The first episode of The Walking Dead season two kicks off with an immediate sense of familiarity. The survivors of season one are all present and accounted for, and the new episode still features the comic book come to life art style that worked perfectly for the past season of the series. It is nice seeing the trio of survivors again, especially the series sweetheart Clementine, and the others joking around lulled me into a false sense of security.
The world of the Walking Dead isn’t a fun, happy place to visit and moments after starting, it violently reminds you that, zombies aren’t the only things one has to worry about in this reality. People die in The Walking Dead, and the opening moments of Season Two remind us that no one is truly safe in this series. In fact, after the first five minutes of this episode things are arguably worse than ever before.
But for all its familiarity, things have changed since the end of season one. From a technical standpoint, Telltale has cleaned up its engine a bit, and this new episode feels polished in a way that none of the season one episodes ever did. They’ve also cleaned up the interface, and it now seems less obtrusive to the overall experience. The biggest change, though, is that Lee, the protagonist for season one, is replaced as the main character. Season two puts us in control of Clementine, and I’m not sure if I like the change.
As Lee, players became protectors of Clementine. As Clementine, the mindset shifts from protector to survivor. I found this to be quite a jarring experience as the comments and actions she is presented with in the episode aren’t ones that I think she would have made when Lee was around. And maybe that is the point, because she has grown and matured. But while playing, I still felt that this Clementine was my Clementine, and that created a rather large disconnect in the way I approached things.
Two moments in particular stood out to me, both directly following each other. After a very cool series of events that has Clementine sneaking around a house filled with people, Clementine was chastised by a character for being manipulative and sneaky. Her reasons were sound, but they also were manipulative and sneaky, and not choices that the pure Clementine that Lee sacrificed so much for would have made. Directly following this, I was given a dialogue choice to respond to a different character that wasn’t being particularly nice to Clem, and what I chose to respond with, which basically blackmailed this woman, left me feeling extremely bad. These aren’t characteristics that Clementine from a year ago exhibited, and it left me heartbroken that somewhere that girl had died, and this doppelganger had taken her place.
There could be a variety of reasons for why this disconnect happened with me, including the possibility I just need more time with her to feel out her new motivations. However, considering I’ve already spent five episodes protecting her, and I didn’t have the same issue with Lee, or any of the characters from the bridge episode, 400 Days, I get a sense that maybe it is where Telltale has driven the character while we weren’t with her that is ultimately effecting this. Maybe the familiarity with her (and others) is a detriment to the episode.
Also a liability in the episode is the roller coaster nature of the events. In the moment, rushing from high intensity event to high intensity event, I found it to be quite cool but thinking about it afterwards, the game hardly gives you any breathing room or time to reflect on the events that are happening. This was never an issue with season one, as there were always moments where things calmed down for a bit allowing for the character to naturally develop. Everything in this episode happens so quickly there isn’t a chance to get to know the other characters’ names, let alone feel out their motivations. And once again, maybe that is what Telltale was going for, but it just didn’t feel right to me.
These negatives might seem quite damning, and for those that disliked season one, I’d say you should steer clear as this isn’t going to improve your opinion of the series. However, if you are a fan of the first season, this is still a must-play because the mythos that season one built up is just too good to throw away after one mediocre episode. And even if the episode lacks the emotional resonance or character development of anything that has come before it, the situations and events that Clementine gets put through are still great fun to experience.
Note: This review was written partially with material received from the publisher. For more on our review process, please read here.
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