Telltale: Playing Walking Dead As Clem Will Make Things Harder

[Karloff]

Telltale: Playing Walking Dead As Clem Will Make Things Harder

Clementine used to be the reason Lee did good things; now she's the one making decisions.

"A lot of times, people made good decisions with Clementine around, based on wanting to show her this is how the world is," says Telltale's Dennis Lenart. But now she's you, which means there isn't a person between her and the harshness of the world. It'll make things just that much harder, thinks Lenart, as The Walking Dead starts putting the pressure on, making you feel like the world's always against you, all the time. Bad enough when Lee had to divide not enough food between too many people; how will Clem handle the tough problems?

It probably helps that Clementine's voiced by BAFTA award winner Melissa Hutchinson [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/122527-Dishonored-Wins-Best-Game-at-BAFTAs]. Lenart finds it difficult to be in the same room when she's recording Clementine's lines, he feels so protective of her when she's speaking. It's Clementine, he thinks; I ought to save her.

"Then you look over and it's Melissa sitting there with headphones," he says. "'Oh, yeah, everything's fine.'"

Except maybe it isn't fine, at least not for Clementine. It's not like she has special powers, extraordinary strength, or even a little extra height or weight. She's not even a teenager yet; how will she cope? It does mean, Lenart points out, that the action scenes had to be approached differently. Lee could stride out into the forest with an axe, but Clementine can't.

"She's got to use her environment," says Lenart. "She's got to use everything she has to her advantage." She's got to survive, in a world where the odds are heavily stacked against her. And in just a few days, you'll find out how she'll do it.

Source: PC Gamer [http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/12/10/interview-the-walking-dead-season-two/]


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[Phrozenflame500]

It better be harder. It will be immersion-breaking as fuck if Clementine solves things like Lee did: like an ex-murderer badass alpha male with surprisingly adept social skills.

Writing a good child protagonist in a mature RPG is really hard, lets hope Telltale hasn't bitten off more then they can chew.

 

[Church185]

I'm hoping it isn't too long until this is available on the Vita. Here recently I've been playing season 1 in bed before I go to sleep. My girlfriend enjoys watching too. The Vita version of season 1 did hiccup occasionally when loading a cutscene or a new area, but it never became a deal breaker for me.

Does anyone know when The Wolf Among Us comes out on the Vita?

 

[JoJo]

I'm getting pretty excited for this, if they've thought though this properly as the article suggests and manage to pull it off this season could really be a unique experience in gaming.

 

[Fox12]

I'm not sure how I feel about this. Making decisions as Lee was fine, because he was an extension of the player. He was basically like Commander Shepard. There was some personality there, and I liked him, but he was basically something in between a real character and a silent protagonist. The problem is that Clementine is an established character with her own motivations and ideas, so I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to play as her. On the other hand I've never played as a child in a zombie game, or any game for that matter. Plating as a vulnerable character during a crisis situation could be brilliant. IF this works then it will be amazing, and if it fails then it will be immersion breaking. Either way, at least their pushing boundaries.

 

[chikusho]

I'm not sure how I feel about this. Making decisions as Lee was fine, because he was an extension of the player. He was basically like Commander Shepard. There was some personality there, and I liked him, but he was basically something in between a real character and a silent protagonist. The problem is that Clementine is an established character with her own motivations and ideas, so I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to play as her. On the other hand I've never played as a child in a zombie game, or any game for that matter. Plating as a vulnerable character during a crisis situation could be brilliant. IF this works then it will be amazing, and if it fails then it will be immersion breaking. Either way, at least their pushing boundaries.

I think it could work beautifully, much due to the fact that your Clementine will bring an entirely different past from the first season into the second one.

Like, how did she react to the events in the first season? Which lessons did she learn from Lee? Will she sacrifice her humanity for survival? We as players get to decide what she ultimately becomes.

Either way, I'm very excited for this new entry in the series!

