Review: 'The Walking Dead' and '400 Days' Video Game (By Telltale)

MONDO SPOILERS TO FOLLOW

I wanted to wait until I played the extra 400 Days chapter before reviewing The Walking Dead by Telltale. I know this prolly seems outdated because The Last of Us came out really recently, but I'll get that one eventually, too. So yeah, I'm slow. Sue  me.

As you can see on the cover, there's a dude holding a little girl's hand. That's Lee and Clementine.  Lee is the character you play as, and Clementine is the little girl you find in the very beginning of your struggle within the outbreak of zombies. Clementine becomes your reason for survival  and it's the immersion in the world in which you're trying to protect her that makes this game so moving. The game mechanic forces you to not just think for, but think as and feel as Lee. So I can't even use third-person- it's second, at best. It's you doing everything, not Lee, and that's why this game is so good. It transports you, and every decision has weight on you as Lee and you as you sitting on your couch with your dog chewing her deer antler beside you. Ahem.

In order to convey this, whenever I'm referencing my own reactions, I may sometimes say "Leeme." Get it? ;p

What mechanic am I talking about that could possibly lead to this sort of transcendence of self?

Importantly, the focus isn't the combat. It's not the killing of the zombies. It's the navigation of the environment itself- often what direction you walk in avoiding being seen, the method with which you decide to open or break something, which room you choose to go in first. But most importantly, the other people involved. Every couple minutes (and then sometimes a few times within one minute itself), you as Lee have to decide what to say or do with respect to what someone else has said or done- you're given options to negotiate, get hostile, say nothing, and sometimes even get physical with someone else, in every situation involving other characters. You can be snarky, you can be funny, you can lie, and the characters always remember what you did. And it comes back to you- they'll reference your past decisions in the future, and how you've treated them previously (and at that moment) often determines who comes with you whenever you have to break off from the whole group. And if they ever realize you're lying at that moment, they let  you know- or if they realize later you lied before, they definitely let you know.

There are more intense  moments that have deep ramifications on the future, too. More than once, you have to choose between two people that are being simultaneously attacked, and your decision determines who lives and who doesn't. The first time Leeme had to do this, I didn't realize that was the case- I thought I'd be able to help both. And when I couldn't, I was utterly shocked and had to pause the game because the weight of the outcome  was so heavy on me. Leeme felt damn awful and wished there had been a way to save both. And  the storytellers weaved reminders of that decision back into future moments constantly, reminding Leeme of that decision and that I had to let one person die.

The fact that I couldn't save both people made me realize this game wasn't going to end happily- someone important  to Leeme was going to die. Not because of storytelling tropes, but rather because they obviously weren't giving people plot armor, and if we're being "real" about getting caught in a situation like that, it'd be a miracle if Leeme didn't die in the end. 

Also, there are times when your decision effects people you may not expect. Moments where you think you're alone and then poof! Clementine witnesses you stabbing someone in the face. Ironically, whenever I did something more violent and against my own nature as ME, made a choice I know I probably wouldn't make (at least as I am now, not really in a zombiepocalypse), those decisions ended up being the ones that had the worst effects on Leeme. Like the aforementioned moment when Clementine walked in- I pulled myself out of Lee for a moment when I thought she was gone, and I wanted to get the guy out of the way because I thought this chapter needed to end sooner, so I stabbed him with a pitchfork, and as soon as I did it, she gasped. Oops. Likewise, in the last chapter, I hesitated too long, and that hesitation led to Clementine killing someone instead of me doing it. I had to pause there, too, Leeme felt so horrible. 

So since your decisions mold what happens next, these decisions can either limit or expand your future options.  And it's clear they tried to make as many scenarios as they could so that no matter how you chose, it would feel organic and as if it naturally progressed that way. Not only from the sheer fact that it does feel that natural, but also because  at the end of each chapter (except the 5th), there's a "preview" of the next one- and every time I saw a preview, I also saw scenes/clips that didn't end up happening when I actually played the chapter whose preview I was seeing. And while sometimes it seemed good, like when there were snippets of an argument with another character I ended up never having, I also saw some scenes that could have been better, like a character helping Lee kill a zombie in a preview, whereas when Leeme was in that scene as I was playing, that character totally wasn't with Leeme. And since the future depends so much on the past decisions you made, you can't go back or ret-con- the game saves itself so often in the middle that you really just have to move forward. So while I haven't replayed it yet, I know that every time I do, it'll be different. 

