The Walking Dead: Season Two

This article is about the video game. For the second season of the television series, see The Walking Dead (season 2).

The Walking Dead: Season Two
Developer(s)	Telltale Games
Publisher(s)	Telltale Games
Director(s)	Dennis Lenart Eric Parsons Graham Ross Jason Latino Sean Ainsworth
Producer(s)	Sara Guinness Kirsten Kennedy
Designer(s)	Mark Darin Sean Ainsworth Stephen McManus Harrison G. Pink
Writer(s)	Nick Breckon Andrew Grant Pierre Shorette JT Perry Eric Stirpe
Composer(s)	Jared Emerson-Johnson
Series	The Walking Dead
Engine	Telltale Tool
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, OS X, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, iOS, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Ouya, Android
Release	Episode 1 'Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X'PlayStation 3'Xbox 360, iOS'PlayStation Vita Episode 2 Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X'PlayStation 3'Xbox 360'iOS'PlaysStation Vita Episode 3 'Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X'PlayStation 3'Xbox 360'iOS Episode 4 'Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X'PlayStation 3'Xbox 360'iOS Episode 5 'Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X'PlayStation 3'Xbox 360'iOS Retail version Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 & Xbox 360 NA: October 14, 2014 AU: October 31, 2014 EU: October 24, 2014 PlayStation Vita'PlayStation 4, Xbox One'Ouya
Genre(s)	Graphic adventure Interactive movie
Mode(s)	Single-player

The Walking Dead: Season Two is an episodic interactive drama graphic adventure based on Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead comic book series developed by Telltale Games. It is the sequel to The Walking Dead, with the episodes released between December 2013 and August 2014, and a retail collector's disc edition planned at the conclusion of the season. The game employs the same narrative structure as the first season, where player choice in one episode will have a permanent impact on future story elements. The player choices recorded in save files from the first season and the additional episode 400 Days carry over into the second season. Clementine, who was the player's companion during the first season, is the player-character in Season Two.

Skybound has announced that a third season, a full sequel to Season Two, is being developed.

Gameplay

Similar to the previous season, The Walking Dead: Season Two is a point-and-click adventure game. The player, in control of Clementine, can direct the character around the environment, examine and interact with various scenery elements and collect and use objects to advance the story. The player can also initiate conversations with non-player characters via conversation trees. Certain replies from other characters may offer the player multiple choices to select from, including the option to stay silent, with a limited amount of time to make the selection; if the player does not select an option, the conversation will continue as if they had stayed quiet. Such choices can affect how the other characters will later react to Clementine which can influence later events in the story. Other scenes are more action-oriented, requiring the player to complete quick time events to avoid Clementine or her allies from getting killed. If the player fails these events, the game will restart at the start of such scenes. Such action scenes may also require the player to make a key decision within a limited time frame, such as which of two characters to save from attacking walkers.

The player's choices and actions will impact story elements in later episodes; for example, a character that the player does not choose to be saved will not appear in later scenes. Season Two also incorporates the player's choices from the first season and the DLC 400 Days, via the saved game file from these games, to influence the story and events in these episodes.

Synopsis

Setting

The Walking Dead: Season Two follows on the first game, and coincides with events of the comic, in which a zombie apocalypse has occurred, turning humans that are bitten or die into zombies, or "walkers"; the only way to stop this conversion is to damage the brain. The game is mostly set more than a year following its predecessor. While the game starts in Georgia, the setting moves to more northern locales as the survivors head towards Michigan, believing there is a large survivor camp there.

The second season follows Clementine (Melissa Hutchison), a young girl who has been able to survive the walkers thanks to the help of Lee Everett (Dave Fennoy). At the start of the apocalypse, Lee helps to protect Clementine and offers to help her find her parents who had gone to Savannah; they join several survivors in their journey. When Clementine is captured, a bitten Lee rescues her, but both realize her parents have become walkers. She is forced to choose between shooting him or leaving him to reanimate, before venturing off on her own.

