Review

The Walking Dead Episode 4: Around Every Corner

We’ve made it to the episode before the finale! If this was a TV show, then this episode would be set up in such a way that viewers would have no choice but to be super excited for the finale. It would hint at the possibility of questions getting answered, lives being changed forever or just outright ended, feuds coming to a head, random explosions…you know, the basic end of a series stuff. Episode 4: Around Every Corner will certainly make you excited for the end. Unfortunately, that fact has little to do with what’s presented here!

Episode 4 finds our band of dysfunctional survivors on the streets of Savanna, the place they were trying to get to in the last episode. Lee and Clementine looked forward to getting there because it was the last known whereabouts of Clem’s parents. Kenny had his heart set on grabbing a boat and setting sail while others were just content with following the group. None of them expected to see a safe environment with reinforced fences and armed soldiers standing guard. While that is true, they weren’t prepared for menacing voices coming from Clementine’s radio or shadowy figures staring at them in the distance. Though they’ve dealt with crazy people before, this was different. Dealing with shady humans with questionable intentions is one thing; being spied on in an unfamiliar place is another!

Going into this episode, I was anxious to see what was going to become of everyone. Would Clem finally find her parents? If we did would they be alive or would they be “alive”? Would there be a boat to escape and if so, where would they go? Who did the ominous voice over Clem’s radio belong to?  All of these questions were racing through my head and while I didn’t expect to have them all answered, I did expect them to be addressed in some capacity; this is the episode before the finale after all! Instead, what I got was more new characters and a side story that was not directly related to the main group. These types of story elements wouldn’t normally be a problem. The fact is that this all seemed like a lot of added content for something that’s going to end soon.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s cool to see what happened in Savanna and to learn how people had to survive. The new characters are interesting and the drama between them is compelling. My problem was that it seems all for not; one cannot be expected to become attached to characters that are introduced just before the series finale Will some of them show up in the finale…probably? That doesn’t make this episode feel any less like a filler then it is. Which is a shame because it is a good episode; when it comes to the writing, everything is great as always. There are hard decisions to be made, lives in danger, bickering amongst the group, rampant distrust; you name it and it’s here. I just wish the focus stayed primarily with the known conflicts. Heck, I totally forgot that we were looking for Clementine’s parents once I got caught up in this episode. The game only addressed that story arc once and that was near the end.

One thing I need to note about this episode is the execution of the decision making mechanic. Again, like the previous episodes, it feels like my choices only affect the story in minimal ways. Some things are just going to happen no matter what. I’m fine with that. What I do have a problem with is a character totally disregarding everything I’ve done up till this point. There is a situation that pops up at the end of the episode where Lee has to ask a certain character for help. Based on my choices, I felt like it was a no brainer; he or she was going to help me. To my shock, not only did they refuse to help me, but they stated that “I always looked out for myself” as their reason for saying no. I felt genuine betrayal; throughout the entire season I’ve allied myself with this person. How could they say that to Lee…to ME?

Now I don’t know if there was one critical decision in the past that would have led to a more positive outcome or if the game just plum forgot the character I was building in Lee. There are a lot of people who were met with different results (based on the results screen after the credits). For that reason alone, I can’t rule out an issue with my playthrough; maybe I missed something important or there was a glitch affecting the story. What I can say is that I felt cheated. Remember, having the consequences of our choices dictate the interactions across multiple episodes was a huge selling point for this series. Not following my actions completely really brought down my enjoyment. Up until that point, I had a great time fighting off zombies, solving puzzles and interacting with the cast.

Hopefully this won’t be a problem in the final chapter. To which, I’m still excited for. At this point I’m so attached to the characters that I’ve got to know how everything unfolds. As for this episode, it was fun while it lasted. Most of what was great from the other chapters is still great here. There are few hiccups and one major bump in an overall smooth transition from the beginning to the end. Not bad!