Finished it over a weekend.
The whole thing peaks around the end of the second episode... or arguably the midway point of the third. The scenario in the farm gets to a sinister place with human conflicts (which is much more narratively interesting than the zombie ones). And then the game jettisons Carley/Doug and Lilly and loses all momentum. Something happens where the limitations of your choices begin to crack through and the new characters aren't as compelling as the previous ones.
Part of that just comes from the fact that the season blew its load too soon. You can only "shock" me so much with cast members dying left and right until I just start to become cynical, realize I'm being manipulated, and not care anymore because it feels like the game is just being needlessly cruel. Maybe this is part of the source material's appeal, but there needs to be rays of hope or moments of happiness to punctuate the darkness, or it just starts to feel senseless.
Additionally, I also feel like the narrative also starts to go off the rails in terms of believability and intriguing scenarios around the third episode as well. The train stuff is silly, but Krista and Omid are boring characters who don't really make up for the people we lost. The fourth episode feels pretty listless until the proposed Crawford confrontation, which promises a three-way fight between Lee's group, a bunch of elitist pricks, and zombies, but turns out to be a red herring. Instead of copping out with a boring zombie scenario, we could have had some bartering, threatening, or negotating, and even a brawl with the Crawford folks - y'know, human drama - but nope. Also the ninja girl is pretty preposterous and really damages the credibility of the setting, but whatever.
What really lost me was the fifth episode. The stranger's motivations was so contrived that my eyes rolled to the back of my head and remained there for the rest of the ending. The guy goes through this elaborate plot... for... that reason? Ugh. Wasn't too happy with the direction they went with the boat and Kenny, either; after that being the focal point for four episodes, a bunch of elderly cancer patients grab it, disappear, and then Kenny dies pretty pointlessly. That's it?
You'll notice that I haven't spoken about the gameplay. That's because there isn't much to say. The puzzles are so basic the game might as well toss them completely, unless Telltale's going to bother to make them better/more complex/more intuitive. The illusion of choice represents the other half of the gameplay problems: I get why this is an episodic series, yet I can't help but wonder if the need to account for a bunch of potentially different stories over five episodes is a burden. Maybe there could be some one-offs that allow you to really branch out? That way they're not tied down by continuity....
As for Lee and Clem's relationship... it was well done. First child character in a while who wasn't super annoying (even during the requisite part where she got kidnapped). But I won't say I was super emotionally affected by their parting either.
I'm beginning to wonder if maybe I'm just going in a different direction than most of GAF when it comes to this stuff.