The second season features several new characters, as well as others returning from the first season. Clementine initially accompanies Omid (Owen Thomas) and Christa (Mara Junot), a couple who are the last known survivors of Clementine's previous group. She then encounters a cabin that shelters several survivors: Luke (Scott Porter), a survivalist who quickly befriends Clementine; Luke's friend Nick (Brian Bremer), and his uncle Pete (Brian Sommer), a hunter; doctor Carlos (Kid Beyond), who is protective over his teenage daughter Sarah (Louisa Mackintosh); and Alvin (Dorian Lockett) and his wife Rebecca (Shay Moore), who are expecting a child. The cabin group has fled from William Carver (Michael Madsen), a charismatic yet dangerous dictator who rules a large survivor group in Howe's Hardware. They later encounter another batch of survivors, consisting of Kenny (Gavin Hammon), Clementine's friend who was believed to be killed by walkers; Sarita (Julia Farmer), Kenny's new girlfriend; and Kenny's friend, Walter (Kiff Vanden Heuvel) and his survival student, Matthew (Wylie Herman). Both factions encounter Carver and his men, whose community includes Bonnie (Erin Yvette) and other survivors that were previously introduced in the 400 Days add-on content from the first season; Jane (Christine Lakin), a lone wolf who had lost her sister to walkers; and Mike (Dan White), a cranky yet humorous survivor. The latter part of the season introduces Arvo (Michael Ark), a Russian teenager with a leg brace who speaks in broken English, later shown to be part of a larger group of other Russian survivors.

Plot

Certain decisions made by the player during both this game and the preceding Season One and its add-on "400 Days" alter specific details. Therefore, this is only a broad overview of the plot.

Several months after the events of Season One, Clementine has regrouped with Omid and Christa, who is now visibly pregnant. However, during a brief rest stop, Omid is killed by a scavenger who attempts to rob Clementine. The story flashes forward sixteen months, where Christa and Clementine are still surviving together and traveling to Wellington, Ohio, in the hope that the cold there will keep them safe. Christa has lost her child (the exact circumstances are never explained), and become cynical and introverted, and her relationship with Clementine has become strained. When they stop to camp one evening, they are separated by a band of scavengers. Clementine falls unconscious into a river after the ordeal.

Clementine finds a seemingly abandoned camp with a dog. She finds food, though the dog become violent and bites her arm and Clementine is forced to kill it. Partially conscious, she is surrounded by a small horde of walkers although she is saved by Pete and Luke, who take her towards a cottage where another group of survivors have taken shelter. The group is led by Luke and includes Alvin and Rebecca who is visibly pregnant, a doctor named Carlos, his daughter Sarah, Luke's best friend Nick, and Nick's uncle Pete. The group refuses to believe Clementine's claim that she was bitten by a dog, and locks her outside in a shed. Clementine sneaks into the cabin to steal supplies and treat her wound. The people eventually let her in, where Carlos berates Clementine for taking advantage of his teenage daughter, Sarah, for her own benefit. While the rest of the group begins to grow more fond of Clementine, Rebecca remains suspicious of her.

When fishing with Nick and Pete the next morning, Clementine finds a murdered group of survivors, one of whom was one of the scavengers who ambushed Clementine and Christa in the woods. She gets separated from either Nick or Pete, and returns to the house alone. When the group decides to leave to find the character, a man enters the house and snoops around, questioning Clementine about the group. The group returns, and Clementine learns that the man she encountered was William Carver, the tyrannical leader of another community and the possible father of Rebecca's child. On hearing of his visit, Luke and the others agree to abandon the cabin. During this time, Rebecca apologizes to Clementine for her behavior. On their journey they discover a deceased Pete or a hung over Nick, who drank leftover bottles of whiskey to cope with his uncle's death.

Five days later, the group arrives at a bridge, where Luke and Clementine encounter a man named Matthew, who offers food and supplies. Nick, however, mistakes the situation as a hold-up, and kills Matthew out of confusion. The group then arrives at a ski lodge that is readily defensible from walkers. Another group already has taken the lodge for shelter, which consists of Walter, Sarita, and Kenny, whom Clementine is elated to see having believed him to have been killed in Savannah. Clementine observes that Kenny has changed; though having grown close to Sarita, his bitter attitude wears on the interaction of the two groups. A mysterious woman named Bonnie arrives at the lodge requesting food. Clementine and Kenny are suspicious of her, but Walter gives her supplies and sends her on her way. Later Clementine learns that the man Nick killed on the bridge was Walter's partner and Clementine is forced to defuse the situation one way or another. In the midst of a walker attack on the lodge, both groups are saved by the timely arrival of a third group, but they are shocked to find it is Carver, who had been led to the lodge by Bonnie. Kenny takes refuge outside and Luke goes into hiding. Kenny kills one of Carver's men, causing Carver to retaliate by killing Walter and possibly Alvin depending on the player's actions. Carver and his men capture the remains of both groups and takes them to his camp, a strip mall that they have fortified.

