No more waiting! It's arrived. All the navel gazing style dissection of the trailer no longer has to suffice to feed our appetite. The Walking Dead Telltale game, season 2, episode one, is here. And all is good in game land, for it is, like, awesome and stuff.
The Walking Dead franchise has been a major boon for the creative explorations of the interactive fan base crowd. Elsewhere on this site, we've looked at the booming role of the Walking Dead fanfiction . The Telltale game provides another, more structured, but still interactive experience with the world that Robert Kirkman created.
Clementine, once the object of our care and projection, has graduated to hero of the class. This little girl, who the first season portrayed as innocent and vulnerable, having lost her guardian, now has had to grow up and make the hard decisions to survive in the zombie apocalypse.
The extensively decorated game, with award wins and nominations coming out of the wazoo, in this first episode of its second season continues to show its excellence, continuing to breathe new life into the adventure game genre. Likewise it continues its winning strategy of avoiding the risk of lapsing into mere puzzle solving and emphasizes the dynamic of interactive story telling. And these aren't empty choices.
The results of character's choices resonate throughout the game. They lead to practical and often unexpected consequences. Not only do those consequences reverberate from episode to episode, but it appears choices from last season may yet affect options in this new season.
As happy as I am with this continued emphasis on the interactive dynamic, not everything is the same. Mostly, though the changes are improvements. This is particularly notable on the technical side of things. The graphics are greatly improved: richer and more detailed. The frame rate too is better. Clementine walks more quickly than we saw in season one. When you're gripped in suspense at the prospect of a walker attack, that's a great add.
My one complaint was that too often I thought the dialogue choices were too extreme. Either Clementine had to be harsh or childish. That's the way I read it and I didn't think that kind of limitation gave either the character or the story the fullness from which it could have benefited. I'll be keeping an eye on that development going forward.
The other side of the coin, though, is that it is an interesting change in the game dynamic to have the options made available by a young girl protagonist. Certainly playing Lee didn't provide the opportunity to be coyly manipulative, as is possible with Clementine.
But of course what Telltale does best, well exhibited in season one of The Walking Dead, is still on display here in the first episode of season two. That is the moral ambiguity and dilemmas that forcefully confront the protagonist. Are you going to turn Clementine into a killer right from the start?
Lots of people already have. What are the consequences of that? Only future episodes will tell the tale. This is why the Walking Dead Telltale games have been so successful and so compelling. So far, the future looks bright. At least, from outside of the zombie apocalypse...and all that.
The Walking Dead franchise has been a major boon for the creative explorations of the interactive fan base crowd. Elsewhere on this site, we've looked at the booming role of the Walking Dead fanfiction . The Telltale game provides another, more structured, but still interactive experience with the world that Robert Kirkman created.
Clementine, once the object of our care and projection, has graduated to hero of the class. This little girl, who the first season portrayed as innocent and vulnerable, having lost her guardian, now has had to grow up and make the hard decisions to survive in the zombie apocalypse.
The extensively decorated game, with award wins and nominations coming out of the wazoo, in this first episode of its second season continues to show its excellence, continuing to breathe new life into the adventure game genre. Likewise it continues its winning strategy of avoiding the risk of lapsing into mere puzzle solving and emphasizes the dynamic of interactive story telling. And these aren't empty choices.
The results of character's choices resonate throughout the game. They lead to practical and often unexpected consequences. Not only do those consequences reverberate from episode to episode, but it appears choices from last season may yet affect options in this new season.
As happy as I am with this continued emphasis on the interactive dynamic, not everything is the same. Mostly, though the changes are improvements. This is particularly notable on the technical side of things. The graphics are greatly improved: richer and more detailed. The frame rate too is better. Clementine walks more quickly than we saw in season one. When you're gripped in suspense at the prospect of a walker attack, that's a great add.
My one complaint was that too often I thought the dialogue choices were too extreme. Either Clementine had to be harsh or childish. That's the way I read it and I didn't think that kind of limitation gave either the character or the story the fullness from which it could have benefited. I'll be keeping an eye on that development going forward.
The other side of the coin, though, is that it is an interesting change in the game dynamic to have the options made available by a young girl protagonist. Certainly playing Lee didn't provide the opportunity to be coyly manipulative, as is possible with Clementine.
But of course what Telltale does best, well exhibited in season one of The Walking Dead, is still on display here in the first episode of season two. That is the moral ambiguity and dilemmas that forcefully confront the protagonist. Are you going to turn Clementine into a killer right from the start?
Lots of people already have. What are the consequences of that? Only future episodes will tell the tale. This is why the Walking Dead Telltale games have been so successful and so compelling. So far, the future looks bright. At least, from outside of the zombie apocalypse...and all that.
About the Author:
If you're keen to have the scoop on all the Walking Dead news , you should be following Mickey Jhonny's articles at the Pretty Much Dead Already site. Gaming fans will want to read his review of the best games for PC that is entirely free!
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