It’s a new year (sort of) and with that brings the latest slew of TellTale games, and most importantly, the next season of the staggeringly popular Walking Dead franchise. I’m not calling this a review, per se, as I’d prefer to see where the whole season is going before I say yay or nay, so for now, you can see what I did.

As always, spoilers ahead. 

Oh my darling Clementine, what’s happened to you? Season 2 ended on a pretty damn bleak note. In case you forgot, everyone is pretty much dead except maybe for Christa, and Jane pretended to kill a baby. My final choice was to shoot Kenny, then head with Jane to Howe’s, since I figured Kenny had gone waaaay over the deep end. So Jane, plus a store with food and weapons, was probably Clem and AJ’s best chance of survival.

Welp, that was all proved wrong within five minutes. Jane kills herself after finding out she’s pregnant, so at least someone remembered that bit of continuity. Jane’s strongest trait was doing stupid, impulsive shit that had bad consequences, so I’m not as mad about this as I feel I could be. And yes, it was the selfish way out, but the whole point of this series is that people are completely terrible, though I’m not going to go off ranting too much about how no one is probably having much of the way of periods anymore, and having an actual live baby is probably not gonna happen.

Anyway. Javier.

I’m again, not really upset over Clementine not being the main character. I think it’s a rather deliberate choice, to show what she’s become – we’re not in her head anymore, and now she’s turned into a stranger. Javi, on the other hand, is actually quite likeable, if a little bland? He’s a family man and not a whole lot else, so perhaps he needs some more time to come into his own.

I can honestly say the same about Gabe, too – he’s a realistic teenager, sure, but he’s like Ben 2.0. Mari, well… she was clearly too good for this world, and Kate is an interesting one. She’s got some spark in her rather than being just the battered wife, and she feels very vulnerable and human, especially now David’s back in the picture.

So on the whole? Not a bad new cast. I’d like to see them fleshed out a lot more so I can actually connect with them, but not a horrific job, by any means. Now for the actual episode choices:

  • Stay the night. Yes, it was an admittedly stupid idea, but they’re kids, and kids deserve a break! And yeah, Season One probably should have tipped us off about stealing things that don’t belong to us, but to be honest, are there really that many humans left? Live a little, steal the pudding. Also, wasn’t the door unlocked? So yeah, that one was genuinely a 50/50 chance, and if they’re stupid enough to leave their stuff open, well…

 

  • Shoot the driver was a fairly obvious one, for me. He’s just kidnapped Javi and he’s obviously with other people, none of which were going to let him go. And again, the people are the worst enemy in this universe. He wasn’t good news, and he was a threat. Definitely the right decision.

 

  • Getting locked up? Yeeeaahh, sorry Clem, but… that was a scarily over the top reaction. Yes, that could have been a really bad situation with bullets not working, but the scary thing is, we don’t know if that was true or not, as we all unfortunately found out. No one’s maintaining weapons and ammo on a regular basis, so the environment could have easily damaged them. Clementine’s reaction, though? She’s gone off the deep end, and from Javi’s point of view, I could absolutely understand dropping her in it. She’s a stranger he’s known less than a day, and she’s not necessarily a stranger he’d want around.

 

  • Go with Tripp: There’s something about Eleanor I don’t trust. She’s a bit too sweet and nice, and in a world with Walkers, that’s not something you come across all that often, anymore. Plus I like Tripp and didn’t want to piss him off, though I think it’s pretty cheap that you can’t save Mari if you go right away with Eleanor – you’d be at the junkyard at a different time of day! We could have saved her!

 

  • Go with family or return fire? Yeah, Javi was outnumbered, and badly, plus I stupidly thought if we ran over there ASAP, Mari would survive…! But nope. Not much of a choice, if you think about it, especially for the end of the episode.

On to Episode 2:

  • Yeah, I told David to fuck off as well. I really like the dynamic Kate and Javi have; she feels the most human out of all of them, but she clings to Javi because she doesn’t quite have the strength to do it herself. It made me sad that she already knew David would care more about the glass than the cut, so yeah, I told him off, but telling him Kate wanted to leave him? Uh, she didn’t say that – she said she wanted a fresh start and to travel, not to divorce her husband…

 

  • Surrendered to the guys at the gate – yeah, I figured it was their best chance of survival, considering one of them had a machine gun, and I liked Francine ): Poor woman, she really didn’t deserve that. Oh well, I tried.

 

  • So, random dreadlocked Jesus dude…for some reason, I trust him. Maybe he has an honest face? I don’t know, but I’ve decided I like him, so I’m gonna bring him along. To be honest, I think more of him than I do of Clementine right now.

 

  • Ah, this big choice. I went majorly against the grain here, because I’m not playing as me, I’m playing as Javi. Without the personal attachment to Clementine, look at it from an outside perspective; she shot a guy in the face over a minor dispute, she has dangerous people hunting her, and they have no idea why, plus she’s a member of the New Frontier and lied about it.  For all Javi knows, she could have massacred half their camp. A random, dangerous girl for the life of his sister in law? Hell, I’d give her up – Conrad quite rightly thinks she could be a bargaining chip, and Clementine hasn’t exactly made the best impression so far. And I liked Conrad, so I didn’t want to shoot him, so there.

 

  • And finally, give in to the demands. Yeah, it seemed like the sensible solution. The group was surrounded and completely at their mercy, and at this point, what’s there to lose? And because it’s such a coincidence, David’s there, and they knew who Clementine is. To be frank, I don’t trust her right now, so god knows what she’s done.

That being said, we find out in two weeks! Episode 3 is out March 28, 2017, so I’ll be reporting back on that one, too.