TWDS300 First Impressions

Okay, first off I want to say I'm sorry for this video being visually boring. Since this is just a quick first impressions video, I didn't really feel like doing a lot of editing for it. So it's been almost a month since The Walking Dead Season 3 was released, I refuse to call it "A New Frontier" because it's much faster to just say season 3. There's been a bit of backlash against it recently likely due to an interview with Clementine's voice actress where she talks about rewrites and Clementine's reduced role in the story. I'll be providing a link to the interview in the description so you can check it out for yourself. Anyway, I haven't had high hopes for season 3. After how season 2 turned out, I expected it to suck and the more information telltale released about it before it came out, the more I thought it was going to suck. First they revealed that the DLC for season 2 would be about Michonne which has nothing to do with season 2 or even Clementine, and they ended up releasing it as an in-between game instead. Then there was an interview with Robert Kirkman, the creator of The Walking Dead, who stated that we'd only be "checking in" on Clementine in season 3, and the fact that he was going to be involved in the creation of season 3, was a bad sign in and of itself. We got a brief glimpse of Clementine in an E3 teaser trailer where she was shown with a new character named Javier, and she didn't really look like Clementine, she looked more like fanart of Clem. And with the information we were being given, it sounded like Clementine wasn't going to be an important in this season, and was just a lure to keep old fans happy. And then they later outright confirmed that season 3 isn't even about her, it's Javier's story. From that moment on, my next to non-existent hype became completely non-existent. Why should I care about this game if it isn't even about the very character that makes me interested in the series to begin with? Well, the game came out, and now I have even less reason to care about it. Clementine is dead. She died in season 2 and she's never coming back. There's only two episodes out so far, but I feel no need to continue this series any further. Clementine's swearing just as much as anyone else, robbing people at gunpoint, lying, being completely callous about human life, having an edgy outlook on life, giving the finger. I said in my review for season 2 that Clementine murdering Kenny and the Jane ending where she turns the family away, were moments where she becomes something that's completely unrecognizable to me, and it seems like she was written in this season based off of these two moments, and nothing else. I knew that telltale was going to write Clementine in season 3 based off of her out of character actions in season 2, but knowing this didn't make it any easier to accept. And this is the second time in a row now where they made her a completely different character, with no explanation given of how or why she changed so much, except now with none of the positive qualities she could retain in season 2. Remember how big of a deal telltale made about the finale of season 2, and that MyClementine hashtag I mentioned in my season 2 review? Yeah well that's all bullshit because Clementine turns out exactly same way no matter what happened in season 2. Regardless of what ending you got, you get the exact same Clementine no matter what. #MyClementine indeed. Your season 2 ending at most affects one or two lines of dialogue here or there where she might mention that she's not used to being around others or she might talk about Kenny instead depending on your ending. Aside from that, the season 2 ending choice has been trivialized to "what kind of scar do you want Clementine to have in season 3?" Do you want her to have a scar on her forehead, a scar on her cheek, a missing finger, or an AJ prison tattoo? That's it. How you got your season 2 ending doesn't matter either so chalk up another reason why the option to murder Kenny shouldn't have been included in season 2 to begin with. Honestly though, I have to wonder if it's even worth getting upset over that option anymore given how Clementine is well past simply murdering people in season 3. I already knew Clementine was going to be a side character in this game, again they announced ahead of time that the game would be Javier's story, but she's as much of a side character as one could be. And by that I mean she's completely unimportant in terms of the plot. She's just someone who happens to be where the events in the story take place and nothing else, even more so than in season 2. And with how much of a different character she is in this game, you can literally replace her with any other generic "badass" action girl, and it would change absolutely nothing. Maybe I'd accept her change if she, you know, actually developed into this type of character. Like with season 2, the isn't any reason for her to be this way, she's just the way she is, because she is. I know it might be annoying that Clementine is pretty much the only thing I've talked about so far, but there's a reason for that, she was the only thing I was looking forward to this season. I thought the Wellington ending in season 2 was the best way to end Clementine's story, but they decided to have multiple endings in season 2 instead and had already confirmed season 3 by the time the final episode of season 2 came out. So her fate was left open ended and as long as they were gonna continue the series, I might as well see what's gonna happen to Clementine even if season 2 was hot garbage. But now not only have they made her an unimportant character, they ruined her to the point where I want nothing to do with her. My Christmas was ruined because of this shit, and the thing is, most people actually still like Clementine. I mean, really? Why? I said season 2 Clementine was opposite of season 1 Clem, but that didn't even compare to how she is in this game. Unless you raised Clementine to be like Jane, I don't see how you can be happy with how she turned out in this game. But no, people still like her to the point where they sided with her in the game's "major" choices by an overwhelming majority. This is part of another problem that