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The Walking Dead: Season 2: Episode 2 - A House Divided
Score: 88%
Publisher: Telltale Games
Developer: Telltale Games
Media: Download/1
Players: 1
Genre: Adventure

Previously on: The Walking Dead:
The first episode of The Walking Dead: Season 2 didn't quite have the punch that we saw with last season, but what All That Remains had was build-up to make The Walking Dead: Season 2: Episode 2 - A House Divided an episode worth remembering.

All That Remains started up sometime after the events of Season 1 and quickly led to Clementine and Christa alone in the woods. Where All That Remains really got going was after an attack that separated the two girls and left Clem alone. She eventually found a group living in a house, but suspicions were high on both sides. For some reason, the new group felt like she might belong to some other group run by a man named Carver. Meanwhile, after seeing what's happened to Clementine since the game started - it's no wonder she is a little wary of new people.

By the end of All That Remains, you not only convince the new group that you are good to have around, but you have to make a deadly split-decision choice between two of their members. Saving one most definitely leaves the other dead. Among other things, A House Divided will force you to deal with that choice.


Survivor:
The Walking Dead: Season 2: Episode 2 - A House Divided starts off with Clementine either in the company of Pete or Nick depending on which character you chose to run to and help. If you chose Pete, then you saw Nick run off into the woods, but choosing Nick means that you see Pete taken down by walkers - but that's fine, right? We all saw him get bitten, and even Lee couldn't survive that after his amputation right?

Either way, you have to deal with your choice. In both cases, you and the other survivor find a place to hide in order to let the walkers shuffle away. With Pete, you struggle with his attempts at amputation; with Nick, an old moonshine still seems to be where he finds his comfort. Either way, Clementine is in for a rough night and before she can make it back to the cabin with the rest of the new group, she will have to make a few more tough decisions. As always with The Walking Dead, these decisions count and people will remember your choices.


An Unexpected Visitor:
When you do finally make it back to the cabin, the group decides to go looking for their falling and/or missing companions and they leave you alone with the sheltered Sarah. In spending time with this girl, we get a real sense at how far Clementine has come from her introduction hiding out in her tree house, but Clem was asked to keep Sarah distracted until everyone returns and that's the task at hand. That is, until a stranger comes knocking at the door.

The game's tension seems to increase ten-fold at this part as the man lets himself in and starts asking questions. He's obviously fishing for information, but the player isn't quite sure what he's after. The impression that we start to get is that this man is the person Clementine's new group seems to be running from. The question is, why are they running and is it because this mysterious Carver is a bad leader, or because the group Clem finds herself with isn't as good as they seem?


The Ski Lodge:
After this visitor leaves, The Walking Dead: Season 2: Episode 2 - A House Divided moves on with the group deciding to leave the cabin behind to look for a better place to keep low. As they trudge through the woods, they find a huge lake, and on the other side appears to be a ski lodge that should be a good place to keep warm for a few nights. In order to get there though, they will have to cross a bridge that is sure to leave them exposed to both walkers and people.

Clementine and Luke take to the bridge to see if it's clear, and well, let's just say the crossing is not uneventful and by the time everyone does make it across, Luke becomes a closer friend and confidante to our heroine. This budding bit of friendship and trust is about to be tested though because a survivor thought dead from Clem's previous group is holding up in the ski lodge along with several new faces and Clementine must navigate some odd social issues that apparently still exist after the zombie apocalypse. After reuniting with this old friend, Clem has to start deciding if she wants to stick with Luke and his group, or if she should stick with the person she knows better. In an odd re-creation of school social structures, she actually has to decide which cafeteria table to sit at, knowing full well that the choice will alienate one of her two friends.

Like always, this episode of The Walking Dead ends with a bang as the people following Luke's group finally catch up to them and the ski lodge comes under siege. Clem, being one of the few people not being held hostage, has to figure out some way to get everyone out of the predicament they are in, but things won't necessarily go as planned.


Next Time On: The Walking Dead:
Without revealing too much more about the events of The Walking Dead: Season 2: Episode 2 - A House Divided, suffice it to say that we will end up learning a lot more about Luke's group in the next episode, In Harm's Way, as everyone, new and old friends, are dragged to Carver's camp. Can Clem somehow learn what is really going on, and if she does, will she (and we, the players) be able to make the right decisions to keep everyone safe?

This episode of The Walking Dead: Season 2 really got the ball rolling. After All That Remains, I was worried that the game couldn't have the same kick or emotional impact that the first season did, since you controlled Lee with Clementine watching your every action, but with the return of one of Clementine's previous group members, I found that the emotional attachment was still very present. I can't say yet that this season is as good as the first, but it is definitely ramping up.


-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications
AKA Chris Meyer

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