However, it also ends up feeling like the whole story is only one endlessly tense moment. We see from the relentless pace of Season Two that the constant changes in presentation and what we as Clementine are doing does make the episodes more varied and less predictable. While true, that criticism ignores what this structure was doing on a dramatic level. The “walk around, solve a puzzle, participate in an action sequence, make a choice, then rinse and repeat” pattern was criticized during the first season’s release for being predictable. The player was given the opportunity to digest what had happened and what choices had been made. Season One was allowed to let emotional moments settle in the player’s psyche. The Second Season makes efficient use of time, but it leaves something to be desired regarding character building or anything not directly plot related. All of the relevant images of the important scenes seem to be “placed” right next to one another. However, Season Two‘s more compact “feel” and the sense of it always moving forward means that it should be tighter and more thematically compact, often juggling several different subtexts at once. The important beats of the story are further spread out and a lot of time in between them makes it seem like the season could have left less of an impression. While breathing room in the story might give the impression of the opportunity for contemplation and quieter, reflective moments to emerge, it also implies a thinner thematic presence. Thus, I attribute the feel of these two games directly to the amount of play time they afford the player. However, Season Two moves along at a breakneck speed confined as each episode is by less time to develop the plot. When I recall the emotional feel of Season One, I recall some memorable, defining scenes with enough space between them to provide the narrative some breathing room. I liked both seasons, but despite looking similar and functioning similarly, I found that they felt like very different entities. It had its hiccups and missteps, but the game managed to deliver an engaging experience and deliver one hell of an ending, a narrative peak that managed to make much of the meandering in the middle worthwhile. Frankly, it was even better than I remembered as I was noticing all of the small details that contributed almost unconsciously to a better experience. I’ve played it since, and it holds up phenomenally well. I named The Walking Dead my Game of the Year back in 2012. The episodes in Season Two were an hour shorter than their counterparts in Season One. However, I like to pin the fault on something much more basic. Maybe it was the shift in structure from the more episodic, single issue storytelling of the first season to episodes more clearly geared towards advancing a single narrative arc over the course of the season. It could be that the narrative opportunities for the game shrank with by changing the protagonist into a young character that couldn’t have the social influence of her older predecessor. Season Two had a total of eight writers, who ended up working in pairs for over half the season. There were three writers that worked on Season One, one of which wrote three of the episodes by himself. The writing team behind the episodes changed significantly between the two seasons. There are quite a few possible explanations for this.
#The walking dead season two choppy series#
Every other obvious change to the series seemed to have some interesting possibilities to it, whereas the “feel” of the game was off in its second season. While there are many obvious changes one could point to - a new playable character, a greater focus on action, etc - the particular change I thought had the most impact was the loss of that certain je ne sais quoi that sunk the first season’s talons deep into our collective psyches. Between the first and second seasons, there was a change in The Walking Dead. Come two years later, the direct follow up, The Walking Dead Season Two, has received, shall we say, a somewhat more muted reception. The first season of Telltale’s The Walking Dead earned widespread critical praise, mainstream public appreciation, and a bevy of game of the year awards in 2012.
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