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The Walking Dead: Season 02: Episode 03 - In Harm's WayAs we are now midway through the second season of the Walking Dead game by Telltale Games I'm sure I don't have to remind people that this review will contain spoilers for the first two episodes. Seriously, if you have yet to play this season do yourself a favor and stop reading before buying and playing the game. Trust me, you will not regret it, whether you are a fan of the comics, television show or just a great story.
After the harrowing events of the last episode, Clementine and her group find themselves the unwilling guests of Carver, the villain that everyone was fleeing from. If you watched the television series or read the comic books you will find that Carver has a lot in common with the Governor in how he rules his people like a dictator and is always spouting off about the greater good. He is also not averse to putting a bullet in anyone that looks at him funny, so your main priority this episode is to escape from his clutches. Carver and his cronies have set up base in a shopping centre so they have ample food and plenty of free labour in the form of folks that have to be "rehabilitated" into their community. As Clementine is forced to work in what is basically a prison environment, there aren't a lot of opportunities to really walk around and explore. This means that the focus is once again on the narrative, which is something that the talented people at Telltale Games have pretty much mastered at this point. The characters from this episode are still growing on me and a few of the new ones that were introduced haven't endeared themselves quite yet, but I still found myself holding my breath or feeling my blood boiling at certain points in the game. Telltale knows how to manipulate emotions and amazingly enough for a series that has had so many shocking moments already they still manage to surprise me with a few unexpected scenes. Let's just say that this is a very violent episode and even children are not exempt from harm in this one. Clementine has had to do some pretty extreme things for survival in previous episodes, but in this episode she has to step up like never before. Her size and resourcefulness makes her a valuable asset to the group and they never hesitate to use her if it means saving their own behinds. It reaches a point where you can make her exclaim "Why does it always have to be me" which shows that even Telltale knows they are leaning on her a bit hard to carry the story. Still, a creepy conversation with Carver, still expertly voiced by Michael Madsen, reveals some insights not only into his twisted personality, but also what growing up in such an unforgiving world is doing to Clementine. One only has to look at the sheltered character of Sarah to see where Clementine could have ended up if Lee didn't take her under his wing in the first season. Episode three only clocks in at about ninety minutes, but it is so tense that nobody is going to be watching the clock. Telltale has shown time and again that they are not afraid to kill characters so you spend most of this episode in fear of saying or doing the wrong thing and getting someone killed. Of course, sometimes you are just given the illusion of choice and things still play out mostly the same no matter what choice you make, but this is something that you only discover if you replay the game. In total there are only two zombie encounters with a few quick-time events in this episode, and these almost come as a relief after having to deal with difficult dialogue choices involving the living. At least nothing bad happens when you swing an axe at the head of a zombie which is not always the case when you try to make a dialogue choice meant to help someone in this game. On the technical side of things I had no problems with this episode and everything ran without a hitch. The graphics are still top notch and Telltale is getting frightfully good at depicting blood and gore. The audio is also great and the superb voice acting by Melissa Hutchison as Clementine continues. I was fully expecting to spend most of the remaining episodes dealing with Carver and the new location, but it seems that Telltale has other plans in store for Clementine. About my only concern at this point is how they will be able to keep the momentum going and what perils the group will face that is going to top what they have already been going through. As always, only time will tell, but I am sure that Telltale has another ace or two up their sleeves.
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TAGS: The Walking Dead, Season 02, Episode 03, In Harm's Way, Clementine, Luke, Carver,
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