This review contains spoilers
This season pissed me off. Sometimes it did so in ways it was supposed to. Sometimes it did so in ways it wasn't. In the years since playing it, I've gone back and forth on whether or not I think it's good, in spite or even because of my frustration with it.
The easiest thing to say is that it's about as strong as its predecessor from a pure technical and mechanical standpoint. That's not entirely a good thing - the Telltale Tool was already getting long in the tooth by Season One, the runaway success of which ensured that Telltale would keep using it out of necessity until the day the studio closed. But it's mostly a good thing. Voice acting is still top notch, the cel-shaded art style looks great, the game's easy to pick up and play, choices still feel impactful in the moment, I don't remember running into too many glitches - the actual performance of the game and everything was great. None of my frustration with the game lies with what the game is, more what it does.
Well, okay, one thing to note. The game is designed to import saves from Season 1 and 400 Days if it detects them on the system, since events or conversations in Season 2 will change somewhat based on how things went down in Season 1. Great! Only the game did not detect my Season 1 and 400 Days saves on my Vita. Bummer! I can't remember if I'd actually removed my saves or what. I think I'd removed the game, but not the save, so maybe it didn't know how to interface with the save data? Regardless, the game decided I hadn't played Season 1 and just randomized decisions. That really sucks! I'm all for Stop 'n' Swop-type changes, but surely there was some better way of handling a lack of Season 1 data than by rolling the dice on the biggest emotional beats of the previous season? I know things like the conversation with Atton at the start of Knights of the Old Republic 2 tend to be ineligant solutions, but it's better than emphasizing how choices matter, then reneging on that.
But then, a lot of choices feel pretty superfluous in the long run of Season 2. Don't get me wrong - they still feel impactful in the moment, and the game only presenting the illusion of choice is generally consistent with Season 1. But Season 1 never felt so mean-spirited about it. Maybe the most egregious thing Season 1 does is emphasize the choice between Doug and Carley in Episode 1, only for them to get merc'd in Episode 3. It feels like every character to show up in Season 2 gets that one way or another. The worst for me is easily Sarah, who either shuts down and lets herself get overwhelmed, or dies pointlessly when a cannon breaks a deck under her and makes her get overwhelmed. Part of that frustration is external; I'm someone who's lived with and been surrounded by cognitive disabilities my whole life, and an acquaintance had led me to believe that the game would have a meaningful conversation around the topic through Sarah. But no matter what bones I make about it, the game was sure bound and determined to murder that defenseless kid.
There's just this pessimism around Season 2 that wasn't there at all in Season 1. With the first game, some things are a forgone conclusion due to the genre, but there's generally a sense that Lee is trying to make something of the post-apocalypse, at least for himself and Clementine. Season 2 is largely a story of thugs and victims, with very few moments of relief. A pet dog gone feral attacks you, and you can either kill it or let it bleed out. The "Still. Not. Bitten." rant, while earned and badass, comes hot on the heels of watching a little girl slowly suture a wound shut while she screams in agony. Innocent people keep getting merc'd around you. The cast from 400 Days... does next to nothing, Bonnie notwithstanding, but they're under the regime of an actual villain, so clearly they're not doing so hot. A woman dies, somehow, right after giving birth and tries to eat her baby. You're forced to either kill your adoptive uncle or watch him kill an edgelord tough gal who thinks taunting a tiger is a great idea, instead of, oh I don't know, SHOOTING IN THE DAMN AIR TO PULL THEIR ATTENTION.
As cheap of a stunt as it is, I am GRATEFUL that Kenny showed back up, because he tends to present one of the few things for the player to hold onto throughout the story, even as the player is forced to come to terms with the poor guy's deteriorating mental stability. I am also GRATEFUL that the game gave me the option it did at the end (abandon Jane in righteous indignation), because it allowed me to express where I was at with the game by that point. But this is what I meant earlier about the season pissing me off in ways it was supposed to - clearly the developers anticipated this and wanted people like me to feel free in expressing themselves. I can't tell if the developers wanting me to be able to say "screw you, I'm going home" to all their hard work is a good thing.
I own Season 3, but I don't know that I'm going to jump into it any time soon. Part of that is that I'll finally have to make the jump onto PC - like I mentioned in my Season 1 write-up, I can't imagine playing Walking Dead on not-a-Vita. Part of it is knowing I'll have my decisions randomized again - like what's the point of transferring over my save to a Telltale account if I still won't have my choices from Season 1? But mostly, Season 2 bummed me out, and I don't expect things to perk up going forward.
