T w e n t y S i d e d

And so we come to the end of The Walking Dead. This final stretch of the game is powerful, emotionally resonant, and well-written. Well, except the part where Clem carries Lee through a zombie horde and into a building. Because now is not the time for eye-rolling and guffaws.

A strange thing about this final sequence is that I have this distinct memory of Clementine bashing up that last zombie with many small, bloodless blows. Did I imagine that? Was I so caught up in the horror of the moment that I forgot how brutal it really was? Is there more than one way for this scene to play out, perhaps with Clem using different weapons? I have no idea. I will note that I was shocked at how gruesome this looked while we were recording.

Now I’m wondering: Where is the series headed next?

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “The Walking Dead EP28: You’re Gonna Carry That Weight”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

I made fun of the whole exchange between Kenny and Ben, but it was actually a much-needed resolution to the tension that had been building up. A lot had happened since Ben’s confession at the end of Episode 4, and it was about time their animosity was updated to reflect current events.

Since I brought it up in this episode, let’s talk about the converging choice at the end…

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “The Walking Dead EP27: Busted!”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

Notice in a lot of games where you are directly piloting your character, players will balk at the limitations the game presents. Why can’t I jump this gap? Why can’t I climb over this chest-high wall? Why can’t I scale this fence? Why do I die from a simple three-meter drop? This is true even if you’re at 2% health and supposedly clinging to life. We don’t complain when Corvo or Garret slings a grown man over one shoulder and glides silently across the room at a light jog. We don’t complain when our character soaks up bullets, much less object to them being able to engage in strenuous exercise for hours without ever showing signs of fatigue, overheating, hunger, thirst, or loss of focus. We resent it whenever the game tries to convey these things by shaking the camera or fading the edges of the view to red.

I’m not saying these complaints are wrong or bad. I’m just saying that there’s something about inhabiting or piloting a character directly that creates the expectation that our avatar should operate at peak performance forever without experiencing pain, confusion, or faltering morale. It’s not always the case, but we historically have a hard time getting us to accept things that stand between us and the controls.

Now we have the Walking Dead, and suddenly we’re making the opposite complaints. By removing direct control of Lee and placing us in the position of a guide and not a pilot, we’re suddenly able to accept and even insist on Lee’s physical limitations. He shouldn’t be able to do this after losing so much blood. Where is he carrying this stuff? No way should Lee be able to break through that thing! How come Kenny isn’t dead from that gunshot? No way could he make that catch!

It’s very interesting how moving to a TV presentation creates TV expectations with regards to character ability.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

And so Episode 4 is over, and we’re already spoiling stuff for Episode 5. Let’s just make the rest of this series a live-fire exercise. No more spoiler tags, no more being coy about what’s coming. Feel free to discuss any part of the game now. There’s a lot to cover between here and the end of Episode 5, and we’ll never cover it all if we have to tiptoe around.

Here are my choices for Episode 4:

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “The Walking Dead EP25: Axe Queen McZombie Killer Ninja”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.