The Living are Worse Than the Dead
The second episode of The Walking Dead is a zombie game with almost no zombies. That may sound strange and probably a bit uninteresting, but I can assure you, the situations in this episode are far more tense and grim than the first episode's zombie slaying. The focus is lifted on fighting the dead and placed on the internal conflicts of the living.
Episode two takes place three months after episode one and the group is running out of food and continues to argue amongst themselves about how to survive. They've added a new member to the group, Mark, in the time between the two episodes because he had plenty of food, but now that is almost gone and he and Lee are out hunting in the woods for more food. While hunting, they hear the screams of a band teacher who's gotten his leg caught in a bear trap. What happens next is up to the player, but the group soon gains one more person which puts the group at odds with each other even more.
Eventually, the group of survivors ends up on a dairy farm which is where the game takes a break from worrying about zombies and, instead, focuses on building the trust and relationships of the group. The dairy farm is also where the story and choices made by the player become dark and heavy. This episode shows the effects of the choices made from the first episode and shows just how complex and decisive things can get.
The game will only let the player ride the fence for so long until they have to make a choice. Trust me, I tried. And it will leave the player wondering whether or not they did the best thing possible, because it isn't made obvious what is the good or bad choice. In most morality based games, it's made clear whether the choice made turns the player into a heroic good guy or the selfish bad guy, but here it's made to fit into the gray area. Do you commit a necessary evil for the greater good, or be the heroic type and potentially risk the lives of others? All of these decisions start to build Lee as a character.
The story in this episode deals with man fighting against himself. Lee and the survivors are safe from the zombies for now, but an even more chilling tale begins to spin as the group begins to realize that it's every man for himself. I was more on edge towards the climax of this episode than I was the entire game, including the last episode.
Although this game can be engrossing, and possible to get caught up in the story, there are some technical problems that will pull the player out of the experience. The last episode seemed to have had problems with loading screens and animation, but were not very noticeable. They are far more prevalent this time. Loading areas and scenes will sometimes take too long which causes transitions to become awkward, and lip syncing and sound effects don't always match up.
I mentioned before that it would be nice if the developers had added more puzzles, and it seems like that isn't going to happen. There really weren't any puzzles in this game at all aside from figuring out how to keep one character distracted so Lee can do some snooping. It really would be great if the developers added some more puzzles into the mix to lengthen the experience and to add some more variety to the gameplay.
Despite a couple of gripes, The Walking Dead is really shaping up to be a wonderfully grim, story-driven, game. Unlike the show, there haven't been any moments where I've thought to myself, "Man, that was a stupid idea". But like the show, and the comic series, it still shows that the fight for survival is the true story to behold, rather that the fight against zombies.
Final Verdict 8.5/10
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