So, this will be a different kind of review than usual. As many of you will know, most of Telltale’s games have all been point and click adventures, with a stronger focus on story and characters instead of puzzle solving. What this means is that the formula and gameplay for each game hasn’t changed much over the course of their recent run. Each game consists of 5 episodes (or 6 in the case of Game of Thrones), with the focus being on how your dialogue and choices will change the storyline of the game, such as which characters will be alive at any one point and how they will react and interact with you, with some action QTE’s and light exploration/puzzle solving thrown in to give it a more “game-like” feel and give the player a chance to chat to various characters and learn about them outside of the main narrative. Choices also carry over between episodes (and seasons) in order to give each player a unique story experience. While this approach has been largely successful – as evident by the fact that Telltale seems to be releasing/announcing a new series every other month – it has been experiencing some fatigue.
The fact that each game is largely the same gameplay wise and the only differences are in the story and characters, it’s a little harder for me to write a cohesive musing/review for each and every individual series I’ve played without delving deep into spoiler territory, which I don’t want to do. What I’ve decided to do instead is talk about them all (the ones I’ve played obviously) for as little or as long as I possibly can. Oh and every game is largely available on whatever platform you want (except Nintendo) so you can play them however, whenever and wherever you want to.
THE WALKING DEAD
First up, I want to talk about the big one, the series that got everybody’s interest in Telltale piqued: The Walking Dead. This series has already gotten 2 seasons, with a third rumored to be on the way, and for good reason. The games take place in the same universe as the eponymous comic book and TV series, but features a new cast of characters that are dealing with their own trials and tribulations. Anyone familiar with the source material knows that shit is pretty fucked up in the Walking Dead universe and characters are prone to severe cases of unexpected death. The games are no difference and more often than not people will suffer because of choices you made as the player. It can be quite a harrowing and emotional experience to play through (especially the first season), with no clear morality system in play and that’s one of the main reasons that I really enjoyed it. Every choice you make will have repercussions somehow, whether good or bad, and it’s impossible to please everyone so don’t even try.
The first season follows Lee Everett and a little girl he saves/adopts named Clementine and their ragtag group of survivors as they try to reach Savannah and the promise of salvation there. Clementine is the greatest child character in video gaming, hands down. Not only is she not whiny or annoying like most child characters, but the interactions and development between her and Lee are some of the game’s most beautiful scenes. The second season follows Clementine and a new group of survivors a few months following the aftermath of the first season, with a stronger focus on building Clementine’s character through bad situations. I felt that the second season wasn’t as powerful as the first and it lacked a strong focus. It still reaches some pretty fucked up and powerfully emotional places, but it’s hard to capture the lightning in the bottle that was the first season. A DLC episode titled 400 days was used as a way to bridge the gap between the first and second season, with you taking control of 5 different characters in little mini-scenarios, each more fucked up than the last. The storyline of the DLC is vague on purpose so as not to spoil too much for the then upcoming second season, but this also made it hard to follow.
The strongest point about the Walking Dead series is the strong characterization of almost each and every cast member. Everyone has their own story and that influences their disposition towards the player character and every other character around them, as well as their personalities. Often times you will be forced to choose between characters and put your loyalties and support behind one or another – which can be annoying if you don’t really like either choice, but is a necessary evil to move the plot forward. As a (sort of) writer I also place a lot of stock in the ending of a story. If the ending is strong, I can absolutely forgive any lulls that might occur during the course of the story – which of course there are, solely for the fact that Telltale forces their series’ to be stretched to a certain number of episodes, with a certain number of big choice scenarios, meaning that middle episodes and scenarios can start to feel tacked on and unnecessary sometimes – but both seasons of The Walking Dead deliver some of the strongest video game endings I’ve ever seen. Especially the first season, but the second season is not far behind in terms of “holy shit, this this fucked up”-ness. I highly recommend this to anyone who might not have played it, purely because of how well-written it is. Sure, it’s not immune to Telltale’s signature glitches and performance issues, but the story really is strong enough to hold it all together.
