Thursday, March 30, 2017

Why Telltale's TWD: New Frontier Sucks.

Telltale's The Walking dead is probably the best game i've ever played and with the wait and the hype for season 3 you'd think my over-expectation is the reason that led me to believe the new frontier sucks but after pondering on that for a while i think no, It really does suck.

In one of the interviews with the game creators about season 3 they talk about how BIG it would be, surely it should have been big considering season 2's finale and the 3 very different paths players could take. But let's get this out of the way first, The New Frontier is NOT season 3. It is neither big nor is it the proper continuation to the Lee and Clem's emotional story and calling it a new chapter would just be inaccurate as well. The story of Javier GarcĂ­a feels like a filler story, sorta like the 400 days DLC that is just there to provide a nod while playing the real thing. Instead we see Javier's story take the spotlight while the real thing hide as a filler and even a very bad one at that (we'll get back to that), it's like season 2's ending just got scraped. Whoever you choose will just get killed off in a freaking flashback and if you didn't choose anyone you'll lose a finger, a very convenient way to tie up loose ends and a huge middle finger to fans.

But even if you like Javi's story let's take about why it just doesn't work as the main story for season 3. Transitioning from Lee RIP to Clem felt right, whenever i made Clem take a decision it would come from "this is what Lee would've wanted or done" and since i am lee it just felt natural to take over. Whereas Javier's transition felt awkward and discontinuing. Every choice that i make with Javier is just corrupted by my image and thoughts for Clementine and it doesn't help when i've just seen the flash back and played AS Clem. Of course i'm going to believe and side with her because I know her, Javier doesn't and this just shatters the immersion. Clem isn't this "back from the dead" cameo character, her story is unfinished and going about finishing it in a 3 minutes flashback is a Really poor choice for this amazing story.

But let's say you don't mind all that and i'm just not being objective in judging Javier's story. Well actually let's talk about that, the goals the Objective. Telltale's storytelling usually just throw you into the middle of the story and let you figure it out slowly from the inside but there was always a common theme a common Objective in sight. In the first season it was protect Clem and in the second it was survive, then later on stick by kenny or by your friends. And every episode had it's own little sub story to tell and you could tell what each one was about.
But so far the first 3 episodes felt all over the place, when Javier got separated from his family the first time there was an objective to find them but when Clem said "make new friends" at the bar i lost all sense of urgency. I felt like i was just being forced into clem's story which really made me think, why did they tie him up and move him into the truck if they were just going to shoot at them from behind later on ? And then and there when they shot his little niece i thought the story was going to be about revenge but Mariana's death was soon forgotten between the Rick-Shane style bullshit and the unexplained attack on Prescott (how are you going to ransack a city full of walkers ?) The game switch main Objectives and the antagonist is a mindless thug and then a middle aged asian lady ? (kinda like iron fist, what does the protagonist even want ?!)

So where is Season 3 ? it probably got scrapped if it ever existed for being too big to make room for all the fancy new licences they got and replaced with this filler story with Clem out-of-place flashbacks. It's not too hard to imagine that considering the dwindling quality of telltale's storytelling from the childish batman and the aimless michonne stories. Which happens right about time telltale starts receiving big contracts and stop caring about quality and start caring about E3 marketing and hype and not so subtle hints. (she lost her ring finger OWWWW)

If you are a newcomer or if you like the game so far, then you like the game so far. But this is NOT Season 3 and after 3 episodes in, I don't believe it's saveable at this point.



Submitted March 30, 2017 at 09:54AM by hyf5 http://ift.tt/2nziJEb

No comments:

Post a Comment