I'll admit, there were a few rather tired tropes- particularly the cannibalistic country bumpkins. I knew that was going to happen  the moment I met the two guys that ended up being the ones running the farm. That's the same chapter I just referenced that needed to end- it was still pretty good, and actually, I think the fact that I killed a man in front of Clementine really helped with the story later. When she walked in, I immediately became Leeme again, so there's that, too.

But chapters. The main game is divided into chapters, five in total, and they  range from about 1.5 hours for the shortest (the last one) to about 2.5 for the longest (not including times where you die and need to retry something). The length of each chapter gives you the time to get to know and care for the people around you (or think they're annoying assholes).

So then what about 400 Days? Well, it's five vignettes, each about 15-20 minutes, and you play as someone else in each one. The nature of them being so short means you aren't really given much  of a chance to get to know the characters all that well, but the designers  were still able to weave in the decision-making and how that effects what goes on in the future. And at the end, they've all met up and someone (that you also get to play as) shows up and tries to convince all five of the people you played as to join  her in her safe colony- this makes up I guess a sixth and final vignette, and a really clever way to finish it up and make those past decisions matter.

That moment was the best in the min-game. Because how you played as the other people entirely influenced how they reacted to you THEN, as you played as this new person trying to negotiate with them. So inadvertently, because I had played a few characters in certain ways, because of the choices I had made while in charge of them, I set them up for being distrusting of the person you play as in this vignette, so those characters didn't go. Because even though everybody is there, you only control that one woman- the computer/game controls the other people. And in the end, the number of people  that join her/you is entirely dependent on how you played each vignette earlier.

And this leads me to a nifty feature, at the end of every chapter, including 400 Days, a screen shows up telling you how your answers compare to those of other players on whatever network you're playing from with respect to a few pivotal moments/decisions. None of them are ever combat decisions, they're always stuff like, "You and 60% of other players chose to lie  to Kenny." Or, "You and 15% of other players let Clementine kill Soandso." So at the end of 400 Days, they have every potential breakdown of who would go with you and the percentage of players that achieved each one. I didn't get everybody to come, but I felt kind of good about myself because I did get more than a lot of other players. And that's a unique way of presenting your progress. It really puts perspective on how you're playing the game, and while sometimes  it makes a body feel good ("Fuck yeah, I was moral!"), it can also make you feel like shit ("G'damnit, I really messed that one up.") Not just because it reminds you of what you did, but it compares those choices (or lack thereof) to how the hundreds or thousands or whatever of other players reacted in those same situations.

My friend included Lee's death in her list of Top 5 Most Heartbreaking  Deaths on her own blog, and her description hits it dead (hah!) on. As she says, during  the end of the last chapter, you find Clementine's parents, only to discover that they're zombies. And  it's all the more devastating because you already know you're becoming a zombie.

I was an  utter mess during that last chapter because of when Leeme was bit. You're desperate to get Clementine to safety because you know sooner  or later, you'll turn, and the last thing Leeme wants is for her to even see Leeme as a zombie, let alone get bitten by Leeme. It just feels so devastatingly unfair that after everything you did make it through and protect her from not just bodily harm, you know once you've reached a certain point in your progression of becoming a zombie, Leeme's going to have to find a way to get Clementine to separate from Leeme and go out on her own, whether it's by having  her kill Leeme or leaving Leeme behind.

So it's painfully ironic- that first "who gets to live moment" and my realization that someone would die... I guess that even in my "realistic" perspective of the game, I never figured it would be Leeme to die. Not that other people don't, too, but Leeme. So emotionally riveting. 

The immersion I felt during this game is like none I've ever experienced- not in reading, not in watching a movie, and not in playing any other game. There isn't even a release date yet for the second season (although supposedly Telltale is shooting for a 2013 release), but I'll be preordering it as soon as I can. I'm just hoping it comes out on PS3 and  not PS4, because I'm not about to spend $500 when I just spent $400 on a machine that won't even be a year old by the time the PS4 comes out.

Here's hopin'.

I give The Walking Dead  and 400 Days a 10/10, hands down, no questions asked. 

On Sleeping and Dreaming

I seem to very frequently have trouble sleeping. I'm not sure when this problem started, but I know I was living in Washington when it became a regular thing. 

I think lately it would help if I asserted myself more in bed with River; rather than molding around her, I should probably make her mold around me. But I'm a sucker. At any given rate, this is usually how I like to be positioned and find it easiest to drift off:

The top arm isn't always supporting my face;
the bottom arm may do that, especially if
it's my left side, as that's the ear with the cartilage piercing.

