'The Walking Dead' Game Episode #5 Review.
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| Fuckin' A. |
As Dead as it gets.
Here we are, it's been a long road and I know it's taken its toll on me. I don't know who will survive, if anyone will survive, all I know, after the bombastic cliffhanger ending last episode there will be tears. If you, like myself, can completely invest yourself emotionally in stories, then you are really in for a treat with this last outing from 'TellTale'. The stakes have never been higher and the casualties have never been so devastating.
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| Shit gets real, and it's time to throw down. |
Game-play.
Nothing new, it's same old, same old. There are some really cool cinematic's and they are used to great effect to hide the same mechanics that have been used for the past five months. There are some great moments, some real stand -out points where the game-play is just superb. It's not that the game-play has become stale,far from it, it has become a wonderful mainstay of the series which is a kind of signature from the developers.
Plot.
Episode number five picks up from the mid-sentence cliffhanger that we were left with last episode. Lee has to find Clementine, help keep all his friends safe and all the while there is a timer in this episode. There are a lot of twists and turns, emotional pitfalls and at the end, if you don't feel something you are dead inside. I honestly didn't mean to make that pun. It just kind of happened. What's interesting about this episode is that it can go down any number of ways. I complained about the lack of control in episode number three and I have to say they really throw you in the deep end here. You make every decision and you feel like every decision impacts the narrative. The execution of the final scene is a real testament to the writing and it's just fantastic plot-wise.
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| He just had enough, and you'll get that. |
Good.
The plot, the plot is just outstanding. You honestly don't know where you're going in this. Each character gets their moment to shine and those moments are so well placed and the execution is done perfectly by the developers.. Each moment feels like it's important, you are constantly on edge and this is felt even more so with the inclusion of a timer. It's a superficial timer but the urgency is still there. As you get closer and closer to the end, there is a feeling, that I can't describe. The best way I could describe it is by a comparison between the ending of 'The Walking Dead' game and the final scene in 'The Return of the King'. The ending is so bitter-sweet and deeply upsetting. It was wonderfully put together and is probably the best ending to a game series I've seen in a long time.
Bad.
The length, it's half the length of one of the usual episodes and you feel it . Is it a big problem? no. If you hate the format of how they end episodes with loads of tension, then cut to black, you'll be especially pissed off at this episode. They could have easily continued the story, especially with the running time of this episode clocked in at a mere two to three hours. It's unfortunate, it's a bitch but what are you going to do?
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| This is five minutes in and I'm going to tell you right now, it hurts. |
Ugly.
As a standalone episode, it's great, the story is wonderful, the characters each have their moments and you go from moment to moment eating up every scrap of information you're given. The length will piss you off and that's really the only bad, there were no glitches, no problems with dialogue. Just a perfect run-through. As the finale to a series, outstanding. It was dark, humourous, at times heart-achingly beautiful and down right tragic. I had the most wonderful time playing this game, the ending did not disappoint and the characters are some of the best fleshed out beings I've seen in all forms of media, not just gaming. What's the ugly side to this? That it's over.
9.5//10
By the way, there is already plans for a second season.
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