Daryl is still a badass redneck. Rick is a strangely inconsistent character. One moment he's the guy proclaiming "This isn't a democracy!" (S2) Then he's going nuts. (S3) Then he's content to man the gardens. "I don't make decisions anymore! We have a council!" (S4). Bad writing imo. Season 2 was plagued by it. Nothing moved. They were stuck on the farm for far too long. About 5 issues of comic books translates to 16 episodes of TV? Stretching at its finest.
When people die on the TV show, it seems they kill just for the sake of reaching their "death quota." Also there's a lot of dead space on the show. People talking and debating about things just for the sake of filling screen time.
The farm was great in the comics, though.
what did you expect?
that i watch the show again, to get more specific? nothing would bring me back there.
Oh yeah definitely, one thing I can say for the comics is that it moved and it sure moved fast! Breakneck action at every issue. However, I can say the exact opposite for the TV show which moves slow as dirt. The storylines are very focused in the comics and driven purely by the desire to survive and itfeels desperate The comics and game have nailed that aspect of the The Walking Dead universe while I feel as if the show is the weakest yet strangely most popular of the universe.
finally some offering me some incentive to take a further look into the comics.
The show is strangely the most popular. Yeah, it's a pity, especially since the comics and the game offer such top-notch storytelling.
While I agree the show is far from perfect, I do still greatly enjoy it. I also like that Rick is inconsistent in his feelings. People are like that, and people change. When Rick says that in season 2 he had just killed his best friend, who was trying to kill him, and steal his family. They also lost the closest thing they had to a safe haven the night before. It is pretty reasonable to expect him to be on edge. Then there is what, about 6 or 7 months or so between the end of season 2 and the beginning of season 3? Plenty of time for him to change his opinions and see them in a new light. Then he goes crazy because his wife dies and his son has to shoot her, and all the other crap that goes down at the prison. Then between season 3 and 4 it's like another 7 months.
Season 2 was stuck on the farm mostly because of budget constraints. They didn't have a big enough budget at the time to do lots of set changes, or big flashy sequences. And while it was a slower season, it also had great character building episodes and I like what they did with Shane. I honestly prefer the television version of the Governor and Shane to the comics. I found the television versions much more interesting, and the tv Governor to be far more believable and compelling, and actually likable and sympathetic. I am also enjoying how Michonne's character is developing a lot more compared to the comics. I also like how the television series does actually change it up from the comics, while still keeping the general flow of the story. This way comic readers don't know exactly everything that's going to happen.
I think the comics have the better overall story and it does have a nice, fast flow (it kind of has to pump things out at a faster pace, they need to keep you interested issue to issue, and they only have about 20 some pages to do it every month). But I also think the television does have really good moments where it really shines.
do you like got?
The show is good, the second season did get boring, but i thought it was still good, while the tv characters aren't as well portrayed as in the comics, such as Glenn, i still enjoyed them. Though the comics and games, are FAR superior, i think they're less popular because TV is more accessible, or that almost everyone has one, than comics or games.
Well the TV episodes are written to stretch out small segments of the comics so it's not wonder that they feel a bit lifeless.
What is got????
Game of Thrones. He meant to write it GoT.
Oh, i got it now
Hmmm, i'm not into tv shows so no but i tried to watch the walking dead(because it's my fav series in the games) but i hated the tv show
Oh I'm sorry, GoT
I recall about 30 days between season three and four, or am I mixing something up?