Review: Telltale's The Walking Dead Season 2 Finale
Thu, August 28, 2014 SPOILERS.
"I'm just so sick of this shit"
or something similar is uttered by the character Mike in the episode, which sums up my feelings on all of Season 2. Specifically the penulimate episode where it ended on a climatic and out-of-nowhere standoff with a random death of one of the only characters you could get emotionally attached to. And with the finale, it opens on the exact same moment except our survivors are now spread out and under patches of cover that were not visible in the previous episode. And it is in this gunfight where all of our survivors miracuously survive, because with all Walking Dead media, deaths must be shocking, over the top and unpredictable. Coincidentally, Telltale perfects that with this episode. Every death is unexpected because it's random with little-to-no buildup except the suspensful final ten minutes of the episode.
To start, the best part of the episode and the only one that made me almost-cry was a flashback to a (unseen) portion of season 1 with Lee. Clementine wakes up from a dream and sees Lee on the RV during a time that Duck was bit and this scene showed how young, adorable and amazing Clementine used to be. This is the character I loved and the character that I tried to raise right in Season 1. A little girl, lost and abandoned in this dark, dark world and the only guiding light was Lee, portrayed by, well, me. That was my main motivation in Season 1 - to see that Clementine survives. No matter what. And as Lee, I fulfilled that promise the best I can. But with Season 2, Clementine's only motivation is what...staying alive? The reason behind why I'm playing as Clementine was always so unclear to me. Not to mention the fact that almost none of the characters take this little girl seriously is frustrating, because in the end your choices almost mean nothing. It's completely boring. If Telltale had balls, Clementine would've died from Arvo's gunshot and the scene with Lee would've been her gateway into heaven. Although, you can't kill a little girl in a video game or Tumblr will go apeshit! Has this game even touched on sensistive tumblr subjects such as rape?
Sure, there are a multitude of endings but they're all cliffhangers that don't add to the story. Unless Telltale plans on developing dozens upon dozens of different games in one episode to satisfy these endings for Season 3, they will probably have some sort of start that ties into all the different ending in this episode. But the best thing they can do is scrap Clementine's joke of a story and just start with a new group and tie more into the comics. You know what I'd like to see more of? Lily. I'd like to see her rise to power in Woodbury and how she ended up killing The Governor. Stuff like that. It's all loose plotlines left behind from the first season.
Hell, what this episode specializes in is hanging plot lines that leave the player guessing or plotlines from earlier in the season that were never resolved. What happened to Christa? How did Kenny dispose of Mike, Bonnie and Arvo? Stuff like that. The Wellington ending only gives you a hint. The thing is, I really thought this season to remake the magic that the first had. Lee was an exceptional character and playing as him felt like an honor and when he died, it felt like I died too. Playing as Clementine didn't feel right, it felt like a cheap tactic. Why is it that Telltale wants to tell me that a little girl is the only who makes it through this apocalypse unscathed, when someone like Luke who always carries a gun on his back cannot?
Speaking of Luke, I will admit the character development in this episode was really well-done. You learn a lot about almost all of the characters except Arvo, whose sort of like a background character and just there to make a rift between the characters. Kenny goes full apeshit by this point and we learn a bit more about Jane and how she survives in the world. Overall, that was the only satisfactory part of it. The campfire scene with the rum bottle was exceptional. Unfortunately, Luke's tension with Kenny is never fully realized as he falls through an ice river, which I do not believe is the end of him. Luke could potentially be the "Kenny" of SEason 3 and miraculously come back from an almost-certain death.
In summary, I don't completely despise this episode but I do not believe this season is worth the money. I would completely understand if Telltale stopped giving me review season passes for their games due to this negative review, but I just wanted to be honest. And to add to that, I'm just so sick of The Walking Dead as a franchise. I use to be a completely huge fan of it but it's horrendously saturated and beyond milked at this point. I want Telltale to use more of the comic canon and start fresh with a new group of survivors, although I know that'll never happen.
Final words: If Game of Thrones and Tales of The Borderlands share the same team as The Wolf Among Us, those will be A+ series.
Reader Comments (1)
Have you played acheter fifa 15?
The game cover includes Lionel Messi for all regions on the global cover also few regions also have a player from their own region.