Conclusion: 5 boats out of a possible 5 (s1), 4 goddammit Kenny’s out of a possible 5 (s2)
TALES FROM THE BORDERLANDS
Next, I wanna talk about my personal favourite Telltale game, and just one of the best games I’ve ever played in general: Tales from the Borderlands. I literally finished this one yesterday in one long ass session because I couldn’t get enough of it. It even inspired me to make this post, purely because I wanted to speak about this game! Set in the Borderlands universe (which, it turns out, is the perfect place to set a Telltale-like game), it follows the exploits of Hyperion scumbag Rhys and sassy con-artist Fiona, as they recount one helluva tale to their mysterious captor, with the player switching between the two characters as they recount their tale (so sometimes in mid-conversation). For those who are unfamiliar with the Borderlands universe, it’s set on a planet called Pandora, which has been ruined by corporations (and the fact that everything on the planet was designed to kill everything else). Guns, bandits, assholes and death are common and expected. However, people are drawn to Pandora because of the promise of untold riches that lie in strange Vaults. These Vault Hunters and the corporation Hyperion, which “controls” Pandora through military might, are searching for new Vault Keys to gain access to these riches. The game takes place after Borderlands 2 and features heavy spoilers for the series, so its advised you play it in chronological order if you want the full Borderlands experience.
The Borderlands games are kinda known for their absolutely insane and colorful characters and irreverent humour and this one is no different at all. Everyone from Rhys and Fiona, to their faithful companions Vaughn and Sasha (respectively), to the goddamn robot characters, to the scummiest of villains, all are just magical, unique and likable in their own ways. There’s even the customary cameos for those of us who’ve played the other games. The game has absolutely brilliant writing, dialogue and humour, and the interaction between the characters feel so natural and witty that you can’t help but laugh out loud sometimes. In fact, the game is such a wonderfully weird juxtaposition between some of the best humour and most heartbreaking moments that I was literally laughing through tears at one point! Like literally the game made me cry and then pulled it all around in the space of a few seconds! It helps that the game has absolutely amazing voice-acting and a killer soundtrack that really sets the mood. If this game didn’t have the customary Telltale glitches (despite the Borderlands games actually having this art style already), I’m sure this could’ve passed for an interactive film or as goddamn close as you can possibly get. And it does feature puzzle-solving (of the go here and fiddle with things kind) and some intense action scenes that borrow elements from the shooter games they’re based on.
A huge shout out to the fucking amazing title sequences of each and every episode, because these deserve mentioning. As soon as I saw the one for the first episode I was immediately and irreversibly sold on this series. Also the hilarious “heist”/planning/story embellishment sequences that happen every now and then are just magical and so well-written – very reminiscent of the recent Ant-man movie or Guy Ritchie-style British comedies. The game’s ending as well is just motherfucking amazing. I don’t want to spoil anything but let me just drop two words: FIGHTING GAME. And sequel bait, but that’s fine because I actually wouldn’t mind some more Tales from the Borderlands. The game has the absolute strongest opening episode I’ve ever seen in a Telltale series’ and the entire run never feels like a drag to play through. I’ve actually been craving more and wish it could’ve gone into 6 episodes because god knows Game of Thrones didn’t really need that extra episode. If you play ANY Telltale game, let it be this one. It’s Telltale, but trying different and new things that just make the whole experience feel so fresh and unique.
Conclusion: 5 fuck you for making me cry’s out of a possible 5
THE WOLF AMONG US
The Wolf Among Us is based on a comic book series of the same name (which is one of the best Vertigo comics out there to be honest. Vertigo man for life). It follows one Bigby Wolf, the sheriff and resident badass of Fabletown – haven for fairy tale characters – as he investigates a series of mysterious murders. For those not familiar with the comics, it basically boils down to all mythological and fairy tale characters are real. Their homeland was taken over by the Adversary long ago and they established themselves in the human world with the use of “glamour” and other magics to hide their true forms and co-exist in their own little community free from human interference. The backstory doesn’t matter much to the overall game, but it does help to know it as various elements make appearances throughout the game, such as anthropomorphic characters, magic and glamour. There are a ton of characters from the comics that make up the majority of the cast and as usual for Telltale all of them are strongly characterized and well developed.
The game is slightly more interactive than the Walking Dead, purely because you actually have to investigate some crime scenes and follow up on clues, as well as featuring a lot of long, interactive action sequences. The story is relatively dark and heavy, inspired by film noir, as evidenced by some elements of the plot and the opening sequence, but with some light humour sprinkled around. Choices are not as harrowing as in other series’, but most of the time still manage to feel important. It also features a slightly different choice mechanic where you will have to choose between following up on two different clues and various little factors of the story can change depending on which lead you choose first.