I promise I'll bring up later, but for now the focus is still on Clementine, which it most certainly is not in this game. Something I didn't mention before is how Telltale put a lot of emphasis on making this game approachable for newcomers, which is a stupid idea given how it's supposed to be a sequel and not a side-story or spin-off, and why the hell in a story based series would anyone want to start with the third game in the series? But to my point,  how the hell can anyone like Clementine if season 3 is their introduction to her? With the way she is now, she's directly comparable to "Dante" from the Devil May Cry reboot. And if people don't like that asshole, why the hell do they like season 3 Clementine? If you like season 3 Clementine, I have to ask, what the hell do you still see in her? Because if she has literally none of the qualities that made her a likeable and compelling character in the first place, what, WHAT does she having going for her? And I already said this in my season 2 review, but I have to ask again, if you changed her name, appearance and history, would you really think to yourself "this character reminds me of Clementine"? You wanna know what season 3 Clementine feels like? It feels like being in a separated marriage with joint custody, trying to do your best to raise your daughter properly, only to have all of your progress be completely undone by your wife, and when you finally see your daughter again, she's everything you don't want her to be. Clementine turning out this way makes no sense because who the hell influenced her to be this way? It certainly wasn't Lee, and it wasn't Kenny either because he was a good guy to the end, and it wasn't Jane either because she kills herself shortly after the events of season 2. And it doesn't make sense for alone Clementine either, because in that case there's nobody to influence her. A lot of people would say that she's been through a lot, she's grown up, she has to be the way she is now in order to survive in this world and so on, but the problem with that is 1, that means there was no reason for us to be given choices regarding Clementine in the first place, and 2, that's bullshit because not being innocent anymore doesn't mean being cynical, misanthropic, crude, or hotheaded. Doing what it takes to survive doesn't mean brandishing your gun around until you accidentally shoot somebody. And being hardened doesn't mean being completely callus about human life. There were plenty of other competent, hardened survivors in the games who weren't edgy dicks. For example: Lee! Lee did not need to be an asshole in order to survive. Not only him, but also Carley, Christa, and even Jesus. Yeah, Jesus, a character from the comics, is in season 3 and don't tell me he's not a guy who's seen some shit. He's clearly capable of killing everyone in the room if he has to, but that doesn't stop him from being nice, and friendly, and polite. I can see a hardened Clementine robbing someone at gunpoint if she was desperate enough. But I don't see her being snarky while casually chewing an apple, that's not being a hardened survivor, that's just being a dick. To summarize all this, being the exact opposite of a nice and likeable person is not a prerequisite for surviving in the zombie apocalypse. They made Clementine a foul mouthed, edgy, lying, murdering, hotheaded piece of shit because they wanted to appeal to the lowest common denominator. And the Telltale audience is the textbook definition of a lowest common denominator audience, especially the Walking Dead portion of it. But you know what the biggest problem with all of this is? Because of how Clementine is in this game, she has now become the biggest waste of time in my life. I know choices not mattering is Telltale's accepted MO at this point, but if you need to prove that your choices don't matter in their games, Clementine herself is now the biggest proof of that. All of the time I spent raising her as Lee, all of my time spent defining her personality in season 2, all of it was completely meaningless, and my entire investment in the series was for nothing, and I now wish I never got involved in it to begin with. You can't understand how this feels. She was literally the only thing I had left to care about in this series, and now she's gone. Just... I'm sorry there are other things to talk about, but as I just said, the only thing I cared about was Clementine so I won't be focusing on the other things for too long. I didn't even mention what little screentime Clementine gets, with her reduced role that's to be expected, but she's literally a background character in this game most of the time. Literally. A background. Character. The only time we get to play as her is in short as fuck flashbacks. The episode 1 flashback is different depending on what ending you got in season 2, and this is the only real connection to season 2 this game has besides Clementine herself and AJ. It shows what happened to whoever you saved at the end of season 2, and in predicable Telltale fashion, they both die. Now this is something I don't understand, everybody I've seen discuss this game knew that this was going to happen, yet everyone seems angry about it anyway. This actually seems to be more of a dealbreaker for people than how Clementine turned out. I will say, I'm surprised things turned out the way they did, as I didn't think they would even show Kenny or Jane at all. I thought they would only explain away what happened to them with one or two lines of dialogue. I also expected the game to reward people who chose Jane and punish people who went with Kenny, given how he was portrayed at the end of the game and how they wanted you to pick Jane over Kenny in the final choice. I'm happy to say that's not the case, as neither character acted out of character in their respective flashbacks, and their deaths fit their character as well, in terms of how they died, don't get me wrong. Kenny's death here is far better and more respectable than the one he got in season 2, but it's an absolute far cry from the "death" he got in season 1. And of course I can't talk about these flashbacks without mentioning how awful Kenny and Jane look, I mean wow. I'm sorry but these models just don't cut it. Kenny