Just a little note before I get into the review proper, rather than creating separate posts for each episode, I‘ve decided to create this one mega review instead that will be updated each time a new episode is released and then with my thoughts on the season as a whole once it’s over. I will try to keep them to a minimum, but after the first episode I can’t guarantee that there won’t be minor spoilers because spending every entry being candid about the whole plot of an episodic series is nigh on impossible. So just to be on the safe side I wouldn’t read past the next episode you were planning on playing.
Well, without further ado here’s the Lemming’s verdict on The Walking Dead Season 2.
The first season of Telltale’s game based on Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead is one of the most heart wrenching games I’ve ever played. In the 20 odd years I’ve been gaming, I can count the times a game has made me cry on one hand. I’ll admit more than a single manly tear rolled down my face during the conclusion of The Walking Dead’s first season.
The game’s expert storytelling, winding narrative, intense decision based gameplay and ability to play with gamers’ emotions like a cat with a freshly caught mouse made it one of the finest games of 2012.
Telltale had successfully created a cast of mostly likeable characters that you cared about deeply, no more so then the game’s two central protagonists – Lee and Clementine. Every decision you were forced to make was excruciating and every death hit hard, none more so than the one that finally leaves Clementine alone at the end of the season’s climax.
The fact that most of them were missing or dead at the end of the season made me wonder what Telltale had in store for season 2. Could I learn to love again after they’d kicked me so many times previously and what was going to happen to Clementine now that Lee was gone?
Episode 1 ‘All That Remains’ – 4/5
Season Two opens in a rather unexpected manner, it makes you feel safe. Clementine has been reunited with some of the other survivors and it appears that they’re actually doing quite well for themselves considering the circumstances. This doesn’t last long.
It’s as if Telltale knows you’ve probably gone a little soft and some of the harsh reality of the setting and horror of the first season has dulled in your memory. The whole two hour runtime after this brief respite is very much a refresher course on how unforgiving and bastardly the series can be.
It runs at a brisk pace and soon Clementine is introduced to a new group of survivors. However it’s clear that the days since the outbreak started haven’t been kind to the new group, they barely trust each other and are instantly wary of Clementine. Almost every conversation with most of the new cast feels like a battle to prove you’re not going to shiv them whilst they sleep. Then again, if I’d spent over a year fighting off lunatics and flesh eating zombies on a daily basis I’d probably feel the same way.
Tender moments are few and far between in ‘All That Remains’, there’s no escaping the misery. To the point that it’s almost excruciating to play at times, I never thought a game could make me feel nauseous and apprehensive to perform a simple button press, I don’t want to ruin it, but you’ll know the section I’m talking about when you get there. At times, the game was so uncomfortable to watch that my wife had to leave the room.
Such is the power of the story telling and the bond that Telltale have managed to forge between the player and Clementine. Even with Lee no longer in the picture, through your own actions you’ll do everything you can to make sure she comes out of a situation unscathed. Well if you can, as with the last season there are certain facts you just can’t change, sometimes shit just happens to move the plot forward. If that pissed you off before, it will do so again, I guarantee it.
There’s also been very little improvement made to the game’s QTE sections. Aiming is more forgiving so that actions are slightly easier to perform during the high-pressure life or death sections. However, occasionally you’ll still find yourself missing an input, or worse it just doesn’t register and end up seeing that dreaded game over screen that completely breaks any sense of immersion.
These minor technical quibbles aside, ‘All That Remains’ is a strong opening to the series, that does a great job of taking stock of what has come before, as well as what we should expect from the rest of the season.
Episode 2 ‘A House Divided’ – 4.5/5
If ‘All That Remains’ was a reminder to players that the world of the walking dead was still full of feral monsters ready to kill you. ‘A House Divided’ is a stark reminder that, despite the apocalypse, other humans are far more dangerous than any other force in nature, as we’re finally introduced to Carver: the terrifying bastard that Clem’s new group of friends have been running from.
Played by the brilliant Michael Mansen (Reservoir Dogs), Carver invades the one peaceful place the survivors have come to call home, Barging his way in whilst the others are out he interrogates Clementine, she doesn’t give an inch in their verbal game of cat and mouse.
