Season two for Telltale’s The Walking Dead has finished up with it’s fifth chapter, marking another success in effective storytelling. Watching the journey of Clementine play out this season has been a fascinating, terrifying, heart-wrenching ordeal, dotted with peril, loss, and a few hints of beauty. Fans of the first season that have been holding out for all the episodes to be released will not be disappointed, as Telltale has managed recapture all the drama and tough decisions that go into being the ambassador among a group of survivors in zombie apocalypse.
The focus on Clementine after the ending of season one maybe have been an obvious move for story direction, but it’s been satisfying none the less to watch how she responds to the choices presented to her this time around. A sense of ownership on what kind of life lessons Lee was allowed to teach her gave most players a sense of ownership to how their Clementine would act for this season. Would she be a loner? Did she have faith in people? Would she be a mediator? Or would she only calculate the best odds for her own survival? However you decided to inform her, special credit has to be given again to Melissa Hutchinson’s portrayal of this character, capable of feeling not only like a child, but someone that has been hardened by the harsh realities presented before them.
The supporting cast for this season has been widened, to varying degrees of success. Returning faces will strike a chord with some players, both from the first season and the 400 Days standalone. A concerted effort has been made to give a story and motivation to each person. Some characters seem to have been pushed to the forefront as to be more important than others, which may be hit or miss for some. If you don’t sympathize with the pushed characters, then some of the story beats might not play as dramatic as presented.
Gameplay is still mostly QTE, but the drama is still effective as ever
Still, it’s hard to deny that painful twinge in the pit of your stomach when you think you’ve found someone halfway decent, only to have what seems like a turn of bad luck rip them away from you. The action segments play slightly better this time around than they did last season, but in the end are still glorified quicktime events. Twitch gameplay this isn’t, rather, an elaborate pick-your-own adventure is still the modus operandi for this series. This game is here to tell a story.
Choices this season play out more varied than they have from any of Telltale’s other offerings, which is refreshing to see. The illusion of control over the path you take in the story is much better maintained this time around, allowing for players to feel a greater sense of agency. The ending of the season in particular deserves particular praise, seeing wildly different resolutions based on your choices, with very little signaling of such. I’m torn between saying reload chapter five to see them all, or accept the consequences of your choices for Season 3. Once again, the illusion of choice presented by Telltale holds up better on a single playthrough, but there’s a lot more variation this time around.
Emotional beats of the series still hold up incredibly when it’s all said and done. I sympathized with some the pain presented in chapter one, and I bawled like a baby not once, but twice, with how the season closed out. These guys are still the masters in the game biz when it comes to tugging on your heartstrings, and proving that they are still the best people to have their hands on the franchise. The episodic format even works in the games favors, with some episodes closing out with significant time passage. This works better than The Wolf Among Us, with all of it’s events happening in a much shorter time span.
I was incredibly pleased with this second helping of The Walking Dead, and can’t wait to see what Telltale does with a third season. If you’re picking up all five episodes now, much like the first season I’d recommend spacing them out when playing: events can get heavy, so giving yourself some time to decompress can help with the experience.
Warning: Great trailer, lots of spoilers, proceed at your own risk...
No comments:
Post a Comment