So this week I finally got hold of a copy of Hyper Light Drifter that I backed over 2 and a half years ago. Suffice to say, I was excited to play the game after this much anticipation, and it certainly lived up to my expectations.
I can only hope that eventually all the other Kickstarter games I’ve backed are eventually released…. (I WISH).
Anyway, if you wish to give the review a good read, click the link below to see it in all it’s glory on VGChartz.com!
As always, thank you for your support, and I look forward to seeing you next week for another game I’ll be completing from my ever-growing games collection!
As weird as it sounds as a games writer, I haven’t purchased and played a game so close to it’s release date in quite a while. Maybe it’s because of my backlog of games (I keep buying them faster than I can play them!), or maybe its because it’s been quiet on the release calendar, but either way, I couldn’t stay away from the enticing adventure game that has everyone deep in conversation: Firewatch.
So what is Firewatch? Another walking simulator if you want to break it down to its very foundation. Just like Gone Home or Dear Esther, the whole game is about a narrative unfolding, with the exploration of the place you’re in (in this case, a national park) being only a sub-task to the games narrative itself. Unlike the aforementioned titles, Firewatch thankfully takes the exploratory narrative game one step further, and tricks the player into thinking there’s actual gameplay mechanics throughout the campaign. I say tricks, as throughout the campaign itself you’re given urgency, and don’t think about how much freedom you actually have to explore the great wilderness the developers at Campo Santo provide to you.
For a narrative driven game, right out of the gate Firewatch hits all the expected ques. You have a deep back story, one which takes you through the main protagonists history with his wife, along with the struggles that come about because of her onset alzheimer’s disease. As a consequence of this, Julia is taken back to her parents in Australia, meaning our protagonist (Henry) has a lot on his plate when he finds the firewatching job. Throughout the course of the game, this history will matter little compared to the new relationship blooming in his life; between himself and his new supervisor, Delilah.
You’ll be given tasks to do throughout the lush national park of Shoshone National Forest by Delilah, and it’s whilst you’re going about these tasks that the narrative will unfold more and more. During these tasks you’ll get to know Delilah quite well, with each sarcastic insult she and Henry throws at each other becoming more and more familiar to relationships we all know in real-life; a feature I truly enjoyed and made me smile with the witty charm and attention to detail the writing implores so often. The characters of Henry and Delilah feel real; none of the voice acting feels forced, and throughout the campaign I never once felt like I was being deceived; it’s fantastically made, and something the voice actors should feel hugely proud of for the work they have done.
The world of Shoshone National Forest is a treat for the eyes. The way the trees shimmer in the wind, along with the way the lighting changes throughout the day help to make for one of the most aesthetically pleasing indie games in living memory. Don’t get me wrong, there’s no realism here; Campto Santo isn’t going to be competing with Crytek anytime soon, but the world feels so vibrant and alive despite it’s simple textures and lovely object models that it genuinely feels alive. Its a testament to how grand the world looks that the developers gave players the ability to print of the in-game pictures they take as postcards; proof in itself that Firewatch is a marvel to look at.
It’s a shame then that for all the praise I’ve given to Firewatches aesthetics and narrative, the same couldn’t be said for the gameplay itself. Whilst all the trailers and screenshots make the game out to be an open world, this is only a half-truth. Firewatch is in-fact, a linear corridor driven affair, albeit with some freedom as to how you get to the next objective.For example: You’ll get a call from Delilah to investigate some teens for example, so off you go, drudging through the woods to a point on your map. During this time, you chat with Delilah, and make your way to your objective. Once there, you’ll make a few decisions, and then have to head to another location, which is repeated ad infinitum. There’s no reason to ever really explore the world, as the mechanics simply don’t let you; everything exists for the narrative, meaning should you come across something early, you can’t do anything to it (e.g. I came across a fence early on. There was no way to enter the area beyond the fence until later in the campaign; the same happened again for many other things I found on exploring).
