The short wait is over and it is time to continue where Episode One left our little group of survivors in the middle of the end of times. There is a lot going on this time around as the 'villain' of the season has been presented and taken a leading role. Here we go with a hopefully spoiler free review of this episode. Should you be downloading and playing through it right now even with all of the other great titles out? Read on my human…
Story:
We last left Clementine with a new group of survivors and a whole list of new problems. This includes a stupid bitch (Rebecca), a dumb-ass (Dick Nick, and some other cursory feeling characters. Well it would seem that they have some dirty laundry from the past that has come back in the form of a man they call Carver. The group needs to go on the lamb to keep everyone safe and you get to make the hard choices for our eleven year old heroine. How hard? Well you'll have to read on or play the game…
Hated:
Just like the previous episode there was is a huge lack of diversity to the gameplay again. Even when it comes to exploration and puzzles there was a huge lack of this in A House Divided. I can't imagine it was how I played the episode either. The action consists mainly of the point and fire mechanic used for the Walkers in the past. The puzzles were as tricky as going to the most obvious location to get the item that will continue the story progression. In Season One I felt I actually got to play a game and not just click a few things and wait for the next bit of story. I have a feeling this is how the rest of this season will pan out but I could be wrong. I hope I am wrong.
Again, just like All That Remains, A House Divided feels like it is on the way shorter side of things. In fact, for me it only took a little over an hour to get through this episode. Not even the length of the new standard feature film and slightly longer than the TV show of the same franchise. Is Telltale building to something or is this how the entire season is going to be? If that is the case the whole thing may be a little flat for the price of a season pass. Hopefully things pick up in the duration department.
Loved:
Even though the whole gameplay time was on the short side again, A House Divided has had one of the best bits of story and action in the franchise to date. It actually made me audibly gasp at one specific scene. This is something that is generally a difficult task as I catch most of the foreshadowing and build up early on so I am hardly surprised. Whoever wrote this episode gets insane praise from me and I now understand why so many people were shocked by the events of All That Remains. It does leave me with my own questions and concerns but in a good way.
Building from that, I am also glad to see that there is not going to be a whole lot of waiting around for this season to move into full Walking Dead universe. In that I am speaking on the main villains for the story. In Season One we had to wait until pretty much the end of the game and with a pretty dumb reason for the villain to be doing what he was doing. Carver has been fully introduced with great reasons early on. This kind of strife is what is the bread and butter of The Walking Dead, games, comics, and shows. All That Remains has made this season and game really feels like a part of the universe and not just riding the coat tails. I just hope it lasts.
Overall:
So in the end A House Divided has been one of my favorite episodes in The Walking Dead game franchise. It is short. It doesn't expand anything in the way of gameplay and mechanics. But it does keep me interested in the franchise in hopes that the other areas of the game will improve or bring back what were some of the great things that are missing in Season Two. If you have not purchased a season pass for this season I do recommend purchasing it just for this episode so far. That is if you are even a minor fan of The Walking Dead. Here's hoping that it keeps getting better.
The Walking Dead: Season 2 — A House Divided was developed and published by Telltale for the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC on March 4th, 2014. A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for reviewing purposes.
