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Feb 21st, 2015 at 16:28:26 - The Walking Dead: Season Two (PC) |
Well, The Walking Dead is growing on me. I still have a lot of reservations—the violence, the unnatural controls, the overall idea of another zombie story—but I can definitely see its positives, as well. In many ways, it elevates the zombie story to something much more noble and human than most of the stuff that has come before it.
One of the things that I’ve been thinking about a lot is our responsibility to tell the truth to protect those close to us. When Pete and the other survivors were discussing whether they should let Clementine stay, they held to a “no bite” policy, meaning that even if someone hasn’t been bitten and is telling the truth, they still aren’t willing to put themselves at risk based on the word of another person, no matter how close they might be. When Pete got bit, there was something inside of me that said we could still save him, and I would have done so all the same if the controls hadn’t confused me and made me save Nick instead. Thinking about it afterward, though, I was glad that it had happened that way, as I realized that I would have had to make the decision later on to kill Pete because of his bite. It was really neat how they kind of force you to evaluate your rationale afterwards, by having you talk with Nick. I felt like it really invited me to contemplate on the implications of my actions, especially since I wasn’t able to do what I had originally intended to do.
Another big question that has arisen is the idea of preserving innocence, as Carlos attempts to do with Sarah. I still don’t know what to think about all that, but if actions are to mean anything, I am with Carlos in wanting Sarah to believe that the world is still a place of beauty and triumph. I’ve often thought about how I’ll raise my kids—what I’ll tell them, what I’ll let them find out on their own—and I always think that I’ll be very forthright with them, but I wonder if, when the time comes, I’ll do the same thing I’ve done with Sarah: tried to help her hold onto a dream. It’s something I did in This War of Mine as well, so I’m guessing I would probably lean in that direction in real life.
I’ve also been thinking a lot about what family is when society falls apart. When Luke and Clem are talking on the way to the bridge, Luke suggests that all people want one thing, and the thing I chose was family. What I really mean by that, though, is the feeling that we belong somewhere. I think that’s what Luke and Carlos and everyone is to Clem, and while I don’t necessarily think that family is a social construct, I am thinking more and more that family is the people whom we let into our hearts—the ones whom we allow to hurt us or to really love us—and everyone else is a stranger, foreigners to our minds our hearts. Rebecca talks about her trepidation at bringing a baby into “a world like this,” and I kind of had to think to myself, “That’s always a concern. A world like this.” It’s a whole lot easier to see the dangers of the world when they come limping after you with a bite mark on their arm and rotting teeth hanging from a disconnected jaw, but in many cases, it’s just as much of a sacrifice to bring a life into this world as it is into any other. There’s something brave and beautiful about mothers, about motherhood in general, and while I’m sad that Rebecca’s story is so caught up in the middle of Carver’s politics, the child seems to kind of make all the struggles more worth it in the end.
I think I like that the game shows you your choices as compared to others’ at the end of each episode, because again, it gives you a chance to reflect, both on the story and on who you are as a person. It’s a little bit subversive that they label each one with a virtue or positive attribute, as it makes it feel a little bit like there is supposed to be a right answer, but sometimes, when the world starts falling apart, the whites and the blacks seem to kind of fade to gray, and all we can ever do is try to keep pushing forward and being a good person, despite the mistakes we make.
So, in short, liking the game a lot better now. Still wishing that the controls were different, because they can be cludgy (and deceptive) at times, but I’m managing all the same. I wish death had more of an impact, because it seems kind of inconsequential, but that’s just a constraint of a linear narrative I suppose. Anyway, that’s all, for now. Next up, Episode 3!
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Feb 19th, 2015 at 23:10:40 - The Walking Dead: Season Two (PC) |
Well, I've never been much of a fan of zombie games (or movies, for that matter), and so far, this isn't proving to be much of an exception. I haven't played a ton so far, though, so maybe things will take a turn for the better.
So first off, going into this game, I had high hopes, because I had heard it was a new kind of storytelling and it was really creative and ingenious and all that. Well, it definitely is a new type of storytelling, but the delivery is not my favorite at all. I've played plenty of games where you have different options or where you have live response triggers, but in this, I feel like that actually detracts from the story. It's like they want us to be invested but not too invested, and that rubs me wrong, I guess.
So far, I've been underwhelmed by the characters (especially Clementine, who talks to herself way too much, and in unnatural ways). Again, a lot of this may just be because I've only played a little more than a half hour, but I feel like the designers would have been better off NOT having her say some things than having her verbally reaffirm every single action. "Nothing here" does a lot more to detract from the experience than would a sigh or slouched shoulders.
Next, forced engagement. This is going back again to this idea of investment, but I hate that the game forces you to respond within a certain amount of time. It's interesting, I guess, but it means that you don't really get to think about the implications of what you are saying or deciding. I guess that's real-to-life, but in a game that's supposed to be about story, it sure would be nice to have a chance to mentally explore the narrative possibilities. The time gauge just frustrated me more than anything, and the trigger responses (push left, right, down, tap the R trigger, etc.) seemed too simple to be really meaningful. Also, the signaling wasn't very clear in situations where you had to tap A, which means that I died at one point simply because I didn't understand the instructions that they gave.