At the mall, Clementine finds Carver runs the camp with a heavy hand, and regularly uses violence to coerce cooperation. After a failed escape attempt, Carver brutally beats Kenny and permanently damages his left eye. Carver's methods leads to others joining Clementine and the combined group to find a way out of the mall; these two survivors are Jane and Mike. Luke, who managed to escape capture from the ski lodge, warns the group of a massive walker horde approaching. Clementine helps to engineer their escape, by blasting a CD over the mall's intercom in an attempt to draw the walker horde. If Alvin lives, he sacrifices himself to give Clementine a chance to escape. Carver catches the group before they escape, but he is in turn subdued. While the rest of the group waits outside, Kenny brutally beats Carver to death with a crowbar and Clementine is given the choice of whether or not to watch with Rebecca. The group then covers themselves in walker blood in an attempt to make their way through the horde undetected.

During their escape, Carlos is devoured by walkers causing Sarah to have a panic attack and gets separated from the group. Luke and Nick run off to find her. Sarita is bitten which forces the group to euthanize her which sends Kenny into hysterics. After reuniting with Mike, Rebecca, Kenny, Bonnie, and Sarita (if alive) meet at a nearby Civil War museum, Clementine and Jane set out to search for Sarah, Luke, and Nick. Their search leads to a trailer park overrun by walkers. They discover that Nick has been killed and that Luke is trapped in a trailer with Sarah, who has gone into a catatonic state due to her father's death. As walkers overwhelm the trailer, Clementine is given the decision of coercing Sarah out of her state or leaving her behind to be devoured by walkers. Regardless, Clementine, Luke, and Jane escape.

Back at the museum, Rebecca finds herself experiencing labor pains, and Clementine works Kenny out of his depressed state as he is the only one who can deliver the child. As they're scouting, Clementine and Jane encounter a Russian teenager named Arvo, who is trying to cache medical supplies. Clementine is given the choice of whether or not to steal his supplies. Jane threatens to kill Arvo if they ever cross paths again and sends him on his way. As Rebecca begins to go into labor, the museum is suddenly attacked by a horde of walkers. The group takes refuge on the observation deck as Kenny helps Rebecca deliver the baby. During the fight, the observation deck collapses which causes Sarah (if saved from the trailer park) to fall and get devoured. In the end, Rebecca gives birth to a healthy baby boy and Jane leaves the group later that night.

As the group heads north towards Wellington, they encounter Arvo and find themselves at the center of an ambush with other Russian survivors. As the group engages in a standoff, Clementine finds Rebecca has succumbed to injuries from childbirth and is now reanimating. She is forced to shoot her to protect her child, causing the groups to fire upon each other. The timely arrival of Jane ends the gunfight, with only Arvo left alive from the opposing group. Arvo pleads for his life and asserts there is shelter and food nearby.

Arvo directs them to an unfinished home that lies across a frozen lake. As the survivors make their way across it, walkers start crossing behind them, causing the ice to break, and Luke falls through and drowns. Safely at the house, Kenny beats Arvo for putting them in jeopardy, and Jane pulls Clementine aside to warn her about Kenny's attitude. They find a truck outside which they are able to fix up and plan to use to drive out the next morning, but Clementine catches Arvo, Bonnie, and Mike trying to steal it in an attempt to escape from Kenny. Arvo accidentally shoots Clementine in his panic, which causes her to pass out during which she has a memory of Lee from their time of traveling towards Savannah (in the caravan; Lilly's presence is determined by the player's previous choice).

