GregHowley.com

I finally got around to starting the second season of the TellTale Games Walking Dead game. Holy headshot, I'd forgotten how good these games are. For someone who values storytelling and character in games as much as I do, it's a homerun. Don't get me wrong - the game is at least as brutal as the TV series in what its characters have to go through. But if anything, I'd say it's even better written than the TV show.

For those of you who haven't been exposed at all to The Walking Dead game, let me give you some perspective. It's an adventure game, and as such, much of the gameplay involves walking around, clicking things to examine them, and clicking conversation options to speak to various characters. But it's easy to make a careless comment that causes someone to run off crying at which point they get bitten by a zombie. That's not something that happens, I'm just grasping for theoretical examples. Things you do in the game that seem completely innocuous end up having disastrous consequences, and often the consequences wouldn't become apparent until two episodes later.

Another part of the allure for me is having to take care of Clementine and make decisions for her in a world as bleak and insane as the world of The Walking Dead. I'm such a sucker for the parenting angle in games. I'm sure that's part of the reason why I loved Heavy Rain so much.

Here's a trailer for Season 1 of the game for anyone who's completely unfamiliar.