What I hate is that the lack of sleep leads to/is part of one of those gorram recursive situations I and everybody else finds themselves in. I can't sleep because I'm stressed; I stress over not sleeping. And I mean, honestly, how can a person actually "remove" stress from their  life? I hate it when doctors and shrinks say that- as if it was so simplistic, right? And it makes it sound like I or anyone else being told that is somehow doing it on purpose. I mean, sure, maybe  some people love the drama and  make  shit up to stress about, but I don't, and I'd absolutely fucking LOVE it if  I could flip a switch and cut the bullshit out. But I can't. So I'm gonna be stressed.

Of course, what matters is how I do or don't deal with it. I think part of why I don't sleep well is that I actually don't dwell or wallow as much as it  may seem from this  blog- between either distracting myself or putting on the happy face when that isn't working, I'm pretty bubbly  and jovial. And I think my avoidance techniques lead to me bottling it up and storing it in my subconscious and back and shoulders.

One reason I'm not sleeping well lately is my back, especially left side, is really sore. Like pinpricks if I'm positioned wrong in bed. It's hard to sleep when you can't get comfy. For the first time since I lived in Walla Walla, I took naps this past semester- not on purpose, but I'd be so exhausted mid-afternoon and on the couch watching something with River, and I'd just crash. I'd sometimes have enough consciousness to turn off the PS3 just before it hit me entirely, but not always.

(I know this is also a sign I'm monstrously out of shape, but meh. Our new apartment has a lovely fitness center; once I'm over the initial shock of losing  my roommie for the rest of the summer, I plan on gradually becoming a gym addict.)

But sleep is important, and I like being in bed, once I'm comfortable. And especially when there's a warm body with me- River certainly makes me happy right before bed or in the morning, the way she looks at me (either begging for me to turn out the light, or begging me not to turn it on). It's of course optimal when that warm body is a dude, but River certainly helps beat back the loneliness.

I feel like this is a good spot to post this as a transition:

I don't go to sleep to dream, but for entirely different reasons than she seems to be professing one would do it. I do it because I have to- I need fuel for life, after all. The dreams can be fun, though, so when good ones, they're a perk, I guess, that comes from the necessity of sleep.

Not always, but quite frequently, my dreams are detailed and sensical enough to make for decent (or at least cogent) films or short stories. They have fully realized "plot arcs" and make internal sense. And they often look like movies- weird "camera angles" and closeups, even slow motion sometimes. 

One of my favorite dreams, despite being really sad, was a zombiepocalypse dream I had well over a year ago. It involved me and a really close friend fighting our way around together, and one of the major "plot" elements was that neither of us would shoot or kill zombies- we'd beat them off to run away because these zombies at least used to be people (and this was before season two of The Walking Dead). And even after joining  other people with guns, we refused to kill, much to the annoyance of the others. After a while with this group, he and I went to help rescue some people in a house nearby.  I got semi-tackled and dropped  my baseball bat, so as I was holding the offending zombie at arm's length as best I could, my friend hit it hard enough to kill it. His first kill, and his face went from panic over the danger I had been in to sorrow at realizing what he'd done to pain as another zombie came  around  a corner and bit his upper arm- not ripping a chunk, but enough before someone else  shot it to infect my friend. We hid it as long as we could, but eventually the symptoms started to show and the others figured out he was turning.  I locked myself in a room with him, and after a few moments of depressing dialogue, I shot him in the temple at the last second (he was crying out in pain and begging me to do it) with someone else's gun. And then I totally lost it and ran out of the house we had all barred ourselves in. To a park where we had chained up some zombies behind a fence. I lured them to it, and then I proceeded to shoot a bunch of them execution style, just putting the gun up to their forehead through a gap between links and shooting. At some point,  the person whose gun I had stolen showed up, and he handed me another one once the first gun was empty, and I unloaded that one, too. And the last "shot" in the movie is of me with this incredibly empty look in my eyes and my friend's blood on my face.

I'm leaving out a lot of details, but I'm telling you, if it was a movie, it would at least not suck.

Some also recur. Here's a list of some  repeat scenarios. I've had  all of these dreams at least thrice a piece. And I realize they all sound like bad fanfic, but if some things were changed and they were done well enough, they could be alright as books or movies. 

