Finished it. Took two playthroughs, made the same choices.
Running thoughts:Ooh, I love this montage of S1. The character models all seem to be updated, which is a nice sight.
And...here we are. Season 2! So Clem...she found Omid and Christa! YES! And everyone thought they were completely new people. Is it me, or does her voice seem more somber now? Her voice kinda sounds like Becca. It...feels both odd and refreshing to play as Clem. Let's see how this plays out. Telltale now uses TWAU reticle for the adventure gameplay, never been a fan of it. Her voice tone...this is depressing. Oh, who's this woman? Oh god, she took the gun. Take it and go away. Please. Omid then shows up and dies. Noooo!
This is extremely depressing...
16 months later? Quite a jump. Christa's baby obviously died.
Clem must be almost 11, right? I wonder if we'll find the 400 Days cast soon. So she has both Lee's photo and Kenny's family drawing. Why would I throw
either of those into the fire? Christa's being attacked, so let's distract the bandits. Ah, so
this guy's named Winston. What an asshole. The combat seems reminiscent to TWAU. That's nice.
Clem follows the river over to a shore. You're breaking my heart here. Those birds scared the hell out of me in the bushes. Oh hey! A dog! He won't get shot or die or anything, right? More adventure gameplay in the camp. Both Clem and the dog are likely starving while playing frisbee. I want to give her a hug. Allusions and references to Lee? Hell yes. Okay, let's sit down and feed the...wait, whoa! What happened? This dog did a complete 180 and became rapid! I hate to do this as Clem, but let's kick him off...and into some car wiring. I have to put him down. Yeah, this is
really depressing.
Is there ever going to be a happy scene in this game that
doesn't last for one minute? So I get saved by Cabinman. Apparently his name is Luke. He's with Pete. They...seem like nice guys. Luke turns complete asshole for a second when he drops Clementine. I try to convince them she's not bitten by a "lurker". Hey, "lurker"? I don't like comic references in the game. C'mon, Telltale! Hope she's going to be alright with these people...
Hey look, imminent season 2 cast! Shit. I'm going to stay away from Nick. Even both Pete and Luke advocate to cut off Clem's arm. No, no, no. Trying to persuade Rebecca. "You're having a baby, right? What if I was your daughter?" Her: "You aren't." Wow. Guess the only thing left is to wait until morning and persuade these guys.
...Or not, we could be sneaky in some adventure gameplay. This took the longest time in my first run through to find the correct board to go under. Before, I talk to Alvin. Seems kinda helpless right now, but I'll bet he'll develop into a much nicer character. Meeting Sarah...Um, hi? Sure, we can be friends. As long as you can help me. Go into the bathroom, grab a needle, find out someone else might have knocked up Rebecca. Huh. Get what I need and go back to the shed.
Oh, god. THIS SCENE. This was worst than watching Lee cut off his arm. Skipping over that, the group opens up the door and the dick finally lets me in and get examined on. Sarah has a mental problem or something? Makes sense. I love the talk with Luke, seems like a nice guy. My heart dropped when Clem talked about her parents and Lee. And yeah, I forgive you, Nick. But I still don't like you. Rebecca shows up and tells Clem to leave. I see the pinnacle of Sam and Max references. Nice, Telltale.
Going out with Pete...Nick still seems kinda suspicious. I'll keep an eye on him. Stumble upon corpses. Roman's too. What a shame. He would've been a great antagonist for the season! Oh god, are we going to find Kenny? I didn't want him back in season two, but most of all, not like
this. Oh, it's just the bandit from earlier. Still doesn't give a clear answer about Christa, but he needs water. I give it to him. My Clem's not a asshole. Can't just leave a man dying of thirst. Move away from him. Wait, did I just make a bad choice? Both Pete and Nick are trapped. Did Pete get bit? Screw it, I'm saving him. I'm going with the guy who seems more level-headed to me. Nick runs off into the woods. Huh. I could've sworn one person would die while making this choice.
That's it? Okay, it seems like I'm going to have to cut off Pete's leg as Clem in the next episode. I'm not ready for that. For the time being though, it looks like this is the group that Clem's going to stay with. Oh, the guy who knocked on the door? Is he Carver? Or the guy who actually knocked up Rebecca? "I thought you were dead." Kenny? Lilly? Molly? Christa? I don't have a clue.
Overall impressions:
What was the point of Omid's death in the beginning? I get this is supposed to be depressing and all, but there could have been
a lot of story opportunities with him. Ugh.
Some of the dialogue is what I suspected to come from Clem, but I have a problem. I know, a lot of things can happen in 16 months. But I found myself making choices that I would think S1 Clem would say. There's no need to be a douche and say rude choices as Clem. I just find the loss of immersion through this. I don't want to play multiple playthroughs and make asshole choices. I did them as Bigby and Lee because they were fun to make. It won't be as Clementine. I really love the character designs and graphics. More outlines are shown, Telltale really did a page out of TWAU's book. Story...is alright. Not the same without Lee, but it's a pleasant sight to see Clem again. I've missed her. The characters...all have their faults. Sarah is obviously mentally ill. She'll probably die before we have a chance to meet up with Becca. Pete seems too fierce with Nick, Nick still seems like a douche. He's definitely going to murder someone. Alvin's going to be pissed if there's a possibility that the baby's not his. Rebecca. Yeah. Don't like her at all. Judging from the episode 3 screen, she's going to give birth. Maybe we'll have a chance to talk about what happened with Christa's baby. From writing, story, and gameplay, I give S2 E1 a
7.5/10. By no means bad (I actually enjoyed it more than S1 E1), I still had some problems with the consistency of Clem's lines and how easily a player can make dialogue choices that she wouldn't regularly make. This makes it harder for me to do another playthrough apart from my canon. Nevertheless, I look forwards to seeing where Clem's story goes.
...And now for me to go get some lunch. I skipped eating, I was so eager to play this!