The Walking Dead: Season Two

I loved Season 1, and was super excited to play Season 2. I was very disappointed. There was a noticeable drop in the quality of writing. Whereas Season 1 was complex and poignant, Season 2 was just confused and frustrating. Season 1 could be quite upsetting, but always seemed to have a narrative purpose; Season 2 was just arbitrarily terrible all the time. That said, I still played the entire thing, and would probably at least try a Season 3 (albeit with quite a bit of trepidation, and in the hope that it would make up for season 2).

I've seen a lot of people say that The Walking Dead: Season Two just doesn't measure up to the same great gameplay experience as TWD:S1. I will tell you right now, it's not the same experience. It's not a LESSER experience, mind you. Just different. The artwork has a slightly different feel to it, and yes, there are places where the choices you make don't quite feel like they impact the game as much as the first game. But that doesn't make them any less difficult in choosing. I did notice a difference in how the interface works, but it's close enough to the original that it won't throw you off too much. The biggest difference is that you're playing as Clementine from Season One, instead of Lee, and it does change the way you look at some things. As with Season One, the voice acting is pretty much perfect with a couple of exceptions, and the story is well-written. I read some reviews that claimed it felt like you had less of a main goal than before, but I don't feel that it did, especially if you pay attention to Christa's dialogue early on in the first episode. All in all, it's a very well done sequel, and I enjoyed every bit of it. Great game. If you love The Walking Dead, whether the show or the comics, you should get this.

A friend insisted on gifting this to me by Steam, even though he knew I wasn`t a Steam fan, so I tried it, expecting very little. The game really surprised me. So I waited for Season 2 on GOG. 1 took you through a zombie catastrophie scenario where society has fallen apart. A man, called Lee finds a little 8 year old girl, Clementine, and together they face real hardships and trials in this horror. You have to make some very tough tough choices with very real conseqeunces. I`m black (even with the goatee), like Lee, with a mixed race daughter, just like Clementine, so this really hit me. The writing and how it`s all handled is very realistic and adult- Considering a little kid is involved that`s some damn good writing. Season 2 takes you through more of the chaos except now you`re doing things from an 11 year old Clementine`s point of view. Again it`s very well done with choices and options that have some very hard consequences. Pros: Play season 1 before 2 as the 1`s choices will carry through to 2`s game. Some sad emotional situations with the rare happy. Controls work fine with a mouse and keyboard. You sometimes get what it feels like to be a kid such as when Clemntine went to talk to the adults who were talking about sex and everyone goes quiet. Or when she tells someone to do something and they say, "Adults talking!" Cons: Game refuses to start with ANY other controller except Mouse and keyboard. Unplug everything else if you want this game to work. The writing isn`t quite as good or logical as Season 1. An example, [beware, small Spoiler]: Clementine gets savagely bitten by a dog. She does well to cope with that, but then she gets a needle and thread and sutures up the arm by herself?? Sure, she`s been hardened by what she`s seen, but no way would an 11 year old be able to stick needles in her own arm and continue sewing it up. No f***ing way! [End small Spolier] However, I recommend Season 1 and this season 2- On a sale.

Point & click games are games I’m never fond of. I only ever gave The Walking Dead games a chance because I was watching the show & wanted to see another aspect of the story as well as see what all the fuss was about. Even though I still don’t really like the genre, I am still enjoying The Walking Dead. I enjoyed Season 2 a lot. While the gameplay is annoying & boring, the narrative is what really makes this worth playing. I loved that it didn’t try to limit itself too much, Telltale did a good job at making sure it wasn’t watered down just because you were playing as a child. It conveyed the harsh realities that 1 might have to face if the world collapsed, regardless of the aspect of fantasy in this game. If anything, that’s something The Walking Dead kind of stays true to, focusing on the people more than the walkers. A lot of season 2 does that. While it revolves around Clementine primarily, it still shows you how survivors have to deal with things, the decisions they have to make & the rifts it can cause between them. Gameplay unfortunately is a letdown. It’s not necessarily bad per say, just not really a focus & inevitably makes it more of an interactive movie than an actual game. Most of the gameplay is delivered in the form of quick time events with very little moments of full player control. There are some audio improvements over the previous title but in general I didn’t have any noticeable problems here. No sudden cuts and dialogue interruptions were far less yet they were more seamless than before. Visually there’s improvements as well but as a standalone; they are comic book style visuals. That said, the game looks great. I wanted to play 1 episode, take it in and maybe play another the week later. Unfortunately, I couldn’t wait so I ended up playing 1 day, which is why I’m thankful I waited for the full release instead of the episodic nonsense.