An interesting turn of events… TellTale owns TWDG (My ANF thoughts will be at the end of the chapter)
Chapter 29
"What- How did they get out? I thought they didn't have a way out." I clammed.
"George authorized for two of them to open up the gates. He didn't want to take any chances."
"Figures," I rolled my eyes. "So, Damien, how do we get out?"
"We should get them first." He nodded towards them. Clementine was already over there, by Gabe's side. Krishan and I lifted Damien to his feet and supported him in walking over to them. The walkers had noticed us. It was only a matter of time until enough of them broke in. The three of us hobbled over to Javier, who was clearly in pain. The bullet wounds were open, and the fragments were still lodged in the meat of his leg.
"Agh," he moaned.
"Oh god, Javi. I'm sorry." Gabe repeated.
"Guys, we can't stay here. Let's get him up and go," I said to them.
"Gabe, Noah is right," Clementine said. "Damien, tell us where we can go to get out. He thought for a minute.
"Well, the walkers have most definitely flooded the bottom floors. It is only a matter of time before they break in and flood this place."
"Is there any way we can choke point them from in here?" I asked.
"I mean, unless we all take a staircase. But we have two people who are wounded. It won't cut it. Our best chance is to lead them to the roof, flank them, and slip out while they are still on it. We can lessen the herd size by a large fraction, maybe up to a fourth. After that, the four of you will have to carry him and take out the rest of the walkers. There is a small door on the back that leads to a garage. I can take you to the fuel and batteries. We stripped them, but once we get one we can put it in and get us a working ride out of here."
We nodded. Krishan spoke up. "I'll go with Damien to get the fuel and battery, and we can meet y'all. Try to take out some walkers, and prevent them from getting on for as long as you can."
"Won't take five minutes," Damien affirmed.
"So then after we get the stuff, all of us meet on the roof, and flank them, meet back down here and get out the back way that leads to a garage that'll give us a ride?" I repeated. Damien nodded.
"Why can't we just get the supplies and go right out to the garage?" Clementine asked.
"The herd out there is flooding this area. We just had a massive gunfight, and you know they are sensitive to sound. So we have really no other option but to try and draw them out. But right now, we are wasting time. Come on, and Clementine, you come too. The three of us can make it happen fast. Noah, just let Gabe handle Javier. Try and hold off walkers as long as possible. We'll be back before you can say 'chimichanga'. I nodded. Hey, that's my line.
They raced off towards the back. I turned and checked the windows. I am glad this building is moderately sturdy. Multiple walkers were pounding on the windows, and more were pounding on the doors. I watched and kept close guard on them.
"Noah, help!" Gabe called out. I turned and saw him. Javier was falling unconscious. I ran to his side. "Help me keep him awake!" Without hesitation, I pulled a Clementine and smacked the shit out of Javier. He bolted awake, but then faded again.
"Gabe, keep pressure on his wound and talk to him." He nodded, and I ran back towards the windows. Two of them had cracked, and more seemed to be building behind them. Ahh, where the fuck are they?
Just as I thought that, they burst in the door, carrying fuel and a battery. "Let's go!" Damien called. Krishan and I ran to Javier, and helped Gabe pull him up. Clementine and Damien ran up the stairs, with the rest of us dragging Javier behind them. We were on the second floor when I heard a window crash open, then the slamming of wood. The door was down. They were in.
We hustled past the third and fourth floors. Halfway up, I had the brilliant idea.
"Guys, let's set Javier in his room. It's far away, and he won't make any noise. Plus they won't be able to get in. He'll slow us down out there."
"No way!" Gabe argued.
"No, Noah's right. We can't take the chance," Damien defended me. So, Gabe and I took off towards his room. We threw the door open, and set Javi on the bed. I turned to leave.
"Come on, Gabe," He didn't budge.
"No, I am staying. I can protect him. Just come get us. You guys can do it," he said.
"Gabe, come on. He'll be fine," I tried to convince him.
"No, I am not leaving my uncle!" Fine. I backed off and shut the door. Then I raced towards the others. Finally, we reached the roof. Clementine burst open the door, with Damien behind. His leg wound seemed to not affect him anymore. Then, Krishan and I ran through.
"Alright, here's the plan. We all stay to one side, wait for them, lure them around the door, then sneak inside and lock them outside," Damien authorized. We nodded. We wrapped ourselves around the right side, and waited.
I could hear their footsteps approaching. Maybe hundreds of them, stomping on the staircase. We all waited with painful angst as they approached.
The first one stumbled into view. Then another. Five more. Ten more. They just kept coming.
"Hey! Over here shitstain!" I screamed. The others yelled similar insults. And we slowly started making our way around the door. They kept piling up. More and more. A stray one took the opposite route, and Krishan took care of it. We continued. More walkers came through. They were following us. Holy crap, its working!
Then the plan went sideways. Maybe a hundred flooded the roof. And they kept coming. We were going to run out of room. Oh shit shit shit.
"Damien!" He had a look of determination on his face. I saw him muttering 'come on, come on!'
But they kept coming. Three hundred, maybe three fifty were almost on top of us. We were getting slower and they were coming faster. Krishan made a bold move and crushed one's skull before backing off. I saw Damien repeatedly looking back, hoping for an entrance.
Krishan ran forward again. This time, Clementine went with him. They each took out one, then backed off third time, I also rushed forward. We were making no progress, and the walkers just seemed to grow in numbers. We were trapped.
"Get down!" Damien yelled this time. He whipped out his machine gun as we ran back, and fired. Full auto bullets blasted into walkers skulls. He took down maybe fifteen before reloading. We ran up and killed a few more. I turned back as Damien started firing again. We were nearing the edge of the roof, but the stream of walkers was starting to decline.
