Critique of the walking dead as a whole
Im about to overanalyse so get ready
Walking dead has always secretly been about telling a story about family, relationships and addressing the issues of humanity, but disguises itself to players as a game about killing zombies and surviving. Before in seasons 1 & 2, this disguising and balance between relationships and the goal to survive was done well imo, but in season 3 there was a lack of relationship building and connecting, (especially since there were no returning characters apart from clem) which i think telltale had clearly seen as bad based on the reaction of players and have reacted by overcompensating in the final season by adding in wayyy more character connection scenes (e.g card games, romance scenes etc) and in my opinion is too much and is a bit forced, and the disguise of it being a game about relationships is gone and walkers aren't even the main focus of the game anymore, or to word it better, the game makes it too obvious that walkers aren't the main focus due to the new large amount of connecting scenes, which I think is a mistake. The connecting with the characters should be done more subtly in this particular series rather than clearly setting aside downtime to bond, or should be done sparingly, otherwise the game is just a drama with zombies appearing every now and then to remind you it's a zombie game. Season one had a perfect balance and the characters didn't really need that much character connection scenes and still got the job done which was getting players to care about the characters, In fact i personally care about almost all of the season 1 characters more than season 4 so far despite the higher amount of connecting scenes there are. The characters just seemed more likeable back in season one, and I think it's because they are written to be more mature, given most are adults. Also they used to naturally express their personalities as the plot progressed rather than waving the character's personalities in the players face(good writers). Kenny's little natural funny remarks like "that's fucken stupid ben" or "Hey lee you know how to pick a lock right?" beats Louis and his witty remarks any day in my opinion. Or if you think that's an unfair comparison, Carley and Lee's little romance is so much better than clem's with louis or violet, and i think it comes back to how Carley and Lee's was handled much more maturely, (they didn't use words like "crush" or play marry fuck kill). Basically Im saying that personally I think they shouldn't have based the season around teenagers for one(due to lack of maturity) because people who aren't young fangirls will likely cringe at teenage romance if done immaturely, which it was. And also stop forcing players to connect to new characters after killing off old ones (that we love) every season, because it makes players care less and less about the new ones, especially since they keep reusing similar personality types (Strong independent woman; Molly, Jane, Violet). And they are now not-subtly trying to make players care about them through overly amounts of bonding scenes with these new random survivors, rather than keeping some old characters that we care about (even if it is just one more), because at the moment, the only sense of real care/family we have is in Clementine, Not even Aj. (wish kenny or at least one more symbol of family from previous seasons was still alive). I thought this was answered in Lilly's return, but of course she's now evil, which ruins this and is disappointing for me because I actually liked her despite her going psycho. If they are going keep introducing new characters, at least make them more mature/likeable and written in the right way, like they did in season 1 and 2, even clem seems less mature/likeable than she was when she was 11 imo. More Maturity should be there especially since these teenagers have outlived most of the season 1,2,3 characters.
Walking dead is a game about family, but they can't do this by killing off the family like nothing and introducing new people/family over and over again, thats not how family works. I get it, the game is meant to make you invested in characters, then kill them off, with slight exception (clem) But i mean they literally kill off characters that make the game enjoyable/interesting.
Side note: The new group of survivors (the school) has survived for like 10 years and they don't seem to be any different to any characters in the past, you’d think by now that clem would come across a group who have the apocalypse a bit more figured out, and we are taught to always keep moving but they have stayed put for ages?
This is my opinion feel free to agree/disagree and explain why so I can go into deeper overthinking
I really enjoy the season still and hope it finishes 9/10
Comments
People out there will tell you how great Season 1 is, with others saying it’s just the nostalgia talking. Truth is, when we’re looking at wide range of characters between these seasons, the most likable and interesting group always remains to be the Motor Inn group. Lilly and Kenny had their arguments, Lee’s ability to side with or against people, choosing who to save or leave behind, the wide range of dialogue options, all of these make the cast of Season 1 so real that the bar needed to stay consistent. Telltale tried but couldn’t entirely pull it off. As far as I can tell, Clementine being the sole priority and point of the franchise is both a strength and a weakness.
Yeah I agree, I think the bar was actually consistent for season two as well, but largely because of clem and kenny. I found the walking dead by randomly stumbling across season 2 last year on youtube and watched season 2 first, then season 3, then lastly season 1 and I still think season 1 was the best written so that takes away the nostalgia factor for me in terms of my opinion. Back in season 1, there was more freedom, specifically in terms of relationships with other characters, I mean a lot of the characters relationship to lee is determinant, you see people love some characters and some hate the same one (cough kenny cough) but in the final season in particular, the game feels like its forcing you to like louis and violet, and the only choice the player gets is who they like more and how much they like them and even tries to make a romantic connection happen regardless of how the player plays (personally i feel like they haven't done shit to be worthy of clem's respect yet let alone romantic relationship and opted for friendzoning). The only way this game has stayed so popular is because of the effect of season one, or season one's characters, and they haven't been able to make any new characters since then which gave the same effect, or if they have, they've killed them off, so clem is literally the only reason why the game is so well received right now due to her being the only real investment players have. I also feel like the new writers (the ones who are now fired sorry)care too much about what fans think as well and allow fans to dictate the story too much, like the whole shipping thing most young fans do, and telltale seeing that and actually putting it in the game made me cringe a bit, like they are trying to appeal to the fans instead of making their own game that appeals to everyone like it used to be, idk if that makes sense but you get me?
Yeah I get what you mean, Clementine is one of the best written video game characters I’ve ever invested into, but most if not all the other characters are incredibly lacking or killed off. The fact that this franchise is all about the death of humanity as thewalkers take over helps make this less of a burden on the narrative, luckily.
Characters like luke and jane were good, but we all know what happened to them. Them killing off jane and kenny in season 3 in a lazy way and presenting us with characters like gabe and kate, who have not many likeable qualities, is just asking for anger and disappointment from players, i have no idea what they were thinking. Like you mean to tell me this man gabe has lasted longer in the apocalypse than kenny, jane, lee, etc.