The Walking Dead: Season Two (2013)

Definite significant downgrade from the first game, and I have pretty mixed feelings looking back on it, but certainly not unenjoyable at the time or for my first run-through. It didn't single-handedly discourage me from continuing with the series afterwards, so it can't have been that bad.

I was genuinely attached to several of the characters here, and though I know others didn't struggle as much with it, I was completely torn on the Kenny vs. Jane choice. To this day, a decade later, whenever I replay this I have to have a save file for each of them, because I just can't figure out which one I like better or even which one I'd personally go with.

The 400 Days characters were utterly wasted, which is a shame. I recall Telltale hyping up that the DLC would be a bridge between Seasons One and Two and that the characters would be reappearing in the sequel's plot, and then... with the exception of Bonnie, who was my least favourite 400 Days character anyway, they make cursory two-second appearances to deliver one line of dialogue in the background (if that). They could've done a lot more.

I think one of the major reasons I'm not so big on this one is that I don't really like playing as child protagonists, and I never really had that intense attachment to Clementine in Season One that a lot of other players did - still like her, still actively protect her, but nowhere near the degree I see from the fanbase as a whole. If you felt differently or you don't mind a smaller/younger protagonist, then you'll probably enjoy it more than I did.

(Sidenote I include with all Telltale reviews: Telltale's games often get a bad rap for having your choices not influence the story, but to me this misses the point of what they do. Variant endings are a nice bonus in games, and I enjoy them when they do pop up in Telltale's stories, but for the most part your choices aren't here to change where you go. They're there to change how you get there, who you are when you get there, and often who you get there with. They influence and change your relationships with the characters around you. The joy of replaying these games is to experience the different dialogue, the different reactions to you, the different routes you can take on the way, the different bonds you can evolve with people - not to have a wildly different ending. I think this aspect is overhated and sadly misunderstood by a lot of players, so if huge, game-changing differences are what you're looking for, I'd temper your expectations.)

INTERACTIVE DRAMA - Clementine, now older and more independent, is separated from her previous group and must fend for herself.

PROS:

++ Strong sequel. It's easy for a game like this to retread and repeat similar themes from the past season, but I'm glad that this second season felt fresh. I really liked having a central antagonist in Carver, I really liked the ongoing conflict of Rebecca having to give birth soon, and I really liked that there was much more disagreements and conflicts within the main cast. The first season felt like a family, but in the second season, the cast felt like a rag-tag group of survivors with differing motives.

++ Great cast. Obviously, I missed Lee's presence a lot. So did my girlfriend actually. But I still think the cast of Season Two is as strong, if not slightly better, than Season One's cast. Returning characters are Clementine who serves as the main protagonist, Kenny who surprisingly survived Season One and is one of the central characters this season, and Omid and Christa who unfortunately only had a quick role in the story. Notable new characters are Luke, Rebecca & Alvin, Carlos & Sarah, Nick & Pete, Jane, Bonnie, Mike, and the terrific antagonist named Carver. Several of these character receive a hearty dose of development and I was heavily invested into the story because of them. None of them match Lee, but as a whole, the cast is more interesting than Season One's.

++ Pacing. From Episode One through to Episode Five, I was hooked. Just like Season One, I don't think there was a single bad episode. Episode 1 was a fantastic opener and showed the depressing situation Clem was in (Omid's death, Christa's "death", Omid & Christa's baby's implied death, the scene with the dog), Episode 2 offered a great surprise (return of Kenny) and introduced the great antagonist, Episode 3 was an exhilarating escape from Carver's camp, Episode 4 gave some hope to the cast (birth of AJ), and Episode 5 gave a conclusion that was as equally heartbreaking as Season One's ending (Kenny sacrificing himself in order for Clem and AJ to be welcomed into Wellington). Every episode started strong, and ended with a cliffhanger that left us wanting to play the next episode right away.

++ Performances. I do think that Clementine's vocal performance wasn't as great, but the supporting cast more than made up for it. Kenny, Jane, Carver, Rebecca, and Luke gave stellar performances, and the rest of the cast were solid.

++ Touch choices. This entry once again has some really tough choices that need to be made, both great and small. Choosing to side with Jane or Kenny at the end, choosing to stay with or leave Kenny alone, choosing to leave Sarah or persuade her to run, choosing whether or not to steal supplies from Arvo, choosing whether or not to cut Sarita's arm or not, choosing how to help Luke, etc. There were so many more choices I can mention that I found difficult to make, but all this to say, the choices that can be made in this game are great!

CONS:

-- Technical issues. There are still some graphical glitches throughout the game. Only once was it truly distracting (textures displaying as white squares) so it isn't too bad.

-- Unresponsive QTEs The directional/arrow QTEs were somewhat unresponsive. There were a few times where I clearly did it, but it wouldn't register so I would end up dying. Again, nothing too frustrating, but it was definitely noticeable.