When Clementine recovers, she finds herself in the truck with Jane, Kenny, and the baby (earlier named AJ) as they are heading north, the others having run off. When the road becomes blocked, Kenny gets out to look for a way around, and Jane tries to convince Clementine to abandon Kenny and come with her. Among the blinding blizzard, a walker horde overwhelms them, and Clementine is split up from Jane and AJ where she finds shelter at a nearby rest stop where she reunites with Kenny. They are soon joined by Jane with no apparent sign of AJ. Kenny fears the worst and violently attacks Jane causing a brutal deathmatch between the two. Kenny gains the upper hand and attempts to kill Jane with her own knife despite limited intervention from Clementine.

At this point, the story diverges based on the player's decisions. The player can save Jane by shooting Kenny only to learn she hid AJ in a nearby car and faked his death in an attempt to prove to Clementine how unstable Kenny really was. Thereafter, the player can forgive Jane and return with her to Carver's abandoned camp and has the choice whether or not to take in a family of three. Alternatively, the player can let Kenny kill Jane, after which they find AJ hidden in the car and continue on to Wellington where overpopulation forces the player to choose whether to enter Wellington with AJ or remain with Kenny. Regardless of who is killed, the player also has the option to abandon the survivor, either after Jane's murder by Clementine shooting or abandoning Kenny, or after shooting Kenny by leaving Jane, and set off alone with AJ, passing through a herd of walkers disguised in walker blood.

Episodes

The game is separated into five episodes, like the first season.

Chapter	Episode release date
Episode 1 – "All That Remains"	December 17, 2013
Notes: With the loss of Lee Everett and almost everyone else she could call a friend bearing down on her mind, Clementine continues to make the best of a life that gives new meaning to pain. With only memories and a pack on her back, what will Clementine find next?
Episode 2 – "A House Divided"	March 4, 2014
Notes: After gaining new friends (and enemies), Clementine has found her way into the lives of more survivors. Now, she fights for her life against an army of the dead with one wounded companion. How will she beat this new threat?
Episode 3 – "In Harm's Way"	May 13, 2014
Notes: After reuniting with her old friend Kenny, Clementine is now prisoner to a man with the intention of preparing mankind's next generation for survival, through any means necessary. Can she and her friends escape?
Episode 4 – "Amid the Ruins"	July 22, 2014
Notes: With the group scattered amidst a swarm of monsters sent from hell, Clementine's only goal is finding her friends and keeping them safe. Now, armed with only a hatchet, can she gather all of her friends before trouble finds them?
Episode 5 – "No Going Back"	August 26, 2014
Notes: The birth of Rebecca's son and subsequent death of the baby's mother has started a new battle for survival which promises to not end quietly. Through the harshest weather she has seen thus far, can Clementine protect the group's newest member and keep everyone she cares about alive?

Development

When Telltale Games acquired the right to make video games based on The Walking Dead comics, they signed a contract for a "multi-year, multi-platform, multi-title" license. This license went into effect after the success of the first season of The Walking Dead, when Telltale commissioned a second series of games based on the franchise. The first season was considered highly successful, helping to revitalize the adventure game genre which had been in decline since the mid-1990s, with Telltale being recognized as one of the top development studios in 2012.

During an interview on IGN's Up at Noon, writer Gary Whitta teased more The Walking Dead from Telltale sooner than later. "You won't have to wait for season two to play more Walking Dead", he claimed. "I can tell you what you already know, which is season two is coming. There's not much to say because it really is very early... it's a way off", said Whitta. "But, knowing that it's a way off, and knowing that people are hungry for more Walking Dead there may very well be more Walking Dead from Telltale before season two. We may have a little something extra for you between season one and two". Whitta continued to tease that something is in the works right now "that will make the wait for season two slightly less agonizing". This was revealed at the 2013 Electronic Entertainment Expo in June 2013 to be an additional episode called The Walking Dead: 400 Days that is available as downloadable content for the first season. It introduces five new characters that journalists expect to carry into Season Two. 400 Days will use data about the player's decisions in season one, and decisions made in 400 Days will carry into Season Two.

