Well … it’s sad really, what happened with Telltale and all the developers, who were unjustly just left hanging, however … in all honesty I’m glad Skybound picked this game up and decided to finish the saga. I’ve been with Clementine since day 1 of first season and her story has always been interesting to me. So, leaving it hanging like that was disappointing and despite all, I’m glad she will get an ending, no matter what it is.
Short summary from where episode 1 left us off …
We ended up in this school full of kids and they took us in, however, of course sh*t hits the fan, as always in The Walking Dead, and Marlon (the leader of said kids) killed one of them (Brody), because she wanted to tell everyone of the deal he made with the raiders to leave them alone, by giving them Minerva and Sophie – twin sisters, siblings to Tenn. Marlon got afraid, panicked and killed Brody, locked us with her corpse, she turned (of course) and we had to kill her … again. Then there was a tense argument in the school yard, where Clem exposed Marlon for the f*ck he was and with the choices I made, ended up beaten by her. I did try to spare him, but he was done by a bullet in his head by AJ and this is where episode 1 ended. And here come the spoilers.
Episode 2 starts with a very angry mob of kids, at AJ primarily for killing Marlon and me for … well being with him and only Violet stepped up for me, because she and Minerva were girlfriends and she wasn’t all too happy to find out Marlon traded them to the raiders. Everyone else seemed to forget what Marlon did and how he killed Brody and blamed it all on us. There was a vote and low and behold, we ended up kicked out of the school which was issue number 1 for me with this episode. I saw what Telltale did with Guardians of the Galaxy and it really didn’t have to be anything major, but the moment they told me a vote would be cast for Clem and AJ to whether they should be kicked out or not, I actually believed that this could be influenced, based on how you treated the kids back in episode 1. Well yes, but no. You get kicked out even if you were on good terms with everyone. The only thing which may vary and I’m not sure about this is who steps up for you and votes for you to stay, whether it’s Violet or Louis, depending on who stood up on your side back in episode 1. Again … not sure on this one, but for me, Violet was really defendant of us and wanted us to stay. Yay Violet.
Anyways, I understand why we had to get kicked out, in order to meet some people, but I really feel like this could be done two ways. So, the people we meet, after the school is done with us are:
James – a very interesting character. I like James. He views walkers in a … different way, maybe a bit too maniacal I think, but he is adorable and lends us a hand in need after we get attacked by the raiders.
Lilly – boy was I surprised to see this b*tch back in the game. I thought I was done with her back in season 1, but I guess she persevered. Didn’t like her back then, don’t like her now and she fell even lower than before.
So, what happens is, we get attacked by raiders – Abel, the guy I hated from episode 1 and I thought died by walkers, but apparently not, cuz he cut his arm off, Lilly, who is supposedly their leader or something (at least I suppose so, by the way she acted) and a few more unnamed idiots, who we don’t really care about.
We put up a fight, stuff goes bad and AJ gets shot by one of the raiders. Luckily, Violet and Louis, who escorted us out of the school stuck around and we can “ask” them to lend a hand, by telling Violet to shoot at Lilly or telling them to back off. Well I did tell her to shoot, but Lilly is a sturdy one as we already know and we get away, leaving her alive. Also, James helps by making things even more chaotic for the raiders and guiding walkers in the fight to save the day … ye, that’s his thing … he guides walkers.
Clem and AJ return back to the school, so they can ask the kids to treat AJ, because, as I mentioned, he’s been shot by the raiders and to be honest I was expecting a lot more negativity than I got, but I suppose everything turned out for the better. AJ gets the medical attention he needs, and the kids allow us to stay on probation until we push the raiders back, because Clem tells them that they will come to take them from here. Apparently, as Lilly told us, they are at a war with another community and they need people to fight for them … yeah, I wonder could you get any lower than this Lilly. And people wonder why I say that humans are worse than walkers in this game. Instead of collectively surviving, they kill each other and guess what … actually I think I’ve said this before in a review of this game (don’t really remember which episode or which season for that matter), more people have died by other people than by walkers.
Anyways, we spend the rest of the episode preparing for the incoming raid attack and we get to bond with a person of our choice. It’s either Violet or Louis and I picked the latter, not because I dislike Violet … I mean she is on point and a badass, but doing lesbian relationships in games, is really not my thing. I have nothing against them, but I just don’t delve into them. I liked both characters, hence why when everything started going to s*it when the raiders attacked, the choice to either save Violet or Louis left me dumbfound and I couldn’t decide what to do for like 2 hours … literally. I had to spoil myself for the consequence of this choice in other to be able to make it and I went with Louis…
The episode ends with Violet, Omar and Aasim getting taken by Lilly and her little group of amazing people … kappa.
Let’s mention gameplay before wrapping up this review. I like that despite all that was happening in Telltale, this episode was still very well made. Gameplay was engaging, as much as can be expected from a game such as this and I didn’t feel detached at all. This actually goes for the previous episode too. I don’t remember what I wrote there, but I love how the game tries to engage you in every little thing. Because when people start talking it’s very easy to forget that this is actually a game and not an episode of a tv series, so you get this “hey, I’m a game” reminder very often, which is nice.
At any rate, I’m liking this season so far. Even if I hate Lilly’s guts, she makes for a good antagonist and I can’t wait to see how this unveils in episode 3 … and possibly kill her … oh, I do hope either Clem or AJ get this choice. Speaking of AJ, I feel so responsible for him, since I’m supposed to take care of him and teach him principles in life. And this is good. I like how Telltale handled AJ’s development and how he looks to Clem for everything. So, without further ado, here is the verdict. All I can say is that I can recommend this game to people and more so to those who have followed Clem’s story since season 1.
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