That being said, I think the game has raised some interesting questions so far. Is it humane to kill something that was once human but is not any longer? If yes, then is it humane to kill a "human" who has lost his/her human sensibilities but who is still, for all intents and purposes, a human? One topic that I've been thinking about especially is what it means to be alive and human. For example, is the girl in the bathroom near the beginning of the game alive in the fullest sense, or has she, even in humanity, become a member of the metaphorical walking dead in choosing to prey on other survivors? Is deadness a condition of physical frame or of soul? Another interesting question involves personal accountability, specifically in the case that one is infected by and set to turn into a zombie. Is the just thing to do to commit suicide? If one is unable to do that, ought one to somehow restrain oneself? What about a loved one? The man tied to the tree, strange though it sounds, seemed to still have a little bit of humanity in him, and that made it all the harder to kill him, knowing that A. he had allowed or insisted that he be tied to the tree and that B. when we try to get close enough to the knife, he seems to ward the player away rather than grabbing her and attacking. In any case, I get the feeling that this question of what it means to be human and alive will surface a lot within this game.
So far, The Walking Dead isn't my favorite game (interactive story), but all the same, I'm excited to see where it takes me in my own understanding of humanity.
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Jan 24th, 2015 at 23:51:13 - This war of mine (PC) |
Well, I finished my first entire playthrough this evening, and I really did love this game. I stuck to my guns til the end and didn't steal from regular, defenseless people, and I felt really good coming out of it all knowing that I hadn't lost my humanity somewhere in the fog of war.
I guess one of the hardest things for me is that you never know when it will all end. I sent Bruno out on the final night, not knowing that we could have just stayed in and survived on what we had, but he was killed that final night, after all he had been through. He was the only character who had been there since the beginning, and he was honestly my favorite as well, and it just seemed like such a waste of life that he was taken out really for no reason at all. We could have holed up inside the shelter, which was barricaded and alarmed, and everything would have been fine. We had food and supplies for a couple days, and he didn't even need to go out. In the end, though, it doesn't cheapen the sacrifice that he made on behalf of the other team members. It doesn't make his death (and perhaps more importantly, his life) any less valiant or heroic than the others. It's just sad that he was so close to making it.
I like to think that my ideals--both in life and in the game, apparently--are more Kantian than utilitarian. I really did try to treat others as ends in themselves, and I found that while helping other people usually disadvantaged me, it was a lot easier to live with myself and for the characters to live with the decisions that they had to make. The hardest time for me was when Marko fell apart from the guilt of killing the hobo in the bombed out school. I knew that I never wanted anything like that to happen again--not for me, and not for the characters--and I think it helped me to really solidify my position on violence and self defense and all that.
Anyway, I'm rambling now, so I'll just say that I loved the game, and I plan on playing through it at least one more time, this time (hopefully) with a bit more strategy and a bit less regret. Definitely my favorite game in a while...
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Jan 24th, 2015 at 14:32:54 - This war of mine (PC) |
This game gets better every time. Loving all the ethical questions it raises, and it's been interesting to kind of get to know myself through the decisions that I've made in-game.
It's funny because I think the initial impulse when playing a game like this is to panic and just do whatever you have to in order to survive another day, but as you get past 20 or 30 days, you realize that survival might actually be a thing, and you start to think more long-term with your goals. There was a time where, in order to keep my people alive, I traded my ax for food, but now I look at that and think, "You just didn't build enough traps or vegetable gardens or whatever. It's been a really interesting challenge to plan things out so that I can survive without bartering away vital tools and resources. At the same time, though, there was something very satisfying about bartering away my knife, which I had taken with me on all of my scavenging runs. I realized, "After that first encounter where I pretty much had to kill, and after Marko's depression and everything, I have no desire to kill." Selling the knife was a nice way of concretizing that decision.
I guess one moral issue that I've come up against is whether or not it's okay to steal from bad people. I would feel bad stealing from a family or something, but when it's armed thugs or manipulative military personnel, I have absolutely no qualms about stealing (aside from, of course, the possibility of being caught). The other issue that has arisen of late is the dilemma of whether or not I should use guns as bartering items, as that essentially facilitates further violence. I have thought about that questions a lot, especially since the switch from winter to organized crime came at about the same time as I traded away 4 or 5 firearms to the traveling trader. I realized that in some sense, they weren't doing me any good and supplies could do me a lot of good, but it was hard knowing that that trader could potentially walk down the street and sell those same guns to a bunch of thugs who, up until then, had only been deterred from breaking into our shelter because we had firearms and they didn't.
That being said, I feel like things are going pretty well. I'm about 37 days in, and my people are happy and healthy for the most part. Still trying to get my vegetable and meat schedule more on track, but it's coming along little by little, and I should have some good items to barter with now that I can make cigarettes and herbal meds. I have my own qualms about the whole smoking thing (Bruno, by the way, is definitely an addict), but I guess it doesn't make a huge different whether I barter away the tobacco products (for less) or the actual cigarettes (for more). Or something like that.
There was a line on the radio that caught my attention. It said, "Every building has a story to tell," and I think that's where it really hit me that even though there's not much of a linear narrative in the game as a whole, I have been so impressed by the narrative cues at pretty much every turn. I thought it was kind of strange that the different locations didn't change over time--that is, until I went back to Sniper Junction and the guy who had been there before was now dead and the baby was gone. Little things like that have made these places seem so alive, and I'm learning a lot of the potential for storytelling within even non-linear spaces. Passage of time seems to be a major mechanic in making things like that work. Anyway, I'm going to keep playing. I've wondered whether there is really an end to this, but I'm not complaining at all. To be honest, I find it hard to stop playing this game.
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gbayles has been with GameLog for 9 years, 10 months, and 2 days |
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