Writing for Season Two was done to contrast the work they had completed in the first season. At the start of the writing cycle for the second season, they had debated who their primary character would be including introducing new group of survivors that they could use to flesh out the backstories of characters from the first season, or with a new "protector" for Clementine. They eventually agreed to use Clementine as the main character as they felt her story needed to be continued. By changing the player's perspective from that of Lee to Clementine, they wanted to create a "different sort of agency" that the player will experience. Instead of the player, as Lee, looking to help Clementine and others, the player as Clementine would now have to determine who to trust to help her. They also emphasize this new perspective by using several camera angles from a low perspective, to emphasize that Clementine is a child compared to others she meets. The developers also recognized that they needed to avoid making Clementine feel like a "carbon copy" of the character from the first season and instead something crafted by the player's decisions. To resolve this they created the first scenario of the game that would separate her from the familiar characters and to make it feel a result of the player's actions, so that the player would directly connect with Clementine's situation. The concept they kept in mind to write for Season Two was "[Clementine is] eleven years old and the world doesn't care."

As with the previous season, Telltale plans to release Season Two for Microsoft Windows and OS X computers, on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation Vita, and on iOS devices. Telltale is currently working to bring the first season and its DLC to the Ouya console, and is planning on releasing the second season for Ouya as well. Releases for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles were announced in May 2014 with release at a later date, along with retail versions of the game for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles.

The season was formally announced in late October 2013. The announcement showcased Clementine as the playable character for the game, set sometime after the events of the first series. Telltale's CEO Dan Conners stated that this will put "players in the shoes of a lead role that will challenge their expectations of how to survive in a world where no one can be trusted". The first episode was released in the fourth quarter of 2013, with subsequent episodes released four to six weeks apart. A collector's disc was announced to purchase at the end of the season, with those who pre-order the game (from the Telltale Games Store) receiving it for just the shipping and handling cost.

Reception

Aggregate review scores

Game	GameRankings	Metacritic
Episode 1 – All That Remains	(PS3) 81.29% (PC) 78.76% (X360) 77.50%	(PS3) 82 (X360) 80 (PC) 78
Episode 2 – A House Divided	(PS3) 87.29% (PC) 81.39% (X360) 79.44%	(PS3) 82 (PC) 81 (X360) 80
Episode 3 – In Harm's Way	(PS3) 82.43% (X360) 82.25% (PC) 82.22%	(X360) 82 (PC) 81 (PS3) 80
Episode 4 – Amid the Ruins	(PS3) 79.22% (PC) 78.58% (X360) 72.00%	(PS3) 78 (PC) 78 (X360) 71
Episode 5 – No Going Back	(PS3) 81.67% (PC) 79.19% (X360) 77.00%	(PS3) 87 (X360) 84 (PC) 78

The Walking Dead: Season Two overall received positive reviews from critics; with particular praise going to the atmosphere, protagonist, and its sense of tension. Although some have criticized its writing and lack of puzzles and is often deemed inferior to its predecessor.

Episode 1 – All That Remains

Episode 1 – All That Remains received positive reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PlayStation 3 version 81.29% and 82/100, the PC version 78.76% and 78/100 and the Xbox 360 version 77.50% and 80/100. Matt Liebl from GameZone gave the episode an 8.5/10, stating that it "...is just a taste of what's to come -- a mere setup for the horror that awaits us in the final four episodes."

Episode 2 – A House Divided

Episode 2 - A House Divided received positive reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PlayStation 3 version 87.29% and 82/100, the PC version 81.39% and 81/100 and the Xbox 360 version 79.44% and 80/100. Mitch Dyer from IGN gave the episode a 9.5/10, saying it is one of the best episodes Telltale Games has ever made.

Episode 3 – In Harm's Way

Episode 3 - In Harm's Way received positive reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PlayStation 3 version 82.43% and 80/100, the Xbox 360 version 82.25% and 82/100 and the PC version 82.22% and 81/100.

Episode 4 – Amid the Ruins

Episode 4 - Amid the Ruins received mixed to positive reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PlayStation 3 version 79.22% and 78/100, the PC version 78.58% and 78/100 and the Xbox 360 version 72.00% and 71/100. Many critics praised Clementine's development while most criticisms were focused on some of the characters' cheap deaths and sub-par writing compared to the episode's predecessors.

Episode 5 – No Going Back

Episode 5 – No Going Back received positive reviews, higher than its predecessor. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PlayStation 3 version 81.67% and 87/100, the PC version 79.19% and 78/100 and the Xbox 360 version 77.00% and 84/100. Mitch Dyer of IGN gave the episode a 9.5/10 saying that the finale is "an impressive and intelligent episode, and among Telltale Games' finest stories."

External links

• Official website