The Walking Dead: Michonne – Episode 3 – What We Deserve Review (PS4)

While I haven’t been too happy with this miniseries as a whole, I was happy that there wasn’t that much of a delay with the release dates even if it made the overall game seem rushed. I think this miniseries proves a good point in the Telltale universe. Episodes that come out in quick succession seem rushed and episodes that take too long to come out make it seem like Telltale has too much on its plate. I think if anything, this miniseries should be a good lesson for Telltale on what kind of release schedule would work best for them on any upcoming project, anyway that’s not what I’m here to talk about. Keep reading to see if the final episode of the game was an improvement or just an overall let down.

This episode picks right up where episode 2 left off. Cersei is coming for Jamie, wrong show / game, Norma is coming for Randall (I can’t be the only one who senses a Cersei/Jamie relationship between these two right?) and depending on how you played last episode, Randall might not quite be like himself anymore. While it picks up there, it doesn’t exactly start there. The episode starts with a “two weeks” earlier scene that tries to get you invested in this crew that Michonne is with even though I still didn’t bother to learn any names or even care about these people, but the episode wants you to have that emotional investment in them because guess what? Norma has captured them and now wants her brother in return for the crew. Norma and her people are headed for Sam’s house and it’s Michonne and the little crew at the house vs. Norma and her people along with the zombie hoard.

I’m going to be honest with you because I couldn’t really connect with this game no matter how hard I tried. I think mostly because Michonne is an already developed character compared to Lee and Clementine, who are basically yours to mold, and this created a bit of a disconnect. While the choices I wanted to make were clear, it made me think if the character Michonne would actually make these choices or if she would choose something else. I didn’t really know and at times it made me feel like I made the wrong choices. Then there’s the supporting cast of characters that I could really care less about which was really disappointing since the previous two seasons had an amazing supporting cast making it more about everyone as a whole and not about the main character. I know that this game tried to be different, but it failed horribly. That’s not to mention that this episode was super short and it tried to pack a bunch of different things into it like the flashbacks to Michone’s two little girls. Even though there was a lot of importance to these flashbacks, at times I found them disorientating and kind of pointless. While this episode and the miniseries as a whole does give you some closure and insight into what’s happening inside of Michonne’s head, the game as a whole and the ending of the episode were unsatisfying.

On the positive side, this was another Telltale game with no bugs or glitches. I mean I was shocked since this has been a very common complaint for me. The loading issues, the stalling issues, and the trophy pop issues have become a very big deal for me. At first it was easy to overlook them because the story telling was just amazing, but as soon as the quality of storytelling began to go down the drain, these issues became more frustrating and noticeable. While this episode played out smoothly, I’m not ready to give Telltale the thumbs up on correcting their mistakes. It’s going to take a couple of more actually good series with no bugs or glitches to do that, but I do like that they are headed in a positive direction.

The one constant in this game were the graphics and as with the Walking Dead Season 1 and Season 2, they were fitting and pretty damn good. For this game series, the comic book like graphics just work and these are the times when Telltale shines.

Play through this episode and you’ll get the final 7 trophies making a total of 21 trophies without a platinum. While I play these games for the stories, I feel like I deserved a platinum after having to sit through and play this game. It really wasn’t fair that there wasn’t one but I don’t make the rules on which games get platinum trophies and which ones don’t.

As always this game was multiplayer free.

Overall I give this episode a 2 out of 5.

What’s Great:
+ Closure for Michonne on what was happening inside of her head with the guilt of leaving her little girls.
+ No bugs or glitches. An overall step in the right direction for Telltale.

What’s Not So Great:
– Overall disappointing story and ending.
– Supporting cast of characters that you could care less about.
– Playing as an already established character creates some disconnect. I decided to beat the crap out of Randall, but would Michonne have done the same thing???

