The Walking Dead Episode 5: No Time Left

You know, out of the forty-odd games I've played in my lifetime few have been as emotionally involving as 'The Walking Dead' has. There are exceptions of course: the finale to 'Red Dead Redemption', pretty much the entire 'Mass Effect' series and maybe the odd cut scene here and there in the Assassins Creed games but apart from that I can't exactly call gaming sentimental. Most of us play video-games to pass the time and be entertained for a few hours, to get that kick after an awesome 'epic-win' or simply to relax. But when a video game actually taps into the same region of the brain that controls emotions such as pain, loss, heartbreak, sadness, despair etc..... now that's special. Sure T.V and Film do it all the time, even Music, but video games? Nah. When a video-game, an interactive form of entertainment that (let's face it) exists to satiate your primal need for violence and bloodlust, actually hits those same dramatic highs as static experiences, that's considered GROUND-BREAKING. 'The Walking Dead', while not necessarily the first or last game to do this, proves once more that video-games, if given more attention in their script department, can meet or even exceed some of your best entertainment experiences. The fact that it is the first game to focus solely on the story and not rely on any tangible gameplay mechanics like shooting to increase the experience further puts it in the spotlight. Oh, and guess what? Having played all five episodes over an eight month period I can now say that it succeeds in doing what it set out to do: It's a story driven adventure game that tailors it's experience to the choices you make. No more, no less. But the fact that it's really, really f*cking good at investing you into the story and the characters makes 'The Walking Dead' one of the best games this year.

Lee doesn't really know what to do with a walkie-talky...

Oh and one more thing: if you read on and haven't played 'The Walking Dead' yet then I advise you to buy and play the game NOW. It's on every available platform imaginable (Xbox Live/PSN/PC/Mac/iphone 4/ipad 2 etc....) and at £3 or 5 euros for one episode episode that last's around 3-4 hours, it really is a bargain. Whether you like zombies, play video-games, or prefer to stay away from this kind of stuff then don't worry, it couldn't be more easier to play. But you do need to have a high tolerance towards drama and gore, so prepare to be stressed as hell but in a way that will have you crawling back for more. With all that in mind, read on. But beware, I can't talk about this episode without spoiling it so *SPOILERS WILL FOLLOW*!

God-dammit! Gotta keep those nasty spoilers out!

The episode starts exactly where Episode 4 'Around Every Corner' left off. Lee Everett (the player) has been bitten by a zombie, and he has at best a few hours to live. Clementine, his nine-year-old protege has been kidnapped by an unknown stranger and to make matters worse Savannah has been overrun by the several thousand strong zombie horde from Episode 3. Your sole objective is to get Clementine back in time before finally succumbing to the zombie virus that's in your veins. Right from the bat the stakes feel high, which is apt considering this the finale to the series. Lee's bite is a ticking time-bomb that permeates throughout the episode, he really does have 'No Time Left'. I'm still amazed that the writers had the balls to kill off their main character in what has been one of the most successful series for Telltale. As an avid watcher of The Walking Dead T.V show and with a considerable amount of knowledge on the comic book I knew from the end of episode 4 that Lee was doomed. The writers love to pull the rug from under your feet at the worst possible moment and they adore false hope, so of course they gave you the option to lop off your infected arm at the start. (NOTE: For the uneducated in the WD universe if you get bit by a zombie you can survive the ordeal by amputating the infected limb, but if have to do it IMMEDIATELY after you get bit. The T.V show just pulled that trick off with Hershel and he survived but only because they cut off his leg fast enough to stop the infection from spreading. But with Lee it had been at least an hour before they decided to cut his arm off so it was inevitable that he would eventually die and transform into a zombie). Shockingly, most players did indeed cut their arm off, still clinging to that last ounce of hope. Not me though, I knew that at this point there was no coming out of this. Cruelly, if Lee is armless throughout the rest of the episode then the signs of zombification taking it's toll will only happen at the very end of the episode (further inspiring hope into players) whereas if you're like me and considered the loss of an arm an detriment then you'll be blacking out all the time and in the worst possible circumstances. To be honest, whatever you pick will have a lasting impact on the story.

They're not going to keep it together...

