I mentioned it briefly in my last post, but I’m not going to lie- this video game was hard for me to play.

Not that my video game skills are sub-par- I can play games that require a fair amount of skill, such as Overwatch or CS:GO. But this game was nothing like those. I’ve never played a game that required me to select dialogue without knowing if I picked the “right” answer, and it was difficult for me to have the motivation to complete the game.

But, after a long-nighter and help from my gamer boyfriend, I finished the game. It took a lot of effort, but I was partially satisfied with the results.

In the ending I received, Ben, Kenny, and Lee all met their inevitable fates amongst the world of walkers. Omid, Christa, and Clementine were able to live on, but Clementine was left alone, without any direction as to where the other two group members are. And poor Clementine had to take her babysitter out of his misery in the last five to ten minutes of gameplay in Episode 5.

I’m unaware if there was another possible ending for the episode. Maybe Clementine left Lee behind, chained up to a radiator, left to turn into a walker. But would that have been a better ending? Or did ending Lee’s suffering cause a turning stone in Clementine’s personality?

I was thankful that I ended up with everyone on my team to help search for Clementine. However, it was painful to see Ben and Kenny are both surrounded by walkers. I can only wonder if Ben and Kenny never joined the search team if they would’ve made it out alive. But, after discussion with my classmates, no matter what, Ben and Kenny end up with you, and Ben dies and Kenny manages to escape (or so we think).

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, Clementine influences a majority of my options. Whenever tension rises within the group, I would always select dialogue that might help the group get back on track to search for Clem. At the end of the day, she is the most important character to Lee, and myself.

I was always surprised, yet grateful while playing that the team was so willing to help Lee find Clementine. Although some players may end up with a smaller search team, or maybe no search team at all, no matter what, my goal as the player was to always find Clem.

In her article “NPCs, How Games Move Us,” Researcher Katherine Isbister perfectly encaptures the idea of invoking emotion in players by saying, “-game designers can create powerful feelings in players when they make use of relationships that players form with NPCs.”

Telltale’s The Walking Dead does a fantastic job at invoking the emotions of the players in response to the actions of the NPCs in the game. Some characters’ actions are designed to aggravate the player, while others, such as Clementine, are designed to create an empathetic response.

I would recommend this game to those who enjoy games that determine the outcome of the story based on the player’s dialogue decisions. The art style is extremely unique, which I appreciate, and although the graphics and movements could be updated, The Walking Dead does a great job at using the the dialogue as the forerunner for the game mechanics.

Image Sources:

1. https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/the-walking-dead-the-complete-first-season-switch/
2. https://www.ign.com/wikis/the-walking-dead-game/Season_One:_Episode_5

Confusion, suspense, and sorrow were only a few of the emotions that were racing through my mind, as I played the final moments of season 1 of Telltale’s The Walking Dead.

After playing 5 episodes, 11.5 hours of gameplay, there was a genuine connection between myself and the characters involved.

By default, we as players are almost forced to have a sense of empathy for Lee since the majority of the game is played from his perspective. Although the player aids Lee in making some decisions, Lee still has his own personality and tendencies that allow the opportunity for players to connect with him on an emotional level. So of course I wish the game ended differently. After going through so much to not only save himself but also those around him, it almost felt that all of those efforts were in vain. Even though avoiding death was only delaying the inevitable given the circumstances of the world in the game, I do wish Lee’s death was not such a cliffhanger and left players more satisfied.

For instance, having Clementine be the one to put Lee out of his misery, I mean that is just straight-up scarring. I am not sure how the alternative endings to this season play out, but maybe there is one if I play my cards a little bit different and make different decisions, there could have been another way to die. I also really wish that I was able to get Clementine to Christa and Omid before kicking the bucket. Feeling the responsibility of making sure Clementine was safe through all 5 episodes, to only die and leave her alone by herself was also a very upsetting feeling.

There were also nonplayer characters that had a big impact on my decisions throughout the game as well. While all the NPC’s personalities that we encountered during our journey varied, there were both dominant and submissive characters that equally affected our decisions. Referring back to Isbister’s How Games Move Us article, Isbister performed a study where players interacted with NPC’s who were dominant, submissive, and a mixture of both, in order to see which was the most influential on the player. Ibster found that “players who interacted with the mixed-signals NPC’s were less influenced”. On the other hand, this illustrates that both submissive and dominant NPC’s did play an influential role in a player’s decisions. 