Unless you just absolutely have to play this game because you love Michonne or you love The Walking Dead, I’m going to say to give this game a huge pass. It was more trouble than it was worth and each episode was a huge hassle to play only to be let down in the end. I think that while this was a good idea at first, it turned out to be something less than that because it was delayed at first then it felt rushed and the story suffered because of that. Instead of having this miniseries, I wish that Telltale would have just worked on Season 3 of The Walking Dead. Even though I gave this game a pass, if you’re dead set on getting it at least wait for a sale.

SPOILERS! Below are the choices that I made for the third episode.

This Week in Trophies 04-24-2016 – 04-30-2016

Compared to last week, this week was just seriously lacking one of the things that I love and that’s trophies. It’s mostly my own fault though as I didn’t have a lot of time to game especially since I devoted a full day to finishing up my Athena tattoo. You’ll see the full blog on my experience with that later on this week, but then there was also work, and more work, and when I did game I spent most of my time trying to get that last trophy in Dig Dug which seems to be just impossible. Anyway, here’s a look at what I did get this week.

Mass Effect – 71%

So I made some major progress on this game this week as I got done a lot last Sunday. I really like having this as my Sunday game. The funny thing is that I’m just about done with this game too and since it’s been a while since I last played, I’m eager for the end. Not because I don’t like the game, but just because I played as a renegade this time. I’m not sure how it’s going to affect anything, but I’m curious to find out and then move on to Mass Effect 2.

Arcade Game Series: Dig Dug – 91%

I was able to get one trophy for this game this week and it was frustrating as hell. I have one more trophy to get in order to get the platinum. ONE! This thing is slowly becoming a full on pain in my ass as it seems no matter what I do I cannot get the Rambler trophy. Any chance that I’ve been getting to game, this is what I’ve been doing and it’s becoming a waste of my time.

The Walking Dead: Michonne – 100%

The last episode came out this week and I finished it. At this point, that’s all I’m going to say about that since I have my review coming up within the next few weeks. Unfortunately you’ll have to wait, but the review will be well worth it.

Sadly that was it for this week. I know, it wasn’t a lot but I’m hoping that next week will be better. I do have some plans for next week since my schedule returns to normal and I have my normal gaming times. So for this week I plan on doing my usual Mass Effect binge, I really want that Dig Dug platinum so I’ll be trying for that, I’ll also be trying to get some Dying Light in, and of course I’ll be playing Battleborn this week. If anyone else is playing Battleborn this week let me know in the comments section below and maybe we can set up a gaming session. As always, I’ll let you know how things turned out next time.

The Walking Dead: Michonne – Episode 2 – Give NO Shelter Review (PS4)

After the last episode of this game, I really wasn’t expecting much since I was kind of let down by the game as a whole. I wasn’t even all too eager to play this episode, but I figured I might as well since I paid for the season pass well in advance. Keep reading to find out how the second episode held up.

Give No Shelter starts off right where episode 1 left off. Playing as Michonne it’s up to you and Sam to escape from Norma. How you handle the situation as a whole and whether or not you decided to bring Pete with you are some of the hard choices that you have to make during the course of this episode. Once you escape from Norma and her weird brother Randall. You’ll be tasked with making it to Sam’s house, but it won’t be easy. You’ll have to deal with a hoard of zombies as well as Randall and his goon’s chasing after you. Once you make it to Sam’s house it’s not all that easy either. You’ll be confronted by the people who live there, Sam’s family, as well as have to deal with some serious flashback issues that Michonne has been dealing with throughout episode 1. Ending on another cliffhanger, this is Telltale’s style, the third episode is setup and I’m not really sure how it’s going to play out or if three episodes is going to be enough. At this point, knowing how Telltale is operating I wouldn’t doubt seeing either more episodes added or another season at some point.

Like the previous episode, this episode is a complete and utter snooze fest. Not only was it short, compared to other Telltale episodes but it was just boring and dragged. I have absolutely no idea where they’re going with this story or how it’s going to end and frankly I really don’t care at this point. Although I was originally excited to be able to play as one of my favorite characters from the show, it just didn’t really work out this time for Telltale. Truth be told I would have rather them worked a little longer on a proper season 3 for The Walking Dead rather than this mini game. Sure there were a few suspenseful moments, but they seemed like they had the same copy and paste formula from the first two seasons of The Walking Dead.