After the amputation scene in the morgue the Episode is pretty much touch and go until the very end. Lee's time is limited so the first thing he does (after having escaped the hospital with a short but sweet puzzle) is go back to the house and pick up anyone that was left behind at the end of Ep 4 to find Clementine. We're treated to a rather great action scene beforehand though where the zombie horde swarms the house (I cheered when zombie Brie came in through the window) and the group has a last stand on the second floor before retreating up into the attic. The scene in the attic is a great change of pace, it simply involves the survivors sitting in a chair and discussing previous events in the series...it's just a great moment of reflection and instil's  a sense of finality into everything. I'm amazed at how they finally made me care about Omid and Christa as well, in Ep's 3 & 4 as characters I thought they were pretty milk-toast but in Ep 5? Wow, I went from not caring about them to loving them in ten minutes! Omid in particular had some great things to say ('DUDE! You ruined that guy's face!') and insight into Christa's parents T.V habits ('They watch Kung-Fu movies') all added that little extra ounce of likeability to them that was missing in Episode 4. In a way, the sequence in the house encapsulates what's so perfect about Episode 5: you get the balls to the wall tension of Episode 4 and yet straight after it's nothing but people talking inside a room reflecting on their life and situation. It's like Episode 4 but without any of it's shortcomings. The talking doesn't last long though and we're soon thrust out into the zombie filled streets of Savannah using the rooftops as a way to get by unscathed. Of course Ben has to f*ck everything up though, that guy is a magnet for disaster. As the group is jumping from a balcony to the roof of another building the metal girders give way and Ben falls onto the street below. Kenny, having just had sense knocked back into him (Ben grew some balls! YAY!) decides to go down and inspect the damage along with Lee. Unfortunately, Ben has a spike sticking out of his stomach and with the zombies fast approaching Kenny suddenly decides to sacrifice himself and uses his last bullet to put Ben out of his misery. Why he did that I don't know, you could argue that after Katjaa and Duck died he was suicidal but why now, especially when he seemed so intent on saving Clementine? Still I don't know, to be honest Kenny's death was the only moment that felt forced (well that, and Vernon suddenly and inexplicably stealing our boat). I'd rather have this version than the alternative though. If you kill Ben in Episode 4 then Kenny dies a little later saving Christa, who was in turn trying to get the walkie-talkie. A bit more heroic than my scenario yes, but Kenny going out with Ben (for whatever contrived reasons) is much more poetic than 'died because of that blasted walkie-talkie'. HOWEVER, seen as we didn't actually see Kenny die on screen or hear him scream to death as the zombies munched on him then I have reason to believe that he is still alive. In fact, if we don't see your death on The Walking Dead then you're pretty much confirmed to still be alive! The writers have more than enough leeway to bring him back in Season 2 if they want to.

Lee's finest moment in the entire game.

