Its been a gruelling and slow 8 months seeing Telltale's fantastic second season to The Walking Dead pan out. But its the end of the road, the finale is here and there is no going back. Its been a great season so far but is Season 2 better than the original? Its down to this final episode to make that call.
Picking up at the cliffhanger to Episode 4, the group are surrounded by the Russian survivors. When Rebecca turns into a walker cradling her newborn baby and a gunfight breaks out between the two factions, it begins a chain of events that give Clementine a position of power and authority in the group. For the first time her opinions aren't pushed to one side and ignored but are valued and mature opinions on what is best for the group and its newest addition.
This episode completes Clementine's journey into a hardened survivor and allows you to decide who you want to join you and who you want to leave behind.
The episode isn't a tear jerker like last seasons finale, though it definitely has some touching moments. Its also one of the longest in the season with a length of just over two hours.
The episodes gameplay is more choice and dialogue based than combat, even in combat situations most of the control is wrestled away from you which does make this one of the less gameplay driven episodes but in exchange we are delighted to some of the best dialogue in either series to date.
There were a couple of times towards the latter end of the episode where I felt it was dragging on longer than it needed to, at several points I felt like the episode would end at that point but instead it kept on going and its safe to say that the final 5 minutes are underwhelming, though it is something that has been building for three episodes by this point, you cant help but feel that season 1's finale was a much more thrilling and fulfilling experience.
The presentation is good with fewer technical hiccups than usual, however some of the loading screens seemed longer than average. The voice acting and use of the soundtrack in this episode though is simply phenomenal. Though Telltale's games are ripe with great dialogue and excellent voice talent, No Going Back is the icing on an extremely delicious cake thanks to some extremely human moments between Clementine and the supporting cast; most notably the scene at the old power transformers.
As a whole package The Walking Dead Season 2 is a must own if you haven't played it already. A touching and well written story of a young girl turning into a survivor.
However, it doesn't quite live up to the standards of its predecessor due to a story that doesn't quite match the extremely high standards of the original season.
That being said, bring on a very interesting Season 3.
The Walking Dead Season 2: Episode 5
No Going Back – 8/10
+Unpredictability
+Excellent Dialogue
-Underwhelming Ending
-Drags Towards End
The Walking Dead Season 2
Final Judgement
8/10
