A Road Not Taken | The Walking Dead Season 2: No Going Back

<p>In its second season&comma; the <em>Walking Dead<&sol;em>’s slowly creeped its way towards its gruesome&comma; untimely end&period; Worldweary but undefeated&comma; Clementine’s lived a lifetime of trials from the girl we left on a hill a season ago&period; Her hair’s shorter&comma; her friends are fewer&comma; and her skill with an axe is unmatched&period; She’s survived against all odds&comma; even if that’s been against the people she called &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;family&period;” Clementine’s story is about growing up&comma; and if the <em>Walking Dead<&sol;em>’s grown along with her&comma; it’s with the same regret that comes with what its left undone&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On the same note&comma; <em>No Going Back<&sol;em> takes no time in throwing itself straight into the explosive cliffhanger that left Clementine in the middle of a heated gun battle on the edges of a snowy forest&period; Springing in the violent daze&comma; she immediately has to choose between saving her friends or a newborn baby in swaddling clothes&period; This intro has it all&&num;8211&semi;fast thinking&comma; moral dilemmas&comma; a surprise character’s return &lpar;if not a convenient one&rpar;&comma; and easily one of the ugliest deaths we’ve seen so far&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If <em>No Going Back<&sol;em> rockets off of the starting line&comma; it quickly winds down to a stroll in the park&period; Before long&comma; Clementine finds herself and the group around making camp and swapping small talk&comma; one at a time and all together&comma; as if the game’s choosing to sing Cumbaya before its Charge of the Light Brigade&period; It’s all a bit stale&comma; if not well intended&colon; Kenny rehashes his grief over his dead family&semi; Jane tells a funny story about her wayward youth and dead sister&semi; and Clementine misses Lee&comma; the father she never had&period; We should be rather grateful if Telltale gave us breathing room&period; If only there was more worth saying&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"alignnone size-full wp-image-66232" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;09&sol;05074157&sol;800px-Mike&lowbar;rusos&lowbar;9&period;png" alt&equals;"WDS2" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"450" &sol;>All thats a reminder of how much we still do miss Lee&comma; even how things seemed fresh so many episodes ago&period; As a result&comma; everyones fate can’t help but seem telegraphed rather than inspired&comma; leaving Clementine where she is all too often&colon; alone to figure things out for herself&period; It’s utterly silly to even attempt to generate sympathy by the finale’s end and it’s a surprising flub from Telltale’s masterful arcs&period; These relationships that I once built only feel like caricatures rewound over and over&comma; until the product’s nothing more than a poor man’s Season 1&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>What <em>No Going Back<&sol;em> does do well is its impressive sense of atmosphere&period; The <em>Walking Dead<&sol;em> can owe its chilling action to a measured pace with a finesse it’s honed over ten episodes&period; It’s Clementine that’s left to tend to Kenny’s grisly wounds and it’s her that &lpar;if you choose so&rpar; dives to the death-defying bottom of a frozen lakeside swim to save a party member&period; Actions like these consist of slow&comma; hold-and-click and dragging motions&comma; rather than a harsher simple click option&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In these moments&comma; players approach Kenny with jokes about how much the cleaning is going to hurt&comma; or they can try to downplay the pain and&comma; for a moment&comma; enjoy some flowing conversation&period; This is what Telltale excels at&comma; and <em>No Going Back<&sol;em> crackles when it lets these seeds flourish&period; Otherwise they’re buried deep beneath the banality of the encompassing dejá vu&period; Cluttered amidst so many plot threads are the growing number of missing persons that’s been on everyone’s mind for the season&period; Clarissa’s forever lost&comma; Lily’s still M&period;I&period;A&period;&comma; and Lee still can’t help but leave a hole in our hearts&period; At this point&comma; it’d be simply nostalgic to face Lee again&comma; we’d even take him as a zombie by this point&comma; even if just for the morbid curiosity of it all&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"alignnone size-full wp-image-66234" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;09&sol;05074148&sol;The-Walking-Dead-Season-Two-113714&period;jpg" alt&equals;"WDS2&lpar;1&rpar;" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"450" &sol;>Against this frustrating backdrop&comma; Telltale does try to provide the closure we crave&comma; though nevertheless amidst the inevitable&period; The bulk of <em>No Going Back<&sol;em>’s emotion&comma; aren’t about Clementine&comma; however&period; They’re about Jane’s guilt and Kenny&&num;8217&semi;s rage and the other survivors’ woe stories&comma; while Clementine is largely &lpar;and rudely&rpar; sidestepped&period; Clementine’s the star of Season 2&comma; but the first part of the game focuses on other people&&num;8211&semi;people we&&num;8217&semi;ve learned not to care for because they&&num;8217&semi;ll probably die soon&comma; or people we already hate&comma; enjoy&comma; or merely tolerate&period; We should already know Kenny’s a dick and Jane’s a pragmatist&period; We know we love Clementine though&comma; and that’s quite a more unique feeling to exploit&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>After all’s said and done&comma; all roads meet at the showdown we’ve seen coming since episode 3&period; The final minutes of <em>No Going Back<&sol;em> nevertheless have the hallmark Telltale charm&semi; the scenes are fast and intense&comma; even when it’s just conversation&comma; and they convey the sense of hopelessness&comma; loneliness&comma; and depravity at how far these people&&num;8211&semi;and you&&num;8211&semi;will go to survive&period; Your decisions matter&comma; the choices you make are earth-shaking&comma; and you control the chaos&comma; whether with words or a gun&period; Trust no one and keep that hair short&comma; Lee told us once&comma; and according to <em>No Going Back<&sol;em>&comma; both were wise words&period; By its end&comma; the brutal finale brings with it the carnage of at least three different endings thanks to your actions in only the last minute&period; I can’t say I’m pleased&comma; but merely satisfied with my Clementine’s ending&comma; as if it was the only acceptable choice against the insanity around her&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Clementine’s grown up&comma; but I can’t see what for in a world gone this mad&period; A season after we left a little girl with a cap and a gun&comma; she’s seemingly left to her own devices in a playground too dull for the big kids any longer&period; There’s action and split-second decisions&comma; and it’s all meant for good&comma; but it can’t fill this last episode’s heartless void&period; Those who fail to study history are doomed to repeat it&period; I’m worried <em>The Walking Dead<&sol;em>’s left little to be learned again&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;