We then see the departure of Omid and Christa and thankfully they don't die horribly like the other characters tend to do. They're separated from Lee as he tries to cross a dilapidated sign (which breaks), and there's no way they can get to him. I advised them to get out of the city and to meet me back at the train (by the way Christa's pregger's, in one of the most blindingly obvious yet surprisingly low-key reveals ever), while exclaiming that they'd be great guardians for Clementine if she get's out of this mess. As Christa and Omid leave it's clear that there is no way to get to The Marsh House (Clementine's supposed location) without first fighting your way through the gigantic zombie horde in front of it. Lee (who at this point is looking extremely pale) being the badass he is climbs down and attacks the horde dead on, in one of the most ludicrously insane yet bad ass moments I've ever experienced in a video-game. Armed with a cleaver and a shard of broken glass cutting into his hand (can't have my left arm unresponsive) the player epically slays a gazillion zombies while the music is swelling to one hell of a crescendo. I can only imagine how more awesome it gets if Lee only has one arm, his sheer drive to save Clementine (and as a result of you inhabiting Lee and Clementine being one of the nicest child characters in fiction, YOUR drive as well) and balls is tremendous. So you fight through the zombies and enter The Marsh House hotel, full of creepy corridors and ready to confront whatever bastard has kidnapped Clementine. Naturally, what follows is not what you expect. In another ballsy move, the writers of The Walking Dead have decided to base the climax of the Finale around two isolated conversations with two people. There's no blaze of glory, no last hurrah, no action climax. Once again, it goes to the core of what makes this game great, the choices and the conversations, not to mention the excellent screen writing. The stranger (the game gives us no name, no doubt to rub in the symbolic nature of the character) turns out to be just another poor soul who has lost everything to the zombie apocalypse and as a result has gone a bit crazy because of it (oh, and he does sound a lot like Tom Cruise). It's all because of that abandoned car you found at the end of Episode 2, I KNEW that was coming back to bit me in the ass. While Clementine is locked up in an adjacent room the stranger forces me to sit and tells his tragic tale to me while at gunpoint. In short, by stealing food from that car he lost both his wife and daughter to the zombies and wants revenge. BUT when hearing of all the horrible things I've done thanks to Clementine (it's a great way of bringing past choices and decisions to the forefront) he decided to kidnap her and 'start a new family'. He also has a habit of talking to the decapitated zombie head of his wife in a bag, which proves to be his downfall when Clem manages to sneak out and distract him while he's talking to the head. Then a rather violent confrontation ensues which either results in the guy dying by Lee strangling him to death or shot in the head by Clementine. I like how the stranger was just like Kenny and Lee but without Clementine to ground him in reality so as a result he kinda lost it. He even makes a point about the fact that he's not just some cannibal or monster in the woods but is in fact just a....Dad. One of the main themes in The Walking Dead is how the zombie apocalypse affects you both mentally and physically, in a way the zombies are perfect as the vice that permits the radical evolution of characters in such a short span of time. This is a world where everyone (alive and dead) are monsters, it shows both the best and worst of humanity and often these two sides switch places. Just look at our main protagonist, Lee. Before the apocalypse he was just some random guy, an ex-history Teacher being sent to jail for murder. Protecting Clementine is almost like his redemption for all that, and the player can even bring it up during the convo with the stranger. Now who you were before doesn't matter, it's all about clinging onto hope and survival. Clementine is Lee's hope. She's all he really cares about now, the old Lee Everett has gone. And the stranger? Before this whole ordeal he had a wife. And a son. AND a daughter. He had a nice life. Now he's got none of that, he has no hope left, and it breaks him, so he's not the guy he was before either. And most of it is because that one small decision that you made at the end of Ep 2 had lasting consequences, and it's repercussions have ultimately cost Lee his life. 

Yeah, crossing that sign MIGHT not be a good idea!

So Lee is finally reunited with Clementine (who is really traumatised about what she's done) but they've still got to get past the horde outside. Lee discovers that if you coat yourself in zombie guts then the zombies will just consider you to be another zombie and leave you alone....so the first thing he does is kill a zombie, scoop out it's intestines and smear it all over Clementine! Lovely...this leads to a tense scene outside where you're surrounded by zombies and have to walk as quietly as possible so as not to draw attention to yourself. Normally this would go without a hitch, but seen as this The Walking Dead then you'd be forgiven for expecting the worst: Clementine spots her zombified parents in the zombie crowd, JUST as Lee passes out again! Lee wakes a bit later, the distraught Clementine having pulled him into an abandoned jewellery store. This is the end of the game. You've got Clementine trapped in a room with a Lee, who at this point can't even move, and he literally has only minutes left. There is an exit, but it's in another room with a zombie security guard/cop. The only thing he can do now is to get Clementine out of this store and offer a few pro-tips on surviving the zombie apocalypse. It's extremely emotional, the voice acting for Clementine in particular had me welling up, especially when she came to the realisation that I was bitten. The way she reacted to everything was exactly how a little girl would react in this situation, and I felt more sorry for her than Lee to be honest! The last half an hour of 'No Time Left' is essentially Lee passing the mantle over to Clementine, as we get to (indirectly) control her by giving her orders on what to do. Clementine has now become the main character, as Lee is slowly fading away. Her arc in this series has mainly been about teaching her how to survive in the ZA, while at the same time making sure she doesn't lose her humanity and stop her becoming a little girl in the process. You've been trying to stop Clementine from becoming like everyone else basically, which is why I asked Omid and Christa to be her guardians as they're the only people who have stayed the same throughout this journey. Point being, we still have to give her hope. 

Dem' zomby's, always trying to grab our attention!