Firewatch feels like an empty shell of what it could have been. Whilst the narrative and wilderness is great, you just can’t help but feel let down by the end of the campaign. There has been talk online of some customers wanting a refund after completing the game, admitting that they enjoyed what they played, but felt that the experience wasn’t worth £15. I tend to agree with these customers. Firewatch could have been so much more; the forest is big enough and beautiful enough that players could have gotten lost in it for days hunting for secrets with a set of gameplay mechanics like using an axe acquired to cut down trees to get to new areas. Unfortunately, with Firewatch’s world merely being eye-candy whilst you learn more about the story, the game left a foul taste in my mouth once finished.
By all means buy Firewatch when it comes down in price and is on sale; the story alone would be a fantastic experience when the game’s on sale. I just cannot in good faith recommend spending £15 on the game, as you too would probably come out with the same bad feeling.
I know I know, I seem to be on an abstract indie platforming stint at the moment, what with 6180 the moon last Friday and this week indie hit 140. I mean, who can blame me? These games are short, but both award winners because of how far they push their simplistic mechanics. Having restrictions really is a fantastic thing in the world of games, helping to push creatives to their limits when it comes to original and refreshing games.
So what is 140? As with last weeks 6180 The moon, the title really doesn’t tell you anything about the game, and seemingly feels quite random. Again, like 6180, 140 is an abstract (think simple shapes and colours) platformer, where the player must make their way through 3 different levels, making sure to keep their jumping and movements in tune with the music constantly playing in the background.
Simple premise again I know, but where I genuinely got hooked to 140 was in it’s fantastic style, and brilliant music mechanic, where the patterns you see and hear truly help you to advance throughout each level. Each level introduces new obstacles and mechanics to take advantage of; some blocks for example may change in size depending on the beat, whilst others may become deadly at set intervals. Regardless how you start out playing 140, you eventually get into a rhythm where you listen to the music whilst observing what new obstacles lay before you. After a few attempts, you’ll manage to successfully pass the puzzle before you, only to see it mutate and naturally become more advanced later on.
This simple repeated premise helps keep 140 enticing for the entirety of its hour playtime, with myself raging when my controller ran out of battery and couldn’t reconnect until I restarted the game. I didn’t mind too much; replaying an entire level was really enjoyable, especially when you’ve learnt how a level reacts to the music. It helps to make you feel intelligent for overcoming the challenges laid before you.
There’s no story to speak of, but the game has got “boss” battles, which are all different and challenging in their own right. Whilst there’s no context as to why you’re advancing through each of the levels other than progression for progressions sake, it was fairly refreshing to play a game that was purely about the mechanics, rather than trying to knit a story into an otherwise abstract game.
Now onto the music. It genuinely cannot be stated how good the music in 140 is, and how important a role it plays in the gameplay itself. As an example, listen to an excerpt of the music below:
(yes, I know that’s not the game’s official soundtrack, but unfortunately the developer never got around to separating the games audio from the game itself, so somethings bette than nothing!)
It’s genuinely stunning. I’m just annoyed there isn’t an official soundtrack for the game, as I’m fairly certain it’d become my new go-to programming/generic background soundtrack.
All in all, I’m genuinely glad I played 140. It’s been in my steam library for yonks (2 years apparently; I wasn’t even aware) and was a game I always overlooked. So my recommendation to you: should you look in your steam library and see 140 towards the top, do me and yourself a favour and play the game. It’ll only take an hour (two hours if you want to do the optional 3 levels where you have no lives), and is thoroughly enjoyable.
I was given Coffin Dodgers months ago to review, when the game was about to come out to drum up hype. Problem was, I had a lot of other things going on, so I kept putting the game off until I had some downtime so I could properly invest some quality time into the game. With my “52 games in 52 weeks” going again this year, I sat down at my PC, finally downloaded the game, and gave myself a few hours to see what Coffin Dodgers had to offer.
When first booting it up, I couldn’t help but feel nostalgia for old PS1 games. The simplicity of the presentation, from the introduction, to the story, all felt so much like games I remember from my childhood. The simple characters, with funny names, and extremely limited tutorial all added to this nostalgia, resulting in my first 15 minutes of playtime feeling fantastically familiar, and down right pleasant.
