Season 2: In Harm's Way
There's a lot of talk about Amid the Ruins being a bad episode, but I was actually kinda of disappointed with Carver's camp. I mean, Carver was a total homicidal dick, but other than that Howes didn't seem that bad. Clem and Sarah had to harvest berries for crying out loud...that was their hard labor. Luke and them should've just taken Carver out instead of leaving. I was also disappointed that Carver died at the end of In Harm's Way.
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...No...Amid the Ruins....Still probably the worst...
before the release of episode 2 i thought rebecca was gonna give birth to aj in howes well , ehh the cover photo was a lie..
So was ep 5's ...
We live in a lie !
yeah the photo for episode 3 misleading
I must be the only one who likes that episode.
I think that In Harm's Way was the most boring episode in the season. Amid the Ruins was just terrible in general, it had some of the worst writing I've seen Telltale ever do. In Harm's Way (IMO) could never reach that pile of garbage, it was just boring, it was that episode's only flaw really. Amid the Ruins on the other hand is just bad.
KENNY V.S LUKE
ALSO THE BIGGEST LIE OF ALL TIME
:'/ i payed to see that
Also THE TRAILERS... after u finished the episodes also a lie
bringing back lilly or molly also a godamn lie
I never found In Harm's Way to be that bad and certainly not the worst episode. Amid The Ruins takes that trophy of worse episode not only in season 2 but in the whole game series thus far, I guess the keyword was "ruins" because its from that episode forward where season 2 starts to take a nosedive. Shame because the picture for the episode made it appear to be one of the best ones yet.
I love In Harms Way as well, my 4th favorite of the series.
It's not a perfect episode, but it has great moments and it's the most brutal and shocking episode of the series.
In Harms Way, despite the overall view of this forum, remains one of my favorite episodes in this series and Carver, despite my hatred of him, is my favorite villain from The Walking Dead. We got to see Carver's mentality in surviving in this world and how he runs his camp in this episode and this episode really shows just what type of monster this world can turn people into. The Carver Clementine conversation in his office remains one of my favorite scenes from Season 2 because I thought it was very well written and we do see Carver's true character in this scene. His death is one of the most satisfying deaths I have ever seen in The Walking Dead and the whole herd scene was great.
That's not saying this episode doesn't have its flaws, we don't really control Clementine a whole lot in this episode and it jumps around a lot for only an hour and a half episode. But overall, I was really interested in the story of this episode and the character of Carver and how he runs his camp is what makes this such a great episode.
Definitely
No Amid The Ruins is say it after me the most terribly written and boring episode Telltale has ever put out. This episode screams everything wrong with TWD. Its plot holes, bad character development and main choices that make you laugh as you see how horrible it is when you look back on it. In Harm's Way was disappointing but it had purpose and a sense of direction and even though badly written, Carver was TWD's first real threat or antagonist in the video game.
Amen! Fuck this episode!
So, I guess I'm with the vast minority that found Amid the Ruins at least had potential and enjoyed aspects of it?
Was it great? Not by a long shot, but there was intrigue, a paradigm of interesting ideals, and it made me think. Is this right? Is this wrong? Hmm. It was rushed as all hell, no doubt, but I'll be damned if I let some internal inconsistences ruin an experience for me.
Now, No Going Back was ten pounds of shit in a five pound sack.
You're not alone. That's pretty much the same way I feel about Amid the Ruins. Lots of potential and interesting aspects to it, they just didn't capitalize on any of it. It had the potential, in my eyes, to be one of the series' most interesting episodes.
That's why S2 is one of the, if not the worst video game ever made. So many plot hole garbage with ridiculously lazy writing.
I'll hand it to you the trailer seemed interesting and the title slide had the most interesting picture but the episode failed on many levels and is a failure of exceptional proportions. The whole Arvo conundrum and main choices like holding a brat
Hahaha I like the Pete pun and very true
No, I think it gets more hate than it deserves. Not that I'm still underwhelmed and annoyed by a lot of elements - the lack of development of Carver's followers, the inability to see any humanity in Carver, Rebecca's role being underdeveloped, Kenny hogging up a lot of things, that whole nonsense with the Storm. The fact that the stealth sections are utter shit - you'll never get caught, even if you deliberately try to. And I really can't see Reggie as anything more than cannon fodder.
But at the same time, I still enjoy many of its moments. Seeing Sarah's breakdown and deciding whether caring for her is worth the trouble; Luke's return; Kenny's beating; and, of course, Carver's vicious yet, on greater reflection, unsatisfying mutilation.
On one hand I wish Carver hadn't died so early, nor that Kenny got the 'honor' of being his killer. On the other, taking joy in seeing his death was one of the most impressionable scenes I recall from the series as a whole. I only wish the group had a stronger reaction to Clem revealing her sadistic side - Luke only calls you out if you say "Kenny's my friend", something I never bothered with.
You shouldn't want to be staying in Howe's, that's one of the points where this episode went wrong.
They were trying to build this place up as an oppressive and glorified slave labor camp trying to masquerade as something more. But when your 'hard labor' is the life-endangering mission of picking berries, you start to get the wrong idea. It also doesn't help that we don't really see the camp in great detail, either. If we saw more signs of internal decay, signs of the community collapsing in on itself, and the extent of the corruption that has spread through its ranks, it would've served the purpose so much better.
