Approx. Length: 9 hours (about 1.5-2 hours per chapter; 5 chapters total)
Language: English
Played on: PS4 (Digital download)
Also Available for: PS3, XBox 360, PSVita, Xbox One, PC, OS X, iOS, Android
Type of Game: Point-and-Click; Choose-Your-Own-Adventure; Puzzle; Horror
Overall Impression: It's much shorter than The Walking Dead: Season 1, but still worth a playthrough for the story and characters.
SPOILER ALERT WARNING!!
This
review will contain some spoilers -- or rather, there will be a
"Spoilers" section at the end of the review to go into further detail
about certain things. There may still be slight spoilers throughout the
review, but I've tried my best to keep them at a minimum.
PERSONAL STANDING (Pre-exposures, thoughts, etc.)
I really enjoyed playing The Walking Dead: Season 1, so I was really looking forward to playing this. Buuut -- just like with Season 1, I patiently waited for all episodes to be released before picking it up. (Then I lost my soul to Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and didn't get around to playing it till this past week). I was really curious if it would continue from Season 1 or if it would be a whole new story. For anybody who is curious, here is my review of The Walking Dead: Season 1: http://ironixgirl.blogspot.ca/2013/01/reviewthoughts-video-game-walking-dead.html
Also, here is my review of The Walking Dead: 400 Days DLC (for Season 1):
http://ironixgirl.blogspot.ca/2013/07/reviewthoughts-video-game-dlc-walking.html
I should mention that throughout the review, I'll be comparing to Season 2 to Season 1 since they are very similar. However, I won't mention anything that would spoil Season 1's story.
STORY
I'm not going to say much here -- just that it continues from Season 1. And that the story, although not as goal-driven as Season 1, is well written.For me, I'm really happy that Season 2 and Season 1 are connected. I often wonder what happens to some characters after a game ends. And I was really wondering about that for Season 1.
I'll mention a mind-blowing thought about a certain scene in the "Spoilers" section. Well, it was mind-blowing to me.
One neat thing about Season 2 is that if you have played through Season 1, you would be able to import Season 1's save file, so that your choices and outcomes from Season 1 will be referenced in Season 2. I think that really adds a personal touch to each player's gameplay experience.
I should mention that the Season 1 save file has to be for the same platform as Season 2. So a PS4 Season 1 save file can be imported over to Season 2 on the PS4. Since I played through Season 1 on the PS3, I let the game randomly determine those choices for me. Thankfully, it looked like they selected a lot of the same choices I made in Season 1, at least from what I can remember.
GAMEPLAY
Just like in Season 1, the gameplay is made up of point-and-click interactions, quick-time events, puzzle-solving, and making choices. It worked well in Season 1 and it works well here.
TYPICAL GAMEPLAY FLOW
Since Season 2's gameplay flow is exactly the same as Season 1, I'll lift this section straight from my Season 1 review (with a couple text tweaks): "At the beginning of each chapter, some cutscenes are played and then you will get placed in some kind of situation -- either internal (something happening within the group) or external (something happening elsewhere). From there, it will be a mix of point-and-click exploration, talking with the other characters, quick-time events, solving puzzles, and making choices.
After you meet your objective (whatever it may be), more cutscenes are shown and the whole cycle starts over again. At the end of the chapter, you'll be presented with stats of your major choices and how it compares to everybody else who's played The Walking Dead: Season 2. I will show my stats in the "Spoilers" section."
DIFFICULTY/GAMEPLAY LENGTH
Compared to Season 1, Season 2 is much shorter and the difficulty is wayyyy easier. I did not die once while playing through Season 2. Either I'm getting better with quick-time events, or the game is more forgiving. I'm... thinking it's the latter. There also seems to be a lot less puzzles in Season 2, which could be part of the reason for the shorter gameplay length. Also, there was a lot less item experimentation in Season 2 when trying to solve puzzles. If I remember correctly, there was one time in Season 1 where I had the option to try opening a car door with a pillow (the dialogue that came from that was kinda amusing). Season 2 was more cut-and-dry on how things could be solved.
THE INTENSITY OF CHOICE-MAKING
It was intense when making choices in Season 1 and Season 2 is no different. In fact, I almost find the choices in Season 2 more intense sometimes, where the consequences are heavier and / or more grim. Season 2 follows the same setup as Season 1, where making choices are timed. And just like in Season 1, sometimes you have a fair amount of time to make your choice -- sometimes you don't. Sometimes, the timer would go down so fast for me that I can't even think about the possible implications and make the choice that's closest to my style. Lifted from my Season 1 review: "While choices don't always affect the end result, they do affect the characters and how they might treat you later on or what they will do or say."