• I'm the  head of a non-profit lawfirm  in Gotham City that takes on anti-discrimination cases. I go after Wayne Enterprises for  not having good enough disability access and win, so Mr. Wayne comes to the office one day with coffee for the two of us a few weeks  later. I'm wearing feather earrings from a tribal elder back in South Dakota (where my family is from), as well as sneakers with my suit and am changing a light bulb when he shows up. I say no thanks. He sends me a picture of my deceased great uncle, a former lobbyist for Indian Country, shaking hands with Bill Clinton, so I call him all angry and say he has no right to go into my background, yadda yadda. He donates a bunch of money to the firm, forcing me to put up with him, and he ends up almost shadowing/apprenticing and helping out a lot (using his detective skills I don't know he has, he conveniently brings up lots of evidence  of deliberate discrimination that wins cases for us).
• I'm a special education teacher in Washington, and Paramount asks me  to consult with the writers and director of a movie about a single dad with a kid in special ed. in that area, and I end up meeting the actor playing said dad- it rotates among a number of male celebrities, including Ryan Gosling, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chris O'Donnel, Shawn Ashmore, and Cory Monteith- to help him figure out how to do the scenes with the teacher of the kid (I also work with the actresses meant to play her, which have included Natalie Portman, Amy Adams, Drew Barrymore,  Winona Ryder, and Scarlett Johansson). Said actor and I end up bonding and as a favor, he takes me as his date to the fancy premier, and kisses me for the first time on the red carpet. 
• I'm a disability advocate in Chicago, and I accidentally sideswipe a car as I'm turning left. The owner is just coming out of the house their car was parked in front of, and it takes me  a while to realize it's JGL because I'm so distraught and freaked out. We exchange insurance info, and as it's the first time this has happened to me, I see no problem in him asking for my number and email address. He leaves me a voicemail, asking to meet at a small coffeeshop in a burb-ee area to "go over things," and I'm still pretty embarrassed and upset and don't realize he's flirting with me a lot (in that adorable JGL way). After the  insurance  stuff  is done and payments have been made where necessary, he calls again and I freak out, thinking something  has gone wrong. He reassures me, nonono, it's fine, I wanted to invite you to a party at my place with some friends of mine as a thank you for being so cool about all of this. I agree to go, and I take a pie I made with me, something oddly  unexpected. The people are all pretty sophisticated and there are a few celebrity faces there, so even though Ellen Page seems to be trying quite hard to make me feel comfortable, I'm kind of awkward and nervous until JGL breaks out his guitar and asks if anyone knows the song he starts- I, of course, am the only one that does, so I sing along, and he then asks me to make  requests for him, so we do a few more together, and  at one point  when everyone is clapping between songs, he holds my hand and gives me a smile that makes me  turn bright red. 
• I'm a Rhodes Scholar, and running late for a meeting, so I spin around really fast with my coffee at a coffee stand on the Oxford campus and collide with/spill my coffee on a tall guy. I write down my number on a napkin in a rush and give it to him, apologizing profusely but  I really must be  going, I have a meeting. The message I get is from Benedict Cumberbatch. We meet for tea, not coffee, later that week and I offer to pay for his shirt, he says  no need, he's here studying for a role as a professor in a play he's contemplating doing. Of course, we hit it off, and he visits me  a few times while I'm still on the campus. Eventually, we get a flat together, as well as a British Golden Retriever. 

My favorite kind of dream to have is lucid. You know, when you can sort of control what's going on? I've been able to take some of the crazy dreams that make no sense whatsoever and turn them into vaguely understandable clusterfucks. And  sometimes, they replay themselves more or less the same after I've plotted them out the first time. I've even  been able to turn  genuinely random, acid-trippy dreams  into ones that have more of a story and, eventually, make the acid-trippy parts not even matter (and  then just replay the sensical parts). 

Lately, I've been having dreams about people from my past. I don't really know what this means, why it's happening, etc. I do know they're usually either sad and/or just plain weird. I can be at the store and have them in my shopping cart; I'm in a classroom and they're the teacher (and others are also in the desks near me); I keep saying I'm sorry and they start talking about sugar cookies; I'm at a funeral for the dog I grew up with, and they're holding my hand.

Yeah, weird, right? Again, no idea. 

But speaking of sleep, River is giving me that, "MoooOOOOOOOM! Time for beeeeEEEEED!" look from right next to me on the couch. Observe:

Corrections: Apparently I suggested I'm losing my roommate for the rest of the "semester." I meant to say "summer." Given the context, I'm surprised it was that confusing for people, but whatever, fixed now.