For instance, in Telltale’s The Walking Dead, take Larry for example. Although Larry and Lee did not get along, it is safe to say that Larry came across as a very dominant character. As a result, when Lee was faced with a decision that Larry had an opinion about, it made me as the player want to choose the option that made Lee stand his ground and go against Larry if I felt that Larry was challenging Lee’s manhood. On the other hand, a submissive character like Clementine also has a strong influence on what decisions I felt like I had to make while play. Clementine is a young, sincere girl who has lost her parents during an apocalypse. So there is a natural feeling of responsibility that you feel as a player when playing Lee to take care of her.

Nonetheless, there was a rollercoaster of emotions that race through me as I played through this game. I feel as if Season 1 ended the way it did in order to get the player attached, and wanting to play the next season to see how it plays out. So good job Telltale.

Citations:

Isbister, K. (2016). How games move us. MIT Press.

Yeah, Telltale’s The Walking Dead season one had a pretty tragic ending.  I mean, unless the creating studio has crafted a truly despicable main character, this is the case in most games that end with the player character getting offed.  What really makes the final scene so sad though is Clementine, the poor thing.  I mean, she’s practically forced to grow up immediately into someone who can fend for themself in that short little part as Lee is on his way out the door.  I don’t envy her.

A lot of people ended up gone too, and I’m fairly sure it didn’t have anything to do with my choices in the end since everything just ends up converging into one story so that the narrative can continue.  Still am not a fan of that player decision style that only offers the illusion of choice but whatever.  Ben had himself a little fall (no matter what you do), Kenny disappeared, Lee had to put a cleaver through the skull of everyone’s favorite character, Brie, Christa and Omid are stuck on the roof forever, I’m pretty sure Vernon violated some part of the Hippocratic oath… a lot went down.  I thought the stranger plot line was kinda ridiculous.  I guess it was sort of a creative way to teach us that stealing is wrong.  Apparently it’s also possible to not kill the stranger?  I don’t know, I saw the red danger paint on the side of the screen and the quick time event and I did it.  Crazy, profound decision, I know.

All that aside, I’m pretty happy with my decisions in this season, assuming that we’re entertaining the idea that any of them actually mattered.  Maybe I’d go back and not kill Danny, but that’s really the only thing that didn’t quite sit right after the fact.  At least that would be one less piece of verbal ammunition for the stranger to hit me with in his righteous, very moral tirade against the evils of the world.  I’m sure planning to hunt, torture, and kill a large group of people who took stuff from your unattended and unlocked car is gonna get you through those pearly gates, buddy.  It’s not like asking the group that you already know took your stuff for some of your stuff back would be a reasonable course of action or anything.

Overall, I’d say the character that impacted my decisions the most was Clementine, and I don’t think I’m alone in that perspective.  There’s also probably some science behind it too, with regards to the ways non-player characters interact with the audience.  According to Katherine Isbister, “consistency in nonverbal cues is associated with honesty and trustworthiness.”  Specifically, this is referring to dominant vs submissive cues.  Clementine is decidedly a very submissive character in season one, so with this consistency she provokes a stronger reaction within the player in one way or another.  There’s also likely something to be said about a player’s paternal or maternal instinct kicking in when interacting with her, but I honestly don’t really feel like diving down a rabbit hole for a source on that so you’ll have to take my word for it.

Anyway, cool game.  Definitely playable. 10/10, would put Lee out of his misery again.

Overall, I was very happy with the ending of The Walking Dead and my decisions leading up to it. When it turns out Clementine’s kidnapper was the owner of the station wagon full of supplies back in Episode 2, I felt relieved I sided with Clementine back then and didn’t steal any supplies. While I wasn’t sure how the stranger knew it was Lee’s group, I thought it was a cool twist to end the season.

Also, I really loved (and dreaded) the last bit of the final episode. I chose telling Clementine to shoot Lee and it was one of the saddest deaths I’ve seen in a video game. Clementine’s reaction to knowing she will be all alone and losing the man who has been through all of this with her was hard to watch, but that just shows how great the characters and storytelling are. I think Lee’s death hit so hard because it affected Clementine in the worst way possible. We care for her and essentially become her dad through the game, then poof, we can no longer protect her and she is completely alone.

In Isbister’s article about NPCs, she states, “In a game, players can themselves interact with those others—spending hours journeying alongside them, struggling to rescue them…” (20). This quote hints at why I had such an emotional reaction to Clementine killing Lee. I spent the entire game prioritizing Clementine above all others and after each episode, and all the bad things her and Lee go through, I became closer to her. It was almost as if she was real and it was my job as Lee to protect her. But Lee becomes bit, and the best thing I thought for her was to shoot Lee before he dies and turns. I also like how Lee comforts her by bringing up how he had to kill his turned brother back at the drugstore.

