That would be a mistake.  There my be only one ending, but most games only have one ending.  Dont deny yourself one of the best stories ever told in video games!  

Ya honestly the story alone is worth it imo. But as a game it loses a lot of value because of what you know. Sorry for spoiling it X(.

I thought this was a multiple ending game, to reflect your choices. One ending means your choices are superficial. The thing I read here in this thread that turned me off is people will die no matter what you do, only delay it.

You are focusing too much on how your choices play out.  You dont choose anything in a halo story or game, does that make those games bad?  The story in walking dead is freaking incredible.  The choices are there more for you develop an attachment to the characters rather than radically altering the story.  For example, at one point you are given four food items to distribute among nine people.  Does the choice of who gets the food really change anything? No, but it is still incredibly difficult.  That is why the choices are there, to elevate the storytelling, not alter it.

I will give it this, it had the most shocking scene of any game I played this year (in Episode 3) and it really bothered me when it happened.

I think we often have two brains in games, the experience brain where we observe and the gamer brain where we experiment and find the edges of the game and sometimes try to break it.

I tried at every attempt to be rid of Clem and the game said "no, you love her!" and that was big hit for me to be forced to role play as something that felt disingenuous. My fiancee on the other hand loved the game and had no issues seeing the game makers hand guiding her to certain choices. For her it was like watching a great film, for me it was a split much like the OP of a great film and a rather limited game once I found it "fighting" me and the path I wanted to take.

I found that one of the weakest most forced choices in the game. Why can't I divide the available food between everyone. Why can't I discuss it as a group, some people wanted to forego eating anyway.
A lot of choices are forced and there is often no option for what I want to say or do at the time. That diminishes the game somewhat. At some points I would have it rather keep going then wait for me to pick between 3 options that all lead to the same answer anyway. Mainly because some don't really match the response which breaks the flow of the dialogue.
I'm still going to start episode 5 tonight, the story and characters are interesting enough. But I'm not as excited for it anymore as I was after playing the first episode.

Meh. Not much of a game but the story kept me captivated more than anything else I played this year. It did its one thing and it did it very well. I could easily point out 100 flaws with the game, not to mention that I lost all of my save data in episode 3 and TWICE in episode 4. When the final credits rolled, I was blown away because I was sucked into the story.

Mission accomplished.
Game of the year.

Also, while the game didn't offer much in the way of challenging puzzles (of course, I can pretty much go through life without obscure puzzles and be okay), I am a fan of their Telltale's other games. Sam and Max (got my 360 avatar from that game, btw) Season 1 and 2 (wishing season 3 would come to the 360 but, alas, it seems I'm going to have to go the PS3 route and use up more of my precious memory), and Back to the Future.

If you're not a fan of that type of game, you probably won't be a fan of The Walking Dead. Lucky for me, I am a fan.

This is why it's not mine: Haven't played it.

The choices are important. They may lead to the same ending, but the journey we take to get there is changed. The characters responses to your choices are inconsistent because your choices were most likely inconsistent.