Let's start out with the following...
***SPOILER ALERT***
Well, I finally completed season two. I fully expected a sophomore slump this go around. I don't know why, for sure. Maybe it was the complete awesomeness of the first season? I was kind of thinking, "how can they make this poor kid go through even more terrible shit?"
Well... good for us, bad for Clementine. This poor kid has had a rough couple years.
Let's do a brief summary of season one as a refresher, shall we?
As I'm sure you're aware, telltale games does video games a little differently. It tells a story and let's you make decisions on how the primary characters interact with each other and the environment. These decisions effect how the game progresses. They've done this with several popular pop-culture titles, (Back to the Future comes to mind) and they've been somewhat popular with the indie crowd. The Walking Dead title was an instant hit over a year ago and went totally mainstream. They released five episodes that related to the comic more than the show. They showcased an entirely different cast of characters during the zombie apocalypse. However, they did a few cameos from the comic.
Season one centered around a character named Lee who was a convicted murderer on his way to prison. Zombie events ensue, he escapes custody and meets a little Asian girl named Clementine.
He ends up being a good guy, protects her throughout all five episodes and teaches her how to survive. *Spoiler* Lee does die at the end of season one and 'Clem' is on her own.
The first season was excellent. Just a gripping story that made me check to see if the next episode was available on a daily basis.
Season two picks up with Clementine about a year or two older. She's with two people from her previous group, Christa and Omid, (a married couple). A mistake is made by Clem and *Spoiler* Omid dies.
After that, things get more difficult for her. She notices all she can do is count on herself and she ends up alone again after being attacked by bandits.
Clem survives due to things Lee taught her. You can instantly tell she has matured beyond her years. She kills the undead without remorse or hesitation.
I have to admit, the first three episodes of season two really kept me glued. I would play each one two or three times to see which decisions or conversations were really pertinent to the story.
You can make Clem become a hard ass or you can try to have her keep some of her childhood innocence. She comes across another group and meets an old friend from season one that ends up being a very big part of the finale. I won't spoil who, just in case.
By episode four, I realized that this game was taking an even darker course. Telltale did an excellent job of really sticking to the comics' storyline of people being more dangerous than the undead and how terrible the human race can be to one another.
As I mentioned, the gameplay is very basic. Hit certain buttons to say certain things and make decisions. This isn't a game where you go around making head-shots on zombies. However, there's plenty of action and you'll stay entertained. Each episode will last about 1 or 2 hours. You can buy a season pass for both seasons for about 50 bucks, (check for special deals, I could be wrong). This will get you roughly 15 hours of gameplay.
You will find yourself immersed in the story wether you're a fan of the comics/series or not. The graphics are very artistic and comic/cartoon based. The characters and environments are very well drawn and colorful. The replay-ability is fairly good depending on how you would like the story to progress. I have a feeling that we are going to see at least two or three more seasons as well.
I played this via my PS3 and you can download it via their online store or buy the discs from GameStop.
The story is really very good and it'll be something you can enjoy when all your favorite TV shows are in reruns.
I give both seasons combined a solid 8. (Season 1 is a 9, Season 2 is a 7). The second seasons finale brought it down just a little for me but I'm still a little pissy about the decisions I made.
BTW a cool feature of this game is after you complete an episode, you can see what percentage of the other players made the same decisions as you. There's also a pretty good add-on DLC episode that ties in to the main story. If you get it, play it before season 2.
I know it's been out a while but I fell behind a bit. If you're on the fence on this one, I recommend you give it a shot. There's a lot of YouTube vids out there but don't ruin the story by watching too much!