In order for this finale to work, you have to care about Clementine, and this game indirectly forces you to through the great character moments, such as preparing her for the future on the train, and her saving Lee’s life in Crawford and the hotel.

Thinking back, there is not much I would have changed in terms of decisions. I still go back and forth on dropping Ben, especially after I learned he can come with you if you choose to save him. Also, in Episode 2 I wish I would’ve spared the first farmer, since I now know Clementine was watching. Other than these decisions, I was pretty happy with how my story played out.

As I said in the previous blog post and this one, Clementine was easily the NPC that affected my decisions most. The fact that she is an innocent child who lost her parents and is just a really sweet character overall, made me bond with her immediately. I always talked to her when I had the chance, gave her food when I had the option, and tried to make decisions in her best interest. I also think the other characters had a huge impact on me caring about Clementine early on as well, since Hershel and Kenny both sternly say that she is my responsibility. All of these factors together made me appreciate how much I could care about one NPC in a game with so many.

The ending of The Walking Dead was very bittersweet. Having the bad ass fight through the horde of the walkers as Lee had set up the ending to be very fulfilling but definitely upsetting to us.

Lee’s last wish was to get Clementine to safety, and sure enough we made it there.  Despite the circumstances of Lee and Clementine’s final moment together, I still felt that I succeeded in my goal as Clementine’s “guardian”. As we give Clementine our final advice and our last goodbye, she leaves Lee behind in hopes to find Christa and Omid.

I don’t regret any of the choices that I have made to the ending. I tried to go alone in finding Clementine when we thought it was Vernon who took Clementine. Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible because I have been on Kenny’s side the whole game, so he said he wouldn’t let Lee go alone. I decided to keep both arms because Lee had already showed symptoms from his bite already, so it wasn’t worth it. Lee mentions that it would probably be best to have both arms when the fight with the kidnapper arises – which proved to be true in the final fight. I did not regret any of my choices, but I did want to see the results of other choices. For example, what would happen to Duck if you did not offer to help Kenny in need. Or how much harder the fight with the kidnapper would have gone if Lee had one arm. It’s more so being curious of other choices rather than regret.

It goes without saying that Clementine had the most influence on 99% of the player base’s decisions. Especially with all that you and Clem had been through, it can’t have been for nothing. Since Clementine is probably the most static choice in any playthrough, that’s probably why it had the most influence. Each player will have different choices and experiences so other people’s influence would be different. In my playthrough, Kenny also had an influence on my choices. As much of a hard ass Kenny was, he was with Lee and Clementine in the beginning all the while losing both his son and wife in the same day. So, I thought Kenny deserved loyalty in the time he spent with us. Not only the people from our group affected my choices but even the antagonists have. Clementine’s kidnapper affected my choices a lot. I had no mercy and no remorse when dealing with him. I didn’t care what he had to say or what happened to him in the past, I just wanted him gone and after the fight I felt relief.

The relationship developed with the other characters proved to be very strong despite them being a character who isn’t even real! As Isbister said in her article, “The experience can feel so real…” in regard to players having a strong relationship experience with video game NPCs. Which I completely agree with. The relationships and bonds we created with the in game characters have felt so real that it feels like we had actively interacted with them in real life. This is shown with our inevitable upset and grief we feel when we see Lee and Clementine’s final moments.

So, after many days of gameplay, I finally made it to the end of The Walking Dead, and let me tell you, I am speechless. From the beginning to the end this story has had so many twists and turns, but the ending truly threw me for a loop.

Overall, the ending was a very good one. Though it was very sad, and yes I did end up crying, it was very solid and I think showed how much the characters evolved up until the end. I feel I made the right decisions for how I wanted the story to go. Though most of the game the decisions I made were based on the characters I felt were important and I preferred. One of these characters was Clementine, and she was the largest reason for my decisions. Throughout the entire story, Clementine was always the one I put first. I started to develop a father-daughter relationship with her, and I just wanted to be a good role model. I wanted her to see that I was not a bad person and I wanted her to carry that on in case anything happened to me. This reminds me of a quote from Nonplayer Characters, or NPCs by Katherine Isbister. She stated, “Interactions with NPCs move players beyond para-social feelings into consequential social experiences  with accompanying social emotions and behaviors (Isbister, 2017).” This specific quote really connected with me because I definitely felt social emotions and behaviors all while being around Clementine. It is like she brought out a side of myself I never thought I would have, even though she is just a character that helps guide the story. She truly changed the way I made decisions and I think I made the right decisions because of her. Kenny was also a character that I based my decisions on because he was the one I met first, and he seemed to have his head in the right place. I felt it would be beneficial to side with him for the majority of the story. There were points where I tried to remain neutral, but for the most part, I chose Kenny. He had his family and I wanted to protect them too.