Its easiestly the wirst episode for me
the only decent thing the episode had was the sarah interaction
I liked A house divided, Amid the ruins (for some reason everyone hates this one) and No going back.
All that remains was very good but it was the season intro which I never like to be honest
I see your Amid the Ruins and I raise you No Going Back ;_;
TBH, I was hoping for Carver's followers to have a more humanized portrayal rather than condemning them as brainwashed goons - this is one reason why the 400 Days characters' cameos were disappointing. Tavia smoking in private isn't exactly a good sign of "corruption spreading through its ranks."
One irony I find is that Bonnie was probably meant to come across as a good person for betraying Carver. In reality, it simply makes her seem fickle and untrustworthy - does she honestly feel no regret for fucking over a community full of people whom she presumably knew and perhaps had friends with?
It was clear that the whole episode was really more about the struggles with Kenny and the Cabin Group, rather than using the entire episode exploring the grey-and-grey from both sides of the parties. I just took it as "if the writers don't care about humanising Carver and his people, who just so happens to be associated with the opposite side of the heroes, the players shouldn't give a damn if they die and whether they deserved it or not". Because the writers doesn't bother explore Bonnie's relationship with her friends, we're not supposed to care.
I feel that the whole group got out of the community too soon. They should have made their escape in the middle of Episode 4 instead since the Amid The Ruins felt like a checklist for kicking people out of the group rather than actually advancing the plot. Have the writers spend all of Episode 3 exploring the community and learning about Carver and his comrades, rather than rely on 'tell, don't show' narrative when it comes to whether Carver was meant to be a good man in the past and got worse overtime due to corruption or tragic events, or he was just an evil arsehole the entire time.
Nope. My S2 favourite.
That's another thing I really wish they played with later on; we just destroyed an entire community and probably got a ton of innocent people killed just so we could escape. I wish they explored the morally grey (and even possibly black) elements of doing that, instead of writing it off like "oh well they were all dicks anyways, no harm no foul"
"Worst video game ever made"
Move over Big Rigs: Over the road racing, ET, Ride to hell: Retribution and Custer's revenge, it looks like there's a new champion in town
yeah no, S2 can't even come close to receiving the title of "worst game ever"
They'd need to enter a whole new physically impossible level of not trying in order to even come close to it
To think that from one point of view Carver was supposed to be the evil one, yet the heroes who came up with the plan to escape had no problems with dooming an entire community just to save their own skins. Talk about a major moral dissonance here.
Worst ever made? Yeah, a game that received critical acclaim and multiple awards must be the worst ever made. Seriously. S2 had its problems, but it's nowhere near the worst made.
I'm pretty sure there were kids and old folks (like Russell's grandma) in the community. Being forced to live under a tyrant isn't the same thing as being evil.
You're right, not everyone in the community were evil. But we never get to see it because the writers didn't want to give any kind of depth in the establishment. All the 'evil' we saw was from Carver, Troy, and perhaps Tavia (who probably wasn't evil to begin with), whom apparently took up the entire community.
I don't see why anybody didn't like No Going Back.
Luke's death. Me personally, I have no problem with his death and love No Going Back, but I know some people do criticize the way Luke died.
Luke's death, imo, is what made the episode so great. He was the glue that held the group together. If he hadn't died, we wouldn't have had Mike and Bonnie leaving. We wouldn't have had the ending with Kenny and Jane, and by that, they never would have made it to Wellington and/or howe's because Mike, Bonnie, and Luke would have objected, they all would have agreed with Luke on where to go, because he's awesome, and then, every single ending contains them at the town or whatever. The entire rest of episode 5 wouldn't have happened if Luke hadn't died. I don't like it, but it was necessary. I'm not arguing with you, I'm arguing with the other people.
I completely agree with everything you just said. Luke's death was necessary because of the fact that he was the glue. And it really shows how vital he was that, when he dies, how quickly the group does fall apart and turn on Kenny.
The cover photos are only supposed to represent an emotion, or a feeling that the player is supposed to have, not things in the actual episode. With episode 1, it showed Clem with a bloody arm, getting found by Luke. That doesn't happen. It's supposed to portray the loneliness she felt, and the fact that she needed help. In episode 2, it showed Troy and Johnny in a field with binoculars. That doesn't happen. That's because in that episode they were getting chased. The slide is supposed to make you feel on edge, as though Carver's group is going to find you. In episode 3, it shows Rebecca appearing to have the baby in the warehouse with Clem. That doesn't happen. It's supposed to make you feel like anything could happen at any time. It was supposed to show you that Clem didn't know what was going to happen, and was scared. In episode 4, it shows Clem spreading blood on her face with a bunch of silhouettes. That doesn't happen. That episode is about remorse. The silhouettes make you feel remorse for those who were lost. Maybe Eddie was there, but you were never supposed to look too hard at that silhouette anyway. In episode 5, it shows the city in the background. That city is never there. I believe the walker was just a random walker. It was not Lee, because if you looked at the shoes, they're not his. It's supposed to make you feel cold, and as though you had somewhere to get to, a goal to find. Episode 5 is about not going back.
And the same logic applies to the slides in season 1. None of those things ever happened.