The Walking Dead: Michonne – Episode 1 In
Too Deep
Telltale
Games
So here we are again, Telltale
doing what they do best with a piece of contemporary popular culture.
First up, I doubt that if you
are considering playing this, that you aren’t familiar with the game
mechanics of the earlier Telltale catalogue. So nothing more from me in
that regard.
If you are only familiar with
the tv series, you might wonder where this slots in. Which is me.
However, a familiarity with the comic world might well mean you can
place this within the broader goings on.
Which isn’t necessary, but I
confess to being a little surprised to find Michonne on a boat, absent
anyone else familiar, and soon drawn into a Waterworld-like environment,
complete with simmering violence and on-edge characters. You got to hand
it to those post-apocalyptic living folk.
The undead almost take a
backseat here, save for some fairly intense action sequences in the
first half. As we all know, a machete is the implement of choice for
Michonne, and the death dealing is inevitably a touch more visceral as a
result. She stabs, hacks, and chops her way through, supplemented by the
occasional stomping. Plus a fearsome battering with a cash register.
Michonne has always been tough
as nails, but there is an element of fragility here, primarily seen
though flashbacks and other insights into her past. She is still strong,
but events have certainly taken their toll. The ultimate price is almost
paid at the start, and while she drives herself on, the weariness of
doing so is apparent. She seems to be busying herself, almost as a
distraction.
She isn’t voiced by the tv
character, but she is Michonne nonetheless. She carries the episode, as
she should, but the rest of the cast really only matter for how they
impact Michonne. They all play their role, and while Pete seems a little
insipid and Randall somewhat overcooked as the thug, choices as always
will have an impact.
Clocking in at about 90 minutes,
this sets us up for what will come.
Ps – there is a killer opening song that
is worth hunting down.
The Walking Dead: Michonne – Episode 2 Give No
Shelter
We pick up where we left off,
and another 90 minutes later we are set up for the third and final
Episode. A showdown is coming, one that appears inevitable regardless of
the moral choice you make right at the end.
Michonne remains at the centre
and is, quite frankly, the real interest. Two episodes in and, perhaps
apart from Sam, I have no interest in anyone else, and aren’t even sure
why I saved one of them. The cast is fundamentally the backdrop against
which Michonne’s actions unfold.
The flashback in the middle is
the most interesting bit of this episode. It is bookended by an escape
from, and a siege by, the living, with some wandering around a forest
with walkers thrown in. We have seen the walkers used as "pets" before
as a way of dealing with others of their kind, and it remains a gruesome
undertaking.
Action sequences are throughout,
and your keyboard choreography will get a workout. There are some
confusing on-screen directions given, and more than once I didn’t
realise I was now back in control and had to do something. I also failed
to appreciate on one occasion that while I wanted Michonne to move
forward, as she was facing the bottom of the screen I needed the back
key, not the forward key. So I did my share of dying but I dealt a fair
bit as well.
As always, people end up dead,
sometimes surprisingly. Some are at your hand, others you can prevent.
One has little to do with you, but was so obviously avoidable I almost
shouted at the screen for the character to do the obvious thing to avoid
it. He didn’t.
While there are newly dead, it’s
the people already dead, or whose fate is unknown, who provide the most
poignant moments.
Right and wrong remains a fluid
concept, and continue to provide some of the more interesting moments.
Apart from the flashbacks, the plot isn’t taking us anywhere we haven’t
been. It isn’t compelling, but much like the tv offshoot Fear the
Walking Dead, I will continue to play/watch.
We are, as I said, set up for
the end.
The Walking Dead: Michonne – Episode 3 What We Deserve
“You aren’t the good guys” never resonated more obviously in the latest
TV series, and while not of the same intensity here, the same claim
causes a stop and reflect moment I hadn’t appreciated to that point.
But then we move on, and its live and let die.
A showdown is coming, as we knew when the last episode finished, and
while it takes a while to arrive, it is suitably violent and chaotic.
There is talk of a trade, and negotiating a way out, but you know that
there will be death so best just get on with it. Perhaps with different
choices the carnage may have been less, but I doubt we could have walked
away unscathed. Therein though lies the attraction in playing again, to
see what differences might come from the choices made.
Michonne remains haunted by the visions of the children she didn’t save,
flipping back and forth between the ones she still can if she can manage
her demons. When I left her, they hadn’t gone away, and it wasn’t clear
they ever would, but to some extent she had moved on.
While the focus is predominantly on the living versus each other, the
undead play their part in the final proceedings. They are front and
centre in a choice involving a main protagonist, and according to the
stats I was in the minority with the one I made.
I did like this finale. Perhaps it tried a little too hard to resolve
everything, and at times was a little too maternal, but by the time we
got to the showdown, for the first time I wanted others to live. It
sneaked up on me, partly a product of the quiet down-time at the start
of the episode and what goes on. It left a good impression, one which
will easily translate into playing through again, and which in the end
whets the appetite for the next season of The Walking Dead proper.
GameBoomers Review Guidelines
May 2016
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