
- Is clementine in the new walking dead game how to#
- Is clementine in the new walking dead game series#
The Walking Dead became the first game I played with a black, female lead. This ended the first season of The Walking Dead, with Lee dead, and Clementine alone. I didn’t want to see his shrunken cheeks, his gray skin, his fate. When the choice was given to either let Lee turn into a zombie or kill him to prevent his turning, I told Clementine to shoot. He pushed Clementine as far as he could, then had to let her go. He cut off his infected arm, but it was too late. The way Telltale was able to create such a strong bond between two people in a matter of five episodes astounded me, and devastated me when their bond was broken. While others hung on to Clementine for dear life, I grabbed Lee by the hands, and hoped he’d teach me something along the way. He was to Clementine a father that looked a lot like my father, but was not him in any way, shape or form. Lee was, for me, the first Black playable character in a game that was not sports-based. And what Telltale succeeded with the most was its ability to capture human relationships between people, especially between Lee and Clementine. Not every option needs to create a butterfly effect change of massive proportions. The game always ended with the same conclusion no matter your choices, but it was those little changes you made in the story that felt incredibly personal. Those choices like who to save and who to sacrifice weighed on my heart and hands as I moved from choice to choice, thinking of what to pick before the timer reached zero. Despite Telltale’s linear storytelling-here I harken back to the the proverb “Telltale choices don’t matter”-I felt like every choice did matter. The Walking Dead was the first game I played that placed heavy choices in my hands. Even if both fictional, the two needed each other in order to create the cohesive, and emotionally tense story. The team wanted Clementine to look as if she could be Lee’s daughter, so they made Clementine black. “Vanaman decided a pre-existing relationship would be too much to ask a player to take on in The Walking Dead world,” so Lee was born. According to Vanaman, Clementine was originally going to have a brother be her guardian for the game. While Clementine was always envisioned for the game, Lee was not. In fact, Clementine’s race was changed to black because of Lee. Still, Lee had an impact on the version of Clementine we see today. Soon, what Lee, or the player, decides to do is all based off of whether or not Clementine approves.
Is clementine in the new walking dead game how to#
Unable to find her parents, Lee steps in as a guardian, not only in protecting her against zombies (and evil people), but in teaching her lessons that she will soon need to learn, like how to use a gun. Though the player controls Lee for the entirety of the first season, Clementine is always the one with the most control.

In an interview with Game Informer, co-project leader Sean Vanaman stated that Clementine was “literally the first idea” he had for the game. It wasn’t until they created the first season of The Walking Dead, and created the loving and complex relationship with Lee and Clementine, that they had successfully pulled it off. Titles like Back to the Future: The Game and Tales of Monkey Island were the company’s attempt at gaining an audience and earning money with franchises already beloved by millions of people. Telltale has worked with established titles since the company’s inception in 2004. Lee escapes unharmed, thus beginning his journey out of Macon, where he meets a variety of people hoping to survive, including little Clementine. As the playable character, the game begins with Lee in a cop car heading to jail, when a zombie derails the car and kills the driver.

When I first played The Walking Dead, I mistakenly believed the game was about Lee Everett, a former University of Georgia professor who is convicted of murder after killing a man for sleeping with his wife. Six years later, the series, and the company that made it, has come to an end. I listened to people grow attached to the characters, hoping death wouldn’t be so inevitable. I watched videos about what choices other players picked and why. It was episodic, reminiscent of television shows, but with the interactive spin of letting the player decide what to do. The Walking Dead was unlike any game I had ever experienced.

When I tried the game’s first episode, “A New Day,” I was hooked. I was initially disinterested in yet another story about surviving a zombie apocalypse, but so much chatter about the game made me realize that the epidemic was a secondary role to the story. I’ve played every episode of Telltale’s The Walking Dead.

Little did we all know an 8-year old girl named Clementine would herald in a new form of narrative gaming, and a story to be cherished forever.
Is clementine in the new walking dead game series#
This is a eulogy for the end of a series and of a company, and also for a game that I loved to death.
