Returning to the dark and difficult world of The Walking Dead

Long term readers of this blog may recall that I was a little unsure about The Walking Dead after playing the first episode and was unsure if I should carry on playing the rest of the series. It's a good thing I did....

After some quite common technical difficulties getting my saves from Episode 1 working again (although I don't think my 400 days decisions were recovered) I was ready to dive into season 2 but I made sure to brace myself before I did because I heard it was quite a rough start.

The game play itself follows the same kind of point and click pattern as the first season in that you go through a fairly linear path making dialogue choices along the way. You also get into encounters with "walkers" and sometimes other people. These usually play out as quick time events. But the appeal of the game lies in the great writing and dialogue in the characters and how even the smallest of choice that you make can have unforeseen consequences further down the road. You control Clementine, your young sidekick from the first season, although now she is a little older, a little wiser, a little stronger and much more capable at dealing with threats than she was before. Which is good because you will come across many of these.

It's difficult to say much in a review of this because the best part of it really is the story and the way the events unfold, but saying too much will just result in spoilers. All I can feel comfortable saying is that in the games introduction, you are still wandering with some of the characters from season one, but very quickly things go to shit and you found yourself split up from them and falling in with a new group trying to find your old one again. But needless to say, a lot happens in and around those events. And most of it is unpleasant. One over-arching theme of The Walking Dead is that most of the choices you are forced to make have no real right or wrong. They're all wrong. Just to varying degrees. So you really are trying to make the best of bad situations for the majority of the game and not trying to get anyone else killed.

This first episode is a good bit shorter than I expected taking me little over 90 minutes to finish and ended quite abruptly so I'm hoping they can keep a quick and consistent release schedule for the following episodes. I am also very excited to see how my choices come to play in the long run. Bring on Episode 2!