It focuses on people, features very little environmental exploration, and doesn’t bother with puzzles. What have I done? Empathy is the greatest success of In Harm’s Way. Yes, I wanted him dead - he is likely the first person Clementine has ever truly hated - but that was secondary to protecting those who suffered because of him. My cold, bitter Clementine warmed to those around her, even those she didn’t fully trust, because of Carver. He made me play Clementine differently than I had been, but in quite the opposite way of most games. Bill Carver is a different kind of sociopath.
Their mental instability absolves you of any uncertainty or guilt when you do something terrible to them. Sociopaths in video games usually exist to motivate the player’s violence. Carver escalates from a man whose subtlety is scary to someone whose unpredictability made me dread every interaction with him. Bill Carver is Telltale’s vessel for that fear and distress. In Harm’s Way is about as bleak as this franchise has ever been, and what little optimism exists is only here to remind you how easily it can be used against you. The Walking Dead explores what that means to players while putting them on a hopeless road for Episode 4. Clementine and company’s overnight escape plans put everyone at risk, and the way In Harm’s Way builds to its devastating climax had me anxious and uncomfortable in all the right ways. Clementine’s new family is imprisoned by Bill Carver, the quiet maniac who debuted in Episode 2: A House Divided.
Yet there is no glee during the unpredictable story told during In Harm’s Way. The scenes in which they’re each tested are memorable, excellent, and effectively unpleasant, in a way that is uniquely Walking Dead - to acknowledge you have enjoyed them is to submit to your own sadistic sensibilities. In Harm’s Way writer Pierre Shorette forces many of The Walking Dead’s characters to their physical and mental breaking points. Contrary to The Walking Dead’s previous episode, I had no interest in reliving the events to find out. If I had been more willing to do things differently, would more people still be here? Probably not. What have I done? As the credits rolled, I wondered if I should have been less forgiving, less brash, less compassionate.
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