Nice read, Thanks, Patrick!

"I also think it’s really interesting, watching the playthroughs of people, and they just start off episode two saying “I hate that guy. As soon as I fucking get a chance, I’m gonna kill that guy, I’m gonna kill him.” And then they get to that point and “I can’t kill him! I gotta save him! I gotta do it!” I don’t know why that is, exactly, but I like it."

He was pretty much describing me in that paragraph. I just couldn't go through with it, even though I hated him in the first episode.

Just like in real life, some of these decisions put me in a spot where I have to pick something that benefits me or satisfies me now, or do something in favour of someone else. Also just like in real life, I tend towards the latter because of anxiety and guilt issues. It gnaws at me, when I do something at the expense of someone else.

So given the choice in the game, I choose not to kill. Given the choice I choose not to steal. In the game most of my decisions are based on protecting Clementine from the horrors of that reality - which in real life would be futile, even dangerous to her. But I don't want the guilt of having let her eat that guy, or seeing me sticking a pitchfork in a dude who probably deserved to have a pitchfork stuck in him forever.

I kind of feel like Rick in the TV show, you know, until he finally fucking snaps. My hope is by the end of these episodes I'll snap too.

At first I stabbed that guy with the pitchfork but then I found out Clementine was there and reloaded. I wish the game would give you all the information before making you make a choice.

I saved Doug. Even though I usually go for saving women, Carly rubbed me in the wrong way when dealing with the woman who was bit, and Doug seemed like a really resourceful guy. That, and having his laser pointer save you is way better than Carly's stupid gun.

@Flacracker said:

At first I stabbed that guy with the pitchfork but then I found out Clementine was there and reloaded. I wish the game would give you all the information before making you make a choice.

The game gives you all the information that Lee has. Lee didn't know that Clementine was watching when he dealt with Danny. You can see the shock and guilt on his face when he discovers that Clem saw what he did.

It's a great read. I love how open they are about the process. Great stuff.

I didn't feel like not shooting the second brother was the merciful choice. I didn't want him to get what he wanted in a fast death.

I'm frustrated with the amount of people I've seen on the Internet who say they "saw the twist coming" in this episode. What, you mean you've seen a horror movie before? Of course you know the twist way before the characters do. 1) It's a horror game. If something seems nice and pleasant, of course it's not going to be. 2) The game drops a LOT of hints, even before the characters start acting creepy. Like, for example, this is a dairy farm with only one cow, yet they've got meat for miles-- even Lee brings this up. 3) Uh, they start acting creepy WAY before anything horrible starts. I mean, the "twist" of episode 2 has nothing to do with the fact that they're cannibals-- this is like saying you saw Alien for the first time and knew that something was going to jump out of that egg and grab on to the guy's face. Of course it was. The movie never gave you any indication that this wasn't the type of movie that would do that. Good horror entertainment will always take you down a path that you expect, give you that payoff you want, and then immediately go way past where you want it to go. The "twist" isn't that they're cannibals-- it's that a character you've, up to this point, trusted, brutally murders a man in a way you never even thought you'd see a man get murdered in a video game. THAT'S the twist. And if you say you saw THAT coming, you're lying. But the cannibal thing, have you never read a horror novel/seen a horror movie/ experienced a scary thing before?

@crswaites: I think it was less seeing the twist coming, and more that we already saw this scene in The Book of Eli, a movie written by Gary Whitta, who is a story consultant on this game. The game also gives you strategic options to not reveal everything about your group to the new people, yet the game then later forces you to give up info I was previously withholding and then you are forced to blindly trust these people. What was the point of giving me all these choices if the game is just going to force me to go down a path that any normal person would have seen coming a mile away?

I chose to yell "its people!" and to my horror clem at a piece, did they think i was kidding? And for whatever reason i decided to stay loyal to kenny and let him smash that dude's head. I felt terrible about it afterwards and actually started to resent kenny as a character after whereas before i felt he and lee were building a good friendship. This game is indeed a revelation for storytelling in video games, and unlike ME3 the choices affect the situations of its own episode and also leaves implications for the overall story.

Look forward to more. Episode 3 was brutal.

@LarryDavis: I chose the "IT'S PEOPLE!" option for the exact same reason you did. Man was I pissed when Clementine ate Mark...but I promised myself I would never replay or restart a section until I have completed the entire game.

@GrandHarrier: This is because you're playing The Walking Dead as a video game instead of a as an interactive story experience. And also because you choose to ignore that there are two episodes left. Did you read the first interview? "Faces of Death part 1." They explain what kind of impact you are afforded in the game. If you're just playing this to feel like a powerful character who makes all the decisions you're in the wrong zombie apocalypse.

I let Carley die because she was dumb as hell. Who doesn't think of batteries? Who puts them in backwards?

This was a fantastic episode, much better than the first. I didn't see the twist coming, I knew something was up but I didn't realise what was going on until I found Mark. I wanted to save Larry, but that dick threw a salt lick on his head. I really liked him in the first episode and almost always sided with him, but after he killed Larry I realised that I was backing the wrong guy. Even back in the first episode when Kenny didn't help you save Shaun(?) but instead ran away, I still liked him. I agree with Patrick though, I started to understand Larry once I had that private chat with Lilly, where as before I absolutely hated him. I also stabbed that guy with the pitch fork but left the other guy because everybody was watching me.

I can't wait to play the third one tomorrow.

I was avoiding this game for a while since it looked like a load of QTE-driven wank to me, but a friend of mine who absolutely loathes anything with zombies in it was positively raving about it to me recently. So, since it was in the steam sale, I picked it up. This game rules, these devs rule, the characters and the writing both fucking rule. Everything about it just fucking RULES.

Also fuck Larry. Totally killed that guy, no questions asked.

At this point, Kenny has lost my support and respect. After smashing Larry's head, he shrinks away from the decision he made, whispering "I'm so sorry, It had to be done." The fact that he can't honestly answer to himself what he could do if it was his own family is an annoying weakness. It would be interesting to know if Kenny could choose to save Duck or his wife.

When Denny has the gun to Lee, Kenny just hid in the stall and would've watched Lee die if not for Lilly. He can act to help himself or his family, but he has fallen short on several occasions.

Of course he is just a video game character and who knows what I would do in the same situation, but in the context of the game, He's no hero.

[group laughs] [three-way high-five] [freeze frame] [fade out]

"And then there's silent Lee..."

LMAO, that made my day

@crswaites:

Well it's not really a twist if you help Kenny kill him because you make it happen and see it coming because you decide to do it.