My Choices Didn't Matter

Catching up on his backlog, Gamers Association editor Peter Glagowski recently experienced the dark world of Telltale's The Walking Dead. Unfortunately, the illusion of meaningful choices left him feeling severely underwhelmed. Do you agree, or did The Walking Dead succeed even with its funneled narrative? [Warning: Spoilers]

[Saints94]

My friend, let me introduce you to ME3.

[Puty]

It's not only 3rd part, and not only the ending. The choices didn't matter throughout the whole series, for ex. from ME2 Ashley and Kaidan became one character(exact same dialogue), Anderson isn't in the council in ME3 whatever you chose(i actually missed THE ONE line of dialogue which explained it during the first playthrough, someone told me afterwards that there was the explanation), if you let some of the crew members die, your character data won't load in me3(what's the point in having a choice then?), the new council and the old council has the exact same dialogue in ME3 (no point in the what seemed to be a major decision in ME1),etc. The last example is how BioWare thinks of us as the idiots because in ME2 you won't get a chance to actually meet this newly elected council(which was cop out in itself), and then in ME3 BW thinks we forgot that there was supposed to be a two versions of council and they just giving us one version with exact same dialogue and behaviours.

Someone should really record how choices didn't matter in this series.

[Snookies12]

So what if the choices didn't matter all that much? It was still a wonderful story that was told.

[Xof]

I actually stopped playing the game pretty early on because I said something and a little thing saying "X will remember that!" in the screen, but the next line of dialog that X said didn't make any sense in the context of the dialog I had chosen that X was supposed to remember.

It totally ruins the immersion.

[Firan]

@WeMilk

It's called a point-and-click adventure game. Very old genre. The genre was pretty popular in the past but not many makes those kinda games anymore. Which is a shame.

[KingSigy]

I actually don't disagree with your statement. The story was very good. I just wish that developers would stop claiming that my actions have some kind of precedent over their story.

The Walking Dead is a tale of loss and regret in a sorrowful world. Instead of giving me some kind of hope that I can change things, just let me experience the story.

The choices in the first two chapters are exactly what I like. The outcome is the same (one person dies), but the person that tags along is different. That leads to other interactions and reactions from the characters.

When the fourth chapter lets me decide whether I arbitrarily want to kill someone, only to have them die in the next chapter, I don't understand the point.

[NameRemoved0017]

Know what game the choices didn't matter on? La Noire.

[KingSigy]

Oh jesus, fuck that game.

[Transporter47]

The choices matter to an individual point of view of how you experience the story.

[KingSigy]

I actually did write something along the lines of that before. The movie "Broken Flowers" with Bill Murray actually encapsulates that very well.

The whole thing is a wild ride of eccentric characters and lack of focus. When the finale comes, there is no resolution and more questions get brought up.

You aren't supposed to dwell on the lack of a conclusion, though. The movie is based around the journey and how you felt towards Bill's interactions with others.

[Roccetarius]

I know people put this game on a high piedestal when it released, but it really just boils down to the same thing. There's no real difference to it, other than different people dying.

[Sketchy_Galore]

I loved The Walking dead but I do hope they really beef up the choices for Season 2. In season 1 it didn't bother me too much because I didn't know any better but this time I'm onto the trick so whenever I'm forced to choose to save one person's life over another I'll just be counting down the moments until that person dies too and noticing as they're slowly pushed into the background and left out of most of the major events.

[KingSigy]

Yeah, that's the problem I had. I really do not like when games force you to save someone only to kill them off later. It detracts from the tension that a scene builds.

[Brianaro]

Any game that makes me care for characters and makes me cry can do whatever they like with decisions

[GdaTyler]

I really can't wait for Season 2. I hope I get some sort of emotional connection to the characters just like in Season 1. I really want to see Lily, Vernon, and Molly return. Molly because she's awesome and Lily and Vernon so we can kill them off. I want more scenarios and choices.

[HeavenlySnipes]

The choices you made altered the way the characters interacted with you. Not how the game progressed or ended.

You did have some say in the games progression (like who dies/survives)

[Nes_Daze]

Meh...it changed who lived and died to some degree so I was okay with that, I respect the fact that developers don't want to give you choices that will change the storyline.

[Hydralysk]

While I do think that the choices could've had a bigger impact then they did, I don't need every choice I make to fundamentally change the narrative in big ways.

I wanted to roleplay a character in a story in TWD, not create a story myself, and TWD let me do that. When I got to the end of the game Lee was pretty much an extension of my own code of ethics. Hell the game even gave me a "Oh god, what have I become!" moment due to some of the choices I made. For me, the fact that the choices don't make a huge difference was overshadowed by the fact that making those choices helped insert me into the character.

[Scrivlar]

I do agree that your choices don't really make a difference but you only really come to see this by the time you're playing it for a second time so you have still had that immersive first playthrough where you have put yourself in Lee's position and make tough decisions under pressure, A lot like Heavy Rain. By the time you get to the end and realise it's not as great as you thought it was you have still had that first playthrough you loved and nothing can ever change that. A second playthrough however might be poor now that you know what's coming no matter what.