Season 1 vs Season 2 Final Mega Thread Debate
I'm putting and end to the Season 1 vs Season 2 debate. Both games will be ranked on:
Gameplay
Story/ Characters/ Emotional Value
How Much Choices Matter/ Re play Value
Season 1:
Gameplay: 7 (The Game Play was okay but I never really cared much due to how in love I was with the story and characters)
Story/ Characters/ Emotional Value: 10 (The Game had a very wide assortment of colorful characters that you were affiliated with from the start. Lee, Clem and Kenny all felt so real. Everyone had their own unique personality and the cast was phenomenal)
How Much Choices Mattered/ Re play value: 8.9 ( You can play as an entirely different person and the amount of choices you make stick with you until the end and the long term consequences are what makes it so unique. Only problem was Kenny and his never ending bitch fit about how I wouldn't kill Ben or Larry)
Season 2:
Game Play: 8 (Had a great amount of quick time events that made your blood flow)
Story/ Characters/ Emotional Value: 7.9 (Clem, Kenny had serious depth and character changes and Carver was very well written but many characters just felt cheaply written or had an uncomfortable character change. There also weren't as many tear jerking moments and moments that let the player become emotional like in Season 1)
How Much Choices Mattered/ Re Play Value: 7.9 ( Many of the choices never amounted to much such as showing Sarah how to use a gun, saving Nick and robbing or not robbing Arvo but the choice at the end of No Going Back was something I loved about Season 2 and the alternate endings really were the best and a breath of fresh air apposed to Season 1
Overall: Season 1: 10
Season 2: 8
I loved Season 1 and enjoyed Season 2 but it didn't have the same amount of interactivity with characters, surroundings or situations also it didn't have as much locations or characters in the end I hope Telltale sees Season 2's flaws and makes Season 3 surpass it's predecessors.
Comments
I thought season 2 was better than season 1, mostly because I felt it was way more interesting to play as Clem than Lee.
season 2. 8 Different Endings, All of them create tears to last a long time, clem was more of an interesting character, and kennys godlike beard. S2
Wins! FATALITY!
Season 1: 9/10
Season 2: 20/10
Season 2 was lacking heavily in player companions,character development and consistency. There was no "Clementine" for Clementine, someone who would question what you were doing and why you believed it was right. Luke, Kenny and Sarah are very briefly used to question you but there was no consistency in that area.
I definitely agree with the impact choices had. Season 2 was quite a mess when it came to impactful decisions after "A House Divided." Do Sarah's work or not, someone gets blamed and Reggie dies. Hold the baby or not, how does that impact the story? Leave the deck then or after a few days, the Russians still meet you and Jane shows up regardless. Cover Luke or go to him, he dies either way.
Consistency wise, we see inconsistencies multiple times. Carlos and Rebecca are hostile in Ep. 1 then generally kind in Ep. 2. After three episodes buildup of Luke v. Kenny, we get Jane v. Kenny for the sake of being unpredictable.
Gameplay wise I enjoyed how they attempted to integrate similar QTE like TWAU in Ep. 1 and 2 as it injected new life into the combat system, but it was largely discarded in later episodes.
Playing as Clementine: It was an interesting thing. Clem didn't have the same power Lee had so she was forced to move quickly and silently. Clem is treated as an adult which is kinda strange to me. Clem had some dialogue options that made me scratch my head at how just flat out cruel she could be, especially compared to S1 Clem. Makes me question if playing as Clem was the best idea.
Character wise there were a lot of minor characters who had little meaning other than to be a plot device. That list includes: Sarita, Walter, Matthew, Reggie, Troy, Arvo, Mike, etc. We could do nothing to influence their thinking of us, they had lousy character development, or were killed off extrememly fast. Kenny coms back to repeat his tragedy arc all over again. Cabin Group has little impact after being built up as a morally questionable group in Ep 1 and 2.
Character deaths - Some seemed meaningless and put in for pure shock value. They did Alvin and Rebecca's death well as they both made sense. Can't say the same for the rest of the Cabin Group. Omid and Christa are both eliminated in the first 5 minutes. Really trying to reinforce the theme of hopelessness huh?
Enviornment/Atmosphere - Some might say Season 1 had too many hubs. But I say Season 2 had too little. Just checking in with people was a great strength of the game as we could see how they were handling bad situations or just how they were in general in Season 1. Good soundtrack for both games.
Season 1>Season 2.
I agree with what you said OP.
Honestly I think they're both fantastic but season 1 kinda edges over season 2. season 1: 11/10 season 2: 10/10
Really enjoyed season 2 but it tripped up badly in the last episode for me and never realised some of the potential, leaving interesting threads unexplored and obvious dramatic problems ignored. Loved many of the characters, loved the bleakness of the season but would have liked to have felt it was going somewhere. And the multiple endings resulted in a lack of coherence for me but perhaps that wouldn't have happened if I hadn't ended up with the alone ending which is more of a non-ending. I also felt the entire season suffered from each chapter not actually having an ending and feeling like a story in itself. They just sort of stopped.
Season 1 was a much more complete and satisfying story for me. Not perfect and I felt episode 4 faltered in particular. But a stronger story overall that felt like a coherent journey. And the ending was superb. It was all leading to that one moment.
So season 1 wins it for me easily but that's not to say I find season 2 to be poor, it just didn't satisfy me in the same way. Where in season 1, ep4 left me cold but ep5 knocked it out of the park, I felt in season 2 that ep4 was similarly shaky but ep5 just failed to pull it back.
Season 2 > Season 1, I'm growing on it for some reason.
I like Season 1 more but I think Season 2 gets tons of hate because there were so many missed, unexplained, or just bad things, I like both but for me Season 1 is better.
Season Two to me is the game that shown that there's absolutely nothing that can be done in order to satisfy fans and critics anymore. That used to be not a big deal no less than a year ago, but for some reason in 2014 any game no matter how good it's quality l see people always split now more than ever before on opinions. It's upsetting really. A majority of this forum was disappointed with Season Two (and you'd expect that since they had way higher expectations than most) but it's upsetting nonetheless.
Just as good as S1 would have been nice, and even if it wasn't, it still could have been more than forgettable, inconsistent, or very flawed. By itself, S2 is just a mediocre zombie theme park ride, compared to S1, it's a disappointing mess that absolutely failed to live up to what S1 was building up towards, but that's only an opinion.
Exactly. Season 1 felt like an immersive experience that you were a part of and influenced. Season 2 felt like you were just along for the ride.
I don't think season 2 deserves the hate its been getting, but I don't think its better than season 1. For one thing, I just overall enjoyed s1's story much more than I enjoyed s2. The Motor Inn, the cannibals, Savannah, everything about it was more appealing to me than the rushed Carver plot in two episodes, then the two episodes of looking for sanctuary.
But season 2 did have some things that were nicer than season 1. The gameplay, for one thing was a lot better. I enjoyed spending time with Luke and Nick (for the short time he had), probably more than I enjoyed spending time with Christa and Omid in s1.
So basically, s1 was a lot better imo, but I don't think s2 deserves the hate its been getting either.