The problem was, the main campaign just couldn’t keep this positive ride going. What starts off simple soon became a clash against the game mechanics itself, resulting in some of the most annoying gaming moments of 2016 so far.
Whilst the looks (and some of the gameplay) began with evoking feelings of complex cart racers, the physics engine soon just could not keep up with the slick presentation. Sometimes I’d get bumped off geometry that simply did not exist; other times the AI became a complete nightmare to compete with.
It didn’t help that there’s no skill involved in the core driving experience itself. You just drive around a track with your acceleration barely changing, with no jumping or sliding mechanic present. It’s so simple that there’s even an option to enable “auto-accelerate” should you want it. At least with games like Mario Kart or Crash Team Racing there was a skill to the game on corners where (should you be good enough) you could skid around and get a boost. Not in Coffin Dodgers, where your only way of progressing is luck based on the pickups you get.
So for a game so entrenched in making every appeal to 90’s gaming kids, what’s on offer that actually pleases?
Well for one, the graphics are absolutely charming. The town you race in is lovingly rendered, at times even looking like a Disney film. Then there’s the characters, who all have their own unique little traits, and who have fantastically hilarious names and backstory’s. I thoroughly enjoyed the premise (Death has said it’s time for the 7 OAP’s to die, so they all challenge him to a race in their scooters), and loved the ways the premise was used for funny weapons (smacking other racers with your walking stick will always be funny).
The courses were fantastically varied too, with each “theme” changing which area you’d drive around the town. The farming section for example starts pitting the racers against each other towards the outskirts of town, with each sub-race taking a different route above and below ground. Each course also had it’s own “destructibles”, items or characters placed around the track that could be run over for extra XP (the games’ way of determining how well you performed on a race, giving you an amount of gold for your effort), a great way to keep me coming back to tracks time and time again to destroy as much as possible.
There’s also an upgrade system, whereby you can spend your hard earned cash on upgrades for your scooter. whilst this was a fantastic idea in theory (who doesn’t love progression?), I found that the upgrades genuinely amounted to nothing, meaning by the end of the game, despite having a fully upgraded vehicle, I still didn’t stand a chance against the AI, meaning the entire game was down to luck rather than skill.
And it’s in that nuisance of “luck vs skill” that I felt Coffin Dodgers truly let me down. I came in happy and excited at the prospect of playing a game inspired by my childhood, but in the end, came away annoyed. Games should always have equal parts skill, and equal parts luck, but unfortunately with Coffin Dodgers I could help but feel I was an innocent bystander, watching as the game passed me by. I had next to no affect on the end outcome of matches, and would genuinely put it down to luck should I have actually won a race.
By all means give Coffin Dodgers a go; I’m sure it’s multiplayer would be enjoyable (playing on PC is a nightmare for trying that mode), but don’t expect much for your money. At an hour in length for it’s main campaign, Coffin Dodgers left much to be desired. It’s a shame, as the premise genuinely intrigued (and delighted) me due t the lack of good kart racers in recent years. I can only hope Milky Tea Studios learn from their first game, and continue in this genre: I’m sure they can make a great game, it just isn’t Coffin Dodgers.
I know this is a week or so out of date, but this week I’m posting my review on Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void, a fantastic game that I thoroughly enjoyed and will be coming back to time and time again. As always, the review can be found below:
I completely forgot to post this on here when I completed it for VGChartz.com, but here it is! My review for one of my most anticipated indie games: Poncho.
http://www.vgchartz.com/article/261993/poncho-pc/
Just in case you don’t want to read the actual review, you can have a narrated version below:
As always, hope you’re all well, and have a fantastic new year!