Clementine smashes the glass window and retrieves the handcuffs inside. At this point you can either handcuff the zombie (who's stuck in a chair) or Lee. I chose Lee, just in case he dies while she's still trapped inside. Unfortunately as she goes to get the keys for the door (which are on the zombie cop) he get's loose and with Lee powerless to do anything he basically tells her to grab the cricket bat and smash it's head in, showering her in blood. And just when you think things couldn't get even more bleak the game then gives you the option to either have Clementine shoot you (stopping you becoming a zombie) or to just leave you. Me, not wanting to put Clementine through anything else just asked her to leave me and her response was heartbreaking. I mean she's nine-years-old, caked in blood, crying, heck she's just outright murdered someone AND she's found out that her parents have in fact been dead this whole time....yeah I think I should easy on her. I mean it's one thing to shoot your kidnapper, but Lee??? Nah, that's far to upsetting. Well okay, everything is upsetting at this point. So depending on your ending Clementine either holds your hand while you say a few last words (of your choice, I personally picked 'I'll miss you...' and 'Stay out of the cities' as my last piece of advice) before leaving only to look back and see you die hunched up against the radiator OR picks up the zombie cop's gun crying her eyes out and puts a bullet in your head. Suffice to say, the music swells and 'The Walking Dead' font appears over black shortly afterwards, which basically means that now Lee (the main character and protagonist) is dead and that's the end of his story. As a bit of added symbolism, Lee happens to die handcuffed AND near a zombie cop, just like the beginning of Episode 1 (but sans the dying bit). Clementine though? Well after the credits (during which plays a VERY suitable song) we're treated to a short cut-scene with Clementine holding the gun and sitting a log in the middle of some field looking very sad. She then sees two strangers walking in the distance (Christa and Omid? New Characters? Someone from the comics?) and...they stop, having clearly just noticed Clementine. The game once again cuts to black on Clementine's horrified face and that's it. No more Walking Dead til' Season 2!

NUTTER ALERT! Also, don't look in the bag....WHAT'S IN THE BAG?!!!

So what did I think of 'No Time Left'? Well as you can tell it's mostly praise, but the quietness of the last half is what really caught me off guard, just the abrupt change in tone and pace really. Oh, and I was expecting a better confrontation with Clementine's kidnapper, who they had been building up to since Ep 3 but in the end turned out to be just 'another guy'. I get what they were going for, I really do, but the game went out on a quiet note rather than the epic bang we've been trained to expect from Finale's these days, which you could see as being a positive or a negative. I hate to say it, but I prefer an epic bang. This is also the shortest episode yet (although Ep 4 was the longest Ep) and barely clocks in at an hour and a half. Don't get me wrong none of it feels rushed but I still thought we could have spent some more time with that kidnapper and maybe added in a few climatic action scenes at the end. The only other complaint I can possibly muster (apart from the bugs, which continue to be a constant in this game) is that there are a LOT of loose ends. We have no idea what happened to Molly (I thought she would show up at the end to rescue Lee), Kenny's fate was left ambiguous, Vernon just outright stole our boat and left for seemingly no reason and Omid and Christa just disappeared from the narrative. Not to mention Clementine, who's fate now seems even more uncertain. The only real closure we got was with Ben and Lee, the rest of it just sort of went nowhere. So while they're clearly setting up Season 2 (which has been confirmed) I would have liked to have gotten more finality out of things. Unfortunately, the only real finality you can get in the zombie apocalypse is a bullet through the brain, because if any characters live then they're still in immediate danger. 'No Time Left' is a great finale to the series, although it's hardly perfect: 8/10. Overall though? I think Episode 3 was the best, or more precisely the end of Ep 2 and the start of Ep 3 simply because of the shock value and it was at that moment that we knew just how FAR Telltale was willing to go with it's dark subject matter. That one-two punch of Carley being shot, Lilly leaving, duck getting bit and Clementine (seemingly) becoming a zombie cannot be matched in terms of sheer balls or shock value. The entire Series is fantastic though, and is definitely more than the sum of it's parts. Goodbye Lee Everett, it's been one hell of a traumatising experience! 

Clementine, you crack me up. Seriously, I can't stop crying!

The Walking Dead Overall: 9/10

Positives:

+ Great Dialogue, Voice acting, Story, Characters etc...
+ Brilliant art-style, really captures the feel of the comic-book. 
+ Great sound design, music
+ Truly haunting
+ Really depressing
+ Shocking, unexpected twists
+ Clementine, Lee, Kenny
+ Choices, consequences
+ Really tense action
+ Easy controls

Negatives:

- It's very buggy, can detract from experience
- Episode 4 is a little dull
- Chuck's death
- Last episode is really short
- Point and click gameplay is boring
- Lot's of loose threads
- Puzzles too easy

P.S Thank you Telltale for introducing episodic games back into our mainstream culture, it fits so well, not to mention bringing back the old adventure games in style. Ah yes, and thanks for giving us a great story....BUT IN A VIDEO GAME! 

A sad end, but a fitting one.