The Walking Dead: Season 2, Episode 5

The Walking Dead: Season Two, Episode Five “No Going Back”

Publisher: Telltale Games

Players: One

Genre: Graphic Adventure, Horror

Distribution: Download

This is the finale for The Walking Dead: Season Two. The episode picks up right where we left off, with Clementine and her group in a very sticky situation. Eventually it's resolved and we get on to the meat and potatoes of the story.

The direction in this episode is top notch. There are some very cinematic angles and cuts during the dialogue scenes. One in particular, an overhead shot of Clem and Kenny conversing below an outdoor light fixture, showed me that Telltale seems to have stepped it up in that area. Unfortunately some of the dialogue doesn't seem to be of that same high quality. Some felt repetitive, and as if the characters in question weren't quite remembering the way they should be feeling towards the others. Twenty minutes later they'd mention things as if they'd always been considering past events they had seemingly ignored up until that point.

This episode had a good mix of surprises and events that had been foreshadowed finally coming to fruition. Truth be told though, this season's finale didn't pack the emotional punch of the first season's. This is probably due to the fact that the conclusion of the episode had started to look like the only way for things to end. Yes, there were some unpredictable happenings along the way, but everyone knew what was coming.

Maybe, because the player now knows what to expect out of the series, events that would have been weighty emotionally before just aren't. There is a dream sequence that did pull at the ol' heart strings, but the main narrative just didn't have that same punch.

Conclusion: While suffering from some minor writing issues, and a lack of the kind of oomph packed into the previous season's final, this was still a quality ending to what is one of my favorite video game stories. As with every episode of The Walking Dead it left me anxious for the story to continue.

Rating: 8/10