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Warning: The following review contains an assful of spoilers. Read at your own risk.
The first episode back to Telltale's wonderful game series threw me for a loop. Playing as the strong, kind-hearted Lee in the first season was wonderful as it was very emotional, but the second season puts gamers in the shoes of young Clementine, providing a very different experience. The game is still meant to depress the hell out of you with incredibly tough moral decisions with incredibly harsh consequences, but there is now a new layer of depth to the game mechanic; that of pure helplessness.
Playing through the contextual action-oriented events in Season Two, Episode One was terrifying. Here we see a young girl, who, if buttons are input incorrectly, dies on-screen. We, as Clementine, do not possess the strength of Lee. However, while not physically strong, Clem makes up for it with intelligence and fearlessness. Only Telltale could pull off having a child protagonist, and I came to the realization they succeed remarkably in this upon the completion of the second episode.
Why the second episode though? While I have always loved the character of Clementine, I was mildly bummed out when I heard that she was going to be the playable character of season two. After I played the first episode, I was worried that the rest of the season would pale in comparison to the excellent first season; while the first episode was by no means bad, it seemed like the story would be heading in somewhat generic territory. This all changed in the second episode, since we are presented with great morality decisions, a great villian, a sentimental reunion, and as always, great, yet simultaneously terrifying action scenarios.
Keep in mind it is very difficult to review this game normally. The Walking Dead is essentially a personalized experience for every player, reading off the save files of the past episodes, delivering an experience solely based on what past decisions you have made. In this review, I will highlight events that happened in my personal playthrough.
The episode opens up with a bang. In my playthrough, I began with Nick, stuck inside an area resembling a shed. I had to help him hold a door closed as walkers were breaking through. In the heat of the moment, I selected the choice "find something" in which Nick, leaving me there to hold the door, finds an object and places it in front of the door. Realized they were stuck there, Nick finds some good ol' moonshine and has at it. Clementine wakes up to the sound of Nick throwing the bottles at the wall, in a drunken state. Some dialogue takes place, while Nick even offers me some moonshine. I do not accept. I talked Nick out of his drunken stupor, who basically wants to stay behind and die. Clem tells him he has a family out there...and Nick joins Clementine in leaving. Shortly thereafter, surrounded by walkers, Nick yells at Clementine to run. I refused and Clementine goes over to Nick. He then responds with a yell..."I SAID RUN." Clementine then runs away in a contextual button-input QTE. Hell of an opener.
From here, we return to the household, and tell the others about Nick being left behind. They set out, Clem stays with Sarah to keep an eye out for her and along the way, wanting to make her feel at ease, I snap a photo of her. Here, a man forces himself in, and we are introduced to the big bad villain of this season...his name we do not know yet at this point in time. There are many dialogue decisions during this segment, I felt he was a threat to our group so I lied to him the entire time, telling him there was nobody else in the house. He then finds the picture I took of Sarah. Whoops. When this happened, I lied, telling him it was "my sister...she's dead." He then pretty much detects my bullshit and leaves the house, warning me.
To prevent this review from being too long-winded, I will not detail every single step of the game. In a nutshell, from here on out, the group returns, we leave the household in fear the guy will come back because we learn the group had a previous run-in with him, we save Nick along the way, me and Luke trek across a bridge toward a resort to make sure it is clear for the rest of the group (accompanied by a pretty slick action sequence), a man approaches us with a rifle, ends up being super nice, but then Nick shoots him because he thinks he's a threat to the group...said man dies. We get to the resort, and Clementine is shocked. KENNY IS THERE! I instantly choose to hug him, and I get a small feeling of relief, which is rare for this game series. A member of Kenny's group does not take too kindly to us after I tell him we killed the man on the bridge...who turned out to be his friend, a red-haired woman shows up asking for some supplies, we give it to her, she returns with the creepy man and his group shortly thereafter. Uh-oh. This places us in a bad situation, and I get the decision to give up and go downstairs, or go outside and find Kenny and Luke (who previously left our group to assist with fixing the electricity to the lodge/resort). I find Kenny out there, I ask where Luke is, he gets mildly offended. He takes a shot, killing a member of the group, so the main villain, whose name is revealed to be William Carver by members of the group earlier, kills the man whose friend I killed. Not to risk anymore, I tell Kenny not to take the shot when Carver grabs another member of the group at gunpoint. This puts us all in a bad situation, all being captured, and the episode comes to a conclusion. But...what happened to Luke? Did he die and Kenny did not want to tell me? Will he save us all? I find it quite interesting that Luke was shaping up to be a very big player in the season, then suddenly is M.I.A.