As a huge fan of the Original Devil May Cry series, I’ve been waiting to get my teeth into DMC for a while. I’ll admit, when it was first announced, I joined in with the mass of fans that cried foul because of Dante’s hair colour change (how petty and small a thing to get worked up over). But, upon the game being released for years now, I’ve gotten over that original contempt I felt for the change, and have decided to finally take the plunge and play the game on PC, where I can experience it in full 1080p, 60FPS glory. Below I’ll break down each part of the game, starting with the Story, moving onto the Graphics/Sound, and finally the gameplay. Enjoy!
The Dream Sequences are fantastic, easily showcasing some of the best scenes in the game.
First up, the Story: Seriously, as much as I enjoyed the original Devil May Cry games, the story wasn’t exactly thorough or deep. I find that with age, I genuinely can’t remember much other than Dante was the son of Sparta, a demon that loved a human and had a kid, allowing that kid to be super-human in strength, and to even summon demon powers to take on the super-natural. Whilst this may have been enough back in the days of the PS2 (a simple enough premise to keep players engaged), these days that simplicity just wouldn’t stand.
So Ninja Theory (developers of Enslaved: Odyssey to the West) took the game back to the drawing board, with the story taking place in a world not unlike our own. Dante and Virgil are still demon kids, but their mother was also an angel, meaning they are nephilim; half angel, half devil, able to kill gods themselves. Unlike the original series, which took place in a real world, DMC takes place in Limbo, giving Ninja Theory the perfect setting to let their creative juices flow freely, with worlds crumbling and contorting in weird and wonderful ways. It also allows them to show Dante fighting demons without humans seeing them, closing a loophole the previous games faced. This setting, and the seriousness of it, really shone through, keeping me hooked until the end of the game. Fantastic retelling/alteration of a mediocre original series I would say.
As can be seen in the first level, you’d be really hard pressed to find that DMC was buiilt for the PS3/Xbox 360. The level of detail is stunning.
Next up, the graphics/sound: Well, what can I say. We haven’t really had a true next gen (read: previous gen) devil may cry game, with Devil may cry 4 being more of a slight upgrade over Devil May Cry 3’s engine, it felt awesome to actually play a game made for Xbox 360/PS3, and even on the PC, where I was able to crank graphics settings so high it looked like a PS4/Xbox One title (albeit with silky smooth 60fps framerate at all times). The HD textures were a pleasure to behold, with in game graphics looking better than the pre-rendered cutscenes, I was gobsmacked. Ninja Theory deserve a pat on the back for what they managed to do with the Unreal 3 engine, with the game truly being a beauty on new and old consoles + PC.
The sound was also a joy to behold: with punk rock appearing every time an enemy encounter started, it truly got me into the fight, pumping me up and pushing me to do better. Whilst the music and sound may be a bit “pretentious” due to some of the songs feeling too… contrived (as in, the developers forced the punk aesthetic too hard), it still all flowed well together, with the main menu music also pulling me in to the point I’d stare at the screen for a while, waiting to start.
Levels seem to constantly twist and turn, adding a certain fluidity to the game as nothing is ever what it seems.
So, finally: The Gameplay. The absolute core of a Devil May Cry game, and the main reason the series has been so renowned for so long. It’s the gameplay that kept players coming back despite all of it’s terrible story and plotholes. How’d it hold up in DMC? Fucking beautifully.
It was the gameplay most of all that kept me hooked to the game from beginning to end, with each and every action or story-point actually tying perfectly into the gameplay. Whilst playing, I couldn’t help but this Ninja Theory concentrated 100% on the gameplay first, with everything like story and music being made purely to add substance to the game, or to give an excuse to actually play it. You start off with just Dante’s sword, and his trusty guns. This soon changes to a devil weapon (a hammer), and an angel weapon (a scythe). These soon get superseded by stone hands and katanas, which in turn immensely changes up the gameplay and combos you can perform, so much so I was constantly changing my tactic to try and get a SSS rating in fights. Like I say, it truly feels like the whole game was built around the fighting first and foremost, with everything else being an excuse to fight more. It’s fantastic.
The boss fights were incredible, with the News Anchor fight easily being one of the most intoxicating environments in a game in a long time. Having news graphics with a presenter you need to kill is fantastic.
