The Walking Dead 2 Episode 5 Review

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I was hoping that I would be able to make it through a season finale of The Walking Dead without making any decisions I immediately regretted or crying. I failed. It was a fool's hope anyway.

Much like the finale of season one, there were very few times where they give the player the opportunity to take a break and look around. It was mostly a constant push towards the end of the episode. They did give the characters a break at one point, which also let me become more attached to them. This was no doubt part of their grand plan to break my heart, but those are not things that you realize while playing.

There was one situation that I saw coming from a mile away because the writers focused on it so much for the last couple of episodes. On the other hand there was another closely related situation that I did not see coming at all.

As a whole I enjoyed the second season of Telltale's The Walking Dead, though not as much as the first season. I would say that the main factor was the faster turnover of characters. I did not get enough time to get attached to most of the characters before they died or were otherwise removed from the group. I cannot remember many of their names, or how they died. In contrast I remember almost all of the characters from season one.

Telltale knows how to frame a shot.

I am not sure if Telltale will make a third season, and frankly I am not sure how wise it would be for them to try. It is easy for the player to become jaded to the loss they are constantly subjected to in this series. The second season also had much less of a cultural impact; out of my Steam friends, the number of people who have played the second season is less than half that of the first. I would certainly play a third if they made it though.

The Walking Dead 2 Episode 4 Review

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I missed out on this episode when it first came out because I was working at camp and didn't have internet or time to play. Now I get around to it just as the season finale comes out, which means that I will not have a month of suspense at the end of the episode.

Amid the Ruins brings us back to the more familiar Telltale formula, with action sequences interspersed with characters talking while walking and even a hub area where you can take a break and look around a Civil War memorial.

I mentioned in the last episode that Clementine carried the group in a way that is not normal for an 11 year old girl. This episode did feature Clementine contributing heavily, but not in ways that felt forced by the writers. The flow and pace of the episode felt much more natural, with almost no moments that pulled me out of the game.

There were even a few genuinely humorous moments, mostly provided by my new favorite character, Mike. I wish he had gotten a chance to shine earlier, and I certainly hope that they do not kill him off. Small chance of that.

I will likely play the season finale within a day, so you won't have to wait long for my thoughts on that.

The Walking Dead 2 Episode 3 Review

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This episode was structured very differently from the other episodes we've seen so far from The Walking Dead. It almost felt like the story it told could stand on its own, with some fleshing out of course. In particular the ending had so much closure I'm not sure where they are going to take the series next, other than the obvious problem of continuing to survive in a zombie apocalypse.

My favorite thing about this episode was how Clementine really came into her own. In previous episodes the writers came up with ways for her to influence events without being the main actor. Here she does almost everything that is needed for the group's plans to work. Of course one of the characters brings up how crazy this is, so the writers were not unaware of the stretch they were taking here. I hope this opens up the door for Clementine to do even more cool stuff.

I believe that I have now seen all of the characters from the 400 Days DLC, though most of them showed up briefly and had very few lines. I am looking forward to seeing them more in future episodes. If Telltale doesn't use them more I am going to be pretty disappointed.

This episode didn't let up on The Walking Dead's tendency to be emotionally taxing. I kept alternating between cheering characters on and cursing at the screen when things went wrong. And that's just the way I like it.

The Walking Dead 2 Episode 2 Review

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I wasn't really sure what to expect from the second episode of The Walking Dead 2 because the first episode didn't have much going on in it. I didn't know enough about the group of people I met to make predictions about what was going to happen. Luckily the second episode picks things up; well, it's not lucky for the characters in the game, but you know what I mean.

The most important thing that happens in this episode is the people in your new group get fleshed out more in a big way. The Walking Dead would fail completely if it didn't have strong characters that you care about. I found myself drawn to the people in the group to varying degrees, much as I would in real life.

The biggest challenge Telltale faces in this game is finding ways to give the player agency in ways that make sense for an 11 year old girl. For the most part I think they succeeded, though there were a few exceptions; for example, who would leave Clementine alone to figure out how to turn off a wind turbine?

Unfortunately I cannot go into the best things about this episode without spoiling everything, but trust me: The Walking Dead 2 is officially now worth getting. There were a lot of surprises, which I was not expecting. I thought I was prepared for anything that Telltale could throw at me, but I was very wrong.

Much like the first episode, they end with a huge cliffhanger. If you hate dealing with those, you might want to wait until the third episode comes out, but that will probably end on a cliffhanger as well. I'm enjoying playing it one episode at a time, but I wish I had somebody I could discuss things with.

The Walking Dead 2 Episode 1 Review

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If you have not played The Walking Dead Season 1 yet, you probably shouldn't read this. I reserve the right to spoil things that you would know by the time you play Season 2.

Sometimes we do things even though we know they will cause us strife. That is the only reason I can think of for why I started playing Season 2 of The Walking Dead. I knew that nothing good could come of it, but darn it I was not going to miss out on the rest of Clementine's story.

One of the things that I was most excited about was the fact that the decisions I made during Season 1 would carry over and have an impact in Season 2. And indeed, the game found my save files and imported them properly, but I didn't notice anything during the first episode that had anything to do with what I had done during Season 1. That includes the 400 Days DLC. The story didn't suffer as a result, but I spent most of the episode waiting for one of the characters to show up or some fallout from a decision I had made earlier to bite me in the butt. Nothing of the sort happened.

Being that Clementine is a lot smaller than Lee, the combat played out much differently. Instead of struggling with the zombies and trying to bash their heads in, Clementine usually runs and dodges away from whatever is chasing her. There were also far fewer puzzles, and those that were present were fairly straightforward. Honestly most of the episode was a continuous push forward, with few hub areas to simply explore and talk to people.

Overall I would call this episode a setup episode. Telling you what it is setting up would be a spoiler, but it might be in your best interest to wait and find out how good the next episode is before deciding whether or not to buy the whole season.

Interactively making a 10 year old give themselves stitches was quite the experience though.

EDIT: You can now read my review of Episode 2.