Playability wise, I couldn’t find anything wrong with this episode which was a surprise since there was more than a few problems with the first episode. At this point I think it would be jumping the boat a little to say that Telltale has finally gotten their shit together when it comes to loading time issues, stalling issues, and trophy pop issues so I’m going to give it a little more time and a couple of more games before declaring them issues free. Other than that everything functioned how it should although some of the quick time events felt a little awkward. By awkward I mean that even though I pressed the button in the proper amount of time it just felt like it didn’t work.

The graphics were on par with The Walking Dead series the Telltale created as a whole and nothing deviated from that. This game looks and feels like it belongs in the series and that’s a good thing. As I’ve said before, this style doesn’t always work for all of their games, like Game of Thrones, but it works really well for this game and they should continue on this path while changing things up for their other games.

There are a total of 7 trophies for this episode and all you have to do to get them is complete the game, which believe me is hard enough to do without falling asleep. As with the previous episode, the trophy images are uncreative and are basically just numbers. I’m glad none of them were a milestone trophy for me because it would just be horrible not to have some badass trophy image as one of my milestone trophies and be stuck with a number.

This is Telltale so by now you should know that there is no multiplayer for this game.

Overall I give this episode a 2 out of 5.

What’s Great:
+ Flashback scenes give a cool insight into the mind of Michonne which really isn’t seen in the TV series.
+ Graphics are on par with the previous two seaons of The Walking Dead as well as the episode before.
+ Common Telltale issues seem to be fixed for now. Emphasis on the for now.

What’s Not So Great:
– Lackluster story that is boring and not up to par with the previous two seasons of The Walking Dead.
– Besides Michonne everyone else is basically expendable and there’s no connection with them or a reason to actually care about them.
– Quicktime events at times just felt awkward and it wasn’t clear if the buttons were responding when being pressed or not.

At this point I’m pretty glad that this is only a three part game because I really couldn’t play five whole episodes of this game. There really isn’t anything that draws you into this game and the only real highlights are the flashback sequences which give you insight into Michonne’s past. The next episode comes out next week and depending on how that goes I’ll give the game as a whole my recommendation or a pass. I’m going to say right now though that something spectacular has to happen in this last episode for me to recommend it so we’ll just have to wait and see.

SPOILERS! Below are the choices that I made for the second episode.

This Week in Trophies 03-27-2016 – 04-02-2016

With the release of a few episodic games this week, it was a pretty decent trophy week. I did at least get a platinum trophy as well as a bunch of other random trophies here and there. I made a hell of a lot of progression in Bully and had a surprising moment this week. Keep reading to find out more.

Bully – 73%

I continued playing this game this week because I just love it. It was one of my favorite PS2 games and ever since it was re-released for the PS4 I haven’t been able to put it down. Every chance I get I play as much as possible. I don’t want to jinx it but I think the platinum trophy might be coming my way pretty damn soon.

Minecraft: Story Mode – 100%

The last episode was finally released, thanks for making us wait so long Telltale, and I of course played it because I just wanted to finish this game and be done with it, but surprise there’s going to be DLC. Guess I’m not really done with this game after all. Anyway, I’ll have my review for Episode 5 – Order Up! in the upcoming weeks.

Fallout 4 – 86%

By some miraculous event I was able to find a save for this game that wasn’t in the final boss battle, that didn’t include me just flailing around with no ammo. It was an actual save from two hours previous to my embarrassing moment. Yes I had to go back and do a bunch of stuff, but it was well worth it since I had already put so much time into my one save and I was finally able to finish the Automatron DLC. My full review of the DLC will be up this week.