There are a few things, however, that I may want to change in the future. In the first or second episode, I ended up killing Doug in exchange for Carley. I felt it was the right decision at the time because she was in possession of a gun and knew how to aim quite well. I thought Doug was kind of useless and was not as needed. If I were to go back, I think I would choose Doug instead because I want to see how much it would change the story.  I also heard he was good with electronics, so he may have been helpful in the later episodes. Another aspect I would change would be when Lee (I) and Kenny killed Lilly’s father, Larry. At the time, I thought it was best to listen to Kenny and kill him before he came back to life since it was unsure if we were getting out of the meat fridge. I would like to go back and not bash his face in with a cinder block, and side with Lilly instead. I wonder how much it would have altered the relationship between Lilly and Lee as well as Kenny and Lee. Overall, this game was amazing with the way it brought out your own emotions and put them into the character you were playing as. The way the story flowed, and how your decisions altered the story itself was very well done. I highly recommend trying this game out yourself and see what outcome you end up with.

Photo Credits:

“Adventure Classic Gaming.” The Walking Dead: Season 1 Episode 5: No Time Left – Gallery – Adventure Classic Gaming – ACG – Adventure Games, Interactive Fiction Games – Reviews, Interviews, Features, Previews, Cheats, Galleries, Forums, www.adventureclassicgaming.com/index.php/gallery/category/C767/.

The ending of the Walking Dead Episode 5 left me on edge, but it upset me. The decisions I made were very interesting, but I do not regret any of it. I did decide to chop of Lee’s arm. I chose this because I feel like that would’ve been the quickest and easiest to do because the main goal was to save Clementine from the person that captured her. I also stayed calm with Kenny and didn’t get into an argument with him because Kenny has been by my side through it all and he was one of the ones that I wanted to keep with me and stay in a good relationship with throughout all of the episodes. I then chose to choke the stranger. I wanted to kill the stranger so bad to save Clementine so I then chose shoot the stranger in the head because I got emotionally connected to the game if I was in that situation, and if I was emotionally connected to the relationship Clementine and Lee had, I would’ve shot the stranger because I would’ve wanted to kill him as quickly as possible. This last decision is where it gets me upset. Having Clementine to decide to shoot Lee or Lee telling Clementine to leave was by far the hardest decision I had to make playing the game. I decided for Lee to convince Clementine to leave because I thought that was the best choice for their relationship. If I decided for Clementine to shoot him, I feel like Clementine would never be able to get over that she shot the best relationship that she had. I don’t know how she would get over that. If I was put into that situation, and I decided to shoot my best friend, I would never get over it for the rest of my life so I decided for Lee to convince Clementine to leave as Lee sits there and dies and the screen goes to black. I thought that was a very emotional scene but I feel like I made all the right decisions in this episode of the game, but I will say that this was the most emotional episode because I got so connected and got so intrigued on the relationship build up to where it was very hard to make the decisions I had to make.

Discussing nonplayer characters in the article we read related me to what The Walking Dead did over the course of the game. The quote I annotated in the article was; “Game designers use dynamic and reactive engagement with these other characters who populate a games story world to add to the emotional palette of games as a medium.” Thinking about this quote it related me to The Walking Dead because building relationships was a key factor while playing the game. You have to get people you like, you trust, and know that they are loyal in order to survive. Since it was a survival game, that is the ultimate goal is to survive no matter the circumstances. Saying that is not as easy as it sounds tough. The Walking Dead made it difficult because of the tradeoffs presented by the decisions you made but personally, I liked that because that’s what happens in real life. You can’t make everyone happy, based on the decisions you make someone is going to judge or someone is not going to like what you have to say but that is life now a days and you have to adjust your surroundings and know who to trust and be loyal to.

To conclude, I thought the ending was very interesting but emotional and upsetting at the same time. But if you haven’t played this game before, I would suggest to do it as soon as possible.