Welcome to your monthly heart attack! There’s one thing that Telltale’s Walking Dead series does better than anyone and that’s to make your heart rate go dangerously high as you fear what’s going to happen next. The second episode of the second season, A House Divided, has more moments like that than almost any in the series so far. Keep your blood pressure medication handy because you’re going to feel doom nearly throughout its two hour running time. This episode is much stronger than the first, but man, what a gruelling experience it is.
(Spoilers for the first episode to follow)
11 year-old Clementine is now a part of a group of strangers who are holed up in a cabin in the woods of Virginia, still not sure what they're all about and trying to navigate the clashing personalities as best she can. Depending on who you stood by at the end of the last episode, young and naive Nick or his more stable (and critical) Uncle Pete, the story will veer off in two directions. I personally saved Nick and began to regret it right from the beginning- he doesn’t take the death of his Uncle well and during a zombie attack you get split off from the rest of your group and are forced to take shelter with Nick in a shed. He proceeds to get drunk and lament his life, and it’s up to Clem to tell him to man up or sympathize with him as you please.
Once that all gets settled (in whatever way you end up) you’ll go back to the rest of your new group, only to find that they’re being huntedby this mysterious William Carver person that was mentioned briefly in the first installment. A tense encounter with him in the house while no adults are present only gives you more questions- who is this guy? Why is he hunting down the group? Is he the bad guy in this situation, or did the group do something to him?
When the adults return they decide to immediately head off to escape Carver, and you go towards a ski lodge up north, where more characters are met and one helluva conclusion takes place.
Unlike the tv series, no one can ever find fault an episode of Telltale's The Walking Dead for having nothing happen. So much changes over the course of this episode, and nearly all for the better.
But one plot point will be in contention right from the first moment it happens- it would be wrong to reveal what that is, but you’ll know it when you see it. It’s an old trick that’s been used in tons of media before, and I almost wish it weren’t utilized here. But it does offer up a whole new world of possibilities for the future, and for tension between the group, so it's forgivable for how cheap of a gutpunch it is. It's effective.
But there’s one sequence, one stretch of the game, where you start to realize something awful. Something your group did. For once in The Walking Dead you aren’t worried about what other people will do, you’re worried about what other people will do when they find out what you’ve done. I’d equate it to the sequence at the cannibal’s farmhouse in the first season, where you know something’s up but just can’t figure out what it is. Here there’s that same overwhelming sense of dread and fear but it’s even worse because it’s something you were a part of. It’s a brilliant section, one which can end just as badly as you feared it would, depending on your choices.
This is definitely a step forward for the series, and the right one. We’re left with new mysteries to ponder that will have to be answered in the upcoming three episodes, more questions and characters that we’ll have to deal with. As with the first episode Clem is being somewhat hustled along with the larger story and you’re waiting for her to become a bigger part of the narrative but still, she’s an 11 year-old kid. She doesn’t have the pull, just yet, although she is getting more respect among the group.
The upcoming Episode 3 is titled In Harms Way, so things are most likely not going to get any better for poor Clem. Like Pete lamented to her while they were stuck in the shed- why should they bother to go on? What’s the point of living if you’re just going to find a new group of people and wonder who is going to get picked off, one by one, waiting for the day when it’s your turn? These are all important questions to process but one thing you shouldn’t question is whether to pick up this season. Two episodes in it’s already obvious that Telltale has another hit on their hands, another series that will stick with you long after you play it.
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The Walking Dead Season Two: Episode Two is now available for Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Mac and iOS. This review was based on a PS3 season code provided by the publisher.