The Walking Dead: Michonne – 66%

The second episode of this three part episode game also came out this week and I didn’t want to put off playing it, so I was able to squeeze that episode in as well this week. Like always, because I have a review coming up, I don’t want to say too much about it right now so you’ll just have to wait for my full review of Give NO Shelter.

That was it for this week. A pretty exciting week for me. I was super super happy that I was able to find a Fallout 4 save so I didn’t just give up on that game as a whole. So what’s in store for this week? I’m going to take a little break from Fallout 4 since all I have left are some repeating missions and that gets boring really fast and I’m going to continue playing Bully whenever I get the chance hoping to get the platinum for this game. I’m also going to start playing the original Mass Effect on my PS3. This should be pretty fun since I’ve only played this game once before. I’m hoping to make my way through the series again in order to get the full 100% on each game. I’ll let you know how things went next week.

The Walking Dead: Michonne – Episode 1 – In Too Deep Review (PS4)

I’m a huge fan of The Walking Dead, both the TV series and the Telltale games so for me it was a no brainer that I would get this day one especially since it involves one of my favorite characters from the series Michonne. I know Telltale has been screwing things up lately, but I figured this is a Walking Dead game, which they’ve done brilliantly in the past, how could they screw it up? Keep reading to see what I thought of the episode as a whole.

The series starts with Michonne being on her own. She wasn’t able to save her two children and is basically thinking that she has to pay for this, that is until she finds Pete. She’ll join Pete and his merry band of misfits who have such a small part in this episode, it’s ridiculous to even try to learn their names. They all live happily on a boat, but quickly run into some trouble that leads Michonne and Pete into even more trouble. Michonne and Pete will be accused of stealing and brought into a boating community lead by Stormin’ Norma, who reminded me of Brenda from The Walking Dead Season 1 – Episode 2, and her brother Randall. Both of these characters were a little creepy to begin with (in a Jamie and Cersei Lannister type of way) and they rule their community with an iron fist. Michonne and Pete will have to pay for mistakes that they didn’t even make, but for someone that stole from Norma and Randall’s community did. The whole thing seems a little off to begin with and not really all that creative, but as with any Telltale game you’ll have to make tough decisions and they should have some impact on the rest of the game. The key word here is should.

Kudos: As much as I love Danai Gurira as Michonne in The Walking Dead, I thought that Samira Wiley (who is amazing in Orange is the New Black) does an amazing job as a voice actor for this series. She does justice to the role of Michonne and is one of the highlights of the episode, if not the series as a whole.

I went into this episode with an open mind after all the trouble that I had with Telltale games the past couple of times (Game of Thrones and Minecraft), but this episode just made me think that maybe the days of Telltale actually making something good is done. This episode was just plain boring and lacking any kind of remotely interesting story that holds onto the players and makes them want to keep playing. This makes me sad, because Telltale used to be such good storytellers and now it’s the same old song and dance with each game. By the end of the episode, I was just glad that it was over and I’m really not that eager for the next episode.

It’s not a Telltale game without some kind of problems, and this game was not free of them. Seriously Telltale? FIX THE PROBLEMS WITH YOUR GAMES! Not even two minutes in and the game completely froze, knocked me out of the game and I had to start all over again. Not to mention that the loading times are still taking longer than they should for such a small and simple game and there were a bunch of texture problems throughout the game. These problems are beyond annoying now and I really can’t ignore them anymore.

The graphics for this game were up to par with The Walking Dead Season 1 and Season 2 graphics so there were really no complaints. The game looked like it came exactly from the comic books, and this is something that Telltale does well. I really didn’t expect much of a change graphic wise going into this game and I was fine with that.

There are a total of 7 trophies for this episode and a complete total of 24 for the series as a whole. All you have to do to get the trophies is just play the game. If you can even do that without falling asleep. Anyway, it’s an easy trophy list, but like I always say you should play a game for the game and not for the easy trophies because where’s the fun in that?

Boo! How unimaginative and uncreative are these trophy images? It’s like they said, “well there are seven trophies for each episode…so let’s just number them one through seven for each episode. BOOM! We’re done.” Seriously? When small details like this go overlooked, it makes me wonder about the game as a whole.