However, the ease at which Carver gets into the house and physically dominates the entire scene is a reminder that although Clementine may have grown into a quick witted young lady and a capable survivor, she is still an 11 year old girl and would be no match for the likes of Carver in a physical confrontation.
This is further driven home later in the episode when she’s called upon to dispatch a trapped walker and struggles to prise the claw hammer she uses from its skull.
Despite this, she’s still called upon by the group time and again to scout ahead and help the group when they get into a pinch. Despite only knowing her for a couple of weeks, it’s clear that the group now places almost all of their trust in Clementine.
As you would expect this puts Clementine in some awkward situations and having to make some tough decisions along the way. This comes to a head when the group stumbles upon another group of survivors that Clementine is familiar with. This section was particularly enjoyable as it was great to see some of your choices from the previous season and 400 days affect the narrative. It also fleshes out some of the series new characters during a metaphorical and literal calm before the storm.
There are, of course, sections when you have to face walkers, including saving a fellow survivor from zombies on a bridge, although these sections almost feel like filler, a necessary reminder of the dangers of the wild opposed to the much great threat that the unrelenting Carver poses to the group.
This being The Walking Dead, things don’t end well, and the episodes action packed finale is one of the most violent and choice laden in the entire series to date. Never before have the decisions you made had such an immediate and palpable effect. It’s certainly one you’ll want to experience more than once.
Episode 3 ‘In Harm’s Way’ – 3.5/5
In Harm’s Way is the most predictable episode in the entire season. From the off you know exactly what’s coming. You know that the group will no doubt attempt to escape from Carver’s compound and, this being the Walking Dead, you know that it probably won’t go to plan.
In many ways ‘In Harm’s Way’ is the classic prison drama, opening with a tense transport scene before the group are taken to their new home/prison – The garden centre section of Carver’s Kingdom known as The Pen . Locked outside in the cold for the night, the group are reunited with Reggie, a kind hearted and friendly guy that has been stuck outside in the cold since he helped the group escape previously.
Along with Reggie, the Pen also houses Mike, and Jane – a mute woman who was found walking outside covered in zombie guts.
Reggie explains that as long as the group behaves they will eventually be reintroduced back into society once they’ve proved themselves worthy to be reintroduced into Carver’s new society. He’s very much the A-typical ‘don’t ruin this for me’ inmate, the ‘I’ve only got a couple of weeks left on my sentence’ guy.
What Reggie doesn’t take into consideration is that Carver is pretty much certifiable at this point. As the group formulates their plans to escape, they have to suffer through an almost constant barrage of physical and mental abuse from him which culminates in one very uncomfortable scene. I don’t want to spoil it for you but needless to say it’s the harshest and most shocking scene in this season to date.
Juxtaposing Carver’s brutality is a rather touching scene with Bonnie, a sort of post apocalyptic laundry room scene in which Clem and Bonnie load bullets into magazines in the compounds makeshift armory.
As well as Bonnie you’ll also see cameos from other characters that decided to join the community from 400 days as you go to work and sneak around the place after dark. It’s a simple touch but a rather neat one.
Save for the episode’s climax, despite the relatively lengthy run time of ‘In Harms Way’, there’s not a lot of action. Instead taking the time to develop Clem’s character further as well as reflect on how much she has changed from the scared little girl hiding in her tree house when Lee first met her, to a capable survivor that others depend on. This is reinforced by the continuing evolution of Clem’s friendship with Sarah who is still a naive child whilst Clem, mentally at least, is all but an adult at this point.
This is certainly the strongest aspect of In Harm’s Way, as subtle elements of choice and consequence find their way into most of the episodes dialogue. Whenever I see that someone will remember what I said I wonder how much of an impact my words have had, and how this may change the dynamics of Clem’s relationship with that person later in the series.
However the lack of threat, from the undead at least, for the bulk of the episode, also brings into glaring focus how weak 90% of the new characters introduced in Season 2 are. Aside from Carver, and to a lesser extent Sarah, most of this new group feel like fodder that I find it very hard to connect with in the same way I could with Kenny, Carley and Ben in the first season. Maybe it’s because I know they’re probably all going to die.
Despite this quibble, ‘In Harm’s Way’ is still an interesting experiment and another fine episode of the Walking Dead and one that is sure to have far reaching, and more than likely devastating, consequences as we go into this season’s final act.