So overall, I’m annoyed. Annoyed because I didn’t invest the time (nor money) to play DMC sooner. The only reason I finally got around to buying the game now was because it was only £5 for the PC version, and I really need to finish more games that I buy. I’m glad I finally did play it, and am annoyed there may never be another considering how damn great DMC was. The sales figures weren’t great for this one, with Capcam being in a scary position of almost going bankrupt also, it seems we’ll never see a sequel for DMC anytime soon. If you haven’t played DMC, and are a massive fan of action games, you owe it to yourself to play DMC.
This week I managed to play the latest episode in Life is Strange’s great campaign. Being the fourth episode of five, you won’t be surprised to learn that many mysteries are coming to an end, all whilst others are popping up.
If you wanna give the review a read, hit up the link below:
The whole game is summed up in the title. It’s genius really.
Having seen Race the sun ages ago, I was interested at the offset. Here was a stylistically simple game, but with what looked like a complex and tough gameplay implementation. I didn’t buy the game straight away, and if I’m honest, I wish I would have kickstarted it, but alas, I waited a while and finally brought it on the humble store when it was on sale this past Christmas. Am I glad I bought the game? Hell’s yes I am! Flippfly deserve every penny of what I spent on Race the Sun, something I wouldn’t say all too often with most of the game I play. Read on as I explain what about Race the Sun drives me to this conclusion.
The game is centred around a plane that is powered by the sun, constantly moving forwards whilst avoiding obstacles. Speed increases to a certain point (dictated by how long you’re in the sunlight), to which the game stays strikingly hard until you crash into an obstacle and die instantly. This instant death mechanic keeps the player coming back for more, knowing that the game isn’t fobbing them off and it was actually their own fault they died. It’s a hooking mechanic, one which kept me playing for hours after I should have stopped many nights.
When the Sun’s like this, you better get your arse in gear, cause you’re next to death son. Only yellow star items can help you out in these situations.
Since your plane is powered by the sun, Flippfly studios wouldn’t want to make it too easy for you to play their game, so the sun that powers you is constantly setting into the horizon, making shadows on the stage longer (shadows limit your speed and kill you should you stay in them long enough) along with making it harder to avoid obstacles or get a higher score. It’s a lovely mechanic, one which keeps you not only on your toes with the obstacles, but also on your toes looking out for the items you can get to help you on your way through this weird and wonderful world.
You see, items help to not only improve your game, but to also keep the game going and making it interesting. . You have blue pyramids that you can collect to multiply your constantly increasing score, Yellow star shaped items that increase the amount of time the sun is up in the sky whilst also giving your plane a boost in speed, a green crown shaped item that allows your plane to jump. and finally a purple shield that can be otherwise known as an extra life. All these items ensure you’re constantly aware of whats around you, not only trying to avoid your imminent death, but also checking to see if you can grab any items that are nearby to give you the advantage.
Dodging all the obstacles can somethings feel impossible, but thankfully the developers usually give multiple ways out of any situation, helping you out greatly if you can think fast enough to react.
So far I’ve only talked about the mechanics, and that’s because the Race the Sun is all about the mechanics. Even the objective system, which is reminiscent of mobile games like Tiny Wings on iPhone, helps to create a feedback loop where the player is pushed to achieve the objectives (e.g. jump 20 times in one run), only to be given more items or skills in playing the game again. It’s a perfect loop, where players are encouraged to play more to unlock more to then progress further. It’s highly addictive.
Once you’ve played the game enough and gotten to a high enough level, Race the Sun will give you a new stage called “Apocalypse”. This new stage is extremely hard, being twice as fast as the original, with all manner of the hardest obstacles appearing from the offset. It’s not for the faint hearted, but was certainly challenging and fun once you start to master it on a given day.
The reason I say “given day” is due to the very way levels are built in Race the Sun. Although the stage is randomly generated, it’s generated from a seed that the developers push out to everyone’s machine daily. This seed will determine what each region will hold, so you can at least start to master the patterns of obstacles you’ll encounter. I found this aspect of the game just as intriguing as the rest, as I could never really feel comfortable, having to constantly change my tactics due to new layouts. It was refreshing.