I'll mention how I generally played / made my choices in the "Spoilers" section.
The game hinting that Troy might remember whatever choice you just made.
As a side note, I got a kick out of that particular message.
I think those who have played the game may understand why. If you play it,
you may understand, too. ;)
As a side note, I got a kick out of that particular message.
I think those who have played the game may understand why. If you play it,
you may understand, too. ;)
CHARACTERS/VOICE-ACTING
Compared to Season 1, I think there are a lot more characters in Season 2. Unfortunately, I didn't like too many of them. I thought more of them were jerks or just plain unlikeable. From the characters who are first introduced in Season 2, my favourites are Luke, Jane, Sarah, Matthew, and Walter. I'll mention
more about the characters in the "Spoilers" section.
VOICE-ACTING
Just like in Season 1, the
voice-acting is great. It really adds more flavour and personality to each character.
GORY GRAPHICS
Just like in Season 1, there are a lot of bloody, graphic moments in Season 2. I actually think they really pushed it this time for some of those scenes. Unfortunately I have no idea how graphic the main character's death scenes are like since I never died (and I don't really want to find out). I'll mention some of the scenes that made me squeamish in the "Spoilers" section (darn me and my empathetic nature).
MUSIC
I honestly don't remember the music at all in the game, so I'm guessing it fit very well. One neat thing I did notice is that each chapter has its own outro song.
STANDALONE?
My short answer is no. Even though you don't have to play through Season 1 to play Season 2, I highly recommend playing through Season 1 to better understand and sympathize with the story and characters. Also... I personally find Season 1 to be the stronger game, so... definitely try to experience that before Season 2.
REPLAYABILITY
I think there is a lot of replayability here, especially for the last chapter (Chapter 5). There are multiple endings in Season 2, and I could only imagine the different responses I'd get based on making different choices. Once you complete a chapter, you can "rewind" to certain parts of it so you don't have to play through the beginning to change a choice.One major note: On the PS4 version (maybe PS3 as well) of Season 2, there seems to be a bug that doesn't allow you to rewind any chapters. You just end up stuck on a screen with the loading icon. That means if you want to make different choices on the PS4 / PS3 version, you would have to start from the very beginning (Chapter 1). That is actually a big strike in my book, at least for the PS4 / PS3 version (I want to replay Chapter 5 multiple times and don't want to have to play through the first 4 chapters every time). Hopefully it gets fixed.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
The Walking Dead: Season 2
is an engaging and fun game. If you had to choose between either playing Season 2 or Season 1, though, I'd suggest going with Season 1. Then you can decide if you'd like to experience more of that kind of gameplay. I know I did after playing through Season 1.Thanks for reading! If you have any comments, feel free. And now... to the meat of my review -- my actual experience with the game, which is spoiler-heavy. Also, I have to mention that my spoiler-heavy thoughts will also spoil some of Season 1, so please only have a look if you have played through both games.
So I'll do the scrolly thing and the "Spoilers" section will appear after that. Then I'll add some more scrolly things after the "Spoilers" section in case anybody wants to comment, but not see the spoilers.
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SPOILERS
I'll mention a mind-blowing thought about a certain scene...
Okay... so... when Clementine was shot in Chapter 5 and then she "woke up" to an earlier Chapter in Season 1, this thought was going through my head: oh my... Lee's alive! Was she dreaming Season 2 all this time...? ... !!! ... could she also have been dreaming part of Season 1 as well??! Lee might not be dead after all?! I was seriously thinking this, and also thinking, they could do a re-telling of Season 1 and bring Lee back if Season 2 was really a dream... just thinking that really blew my mind, hahaha.
My general gameplay
In my playthrough, I generally played Clementine as nice, honest, forgiving, and trusting. My mindset was: if this was their last day on Earth, show them some kindness and compassion before they go. I think if the zombie apocalypse was truly upon us in real life, I would not survive at all, hahaha...
When Kenny showed up, I often sided with him and gave him the benefit of the doubt. Even though I didn't like him that much until later in Season 1, he was the only connection to the past and I wanted him to feel there was still a family / group-like bond between him and Clementine. However, when it came to siding between him and Jane, it would be split, depending on the situation.
Even though I found some of the choices in Season 2 to carry heavier consequences, I didn't have much difficulty in making my decisions. Often I knew what kind of response I wanted to make. The difficulty / challenge sometimes came in selecting the choice that would best reflect that response. Sometimes I made my choice based off of not wanting to select the other choices.
When I was trying to break the ice in Chapter 5, I kept hitting the ice, even though the other characters kept telling me to stop. I didn't want Luke to die...
