twisty on 26/2/2016 at 11:40
While I had heard some time ago that Telltale were going to issue an interim series prior to the release of TWD series 3, this release caught me somewhat by surprise as I have been overseas for the past month and during that time have paid little attention to any gaming news. Given how much I liked the S1&2 and with the relatively low price on Steam I purchased this as soon as I noticed it on the Store's home page. Rather than wait until I have played a fair bit this before posting my impressions, which is what I would normally do, I thought that I would make more of a running commentary of the game as I juggle playing it with other games that I am currently engrossed in. Keeping in mind that these are currently my early impressions of this games, it is also worth pointing out that my experience of TWD is mostly based on Telltale's S1 & S2, as I've also only seen a few episodes of season 1 of the TV series and nothing of the graphic novel, so have no prior knowledge of the central character, who is apparently loved by many fans of the series.
One of the first things that one will notice is how much better the graphics look in this compared with S1&2. The animations and art quality really helped carry the previous games but all the same it is nice to finally see an upgrade of the visuals that feel a little closer to modern times. The location is also different to what we have seen so far which is a nice change.
On the downside I haven't been particularly impressed by the gameplay direction that they are going with. I've found the QTE events to be too frequent, unforgiving and too long. They were ok in the main series as they were fairly short and didn't detract away from the experience of the story, relationships and atmosphere, which were the real factors that made these games great. It probably didn't help that I am too used to the buttons on the PS4 now with X being in a different position to that of the X on my PC's game controller. Furthermore, there seems to be a bug where it occasionally flashes the keyboard keys during QTEs rather than the controller buttons. While it's too early to say one way or the other, I really hope that this isn't an indication of what is to come with series 3.
More to follow...
twisty on 27/2/2016 at 02:37
Well that was quick. Shortly after posting this thread I completed episode 1 in less than an hour. Apart from the poor handling of the QTE mechanic (in my opinion anyway) the writing, characters and atmosphere are definitely up to the standard of the rest of the series.
Given how short this is however I would suggest that unless you're really desperate for a walking dead fix that you hold off until they release all 3 episodes.
twisty on 3/4/2016 at 07:34
Just finished the 2nd installment, which also felt incredibly short. I think the feeling of it being too brief an experience is largely due to its faster pace than the main series, with greater utilisation of QTC events and less dialogue. What is there however is artfully crafted and well developed within the aforemention contraint, it's just that you hardly get to know most of the characters as they soon get knocked off. But perhaps that is the point of this spinoff, with a focus on Michonne's increasing isolation and struggle against losing her own humanity in spite of her seemingly hopeless existence.
twisty on 23/5/2016 at 05:20
Played through the final episode yesterday afternoon. Overall it was a fitting ending to the series and a marked improvement over the first two, returning to the shorter and more forgiving QTE style of the main game. The aforementioned bugs and weird remapping of the controller keys has been fixed as well.