The Apocalypse level was ridiculously hard but addictive, ensuring I came back time and time again just to master this fiendish stage.
So, with Race the Sun being made available on most platforms now (PS4, PC, Linux, PS3 and PS Vita), should you part with your money to play it? Well I for one completely understand some people being hesitant about paying $9.99/£6.99 for a game thats essentially a ported mobile game, but I can’t help but feel to surmise Race the Sun to it’s core mechanics is missing everything else it does so well. The feel of the craft and the precision gaming are fantastically hooking, so much so that you’d be hard pressed to find this simplicity elsewhere on the market. Should Race the Sun ever drop in price, either permanently or for sales, buy it, as I feel you won’t regret the time you spend with it.
Not much to see here, but at least you know the name of the game right?
Having brought The Novelist quite a while ago during another Steam Sale, I decided it was finally time to site down with this intriguing indie game and decide for myself whether it deserved all the praise and attention it got upon its release.
The game focuses around a small family comprised of the father (the novelist himself) Dan, the mother, Linda, and their child, Tommy, as they retreat to a getaway house in the forest whilst Dan works on his latest Novel. Whilst the main character is technically Dan, you start to realise that everyone has their own wants and needs, and it isn’t only about the father completing his book in order to achieve greatness.
Whilst you don’t control the characters in the house directly, you play as a ghost that observes the family, and can read their thoughts as well as past memories to figure out what they all want in a set of different situations. Once you’ve observed enough you can make a decision on what the family as a whole should do going forwards by whispering to Dan whilst he’s asleep. Once the decision has been made you’ll be shown what the outcome of your decision was, with some family members being happy at the decision, and others dreadfully sad.
Some of the decisions the family members want to make seem a bit contrived at times, but not to the detriment of the overall narrative, that each and every member of the family will think differently in any given situation.
Compromise
Compromises are a central theme of The Novelist, withconstant different wants and needs affecting each and every one of the family in different ways. In one example, the family get some inheritance from a cousin, leading each of the family members to come to different conclusions on what should be done with the money. Dan wants to use it to advertise in magazines by himself, without the help of his publisher, which would motivate him to work harder on his novel. Linda would like to use the money to join an art community in the town near their getaway home so she can get properly back into her painting. Tommy on the other hand would like to use the money to go on a camping holiday, ensuring he can meet other children his age rather than being isolated out in the forest with only his parents as company. No matter which decision you make, you’ll always make the other two family members upset, so you best pick the best option for your family as a whole rather than concentrating on individuals.
Every night you whisper the decisions your family should make to a sleeping Dan, who then happens to follow your instructions without realising why he’s doing so.
After making your decision, The Novelist even gives you the chance to compromise with another family member, ensuring that they don’t get too upset about not having their first choice chosen. In the example above, I chose Dan’s method of spending the inheritance money over others as I knew it would benefit the family more in the long run if the book sold well due to the advertising they purchased. I was then given the option to give a compromise to either Linda or Tommy, to which I chose Tommy as he wasn’t doing too well in education and could have done with more attention outside of the house. In doing this, I made Linda upset that we had no money to support her becoming a member of the art community, which in turn put a strain on hers and Dans relationship.
Parallels
I could see great symmetry in The Novelist and my personal life in the previous year since working on Twixel. Every decision that was made would have an impact on another family member, through no fault of my own, something I never thought about in my own world which working on Twixel. I’m sure many would be able to sympathise with this notion, as we’re all quite self centred most of the time, but through playing The Novelist it’s opened my eyes to that selfishness. For the most part I was on Dan’s side throughout the game, being annoyed at Linda for wanting to take time away from Dan’s book, whilst also being annoyed at having a needy child in Tommy. But it soon started to dawn on me that my actions in prioritising Dan were affecting the rest of the family, something I know all too well in Twixel’s development process whilst I shut everyone out of my life and made no sacrifices. It was a thought provoking game, and one which I feel may better me as an individual going forwards for bringing this all to my attention, something I can rarely say for other forms of media.
