The Walking Dead: The Game - Season 2

It's pretty impressive that amidst all the next gen colossal titles, a game with much simpler nature will stand tall, merely by the brilliantly told story and passionately sympathetic characters. Continuing on the tradition and previous season, Telltale succeeds in delivering a personal and emotionally investing journey, this time focusing on Clementine. After surviving the hardship, baptized by blood and flesh, Clementine is slowly becoming more mature and tougher, while losing bits of innocence a little girls should hold for years to come, a proses which can be quickened by players' choice. Walking Dead will naturally draw players into caring for her, both her physical continuation and her mental well-being, and also characters she interacts with. This is a trait envied by many other games.

Players will assume control over Clementine, she can relatively defend herself better this time, but as a child there are still many limitations to her. The game creates many situations where she has to trust or rely on others. This is a bit different than Lee and Clementine relationship before, although the main purpose is the same; to keep her safe. Characters might treat Clementine differently or have contradicting motives, furthermore they are not one dimensional and quite hard to predict, a great writing on Telltale's part. This uncertainty brings more dynamic trust play, but the mutual dependency of Lee and Clementine is admittedly missed.

Graphic doesn't veer much from what Telltale is known for, comic style characters and background. Colors are nicely done, outline for visual are thick and heavily influenced by comic. Design for setting is sound, unique between each chapter and condition. The expressions are well made and this time around there are less lag when transitioning from scenes, although some bugs or stuttering persist. Action segments are more polished with the same concept of QTE is still in use. Loading time is also shortened a little. It's a slight improvement in technical department and also remains an artistic rendition, but certainly not as superior as majority of game nowadays.

The game's bread and butter are interaction and decisions. It is an interactive story, mixed breed between movie and game, so players will determine how Clementine will respond to certain events. Everything isn't a simple good or bad, there are times where hard decisions with looming consequences have to be made. The game really shines on the story, it feels personal and charming. While some scenes are probably inevitable, it's nice to see simple decisions might affect the scenes afterwards, be it small or large repercussion.

Narrative is a very strong point in this game, dialogues are intimate and emotional. Dubbing as a crucial part of the game doesn't disappoint as the cast perform splendidly to bring characters to live, especially Melissa Hutchison who sounds so organic as Clementine. Accents are defined, subtle sobbing , light snicker or frightened scream fit very well depend on the circumstances. Considering how many possibilities and situations, the actors do incredible job. There's not much in term of music aside from instrumental tunes for moody vibe and some songs, particularly at the end of each episode. What little it has works fine.

The structure between episodes is solid, however season one was better constructed, just by a thin margin. While it does have advantage of having decisions more far reaching and more diverse conclusion, season 1 had mystery tone to it. Personally, I don't think there's a bond as strong as that of Lee and Clementine, and season 1 just had a very memorable ending. However, this merely constitutes as opinion as both games are undoubtedly excellent.

The game is relatively short, about two hours per episode. It keeps the appeal of the prequel with Clementine as the heart of the game, players will likely try to protect and nurture her. It's an achievement in storytelling to captivate audience and make them care for fictional characters. Walking Dead is a brilliant, private and profound gaming experience.

The Walking Dead season 1 was something special. A true masterpiece in storytelling and character development. It was a true 10/10, and the finale made me feel a sadness I've never before felt in a video game. So how does season two stack up in comparison?

In season one we played as Lee, doing our best to protect precious little Clementine. In the second season we play Clementine herself. The difference is that we are met with an older, more mature and independent Clementine. This season really cements her as a true protagonist, and a damn good one at that.

One of the biggest drawbacks in my opinion when it comes to the second season is that the majority of characters we meet feel like completely dead weight, unable to perform even the simplest of tasks. It seems ridiculous that a bunch of adults put all the responsibility on an 11 year old girl, but game has to game I guess. Not all characters fall into this catagory though. In fact, the second season hosts a multitude of amazing characters, that you will either end up loving or hating depending on how you play. In my opinion season two gives us THE most complex character in the entire universe, and I'm not talking about Clementine. It also has arguably the greatest villain in the entire Walking Dead universe.