-- Missed potential. Although I'm not too mad at some of the story decisions made, I do believe that some characters had great potential to be mainstays but were either killed off or left behind. Luke's death specifically upset me because I think he deserved much better. Nick's death too. Mike and Bonny getting left behind was understandable, but I wish it wasn't skimmed over. Nevertheless, I still think the game was exceptional and is just a tad bit lower in quality compared to the first season.

I really enjoyed the second game in The Walking Dead series from Telltale. It tells yet another great story, lets you bond with the characters and is overall a work of art. I still think the first game was better in terms of story, but that did not change the fact that I enjoyed this one immensely.

The Walking Dead: Season Two is the direct sequel to the first The Walking Dead game. It picks up where the first game ended and continues with Clementine as the main protagonist.

The story is a piece of perfection and, just like the first The Walking Dead review, I will not spoil anything. This is something that you need to experience for yourself.

One of the best aspects of this game is that it can import your choices and outcomes from the first game, including the 400 Days DLC. People react to you based on the choices you made from the original The Walking Dead. So epic. Graphicly, The Walking Dead: Season Two received a nice upgrade. Besides the improved cell shading and animations, the game is a lot darker, something that enhanced the experience really well. The sky is dusk yellow most of the time, giving you the feeling of an apocalypse wasteland.

The sound design is just as good as the first game, especially the voice acting of all the characters. It is the sound where Telltale games shines the most. This shows with the soundtrack, which is excellent. It even got nominated for several rewards. You know that you are doing it right when you achieve that level.

The Walking Dead: Season Two plays in the same style as the original game in which you use point and click mechanics, quick time events and choice making to work to the ultimate ending of the game. Every choice has consequences, and, at times, real moral dilemmas are present in which both options are technically wrong or unfair, but you have to make a choice.

You need to react fast at times and are not always giving the opportunity to think things through. This aspect of quick reaction is realistic and if you make a mistake in game by providing a wrong answer or an answer that people are not happy about, it is just like real life, in which you do not have the perfect response or solution available right away.

Originally, just like The Wolf Among Us, new episodes would come out every few months between each other. But, just like The Wolf Among Us, you can also buy the retail version, including all the episodes.

The episodes themselves are great, every one of them and the overall length of the game and the episodes themselves is fair. You got a solid seventeen hours of story ahead of you when playing the game, which is very acceptable for just a story based, on rail point and click game.

Like I said, I would prefer the first game over this one, but this is my personal taste. I think this is mainly because of my attachment to Lee from the first game.

Overall, I loved The Walking Dead: Season Two and, once again, Telltale Games earned my deepest respect for creating this beautiful game.

Absolutely recommend it.

(I'm writing this review on June 15th, 2022 and played this game in febuary of 2022 so I may not remember all things. )

As I said in my last review for the first "The Walking Dead" telltale game, the animation and graphics of the game are definitely unique and take time adjusting too. The story is this game is - in my honest opinion - slightly less emotional than the first game. However, it still had its far share of moments. I also quite enjoy the ending in whatever you choose decides how you start the next game Either with kenny, in the camp, or at the shipyard you've been trying to get to. There were some previous things/people in the first game that we never really saw what happened to them such as kenny and what I like in this chapter is the return of him.

Still great game overall, would recommend buying if its on sale for those non-telltale game lovers but definitely buy if you are a diehard telltale games fan

This is something that rarely happens to me. I tend to place so much value on the impact of the first game in a franchise that the sequel rarely tops it, even if it’s beaming with quality. But that was exactly what happened with the 2nd season of The Walking Dead telltale, a genre I may be starting to get addicted to. This is in no way meant to throw shade at the 1st season, which I also loved and is understandably seen by most as the best - Lee as a main character was incredibly strong, as was pretty much the rest of the cast. But making Clementine the lead in the 2nd season pushed the experience up a notch for me. Being able to engage with the world through her own eyes and emotions, and especially shape her personality as a way of coping with everything she had been through, felt really rewarding and emotional right from the beginning.

And speaking of beginning, what a brutal start to the game! It was visibly more dynamic and fast paced, and the events you get in the initial set pieces were so well designed and gut punching that they pull you right into it. In fact, the whole experience was even more emotional to me than the original season, and the choices I had to make throughout left a more long lasting impact than they had done previously. I feel part of this was because the story is very tightly written and does something most fantastic shows do: it makes your views of certain characters go back and forth in order to accommodate the tone of their actions (Breaking Bad to me is the perfect example of this). This was easily one of the strongest aspects of the entire narrative. Kenny’s descent into rage and despair, for example, was incredibly effective and realistic considering everything he had gone through, and I had such a rollercoaster ride with him.