Being a ghost you can read what the family are thinking, allowing you a more in depth look into everyones feelings on a matter or what happened in the past.
So should you play The Novelist? Absolutely. It’s a fantastic game that puts you in some very awkward moments, pushing your feelings for the family as well as drawing memories from your own life into view. Some may find the 2 hour playtime a little short and the graphics a little mediocre compared to many games on the market these days, but both do the job perfectly of getting the point across that compromises are made in every situation you ever find yourself in, and that nothing is ever as clear cut as you’d expect. I can’t recommend the game enough, and hugely encourage anyone who wishes to feel moved or touched by the media that they play to go out and buy The Novelist now, you won’t be disappointed.
This week I take a look at postmodsoftworks latest and greatest narrative driven game, The Old City: Leviathan. I was hugely impressed with what I played, and will continue to come back to it time and time again. You can read my review below:
As always, thank you all for your continued support, as of next week I’ll have been doing this for 2 years, which is crazy! Here’s to hoping it continues for many more.
So this week I took a look at State of Play Game’s Lumino City, a fantastic looking adventure game where you’ll traverse a paper world that the artists created from scratch within an 8ft tall studio.
If you want to read the review I did of the game, click the link below:
Sorry this is a little late but things have been hectic recently. Twixel is well on course to being released December 18th (after it was delayed by a month), and I’ve been playing many games to review for gamrReview.
This week, I look at Soul Axiom, a game by Wales Interactive, and one that looks set to be an interesting experiment.
So here we are at the final episode. It’s taken a while (7 hours so far), but its been worth it to see Clementine’s story evolve throughout the course of the Season.
So here we are. After 4 episodes of The Walking Dead Season 2 we’re finally here, the penultimate conclusion of what will happen with the group and Clementine herself. Given the insanity of what happened at the end of the last episode (Rebecca being shot in the head due to turning into a zombie) and all out war happening between the Russians and our group, I was excited and interested of what would come of everyone, expecting the series to conclude with Clementine by herself again.
Anyway, back to the start of the episode, where the consequences of the firefight are starting to play out. Luke gets injured and a few Russians die, with Jane making a return as she heard the guns going off and felt obliged to help. I was thankful of this conclusion as I was expecting the firefight to be a cop-out for the writers to kill off a bunch of characters easily without having to write them away. Regardless, once it’s over we take the Russian gentleman we stole the medicine from as hostage and tell him to direct us to his place with lots of food, and so the group embark on walking for hours to reach his safe, secret location. This all felt a bit strange considering we could all see a city from where we were standing in the last episode, yet no one suggested we go there.
Choices are big and heavy in this final episode, with everyones sanity and lives on the line with every choice that you’re given. It doesn’t help that there’s a separation in the group forming, making every choice all the more important.
During the hike, it’s determined that it’s too far to walk in one day, so the group takes a break in a generator sub station, ensuring they’re fenced in and can sleep easy for the night away from walkers. It’s here we start to see different sides to the characters, with Kenny being an emotional angry wreck like always, but being extremely protective of the baby, Jane being a loner that admits to liking luke and eventually joining the circle, and the others having a laugh and drinking. It was a nice moment, one which allowed everyone to loosen up for one night, joking about sex and things they done when they were younger, with Luke commenting how its his birthday. It was nice, but couldn’t last for long as the writers needed to cause some tension in the group, with Kenny getting annoyed at others for helping the Russian feel welcome to the group.
In the morning the group sets out for the house, upon which they come across some walkers as they’re about to cross a frozen lake. It’s here you come across your first big death of the episode, with Luke falling into the lake after bonnie says for Clementine to help him. His deathly stare underwater was pretty gruesome, and made sense for this death to happen after the warm campfire and stories that were told the night before, so I should have seen it coming in hindsight. This death causes a lot of tension in the group, with Kenny’s temper becoming all the more aggressive towards the Russian, and in turn causing the rest of the group to fear him. It doesn’t look good for everyone, but at least there’s hope: a car.
