Review: Walking Dead Season 2

After a long year of waiting, the fifth and finale episode of The Walking Dead Season 2 came out last week. Following the stellar success of the first season, expectations were high for the latest five-episode series.

The first episode finds ten-year-old Clementine making her way north to Wellington, a rumored safe haven in a world ravaged by hordes of the undead. Along the way, she meets a new group of survivors who are on the run from their former leader, Carver.

Though this season rarely reaches the narrative peaks of the first season, a very well-written story keeps you invested through the episodes.

Perhaps the weakest point of Season 2 were the characters. As the action quickly begins to escalate, we don’t get much time to learn more about the new people we’ve met before they start dying off left and right.

It’s not all bad though. There are a few really engaging new characters that you end up feeling a connection with and Clementine’s relationship with long-time companion Kenny really drives the story forward.

The main antagonist, Carver, is definitely one of the more memorable new characters. Voiced by Michael Madsen, Carver rules over a community living in a fortified hardware store where failure is brutally punished.

The people who have known him in the past often make excuses for his violent actions, saying he was once a good man. This ties in well with the recurring themes of the series and sets up some interesting parallels with later conflicts in the story.

On the other hand, much of the supporting cast blends into the background. Some of the new survivors are so one-dimensional that I have trouble finding more than a single adjective to describe their personalities.

In the season finale, there is a moment where you need to choose between two groups. It was then that I realized that one team was comprised entirely of characters that I either didn’t care about or outright disliked. In a series that is known for its hard choices, this is a failure of storytelling.

The action sequences this season have their highs and lows. Aside from a couple standout scenes, the action fails to establish much tension and mostly consists of aiming the cursor at zombie heads and pulling the trigger. Fortunately, this season completely avoids the arcade shooting sections of Season 1.

With this season, Telltale has basically given up on the point-and-click exploration and puzzle-solving segments. This change, which allows the game to keep its focus on story, is a definite improvement.

Choice has always been at the heart of the series. Throughout each episode, the player must make several difficult moral choices which affect how the story progresses.

Season 1 has been criticized for only offering the illusion of choice. The story played out the same, more or less, regardless of the choices you made. Season 2 avoids this shortcoming by offering five distinct endings based on the choices made in the finale.

Some of the endings are more satisfying than others, but each brings this chapter to a close effectively. The multiple endings give the player a greater sense of involvement in the story and add even more replayability to this season. Of course, it would have been even better if choices made earlier in the season also played a part in that conclusion.

Season 2’s storytelling doesn’t quite live up to the example of Season 1, but this latest installment does take a few steps in the right direction for future titles. It offers a few improvements to the familiar Telltale formula while also giving us another great interactive experience.

8 out of 10

Seasons 1 and 2 of The Walking Dead game are available on Xbox Live Arcade, the PlayStation Network, PC,and iOS.

REVIEW: The Wolf Among Us Episode 5: Cry Wolf

The first season of The Wolf Among Us ends strong with Episode 5: Cry Wolf.

This downloadable title is the latest installment in Telltale’s adaptation of acclaimed comic book series Fables. Created by Bill Willingham, the idea behind the series is that our folk tales and myths are based around the stories of actual immortal beings called Fables.

Once the stuff of legend, The Fables have been driven from their Homelands and now lead a secluded existence in New York. When two of their own turn up dead, Sheriff Bigby Wolf begins an investigation which drags him into the criminal underworld of the Fable community.

Episode 5 is all about action and revelation. Through one bloody confrontation after another, Bigby takes on The Crooked Man’s gang and gets the answers he’s been seeking.

The showdown between Bigby and Bloody Mary more than lives up to the buildup from the previous episodes. We’ve seen the Sheriff take some serious beatings, but this fight is the first in the series that carries a real sense of danger. That, combined with the frenetic combat and the reveal of both Mary and Bigby’s final forms makes this scene one of the coolest gaming experiences I’ve had in a while.

The other action sequence, on the other hand, falls flat. The quick time events for the chase through the streets of the city get repetitious and it ends with a pointless choice which doesn’t affect the plot at all.

With all of the fighting and dialogue, this episode has no exploration or puzzle solving. Though the investigation is wrapping up in this segment, the addition of some detective work would have provided a little more interactivity to the proceedings and made for a better experience.

The secrets you uncover about the murders add an extra layer of moral complexity to a story already filled with shades of gray. We get new perspectives on the motivations for the antagonists, making the line between villain and victim of circumstance hard to find.

Telltale’s branching narrative system is at its best in this latest installment. The choices you make seem to have more of an effect on the story than we’ve seen in the past. One choice in particular drastically changes how a later scene plays out, making multiple playthroughs a necessity for fans of the series.

The decisions you made earlier in the season also play a role in the conclusion to the story. Whether you went by the book in your investigation or you took justice into your own hands, you’ll have to answer for everything you’ve done.

The final scenes do a good job of showing you the impact you’ve made on the story, something that can’t be said for the end of Telltale’s The Walking Dead Season 1. Cry Wolf manages to wrap up all of the plotlines of the season while still promising one more mystery with a thought-provoking cliffhanger.

With a fantastic story, solid gameplay and a ton of replayability, Cry Wolf earns a 9 out of 10.

The Wolf Among Us Episode 5: Cry Wolf is available for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, Windows, OSX and PS Vita for $5.