I’m not even gonna lie, the game has some of the worst Telltale glitches I’ve ever experienced, at least at the time I played it. Not only the usual hitches and graphical glitches, but also the final scene of the final episode lost all dialogue choices for no reason and I was forced to restart the game to fix it. The game also suffers considerably more from feeling drawn out as it is a mystery/detective story, meaning that drawing out plot points does not work in its favor. The ending also felt a little lackluster (except for an absolutely awesome fight sequence), with a villain that didn’t live up to the hype he got throughout the season. Overall though, it was still a good game and I recommend playing it if you enjoy the Fables comics or are just a Telltale fan as this is one of their best.
Conclusion: 4.5 scumbag toad’s out of a possible 5
GAME OF THRONES
Finally, that brings us to Game of Thrones, which is sadly my least favourite of all the TellTale games I’ve played. It’s not that it’s necessarily bad, it’s just not as good as it could have been. It’s based on the eponymous book and TV series and even features characters and actors from the TV show making cameos throughout the episodes. It focuses on a new, original arc and family never shown in the show: the Forresters, rulers of Ironrath and the finest craftsmen of “ironwood”, which apparently everyone wants for some reason. The story takes place sometime between the end of season 3 and beginning of season 4 and as such contains spoilers for those who aren’t at least in season 4. The Forresters were loyal to House Stark and the main bulk of the story focuses on various members of the family trying to keep their house afloat (and alive) after the events of the Red Wedding. The Forresters are basically exact analogues for the Starks to be honest, down to some characters’ story arcs and their family structure.
The series features 5 playable characters, each one with their own storyline. Gared is a squire for the family and is sent to the Wall to interact with Jon Snow after murdering some soldiers who killed his family. He meets and makes friends (or enemies) with a few Crows and eventually must venture north of the Wall to find something called the North Grove. His story is relatively interesting sometimes, but overall boils down to a whole lot of nothing and he has no impact on anything related to House Forrester at all. Mira exists in King’s Landing and interacts mainly with Cersei and Tyrion Lannister and Margaery Tyrell, being the latter’s handmaiden. Her story is surprisingly the least interesting, with not a lot of action and mostly dealing with boring political stuff involving her family’s ironwood trade. Ethan is the lord of Ironrath following his father’s death and his arc is just basically trying to assert his power while being just a kid in a dark, dangerous world he isn’t ready for. Rodrick is the star of the Forrester family and later lord of the house after coming back from the Red Wedding injured and broken. His story involves trying to satiate/fend off the Whitehill family and Ramsay Snow as they try to take over his family’s ironwood and just generally make life miserable for everyone at Ironrath. His storyline has a lot of potential, but sadly it isn’t utilized to its full potential and you spend a lot of time just getting pushed around, both as Rodrick and as the player, without being able to really do anything about it. Finally, we have Asher and his faithful companion Beshka over in Essos who are trying to raise a mercenary army to help the Forresters over in Westeros. Asher has the best, most action-packed portion of the story and actually gets to DO things, instead of the boring standing around and negotiating that makes up the bulk of the time with the rest of the characters. I am a HUGE fan of Game of Thrones, and the more dialogue-heavy approach of the show is fine for TV, but in a video game I need some action and interactivity in order to keep me going.
The game features some of the least interactivity of the series and choices that SEEM heavy on the surface, but really don’t matter much in the long run. The last two episodes are actually quite strong however and the first instances of real choice that affect how things play out for the Forresters. Technical hitches exist obviously, which are especially horrible here since this game features painted backgrounds (why couldn’t the whole game be in this style?) that freak the fuck out sometimes and make the entire game look ugly instead of the beauty they were trying to go for. The main problem with the game however is that the story has no impact on the Game of Thrones universe at large. Obviously no main characters could be killed off so there are no stakes and all the usual Game of Thrones-ness is reserved for characters we don’t really care about. This draws you out of the story considerably and actually makes it difficult to have any enthusiasm for the story. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone really, and I felt that this was the weakest of the Telltale series, despite it getting a second season after their shameless sequel bait ending that offers no closure to anything.
Conclusion: 3.5 everybody die’s out of a possible 5
RANDOM MUSINGS 