One Choice is No Choice; How TellTale Did Morality Right

Here's a weird admission. Up until recently, the most effective and difficult moral choice I've ever had to make in a game was in Fable III. At the beginning, the king offers you a choice of who to kill; some villagers or your childhood sweetheart. If you take too long, the king suddenly starts counting down from ten, at which point he will have both parties executed.

It's almost the perfect example of what a moral choice can be. Often in games, when presented with moral choices, we play tactically. We don't go with our gut, we try and "game" the system and play tactically. The moral decisions in BioShock, for example, aren't really about ethics, they're about whether or not you want upgrades now or later.

Sticking the time limit on a moral choice that doesn't immediately offer any advantages either way is a fantastic way of giving a moral choice weight. It worked in that first bit of Fable III and by god does it work in The Walking Dead game.

I think we all responded the same way when it was announced that TellTale was developing a game based non TWD: Seriously? The developer behind three seasons of Sam and Max, Tales of Monkey Island and the Bone games? Madness. Oh, how we all scoffed when TellTale assured us that it would not only be as dark as the comics, but also push "the boundaries of what a game can accomplish". Of course, we all knew what to expect, another point and click adventure with some fun dialogue here and there.

We were quite wrong, as it goes.

I'm a little behind the curve on the games, to be honest. I only really picked up the first episode on the recommendations of Matt Lees, who I met the other week at the indie meet-up. I downloaded it the evening I got home and played it into the evening.

It's not just the choices that make TWD such an incredible experience, although they are a big part of it. It's the characters reactions to those decisions. It's how they look it at you, it's how they yell at you, it's how YOUR split second, spur-of-the-moment choices affect the way they think about you. It's also about how Clementine looks at you when you straight up murder that one dude. 

I've now completed the first two episodes, and they've both been incredible emotional experiences. They forced me into situations where I wasn't happy doing what I decided to do. What's especially good is that Lee never acts all badass when you choose an "evil" decision, like say Shepard does when you select a Renegade option in Mass Effect.

That's the thing though. The choices in TWD are never really good or evil. The choices are beyond that. The game doesn't give you time to stop and consider what will happen, you just respond. TellTale perfected the moral choices dilemma by taking "good vs evil" out of the question

Which is perfect really. Play this game. Get excited about the next episodes. Remind me to buy the third one at some point.

Next time, almost the polar opposite of what I have been talking about today. And crumpets.

Crumpets are cruuuunk.