"We're All Dead"

As we await Season 2 of The Walking Dead video game, I find myself in a much different position than when I was first surprised by the depth and feeling of Season 1. Lee and Clementine existed in a world I had only heard about it. I had no idea.

The game inspired me to look into the comic series and I am now utterly hooked. I read Compendiums 1 and 2, bought Vol. 17 of the trade paperbacks, and needing more, downloaded every issue via Comixology (through Issue 112). That's what, some nine years worth of material. I learned no one, save Rick and Carl minus body parts/organs, are safe.

And to revisit the post-zombie world with a full taste of the mythology behind it makes me appreciate Tell Tale's game even more. By all accounts, 400 Days stands as a bridge between Seasons 1 and 2. I haven't finished it yet, but I have played a couple of the vignettes out. Apparently random characters have brief moments. It doesn't take long to see the decision timer count down and to feel the familiar quickening of the pulse.

And again, I was thrown back into moments of "what would I do" and "I don't like any of these choices" and perhaps worst of all, "that's not what I wanted or expected to happen." Yet despite this lack of control, I think therein lies some of the excitement and beauty of the game's execution. The game, like the comic, takes you to those moments when you realize you're not in control.

I like that the stories are short and the characters have not overlapped. It does give some freedom to mess with decisions, to move beyond the constancy of how I wanted to play Lee. But most importantly, what 400 Days has done is whetted my appetite to return to Clem and see where we are.

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To Be Continued? I'll "To Be Continued" You!

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So there I was, playing Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward.  I was really getting into the atmosphere of the whole thing.  Quirky characters, bizarrely twisted story, eerie soundtrack and setting, complete mystery.  Puzzles were fair for the most part and even ones I did a quick FAQ check-up on, I was right around where I needed to be to solve.  And then it was over... but it wasn't.

I'm not even sure where to begin.  VLR is a sequel to DS game 999.  In poking about, I saw Jason Schreier at Kotaku thought playing the predecessor was an absolute requirement.  I haven't and I probably won't.  The short of it is the game is divided between its story component and escape/puzzle component.  Stakes are high and mysteries unfold the further you progress.

Without giving too much away, and really, not completely understanding how the story progresses or knowing what things mean, apparently, I reached one of the game's endings without realizing it.  By the time I did, days later by the way, I couldn't quite pull the screen capture I wanted.  I received a "To Be Continued" screen and thought it was a good save point.  When I returned to my game save, I found myself in the exact same place as I was five hours of game play previously, the beginning of the game.  Wha?!

To say I was disoriented would be an understatement.  To say I was disappointed would be pretty dead on. I did realize all my progress carried over.  Notes and information and passcodes were all inventoried and carried through.  The bigger pain was what appeared to be the repetition of dialogue.  I may have mentioned it in passing in other posts, but though the voice acting is good, there is quite a bit of dialogue and character development where the "player" is reduced to button pushes to scroll through dialogue.  Imagine going through twenty minutes or so of it just to get to the next "branch" of story.

I've been reading trying to figure out what can and can't be done and I'm hoping there are ways to more quickly scroll through or ultimately skip dialogue.  I hope that's the case because though I do find the story intriguing and the gameplay challenging but fair, if I can't jump through repeated parts, I guess I will have found the next game to go from the Vita memory card.  You know, space is at a premium and I have a purchased but undownloaded Mortal Kombat waiting for space.

I did run across this on the Zero Escape wikia:

"In Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward, there are 24 endings in total composed of good and bad endings.  There are 9 character endings including the true ending, 11 bad endings, 6 game overs, and 2 endings occurring after the true ending.  When an ending is completed the portrait of the character appears on your flowchart and save file and on the PS Vita you earn a trophy for each one (excluding bad endings and game overs)."

Maybe part of the problem was the first ending I hit must be a bad ending.  Not a good way to make me want to continue.