So, now that my version of the play-through has been roughly explained for reviewing purposes, let's continue by breaking down the actual review. The story presents us with an absolutely fantastic scenario, and the writing for this episode is commended, as I enjoyed it quite a bit. Michael Madsen does a great job as Carver, invoking a new sense of terror into the game, especially considering you are left off with a life-or-death hostage situation through the eyes of a child. The supporting characters become very likable in this episode, especially Luke. The only character I'm having a tough time liking is Nick, which is completely understandable, but I can not escape the feeling that he is basically the "Ben" of season two.
As far as graphics, the game is visually appealing as always. It still has the whole cell-shaded/drawn look that we've grown to accept and love, a nod to the graphic novel that both the game and the television series have spun out of.
From a gameplay perspective, the episode had a perfect balance of action-oriented sequences and dialogue decisions. There were a few instances in which we were given full control over Clem, including the pre-dinner sequence which gave us a good "calm before the storm" feeling. Until we we have to choose who to sit with...and an argument ensues. Oh well, it was at least calming while it lasted.
Overall, this episode was very good. It is equally parts terrifying and satisfying playing as Clementine; watching her overcome obstacles gives the player a great sense of satisfaction because she struggles quite a bit more than Lee. The fact that Clem is so young gives the player the incentive to try harder and make the correct choices during the dialogue situations. The morality decisions during this episode are very difficult and dig deep, emotionally connecting you to the story and the people around it. As it stands, there are many unanswered questions and we are left with another cliffhanger. For the sake of the season, I hope Luke is still alive as I enjoy him as a character. Or maybe it's intentional by Telltale to rip away the character Clem most takes a liking to in order to give us that feeling of desperation and hope yet again so Clem will have to be independent and use everything Lee has taught her to rise to the occasion. We'll find out soon enough.
Why the second episode though? While I have always loved the character of Clementine, I was mildly bummed out when I heard that she was going to be the playable character of season two. After I played the first episode, I was worried that the rest of the season would pale in comparison to the excellent first season; while the first episode was by no means bad, it seemed like the story would be heading in somewhat generic territory. This all changed in the second episode, since we are presented with great morality decisions, a great villian, a sentimental reunion, and as always, great, yet simultaneously terrifying action scenarios.
Keep in mind it is very difficult to review this game normally. The Walking Dead is essentially a personalized experience for every player, reading off the save files of the past episodes, delivering an experience solely based on what past decisions you have made. In this review, I will highlight events that happened in my personal playthrough.
The episode opens up with a bang. In my playthrough, I began with Nick, stuck inside an area resembling a shed. I had to help him hold a door closed as walkers were breaking through. In the heat of the moment, I selected the choice "find something" in which Nick, leaving me there to hold the door, finds an object and places it in front of the door. Realized they were stuck there, Nick finds some good ol' moonshine and has at it. Clementine wakes up to the sound of Nick throwing the bottles at the wall, in a drunken state. Some dialogue takes place, while Nick even offers me some moonshine. I do not accept. I talked Nick out of his drunken stupor, who basically wants to stay behind and die. Clem tells him he has a family out there...and Nick joins Clementine in leaving. Shortly thereafter, surrounded by walkers, Nick yells at Clementine to run. I refused and Clementine goes over to Nick. He then responds with a yell..."I SAID RUN." Clementine then runs away in a contextual button-input QTE. Hell of an opener.