 

[Baresark]

I think his assessment of the way people made decisions in Season 1 is really strange. I don't think people made decisions nicer because of Clementine, I think it's because people are mostly good. No one can say it's OK to steal a car full of food that clearly belongs to someone else. I'm not saying that desperate people wouldn't do it, I'm saying that it's easily recognizable as wrong by most people.

I'm looking forward to the next season, don't sit there and try to hype it up.

 

[Compatriot Block]

I think he nailed it. Seeing the little "Clementine will remember that" after you made Lee do something morally gray always made me feel like even more of a dick. Without another character to form a similar attachment with, making cruel decisions could be a lot easier.

EDIT: This is relevant at 1:36. Can't figure out how to make the video skip to that time.

Spoilers, yo.

 

[MysticSlayer]

I think his assessment of the way people made decisions in Season 1 is really strange. I don't think people made decisions nicer because of Clementine, I think it's because people are mostly good. No one can say it's OK to steal a car full of food that clearly belongs to someone else. I'm not saying that desperate people wouldn't do it, I'm saying that it's easily recognizable as wrong by most people.

I'm looking forward to the next season, don't sit there and try to hype it up.

Well, from personal experience, I did tend to change my actions in the game based on whether or not Clementine was watching. It wasn't until near the end of Episode 3 that I stopped caring if Clementine was there or not, but that was because I had decided to do what Clementine would want regardless of whether or not she was there. I can't imagine that I'm the only one who played like that, and I'd also imagine that Telltale paid attention to the data on people's choices. After all, we already know they were tracking people's choices.

Anyways, I personally can't wait to see if Telltale can manage to pull off allowing us to play as Clementine. In theory it sounds good and I'm expecting it to be good, but there are also so many ways trying to take the role of an already established character in this series can go wrong.

 

[senordesol]

Hmm. I wasn't softer around Clementine. If anything, I was particularly decisive. I had to protect her and protect the group and she had to see me as strong, capable, and immovable. Car full of supplies? Clementine, dear, if this stuff was worth protecting they'd have posted a guard.

Crippled enemies at my feet? Clementine, dear, we've enough problems to deal with without some asshole looking for revenge. Never leave enemies on the field.

 

[Spiridion]

I think his assessment of the way people made decisions in Season 1 is really strange. I don't think people made decisions nicer because of Clementine, I think it's because people are mostly good. No one can say it's OK to steal a car full of food that clearly belongs to someone else. I'm not saying that desperate people wouldn't do it, I'm saying that it's easily recognizable as wrong by most people.

I'm looking forward to the next season, don't sit there and try to hype it up.

Speaking from personal experience, I specifically made decisions in an attempt to give Clementine a more positive view of the world. I likely would have stolen from the car as well as killed or abandoned certain people if the idea that Lee needed to be a good person for her had not been in my head. All my friends in real life that have played the game have said much the same.

I recognize these things as wrong, yes. But I wasn't playing as me, I was playing as Lee. Or rather, someone in between Lee as he was presented and my perceptions of Lee. Given his conflict over his past actions and the amount of times the people around him died or let him down, I feel like the Lee I was playing would have quickly moved into murkier waters, morally, if he hadn't had Clem around as an anchor.

 

[TheDrunkNinja]

Lee made the best decisions he could so that Clementine could keep the spark of hope alive. That even in the face of apocalypse, you can die knowing that acting as nothing more than good person left a worthwhile impression behind. As far as I'm concerned, Season 2 will see Clem living up to those heavy expectations.

 

[[REDACTED]]

I just look forward to seeing Clem as a zombie. No seriously Walking Dead was just Old Yeller in the end and this might just be another enjoyable zombie conversion ^_^.

Y - You're a monster!

Also, didn't you have an avatar once?

 

[BrownGaijin]

What? You mean I have to play as an icky girl? Ewww!

Anywho, I agree that writing for a young pre-teen is going to be difficult, but Telltale can pull from their past experiences, then this should be pleasing.