Catrena and I are steeping hard in The Walking Dead franchise, right now, as we’re almost to the end of Season 4. It’s raining today and after a few bouts of chores around the house we decided to settle in and start Season 2 of the game.
Right away the tone of this season is much more grim than the beginning of the first. The father of our pregnant traveling companion is shot in a bathroom robber gone bad, we learn that our Christa loses her baby and we have the option to kill a dog we once played fetch with. It’s a rough start! It feels as though the devs were trying to really impress upon us, the players, that though you are playing as a child, young Clementine, this is not a world of innocence. No punchers were held, everything is full force. And by god is it ever. From those first few moments to the decisions that lead to us having to sew up our own wound, it’s a strong opener. My biggest complaint so far is they’ve not introduced us to any characters that I particularly care about, other than Clementine. The denizens of the house we are brought to all seem to hate each other and can be hard to tell apart. Though I understand in these troubling times that you may not be a bastion of friendliness, I still need to care about these people. On to Episode 2!
Jan 15, 2026 / 7:35 pm
When I said we steeped ourselves into this hard I wasn’t joking. We’re currently at the end of Season 5 of the TV show (gulp!) and we finished this season of the game. Season 2, to me, had a lot more downs than ups. I think I brushed on this the last time I wrote about it but in order for this kind of game to work for me you need to give me characters that I like. And this season wasn’t full of very many likable people. They don’t always have to be GOOD people, right? And a theme of these “do what we need to survive” shows is often the line that is walked between good & evil; the moral quandary of watching out for yours and stepping on anyone that gets in the way. Season 2 starts us off with the hard hitting choice of whether or not we should try to feed a dog and that dog immediately turns on Clem and attacks her, forcing her to put it down.
That’s a tough choice for a child to make! And it’s a tough choice for a lot of people to make because the human race loves to make dogs out to be this angelic foil that should never be on the receiving end of harm no matter what… and it’s a tough choice! Then you get tossed into a group of some of the most unlikable characters and, for me, that ambiguity goes away! These are not puppy-eyed, likeable creatures! These are adults that throw a little girl into a shed to bleed out. They force her to sew up her own arm after cleaning it with medical supplies she had to steal because they would offer her no aid. No matter what happens after this, that’s the taste that I had in my mouth of this group. They were clearly hiding something and CONSTANTLY bickering, so my investment in their safety was very low.
I did like this quick story beat about taking a polaroid picture Clem and her new friend, Sarah.
It turns out that bickering would never cease! They go on to do that the entire game. People will get added to the group, others will leave, some will die, but the constant between them is that anything that needs to be discussed, no matter how important or mundane, will end with everyone yelling and screaming at each other. It was kind of annoying! I’m a fairly level-headed person, I have my passions and my values but I can also be a diplomat, through and through, so hearing people fly off the handle at the drop of a hat when what you need to do is apply reason and compassion is extremely challenging for me. Most of the conflicts in this game could be resolved if just one side let off the gas even a little . To see the writing come down to cosntantly needing to pick a side in a verbal fight between one side or the other wore thin by the end of the last chapter, especially since the final thing you were tasked with is - yup, you guessed it - choosing between two people who were arguing. The choice is much heavier, and we chose to shoot Kenny because my god he was being so unreasonable but the more I sat with it - ESPECIALLY after the reveal that AJ was alive and well - I wish I blew Jane away, I shouldn’t even have hesitated! That was such a fucking stupid thing to do, Jane, after I sided with you! This wish also applies to Arvo. Fuck Arvo!
It was nice to see that Clem had some real character development, and by the end of this game she was just as fed up with everyone’s bullshit as I was. She’s a great character and I really wish they had put her as the lead of the next game, which hasn’t been on sale yet so we have not played it. I think the trials and tribulations with Telltale could have taken the wind from the lungs of these beloved games, but so far we’ve been enjoying them enough that we’ve put ourselves through TWO, heart wrenching decisions and all. I am glad we played them, we still call back to these games and discuss the outcomes and what could have been done differently. The first season was easily better than this one, with a better story, more likable characters (RIP Lee) and a far more rounded out world of decisions, but the second one kept us invested even if we didn’t love everyone and everything.
