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The first season of Telltale’s The Walking Dead was the winner of our Game of the Year award last year. It beat out the likes of Resident Evil (Revelations) and Silent Hill (Downpour) to win that accolade. The game was a masterful adaptation of the zombie-ridden world of Robert Kirkman’s comic book property, giving us characters we all ended up caring deeply for. It left us hooked right from the very first episode, and each proceeding one’s cliffhangers certainly didn’t make the wait for the next one any easier.
Telltale sure knows how to get one emotional, and they show no signs of mercy now that Season 2 has commenced. There will be no spoilers in this review, but right within the game’s intro sequence, I found myself vicious and quite sad about a certain thing that happens. I was, like, actually yelling at the screen. It’s that connection to the world’s characters that Telltale has excelled at, most notably with Clementine, who we now take control of.
We all miss Lee. It brings a tear to my eye whenever he’s mentioned in this new season’s premiere. It’s heartbreaking to see how Clem is coping after the loss of her beloved father figure; one that made sure to prepare her in how to survive amidst all the death surrounding our characters. Despite her being just a kid, I found myself always having Lee in mind whenever I would have to make tough decisions as Clem. It’s interesting and very risky; Telltale has opted for a child protagonist pit in the zombie apocalypse. It’s interesting because now we’ll get to see Clem grow up in this world, influenced by everything Lee taught her (which in turn means all our Season 1 choices). It’s risky because, well, you can’t really do a whole lot as far as action-packed gameplay goes involving feats of strength and other scenarios more geared toward an adult avatar. I personally love this, and with this episode alone we see exactly what type of hardships Clem will actually face. (I secretly want an else-worlds game with Clem teaming up with The Last of Us’ Ellie!).
Whether it be the source material, the novels, TV show or the game, The Walking Dead sure knows how to make us feel uncomfortable. There’s one standout moment where players have to do “something” that really made me scream (again). Though not in anger, but I’ll hold back from saying what feeling was evoked to avoid spoilers. It made me remember something from my own childhood, so my reaction here was even more profound because of that. It proved that despite being a child, Telltale isn’t going to be afraid to put Clem through hell this season. Though I’ll say this now, I don’t think we should expect death in Clem’s future. Not only because I doubt the writers will want to repeat what they did at the end of the first season with Lee, but because I think sometimes it’s better to have a character suffer a fate worse than death (I’m a sick man!).
While Clem does get accompanied by a couple of familiar faces, the focus for the majority of the episode is on her interaction with a new group of survivors. At first, I thought this group — nicely holed up in a pretty big house — was going to be filled with cliche character types expected from the genre. But I was pleasantly surprised to find myself quite interested in their individual personalities, leaving me eager to learn more about their back stories. If you’ve read the books, or if you’re one of the millions that’s seen the show, then you can probably predict that something’s going to eventually happen to tear this group apart and leave them with no choice but to leave the relative safety of their current safe haven. But as far as the first episode goes, the group has to deal with Clementine, and the main question, for them at least, becomes one of trust. This shows how horrible this world has become. Even a child can’t be outright trusted. And that’s what makes for some truly engaging dialogue moments where the answer isn’t exactly easy to decide.
Just as dire as the choices you’ll make in conversations are the actions Clem will perform. Telltale has stepped up the gameplay mechanics by taking a fantasy-less page out of their Wolf Among Us book, resulting in more satisfying and intuitive actions than ever before. From a thrilling chase sequence towards the beginning to quite possibly the most hard-to-sit-through moment the series has produced yet, players are sure to be fully immersed, and at the edge of their seat, in this dreadful world throughout the episode’s roughly two hour duration. Telltale has nailed the pacing here. For me, there wasn’t a single dull moment. You now feel even more vulnerable to the horrors around, boosting the level of tension greatly. And the best part is, this is just the first episode!
As always, we get a huge, and crazy good, cliffhanger at the end, after being faced with a very, very, very tough choice. I had to pause my game, walk outside for a good ten minutes, then come back to finally make my choice. I wasn’t expecting it to be that hard for me initially. The next episode is already shaping up to be even more amazing that this premiere, that’s for sure. Yup, Telltale just couldn’t wait, and even though their Game of Thrones series is ways off, it looks like “winter is coming” to The Walking Dead in a future episode (as indicated by the menu)! My only complaints with the episode lie within the now traditional little technical bugs you can come across. They’re not game-breaking at all, but it’s a little frustrating to see the same issues that plagued the first season rear their ugly heads here once again.
“All That Remains” is a superb premiere for season two, beautifully kicking off what’s sure to be another emotional ride for fans. We’re now getting to know Clem even more, now that she’s all on her own and made to (suffer) survive with everything we taught her in the first season. I like playing with Lee in my mind as I make Clem make the choices I think he would want her to make. Now it’s time to be all depressed waiting for the next episode.
(9.5 / 10)
Amazing
(9.5 / 10)
