The girl you knew in season one is gone—changed. Clementine may only be a few months older, but she’s grown up since the moment you first met her in The Walking Dead: Season One in 2012. She’s smarter, more jaded, and more cautious with who she trusts. This is in part due to the events of the first game, but is mostly a result of Clem being front and center as the lead protagonist of Season Two.
One moment in particular is so nerve-wracking that even series veterans of gross-out games like Dead Space will be tested. This game is intense.
The story of Season Two is gripping, gut-wrenching, and a bit depressing, but it’s also a bit short—too short. At a mere two hours, there’s very little of a game actually there, but what is there is tension-ridden and well-written. Players will fluctuate between a sense of trying to act the way a child would and protect Clementine the way a parent would.
The only downside to the whole ordeal is that Clementine sometimes says things that a child probably wouldn’t say, zombie outbreak or not. I won’t spoil what happens, but rest assured, the story is shocking and a whirlwind of peril the entire time. One moment in particular is so nerve-wracking that even series veterans of gross-out games like Dead Space will be tested. This game is intense.
Clem is forced to decide who to save, who to trust, and who to leave to die.
Gameplay has been greatly improved, and Telltale seems to have applied some of the improvements that were seen in The Wolf Among Us to the latest season of The Walking Dead. With the right trigger functioning as a run button , traversal of the terrain far less sluggish than in Season One. QTE’s seem easier than last season, maybe too easy, but that comes with learning the series. The true pinnacle of the game, however, is the decisions, which are as heartbreaking, difficult, and horrific as ever, with Clem being forced to decide who to save, who to trust, and who to leave to die.
More great things seem to be on the horizon.
The graphics are beautiful, though they haven’t been greatly improved since Season One. Characters’ animations are still a bit jerky like a stop-motion animation, but the comic book art style really adds to the feel of the game, and never detracts from the dangers present in the game’s world.
Season Two of The Walking Dead starts off slowly, but it eventually settles into the story players will come to expect. More great things seem to be on the horizon, and with the stellar formula of the first season as the foundation, the rest of this season of The Walking Dead may prove to be the shining example of episodic gaming at its finest, and I can’t wait to see what comes next.