Characters
So... well... I really hated Carver. For everything he did, I couldn't forgive him at all. When Kenny had his gun pointed at Carver, I made Clementine say "Shoot him", to the surprise of every other character. I decided in the end to not watch the deed, though. Clementine didn't need to see it -- she just needs to know that he was taken care of.
Out of all the characters, I really liked Jane a lot. I never thought about scavenging through freshly dead walkers for items. Even with her lone wolf-ness (I can totally relate), I wanted to make her feel like she belonged.
I couldn't mention this in the review but I really liked Clementine as well. I liked that she had more of a voice in this game and was able to express more emotions. I really liked her outburst in Chapter 1 after she kills the walker in the shed. It was like she was channeling the same frustrations I had with the other characters just then.
It was too bad that we never get to see Christa again. Does that mean she'll show up in Season 3??? Hahaha... in Season 1, I thought Kenny had died... boy was I wrong.
A little off-tangent: since there were multiple endings in Season 2, would Season 3 really be connected? If it is connected and they pull it off nicely, I'll tip my hat to Telltale, since I think that would involve a tonnn of programming and clever storytelling to somehow bring the multiple endings into one story path.
When it came to choosing what to do between Kenny and Jane in Chapter 5, I think I would naturally save Jane every time. I don't think I could ever feel justified in taking somebody's life because that person wasn't able to save another. Of course I would eventually choose the other route just to see what happens, but my gut would always side with Jane in that situation. It's too bad about Kenny -- I really wanted to help him get through his sadness.
I mentioned Matthew was one of my favourite characters in Season 2 because I think he would have been a cool character. If only Nick didn't shoot him... *sigh*.
My stats for each chapter
So here are the stats of my choices at the end of each chapter. You can click the image to enlarge.
Chapter 1
Did you try to save Christa? -- You and 83.8% of players stopped to help Christa
Did you kill the dog? -- You and 81.6% of players killed the dog
Did you accept Nick's apology? -- You and 87.3% of players accepted Nick's apology
Did you give water to the dying man? -- You and 67.9% of players gave water
Did you save Nick or Pete? -- You and 52.8% of players went with Pete
Chapter2
Took blame for Sarah's photo? -- You and 41.5% of players took the blame
Who did you sit with at dinner? -- You and 65.1% of players sat with Kenny
Told Walter the truth about Matthew? -- You and 74% of players told Walter the truth
Nick's fate? -- You and 84.2% of players convinced Walter to forgive Nick
Left to find Kenny? -- You and 46% of players stayed to help Carlos
Chapter3
Helped Sarah with her chores? -- You and 76.7% of players helped Sarah
Told Bonnie about Luke? -- You and 51.3% of players told Bonnie
Admitted to stealing the walkie talkie? -- You and 42.4% of players tried to speak up
Watched Kenny kill Carver? -- You and 31.7% of players left with Sarita
Chopped off Sarita's arm? -- You and 82.7% of players chopped off Sarita's arm
Chapter4
Left Sarah at the trailer park? -- You and 71.3% of players saved Sarah
Robbed Arvo? -- You and 55.5% of players refused to steal from Arvo
Crawled through ticket booth? -- You and 86% of players volunteered to crawl through
Held the baby? -- You and 92.9% of players held the baby
Shot Rebecca? -- You and 56.4% of players chose to shoot Rebecca
Chapter5
Protected the baby? -- You and 84.2% of players protected the baby
Went to help Luke? -- You and 50.7% of players did not try to help Luke
Asked to leave with Mike? -- You and 94.1% of players didn't ask to leave with Mike
Shot Kenny? -- You and 69.7% of players shot Kenny
In the end, who are you with? -- You and 36.8% of players are with Jane & the family
(In my defense, I thought I was helping Luke when he told me to shoot those zombies!
I trusted that he would know best about his situation! ><)
I'll mention some of the scenes that made me squeamish...
Scene #1: Suturing the bite -- Oh my... I was squirming so much when I did this. I could really feel Clementine's pain, especially since her voice expressed it so genuinely. It's embarrassing to say, but I hyperventilated a number of times throughout the scene.
Scene #2: Killing the dog -- I knew it had to be done, given its situation. That didn't make it any easier. I wonder what would have happened if I didn't feed him...
Scene #3: Killing Nick -- I think they just wanted to make killing Nick gory, making Clementine accidentally lop the side of his head before making the deadly strike.
Scene #4: Seeing Kenny's "work" on Carver -- Ugh... eeee... I didn't really need to see that...
There's probably more but that's all I could think of so far.
If you read my spoilers, thank for reading them! Now to finish with more scrolly things. Feel free to comment :D
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