The early part revolves around getting to know new characters, and being introduced to old ones as well. The later half of the game focuses on a sort of rivalry between different characters, and you as the player has to choose which side you are on. The ending (depending on how you play it) is again very emotional, and though it's hard to replicate the impact of the first seasons ending, in my opinion it got pretty close. I won't tell you which ending I got, but I will say that it involved a hard to swallow good bye that was absolutely excellent.

Season one introduced us to a young girl, that we would die to protect. Season two gave us a development in Clementine that is hard to accomplish. She is still a young little girl, but a fierce survivor that beyond all else tries to navigate the moral dilemmas she is faced with. It's hard to create a character that the player really connects with, but TellTale has gone beyond that with Clementine. I felt a responsibility and admiration I've never felt for a character in a video game ever. In my book Clementine is the greatest video game heroine of all time, and season two is pretty damn close to the masterpiece that was season one.

After watching the release trailer of "In Harm's Way" I was expecting already an excellent episode considering the way the previous one ended and, damn it, I was completely blown away! Congratulations to Telltale for creating a great and credible antagonist. I was so angry and so frustrated with Carver that all I wanted to do was to make him suffer.

I always believed Clementine had always a small dark side inside her and this episode confirms my suspicious. The Walking Dead Season 2: Episode 3 - "In Harm's Way" can show you a darker and vengeful Clementine where we can witness it during her talk with Carver and the last scene with Kenny in the end of the episode.

Overall, don't lose this episode because this is Telltale at their best and the ending is so bad-ass that that it will make you want to play the 4th episode right away! It's a pity that we have to wait 1/2 month(s)

The Walking Dead Season 2 is a perfect example on how to make a game sequel. It captures the charm and appeal of the first game, while expanding the universe of the game, to create it's own unique story, having a completely different identity to the first season. The stakes seem to increase, and the ending has a lot more choice, which greatly improves the playing experience.

In terms of improvement to the first season, and an element which makes the 2nd season completely unique, is the choice Clementine has in terms of her loyalty to Kenny. In the first game, Lee is completely loyal to the group, and there was never a clear divide, so as a result Lee never took sides, whereas in the 2nd season there's a clear split between Kenny and the result of the group. Therefore, Clementine's loyalty is greatly tested. This makes for really interesting gameplay, as the player has to consistently choose between the 2 sides. As a result the player has more autonomy over the events of the story, something that is greatly improved from the first season. The theme of loyalty towards Kenny becomes a contentious issue, one that has the potential for a great deal of analysis.

This game's just as well made as it's predecessor. It leaves an emotional impact and the characters are well crafted and memorable. As a result the Walking Dead Season Two is a masterpiece, and one of the greatest video games on the market.

Damn. So brutal. If you thought the first game was visceral, maddening, and just straight up flippin perfect, then you NEED to do yourself a favor and get in this hype train. All I can say; perfection. In this game, you now are in control of Clementine and must survive amongst the harsh new reality of clashing survivor groups and the endless zombie horde. This game doubles down on the carnage, with beloved (or not so beloved) characters getting either ripped apart or shot, a starving dog that doesn't want to share, countless zombie hordes, and of course, making hard moral decisions that pits you against certain characters. This game has many surprises, with one being the return of a character from the first game that I just didn't expect at all. It was so cool seeing his character develop into this broken man who keeps losing people, and this is where the hardest decisions come in. This may be slightly *spoiler* so to people that haven't played yet, probably stop reading. In my playthrough, I tried looking at both sides of the group. Knowing how much stuff Kenny went through, I didn't really egg him on too much, although there were times I said enough (which is around the end where he is basically bullying the Russian prisoner), but sadly, in hopes of saving his gf by chopping her arm off cuz she got bit, i just made things worse and she ended up dying, which Kenny blamed on me. Although he hated me for a while, he got over it and apologized, which I appreciated.. this is why I tried being on his side... I really tried. But in the end, he and Jane take it too far, and despite me thinking I did the good thing, I come to find out Jane was an antagonist who took it just as far as Kenny. I also loved the new cast of characters, like Paul, Luke, and the returning maddening characters from 400 days such as Bonnie and Jane.

Anyways, enough. This game is amazing. Any walking dead fan or story game fan will adore it. Highly recommended. Cannot wait to see where Clementine ends up in The New Frontier!