The Walking Dead Episode 2 (Xbox 360) Review

*This review contains spoilers from The Walking Dead Episode 1*

The Walking Dead Episode 2 does not start exactly where Episode 1 left off as would be expected. Instead it takes place 3 months later. The survivor group is still at the motor inn with a newcomer to the group named Mark. Mark joined the group when he offered food to the group in exchange for protection. Unfortunately the food is now running low. There’s obviously going to be one main difference with your starting point based on your choices in the previous episode. You will either have Doug or Carley in your group. They both serve the same functions in the story but in ways that reflect their character more. Doug is able to come up with intelligent solutions to problems  while Carley is far more useful in a fight. Despite the fact that most players chose Carley, Doug seems to fit his role a little more naturally.

The choices in this episode tend to be a little bit less extreme than in the first. While they will clearly have an effect on future episodes all the choices leave you with very similar outcomes. The two major things you are going to affect are who in the group you befriend and the classic morality. The morality choices won’t affect how Lee acts as you are constantly controlling him, but they clearly have an effect on the mental state of Clementine. This is something to keep in mind as you continue through the episodes. Unfortunately because you are making more fine tuned choices and because the choices from episode 1 have to be accommodated cut scenes and the episode 3 preview seem a little bit jump and disconnected. Like it was a video that wasn’t edited quite right. It makes it a bit easier to tell that these are different scenes being spliced together instead of a single flowing narrative.

As far as gameplay goes, not much has changed. You will be relying on teamwork more than before, so your social choices in the game can affect what happens in a combat situation. Nothing extreme like if you will live or die. But how the sequence of events and difficulty of combat can be effected. Lee also falls less than he did in Episode 1.

Episode 2 is an excellent continuation of Episode 1 and leaves great potential for Episode 3.

Final Score 4.5/5