The Walking Dead Episode 2: Starved For Help Review
My biggest worry with The Walking Dead Episode 2: Starving for Help was that it could never live up to how much I enjoyed my time with episode 1. Not only does Starving for Help outdo episode 1 in almost every respect, but it explores areas of a post-apocalyptic world that I’ve never seen before, and evokes genuine emotion at ever corner. Unfortunately, the same technical issues that plagued episode 1 are still present here, in full force.
SPOILER ALERT: This review will spoil moments from The Walking Dead Episode 1, but not episode 2.
At the end of episode 1, Lee and the group were setting up base in the local Motor Inn in Macon. Starved for Help fast forwards 3 months, and the group is running low on food. So low, that not everyone gets to eat every day.
Stuff gets gruesome, very gruesome.
“I truly care for Clementine, and would
be devastated if anything were to happen to her”
This shouldn’t come as a surprise in the least bit if you played episode 1, but Starved for Help makes you make very difficult decisions. The Walking Dead evokes genuine emotion, emotion that is only possible because of the stellar world and group of characters the game introduces. I truly care for Clementine, and would be devastated if anything were to happen to her. I don’t want to disappoint her, and strive to make sure she’s happy, even if that makes me unpopular with another character.
Starved for Helped introduces new scenery, mixing it up with a lot of greens and reds.
“it’s something that I’ve never seen
explored in the ‘zombie apocalypse’ context before”
It’s hard to express what makes the story arch in Starved for Help so damn good, and the last thing I want to do is spoil it. Suffice to say it’s something that I’ve never seen explored in the “zombie apocalypse” context before. It outdoes episode 1 in several ways, and does nothing but make me even more excited to see where the story goes.
The technical problems in Starved for Help are here, and even more problematic than in episode 1. When you begin episode 2, a “previously on” will play, summarizing all of the big story beats from episode 1. The frame rate was so bad during this recap that I thought the game was broken. Happily, the frame rate improved once the actual game launched. Still, the game will definitely chug at times, especially when trying to transition from one sequence to another. You might even be waiting for upwards of 4-5 seconds waiting for the next sequence to happen. This can pull you out of the experience, especially during tense moments.
Lee wields his trusty axe like a pro.
“I definitely had less fun trying to be somebody I wasn’t”
I played through Starved for Help twice, once on my “Me” save and once on my “Anti-Me” save. On my Me save, I made choices purely off what I would have done. Some were good choices, and some were bad. Some I made out of pity, and some out of anger. On Anti-Me, I made an effort to make the opposite decisions of what I would normally do. It was genuinely difficult to bear the consequences of my actions, and really made me feel crappy at times. It didn’t feel right to be Anti-Me. Perhaps playing the way you naturally would is the only way to play The Walking Dead. I definitely had less fun trying to be somebody I wasn’t.