The easiest thing to say is that it's about as strong as its predecessor from a pure technical and mechanical standpoint. That's not entirely a good thing - the Telltale Tool was already getting long in the tooth by Season One, the runaway success of which ensured that Telltale would keep using it out of necessity until the day the studio closed. But it's mostly a good thing. Voice acting is still top notch, the cel-shaded art style looks great, the game's easy to pick up and play, choices still feel impactful in the moment, I don't remember running into too many glitches - the actual performance of the game and everything was great. None of my frustration with the game lies with what the game is, more what it does.
Well, okay, one thing to note. The game is designed to import saves from Season 1 and 400 Days if it detects them on the system, since events or conversations in Season 2 will change somewhat based on how things went down in Season 1. Great! Only the game did not detect my Season 1 and 400 Days saves on my Vita. Bummer! I can't remember if I'd actually removed my saves or what. I think I'd removed the game, but not the save, so maybe it didn't know how to interface with the save data? Regardless, the game decided I hadn't played Season 1 and just randomized decisions. That really sucks! I'm all for Stop 'n' Swop-type changes, but surely there was some better way of handling a lack of Season 1 data than by rolling the dice on the biggest emotional beats of the previous season? I know things like the conversation with Atton at the start of Knights of the Old Republic 2 tend to be ineligant solutions, but it's better than emphasizing how choices matter, then reneging on that.
But then, a lot of choices feel pretty superfluous in the long run of Season 2. Don't get me wrong - they still feel impactful in the moment, and the game only presenting the illusion of choice is generally consistent with Season 1. But Season 1 never felt so mean-spirited about it. Maybe the most egregious thing Season 1 does is emphasize the choice between Doug and Carley in Episode 1, only for them to get merc'd in Episode 3. It feels like every character to show up in Season 2 gets that one way or another. The worst for me is easily Sarah, who either shuts down and lets herself get overwhelmed, or dies pointlessly when a cannon breaks a deck under her and makes her get overwhelmed. Part of that frustration is external; I'm someone who's lived with and been surrounded by cognitive disabilities my whole life, and an acquaintance had led me to believe that the game would have a meaningful conversation around the topic through Sarah. But no matter what bones I make about it, the game was sure bound and determined to murder that defenseless kid.
There's just this pessimism around Season 2 that wasn't there at all in Season 1. With the first game, some things are a forgone conclusion due to the genre, but there's generally a sense that Lee is trying to make something of the post-apocalypse, at least for himself and Clementine. Season 2 is largely a story of thugs and victims, with very few moments of relief. A pet dog gone feral attacks you, and you can either kill it or let it bleed out. The "Still. Not. Bitten." rant, while earned and badass, comes hot on the heels of watching a little girl slowly suture a wound shut while she screams in agony. Innocent people keep getting merc'd around you. The cast from 400 Days... does next to nothing, Bonnie notwithstanding, but they're under the regime of an actual villain, so clearly they're not doing so hot. A woman dies, somehow, right after giving birth and tries to eat her baby. You're forced to either kill your adoptive uncle or watch him kill an edgelord tough gal who thinks taunting a tiger is a great idea, instead of, oh I don't know, SHOOTING IN THE DAMN AIR TO PULL THEIR ATTENTION.
As cheap of a stunt as it is, I am GRATEFUL that Kenny showed back up, because he tends to present one of the few things for the player to hold onto throughout the story, even as the player is forced to come to terms with the poor guy's deteriorating mental stability. I am also GRATEFUL that the game gave me the option it did at the end (abandon Jane in righteous indignation), because it allowed me to express where I was at with the game by that point. But this is what I meant earlier about the season pissing me off in ways it was supposed to - clearly the developers anticipated this and wanted people like me to feel free in expressing themselves. I can't tell if the developers wanting me to be able to say "screw you, I'm going home" to all their hard work is a good thing.
I own Season 3, but I don't know that I'm going to jump into it any time soon. Part of that is that I'll finally have to make the jump onto PC - like I mentioned in my Season 1 write-up, I can't imagine playing Walking Dead on not-a-Vita. Part of it is knowing I'll have my decisions randomized again - like what's the point of transferring over my save to a Telltale account if I still won't have my choices from Season 1? But mostly, Season 2 bummed me out, and I don't expect things to perk up going forward.