Emotions are high in this pen-ultimate episode, with everyone questioning everyone else’s decisions. Here we have Jane bereaving the loss of Luke after he died in the lake.
Kenny eventually gets the car working, but not before we see even more tensions in the group, with the group seemingly becoming divided in two. Jane and Kenny with the baby (AJ for Alvin Junior) on one side, with Bonnie, Russian man and Mike on the other. During the night when everyone’s asleep you go outside to see what’s disturbing your sleep, only to find Bonnie, Arvo and Mike trying to escape with all of the supplies. I held them at gunpoint, but gave in and let them go, only to get shot by Arvo. From the looks of it, you were always going to be shot by Arvo, you were just given the illusion of choice. After waking up in the car with Kenny and Jane (plus AJ), you’re told that they didn’t take the car and that the bullet passed straight through Clementine, so she’ll be fine. It’s in here you still see tensions within the group, with Kenny and Jane bickering and shouting at each other over disagreements as to where to go with the car. Eventually, you come across a pile up of cars, and in the chaos of walkers coming over whilst Kenny explored, the group is split up with a crashed car and no where to run. At this point, you’ll take control of Clementine and will be tasked with walking through woods during a blizzard, meaning you can barely see 5 metres ahead, so avoiding zombies is best. This whole part was made to make sure the player felt hopeless, that they’re bound to die here with the snow and zombies both freezing and killing Clementine.
Eventually, you find Kenny at a service station, and after a bit of time Jane returns, without AJ. Throughout the whole episode Jane has always talked of getting rid of the baby, which may seem heartless, but it’s a logical choice considering the group has no food and doesn’t know where to go, so at the moment Kenny doesn’t see a baby, he flips, starting a massive fight between Kenny and Jane. You try to get involved but it’s hopeless, with the two adults fighting to the death it seems. You’re finally given one final choice in the game: To shoot Kenny (who’s about to kill Jane) or to look away. No matter the choice, it seems Kenny will always die, even though I personally chose to shoot him due to how much of a risk he was to everyone’s continued survival. He tells me with his dying breath that I made the right choice, and that I must survive. It was a sad farewell to an otherwise likeable character, but when the game constantly gets you thinking about survival, he wasn’t the best of people to have along for the ride. We find the baby in a car, to which Jane said she done it so we could see Kenny’s true side, to ensure we made the right decision. I forgave her and so we walked on back to the superstore we were in Episode 3, where supplies are found and a new group of people are met. So concludes the season.
Possible one of the hardest (or easiest if you’re cold hearted like me) decisions of the show so far, choosing between a reliable and intelligent character and one you’ve known for a while feels like more of a decision over logic or heart rather than who’s the better character, with Kenny being heart for how long you’ve know him, and Jane being the intelligent survival choice.
Edit: Upon reading up on the possible alternate endings, I’ve found that actually, the game differs hugely in what happens. Unlike the first season of The Walking Dead which would always end the same way with Lee dying and Clementine walking alone, the second season allows either Kenny or Jane to live, and then proceeds to either go back to the store (from Episode 3) with Jane or to proceed on to Wellington with Kenny. This seems insane considering how many different choices players are going to make, and can become a logistical nightmare for the team in the third season.
I enjoyed my time overall for the whole game eventually. What started quite weak quickly turned into a proper decision making game, one where I thought my decisions were irrelevant until they actually started having a lot of weight behind them. Looking around online, it seems that there are so many possibilities for the third season, meaning I can’t believe how open this season was, for the players and the characters in the story. I look forward to The Walking Dead Season 3 now, which surprises me given how much I wasn’t enjoying this season at the start. These final few episodes really turned it around for me. I’d hugely recommend this season to anyone that has played season one, and would recommend they get through the first few episodes before truly making a verdict on whether they liked the game or not, as I was surely turned around by the end.
Hi all,
