This review contains spoilers
Positives out of the way first. The core narrative through line involving Kenny's descent after the loss of his family and Sarita was incredible, and ultimately, the choice I made to finally put a bullet in him would be the only way anyone would finally get through to him. I love Kenny, I really do, but the poor guy was spiraling. And after watching everyone die around Clementine, it felt like the only way I could truly end this cycle of love and loss. Jane was right all along.
The thing that really tied all of this together was the flashback Clementine had to Lee. People are complicated, just as he says.
With that out of the way, here's why I was conflicted on this game as a whole. Several characters around you die in often sudden and shocking ways. This was a running theme throughout the entire season, and it impacts everyone in various ways. This inherently isn't a bad thing for the narrative, and while certain characters did at least get some sort of sendoff (particularly Luke), I took issue with the way some characters were written out. Carlos dies suddenly, and Sarah is in shock for a while, as he sheltered her for most of her life. Before this, you could spend time with her and earn her trust, which makes the choice of getting her out of that mobile home feel rewarding, rather than just leaving her to die. But then, she dies anyway in the most distasteful and disgusting way I could have ever imagined. It was as if they didn't feel like writing her into the story any further, and they just have this poor, scared little girl devoured by a pack of walkers. What the fuck?
This is actually representative of a bigger issue with Season Two - your choices really don't have the same weight as frequently as they did in Season One. This is compounded by the fact that there are basically no hubs this time, and no opportunities to have conversations with characters. Considering how often they kill people off in this game, that seems intentional, but it just ends up leaving me without much closure or connection with the characters as I did in Season One. This also directly impacts how much weight your choices have, with the greatest choice in the game - that being the choice to shoot Kenny or look away - being so great because of the two seasons they had to develop Kenny's character.
Then again, I've also learned that Kenny pretty much has no presence in Season Three, and he ends up dying in a flashback anyway, so hey. There you go.
Moreover, there isn't really much gameplay in Season Two. No puzzles, no chances to do nice things for the characters, rarely any optional discoveries that matter - Season One was already a more minimalistic game in terms of adventure game mechanics, but Season Two is just about moving from place to place like an interactive film more than it is a compelling video game.
As a whole, I thought Season Two was a good experience. But it didn't live up to Season One by any stretch of the imagination.
The thing that really tied all of this together was the flashback Clementine had to Lee. People are complicated, just as he says.
With that out of the way, here's why I was conflicted on this game as a whole. Several characters around you die in often sudden and shocking ways. This was a running theme throughout the entire season, and it impacts everyone in various ways. This inherently isn't a bad thing for the narrative, and while certain characters did at least get some sort of sendoff (particularly Luke), I took issue with the way some characters were written out. Carlos dies suddenly, and Sarah is in shock for a while, as he sheltered her for most of her life. Before this, you could spend time with her and earn her trust, which makes the choice of getting her out of that mobile home feel rewarding, rather than just leaving her to die. But then, she dies anyway in the most distasteful and disgusting way I could have ever imagined. It was as if they didn't feel like writing her into the story any further, and they just have this poor, scared little girl devoured by a pack of walkers. What the fuck?
This is actually representative of a bigger issue with Season Two - your choices really don't have the same weight as frequently as they did in Season One. This is compounded by the fact that there are basically no hubs this time, and no opportunities to have conversations with characters. Considering how often they kill people off in this game, that seems intentional, but it just ends up leaving me without much closure or connection with the characters as I did in Season One. This also directly impacts how much weight your choices have, with the greatest choice in the game - that being the choice to shoot Kenny or look away - being so great because of the two seasons they had to develop Kenny's character.
Then again, I've also learned that Kenny pretty much has no presence in Season Three, and he ends up dying in a flashback anyway, so hey. There you go.
Moreover, there isn't really much gameplay in Season Two. No puzzles, no chances to do nice things for the characters, rarely any optional discoveries that matter - Season One was already a more minimalistic game in terms of adventure game mechanics, but Season Two is just about moving from place to place like an interactive film more than it is a compelling video game.
As a whole, I thought Season Two was a good experience. But it didn't live up to Season One by any stretch of the imagination.