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.