looks like a melted action figure, and Jane somehow managed to pack quite a few pounds into her face despite how shortly after season 2 her flashback takes place. As for the other endings, Clementine loses a finger if she ended up alone, and Wellington predictably gets overrun by bandits effectively forcing Clementine to leave and shoehorning her into this game's plot. As for the rest of the game, I don't need to go into detail for this shit. It has pretty much all the same problems as season 2, but worse. The hubs are just as barebones as season 2, there's still no real character development for most of these characters and they're still being killed off before we can develop any kind of attachment to them, yet we're still supposed to care about them. The music is taken directly from previous seasons with no changes and if there is original music in this game, it sounds so similar to music from previous seasons that I can't tell the difference. Mariana's death I have mixed feelings about. It took me by surprise but at the same time not really because I could tell that something was about to happen given how the scene seemed too happy and thus, too good to be true. But I gotta say it reminded me all too much of the father's death in The Walking Dead Michonne. Though unlike that scene, I didn't laugh at Mariana's death. I liked the plot twist at the end of the second episode and I'd genuinely be interested in seeing where the story goes from here, if the game allowed me to give a shit by not butchering Clementine's character. Ugh. I'm sorry but I just can't bring myself to care about this game after what it's done to Clementine. For what it's worth I don't mind Javier, I honestly think he's a better character than Clementine is now, and it really pains me to say that. If they wanted this game to be his story, then that's fine. But don't bring Clementine into it, and then ruin her character even worse than season 2 did. She was not needed in this game nor does the game benefit from her prescience. If anything it suffers from it because aside from ruining her character, it also skews the "tough" choices regarding her to be in her favor. There's no reason for Javier to side with Clementine in the choices the game gives us with her, but because of the player's attachment to Clementine through previous seasons, most people ending up siding with her. I said could you replace Clementine in this game with any other generic badass action girl, and it wouldn't make a difference but you know what, now that I think about it, I think if that were the case, these choices wouldn't be so heavily skewed in her favor. It would also mean that Clementine wouldn't have become completely unrecognizable, so chalk up another reason why she shouldn't have been in this game. I know this isn't gonna happen, but if Telltale is actually planning on making Clementine determinant this season, they are delusional if they think it's gonna be a hard choice, as these choice statistics clearly show. I know there's still three episodes left, and Clementine can redeem herself during that time, but I seriously doubt that going to happen given how Clementine isn't the focus of this season. I did my review series for season 2 well after the game was released, and it was too late for Telltale to take any of what I had to say into consideration for season 3. But I'm saying this now, while the game is still being made, and Telltale can take what I'm saying into consideration: If anyone from Telltale is watching this, and you care about the quality of your work, here is a short list of ways you can improve season 3: 1, You need to shift the focus back to Clementine. She is the reason why people play this series, they aren't going to care about some new protagonist no matter how compelling his story is, if Clementine isn't the main focus. 2, Fix Clementine's personality. Season 1 Clem, and hell even season 2 Clementine, was someone I cared deeply about and wanted to protect. Season 3 Clem is someone I can't stand. I don't care about what happens to her, and I wouldn't feel anything if she were to die. You need to have her going back to the way she was, or do something, anything that shows us that yes, this is in fact the same character from season 1 and 2. She needs to show something of her original personality, or have a moment where she realizes that she's changed for the worse, and goes back to being herself. 3, The Walking Dead is all about character evolution. Part of the way in which you've killed Clementine is by skipping years of important character development. If you're not going to fix Clementine's personality, at least utilize the flashbacks to show us why she's so different now, in a way that makes her change believable. And for that matter, use flashbacks to show why she changed so much in season 2 as well. Because we still haven't been shown anything that explains why her character is radically different in season 2 either. 4, stop making the episodes so short. The first two episodes were only an hour long, at most. That's nowhere near enough time to tell a good story, especially when the story moves so fast that the game basically has no pacing. We need more hubs, with things to actually do in them, as well as puzzles and moments where we can sit down and actually talk to the characters and get to know them. Not just one conversation and that's it. And this last one isn't really a way season 3 can be improved, but more of a precaution you should take, if you are going to listen to me and make the game about Clem again, you have to make sure not to ruin what you've got going on with Javier. Javi, and the love triangle between him, David and Kate is fine. In spite of the bad writing, there are some solid ideas in the story that can work. You just have to make sure not to fuck it up if you decide to shift the focus back to Clem. If none of the problems I mentioned in this video are addressed, then we can safely assume that Telltale won't listen to any kind of criticism at all, regardless of how constructive it is, and doesn't care about even sale figures. They only care about reviews, but only when they're positive. Well, time to jump ship. Thank you guys for listening, and may Clem help us all get through season 3.