From here, we return to the household, and tell the others about Nick being left behind. They set out, Clem stays with Sarah to keep an eye out for her and along the way, wanting to make her feel at ease, I snap a photo of her. Here, a man forces himself in, and we are introduced to the big bad villain of this season...his name we do not know yet at this point in time. There are many dialogue decisions during this segment, I felt he was a threat to our group so I lied to him the entire time, telling him there was nobody else in the house. He then finds the picture I took of Sarah. Whoops. When this happened, I lied, telling him it was "my sister...she's dead." He then pretty much detects my bullshit and leaves the house, warning me.
To prevent this review from being too long-winded, I will not detail every single step of the game. In a nutshell, from here on out, the group returns, we leave the household in fear the guy will come back because we learn the group had a previous run-in with him, we save Nick along the way, me and Luke trek across a bridge toward a resort to make sure it is clear for the rest of the group (accompanied by a pretty slick action sequence), a man approaches us with a rifle, ends up being super nice, but then Nick shoots him because he thinks he's a threat to the group...said man dies. We get to the resort, and Clementine is shocked. KENNY IS THERE! I instantly choose to hug him, and I get a small feeling of relief, which is rare for this game series. A member of Kenny's group does not take too kindly to us after I tell him we killed the man on the bridge...who turned out to be his friend, a red-haired woman shows up asking for some supplies, we give it to her, she returns with the creepy man and his group shortly thereafter. Uh-oh. This places us in a bad situation, and I get the decision to give up and go downstairs, or go outside and find Kenny and Luke (who previously left our group to assist with fixing the electricity to the lodge/resort). I find Kenny out there, I ask where Luke is, he gets mildly offended. He takes a shot, killing a member of the group, so the main villain, whose name is revealed to be William Carver by members of the group earlier, kills the man whose friend I killed. Not to risk anymore, I tell Kenny not to take the shot when Carver grabs another member of the group at gunpoint. This puts us all in a bad situation, all being captured, and the episode comes to a conclusion. But...what happened to Luke? Did he die and Kenny did not want to tell me? Will he save us all? I find it quite interesting that Luke was shaping up to be a very big player in the season, then suddenly is M.I.A.
So, now that my version of the play-through has been roughly explained for reviewing purposes, let's continue by breaking down the actual review. The story presents us with an absolutely fantastic scenario, and the writing for this episode is commended, as I enjoyed it quite a bit. Michael Madsen does a great job as Carver, invoking a new sense of terror into the game, especially considering you are left off with a life-or-death hostage situation through the eyes of a child. The supporting characters become very likable in this episode, especially Luke. The only character I'm having a tough time liking is Nick, which is completely understandable, but I can not escape the feeling that he is basically the "Ben" of season two.
As far as graphics, the game is visually appealing as always. It still has the whole cell-shaded/drawn look that we've grown to accept and love, a nod to the graphic novel that both the game and the television series have spun out of.
From a gameplay perspective, the episode had a perfect balance of action-oriented sequences and dialogue decisions. There were a few instances in which we were given full control over Clem, including the pre-dinner sequence which gave us a good "calm before the storm" feeling. Until we we have to choose who to sit with...and an argument ensues. Oh well, it was at least calming while it lasted.
Overall, this episode was very good. It is equally parts terrifying and satisfying playing as Clementine; watching her overcome obstacles gives the player a great sense of satisfaction because she struggles quite a bit more than Lee. The fact that Clem is so young gives the player the incentive to try harder and make the correct choices during the dialogue situations. The morality decisions during this episode are very difficult and dig deep, emotionally connecting you to the story and the people around it. As it stands, there are many unanswered questions and we are left with another cliffhanger. For the sake of the season, I hope Luke is still alive as I enjoy him as a character. Or maybe it's intentional by Telltale to rip away the character Clem most takes a liking to in order to give us that feeling of desperation and hope yet again so Clem will have to be independent and use everything Lee has taught her to rise to the occasion. We'll find out soon enough.
Rating:
8.5/10
(8.5 out of 10)
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