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The Walking Dead Season One from Tellttale Games was an incredibly surprising series for all the best reasons. It was challenging, engaging, atmospheric and best of all it generated an emotional response from the players. Now, Telltale is back with Season Two and they are starting strong once again. Just FYI, if you have not played Season One this review will obviously contain spoilers.
Season Two picks up where the previous season left off. Clementine has lost Lee and is travelling with Omid and a pregnant Christa. This being The Walking Dead, things quickly go from bad to worse and Clementine, as the sole controllable character, has to continue growing up in the harsh world of this universe. Left to her own devices as she gets older, Clementine has to do whatever she can to survive as obstacles face her at every turn.
Not much has changed in the general design for Season Two, which is not a bad thing, but some evolution would have been appreciated. The look of the game is still very stylized, including outlining, giving the game a distinctive graphic novel appearance. The gameplay is a mix of well implemented quick time events, timed conversation mechanics, and exploration.
This first episode is not very puzzle focused, it mostly deals with conversations and getting out of precarious situations, but for the tone and feel of this episode that works just fine. The graphics could stand to be augmented on the PC, and controls could be more intuitive at times, but these things are just nitpicks on a very well implemented series.
A game like this is actually very hard to review because you don’t want to give away too much information so players can experience it fresh, but you do want to let people know if it is worth playing. For all the reasons Season One was great Season Two starts off just as impressively. There are difficult choices to make, tense situations to navigate, and difficult scenes to explore. I genuinely felt a great deal of emotion throughout this first episode and was left wanting more. I began eagerly looking forward to the next episode as soon as the credits started rolling.
I won’t say this first episode is perfect, some initial scenes feel rushed and a little heavy handed, but the game quickly hits its stride and I devoured the rest of the episode without pause or break. This first episode is fairly short but full of great moments that fully immerse one back into this universe and playing as Clementine this time makes the game that much more engaging. We got to know her in the first season and as she grows we are completed invested in this character and want to see more.
The Walking Dead Season Two is off to a great start and I highly recommend this game to fans of the first season and anyone else who is interesting in great storytelling in an interactive game.
The Walking Dead Season Two – Episode One is rated M (Mature) by the ESRB for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Strong Language. This game can also be found on: Mac, PS3, and Xbox 360.
