Back just in time to ruin the holiday season is that feel good event by Telltale games, Walking Dead Season 2. Episode 1: All That Remains sees a slightly older Clementine return as this season’s lead protagonist, and if you completed the first season (as well as 400 Days) the game will auto detect your prior save files, building on the horrific choices you’ve made in prior episodes. If you haven’t played the prior season that’s fine, nor is it necessary to be familiar with the rest of the Walking Dead universe, as Season 2 starts off as a new narrative in the series and a new player can easily latch on to events. Though I would highly recommend playing Season 1.
In the previous season you took on the role of escaped convict and world’s worst babysitter Lee, this season you take on the role of Clementine the young girl he was looking after, allowing you a more direct role in crushing her innocence. As I played the prior season of Walking Dead I’d often find myself trying to use Clementine as a barometer, what action would best protect her? What would leave the lesser scar on her psyche? In season 2 now I find myself trying to justify the actions of this 10 year old navigating the apocalypse, what level of innocence and honesty do I approach situations with? How manipulative and cunning?
Clementine as a protagonist is in a word, awesome, a brief time skip brings you to a Clem that has rounded out her survival skills a tiny bit and matured her personality just enough to fit with the world. It allows you to easily fit in her beaten sneakers and not so much protect her but play her as what she is: A survivor. Telltale Games takes the kid’s gloves off (get it?) almost right away, casting Clem into one particularly hardcore moment that not only slightly recalls prior protagonist Lee, but sets in stone that she is meant to be taken seriously. Between the writers, Melissa Hutchison’s acting, and the general course of the gameplay you can fully respect Clementine as a character come into her own.
Season 1 loved playing emotional tug-o-war having you make some really hard choices ranging from showing someone mercy at the cost to the well being of the greater whole, down to who lived and who died. Season 2 isn’t letting up and is already rife with the table flipping moments you’ve come to know and love/hate, with what you think may be the right choice ending up being a very wrong choice. Episode 1: All that Remains also seems to jump in with a much larger amount of action than its preceding season, having you dodge mystery attackers one minute, trying to kick a zombie off you the next, and a heavily stealth oriented middle section. It certainly felt more interactive, giving me a more direct interaction with the narrative, but still remaining at its core a point and click adventure.
So far I’ve found Walking Dead to be consistent in depressing me, raising my blood pressure, and being overall enjoyable and one of the most memorable gaming experiences, and given some of this season’s opening gestures that’s not going to change. Telltale continues not to pull any punches, and playing as Dear Sweet Clem… Who isn’t as dear and sweet, and likely won’t be dear and sweet at all by the end of it, throws a refreshing perspective on not just the series, but I dare say Walking Dead as a franchise.