"Damien, let's go," I yelled after a few more seconds. The stream was nearly gone now. Very few walkers were still coming up. We had maybe four hundred on the roof.
He turned, and threw his head to the side. We bolted. The walkers were cutting us off. They saw through our plan. How does a bunch of dumbass dead folks follow our plan?
We ran fast. I reached the door first, and blasted an upcoming walker. Clementine and Krishan ran in right after me. Damien was moving too slow. I saw him clutching his leg. But the walkers were coming faster.
Then, Damien stopped. He smiled. "Go! I'll be there in a minute." I gaped at him.
"Come on! You'll die!" I screamed at him. His dark hair waved in front of his face as he shot three more walkers.
"Shut the door! Now!" He screamed. Damnit! I slammed the door before the walkers could get in. I still heard him yelling. "Come at me, faggots!" More gunfire.
I pushed myself. He was a good man. A good friend. And I raced after the rest of them. When I got there, everyone had already slung their bags on, and Javier was being supported by Gabe and Krishan.
"Go! Let's get outta here."
"Where's Damien?" Krishan asked. I lowered my head. "Aw… god dammit." He grabbed his beard.
"It doesn't matter now. We have to go," I commanded. Sullenly, they nodded. It was just the five of us again. The weight of that statement pressed on me like I was holding up the sky. Us, the five of us were alone. Just us. Again. But there was no time to mourn, or even think now.
So we ran down. The lobby was flooded with walkers, but we managed to sneak out the back undetected. I opened the door.
Damien stood in front of me. "Jesus! What the fuck!" I nearly pissed myself.
"No time. Let's go!" He yelled. Without complaint, we rushed after him.
We barely escaped. Just as Damien had put in the battery and gotten the engine going, walkers were swarming us. They were poking their heads in, trying to tear into us. We held them back as best we could until Damien stepped on it. Damien barely pulled the car out in time. After a minute, we were off. Speeding down the highway.
After a comfortable ten minutes of silence, we opened conversation.
"Damien, how the hell did you get down?"
"I have been preparing for this. I just thought that, in case of any cinch, I would need to make an escape out the roof. I installed foot holes in the wall, just to be safe, and clambered down after y'all left. There was no way I was running into that. I had to leave my machine gun, though."
"How did you know what was going to happen?"
"Eh, it was bound to happen sooner or later. Not this exact scenario, obviously, but I always thought, one day, sooner or later, something would happen that would warrant an escape. I was just always prepared." Javier sat shotgun, asleep.
"We need to get him someplace safe. We need to take care of his leg." Krishan again stated the obvious. He sat next to me, and then Gabe. Clementine was riding in the very back, alone. I scanned the car. Gabe had a distraught look on his face, but Clem and Krishan looked relaxed. Well... as relaxed as you could be.
I was trying to make conversation, but the car had a dampened mood. Gabe's face would not lighten up.
"Gabe," I asked very cautiously. "Is something wrong." No answer. Instead, he just leaned over and grabbed Javier's arm. He rolled up his sleeve.
An indentation of teeth showed itself in Javier's arm.
Javier was bitten.
OOOOOOO Bombshell DROPPED.
What will happen next? Ya gotta keep reading.
Anyways, now onto my ANF thoughts. (Remember: These are my OPINIONS)
*SPOLIERS*
Generally, it was a good game. But it was by far the worst full (as in non-DLC) walking dead game they have made. It passed the normal test of being a good game, but, with TellTales expectations, it dropped the ball. In my opinion. Here are my pros and cons, just to give y'all an overview.
Pros: Very good graphics (from the new engine, I know some people have been complaining, but for me at least it was very good looking)
Seeing Clementine again (BC I love her)
There were a few choices that I thought made for good storytelling, but they were few and far between
Cons: Bad storytelling- hear me out: The writing was subpar, multiple concepts *Cough cough Gabentine cough* seemed forced, and a bunch of characters with a lot of potential got sidelined. (i.e. Tripp, Eleanor, Clint, Max, etc.).
Choices- The choices in this season were biased. You either had to choose for Javi's family or choose for Clementine, no in betweens. This lead to a frustrating game experience as I was constantly battling myself for who to side with, as they are both equally important.
Generic characters- The characters were a little predictable after the first episode, and (other than David and Javier) showed very little development.
Clementine- A lot of you are probably like 'what! Clementine' but yes. Clementine. Her flashback scenes were uninformative and not heart wrenching at all (Except Kenny, and Jane just a LITTLE bit, bc of that whole pregnancy thing). They seemed like just filler. And let's be honest, everyone knew AJ wasn't dead. Overall, she got a lot of poor writing. I love her to death, but this season really gave her nothing new.
Multiple underdeveloped character- These new characters we saw were predictable and showed little development over the season. Maybe Gabe a little, and Javier and David, of course, but that's it.
Overall... I would have preferred maybe they do a full season with a totally new family, and have Clementine's story in a DLC or something like that. Because, it's a pretty smart marketing strategy, what Telltale did, but it wasn't as enjoyable a gameplay. Like, I think they really only put her in there to make all the old players of s1/s2 return for this one, while adding in a new famiy storyline. And it worked in sales, but in gameplay... it was lacking, mostly bc of reasons I mentioned above.
But yeah, that's it. Those were my thoughts. As a standalone, I give it a 7.5/10. But, since it is Telltale, and I love all of their other games, I have to tie them in. As a series game, I give it a 4/10. It just doesn't exhibit the same emotion and storytelling that other Telltale games made me love so much. So no hate, but these are my opinions on it.
Season 1 was the best btw.
:)