As always, no multiplayer, and we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief because the images of how bad multiplayer would be in a Telltale game are horrifying.

Overall I give this episode a 2 out of 5

What’s Great:
+ Samira Wiley does an amazing job as the voice of Michonne and gives life to the character outside of the TV series.
+ This episode showcases a more vulnerable side of Michonne that isn’t all that often seen making her a strong character.

What’s Not So Great:
– Stale storyline that is not interesting at all and really does no justice to The Walking Dead brand that Telltale has developed.
– A weak secondary cast that you really won’t care about at all.
– Loading problems, texture issues, stalling that causes the game to shut off and need to be restarted (not the things you want to happen while trying to get into playing a game.)

I’m glad this is only a three episode thing, because I’m not sure that this game could even last the full five episodes that is usually given to Telltale games. This is definitely a weak episode which looks like it’s going to turn into a weak game overall. I’m not looking forward to the episodes to come, but I will be glad when the game is over especially if the final two episodes are anything like the first. If you haven’t purchased this game yet, I would advise you to hold off and wait for a sale if you absolutely have to play it.

SPOILERS! Below are the choices that I made for the first episode.

This Week in Trophies 02-21-2016 – 02-27-2016

This was definitely one of my better trophy weeks for the month. I don’t really know where I found the time to play, but I did somehow and it paid off. As the final full week of the month, I made some much needed progress on a bunch of games. So, here’s a breakdown of the trophies I got this week.

Unravel – 70%

I thought it was going to be a lot harder to actually go back and redo all of the levels, but it turned out to be not so hard. Not dying on each level takes a little work, but once you get into the groove of that level it becomes pretty simple. Even though I didn’t get the platinum for this game this week, it won’t be long before I actually do.

Star Wars Battlefront – 28%

I’m still having a really fun time playing this game. I think that one trophy did glitch on me though which sucks because multiple times I won on Blast and had the most kills, but no trophy. This is a little frustrating, but I’ll give it a couple of more tries just to see. Other than that I’m enjoying both the multiplayer and mission sides of the game. I’m also still looking for some people to play with so if anyone wants to join me just leave a comment in the comments section.

Taco Master – 69%

I bought this game as an impulse buy this week because it was on sale for $1.49. There’s a silly little story that goes along with it but it’s mostly a time management game. I like those types of games and I’m having a good time playing it while I have some TV on in the background. I should actually be getting the platinum trophy for this game pretty soon and I’m looking forward to it.

Mad Max – 26%

I was able to pick back up where I left off with this game this week and even got a couple of trophies doing so. I’m still doing way too much free roaming to say if I actually like the story yet or not, but I’m not giving up on this game yet and will continue to play when I have a chance to.

The Walking Dead: Michonne – 33%

I should call this another impulse buy, but unfortunately it wasn’t. I was actually looking forward to this game, but was disappointed. I’ll have my full review of the first episode up soon so you can read all about my latest disappointment with Telltale. If you’re thinking about getting this game I would say hold off for a sale, based on the first episode I didn’t find it worth the $14.99

The Four Kings Casino and Slots – 14%

I don’t know why I downloaded this game, well I do, because no matter how hard I try not to be I’m super competitive and I don’t like being told that I can’t do something. Anyway, this game for me is one of those anything you can do I can do better type things. I’m going to say that it’s ok for this one since it was free, but I’m seriously regretting it now that I actually have to get all these trophies and put some extra time into this game. It was my own fault so I’ll suffer through it.

And that was it this week for me. A much better week this time around with a total of…drum roll please…43 trophies. A nice way to end a rather lack luster month. Now for next week…I have no idea what’s going to happen because my schedule has changed once more. Of course it did once I found my groove, but I’ll roll with the punches and see how things go. I do want to try to get some PS3 time in though since it seems like I haven’t turned on that system for a while now. I’ll let you know next week how things went.