Couple of extra, less important notes: 1) just like in the first season, I thought episode 3 in particular was amazingly written and paced, but there wasn’t an episode I didn’t fully appreciate; 2) even though it still seemed a bit glitchy here and there, the 2nd season offers a more polished and less clunky experience than its predecessor, which was also a welcome bonus.

There isn’t much to criticise about this game, really. I’m sure you already played it if you’re into the genre and not a telltale noob like me, but I still had to get my thoughts out on what was a genuinely enjoyable time. The Walking Dead Season Two features one of the richest storytelling journeys I’ve witnessed in gaming. If that’s something you’d appreciate, I strongly recommend you give this (and the 1st season) a go, even if the gameplay style isn’t your cup of tea. Awesome stuff and a strong 8.5 for me.

No other game has made me full out cry, not just tears, but cry.. except Halo reach. But even then I cried way more to this game, it honestly has one of the most emotional stories even made in a video game as you grow so close to the characters only to lose them when you least want them to go :(

Dare I say but I liked this one a lot more than season one.

Recommend for fans of: The Walking Dead (Obviously), Films of George Romero, & 28 Days Later.

I recently finished "The Walking Dead: Season Two" and felt compelled to write down my thoughts. Telltale Games has done it again with a poignant atmospheric character driven experience. I use the word experience because it can be argued as to whether "The Walking Dead: Season One & Two" qualify as traditional videogames. In the same vein as "Heavy Rain" & "Indigo Prophecy", Telltale's "The Walking Dead: Season One & Two" could be called one long interactive cut scene. The key difference being Heavy Rain has many ways in which gameplay can affect the game's core story while "The Walking Dead: Season One & Two" have two or three at most, some which are done with more thought than others.

In the "The Walking Dead: Season One" I was annoyed that the creators felt compelled to kill off Lee Evert, an awesome and compelling character that was actually one of the too few notable black protagonists in videogames. But when I was informed Clementine was the new protagonist my fears were instantly relieved.

As for the games story there are three moments in particular that stand out in my mind:

*In Episode 1 – All That Remains: Clementine encounters a dog named Sam that appears to be friendly enough. But once Clementine finds some food, regardless of whether or not Clementine feeds the Sam, he attacks her over the food and severely injures Clementine's arm. This moment stands out to be because it defies the expectations of the viewer. People have become so insulated that they expect most animals to be teddy bears and not to act like, well animals, regardless of whether they have been domesticated. Because dogs are so synonymous with being man's best friend, this moment feels like a personal betrayal; even more of a betrayal than when some actual people backstab you later in the story.

*In Episode 2 – A House Divided: Clementine encounters a group of survivors after some members save her and who are naturally wary about her bite and decide to keep her in a locked shed for the night for her safety and theirs. But Clementine can’t wait for medical attention till morning, so she sneaks out of the shed and steals medical supplies from inside the house to disinfect, sew up, and bandage her arm. This a truly visceral sequence with Clementine reacting as a real person would screaming at the sting of disinfectant poured on a large gaping wound and nearly passing out from stitching up her own arm.

*In Episode 5 – No Going Back: The final confrontation between Kenny and Jane, including Clementine’s reaction to it. Kenny and Jane enter a fight to the death with Clementine having to make the sadistic choice of killing one of them. One the hand you have Kenny who is as good as family but who has also been slipping since last game. He isn’t a bad person but he is unstable against anyone that isn’t Clementine or AJ. On the other hand you have Jane who the player has been steadily growing to like as the game goes along. But she was aware Kenny was unstable and deliberately provoked him by claiming to have killed AJ to possibly justify killing Kenny in self-defense. But when push came to shove I just couldn’t kill Kenny. I praise this as a memorable moment because there have been sadistic choices in games I’ve played before but mostly I’ve always been sure I chose the lesser of two evils, but this was a legitimately hard choice. I didn’t want to kill either of them but I had to kill one save another and I really didn’t see it coming. I’m aware opinions are all over the place on the finale, but this is just my take.

But like “The Walking Dead” comics and television show, the longer the story goes on, the more cracks you start to see. I genuinely like “The Walking Dead” franchise by it has a habit of going in a giant circle.

1. Survivors form a group
2. Group bonds while heading toward “safe place”
3. Group finds “safe place”
4. “Safe place” is compromised by walkers, outside forces, internal conflict in the group, or all of the above.
5. Return to 1)

Don’t get me wrong, I genuinely like “The Walking Dead” franchise by it has a habit of going in a giant circle. A pattern I’m sure "The Walking Dead: Season Three" will fall into. Mark my words, whatever safe place the player finds at the end of Season Two will be compromised, people will die, the survivors will move, and it will start all over again. Why this flaw is the bane of the “The Walking Dead” franchise, I honestly don’t know how they could move beyond it. The two obvious options I see is the protagonists either eliminating the source of the undead returning or killing everybody. Either way Robert Kirkman stops making money.

Rating: ★★★★