I might be blinded by love for The Walking Dead or TellTale truly is the master of story telling. Part 2 of Ties That Bind continues the TellTale tradition of blowing me away. Usually I’m quite good at predicting how things are going to turn out but my particular set of skills have been of no use to me with these first 2 episodes.

TellTale are the perfect example of why the story in a game is so important. If a franchise is made they’re more than likely going to have the same play style with the smallest adjustments each time. And that’s fine. But eventually it will get to the point where it feels like you’re playing the same game you played 4 years ago. If there’s not an interesting story. TellTale’s The Walking Dead has the same style of gameplay it had when it first started. But because of their ability to create the most gripping stories, that for me, literally had me on the edge of my seat it never got boring or samey. Anyway, that’s enough sucking up. On to the review.

A Little More Backstory

Again the episode opens pre-apocalypse. This time focusing on Javier, Kate and David. This little slice of story give the impression there may have been or nearly had been some love affair trouble and that David’s a bit of a…meany. Although that was rather obvious in the first episode. So we got about 5 minutes of a little extra to get to know the characters before everything went to pot. Which is always great for the story so we can see how much the circumstances has changed them.

Picking up where we left off

After that we’re thrown right back into where episode one left off. Even though it had only been one episode the start of this one was pretty emotional. With help from better looking facial animation. We also get a little insight into what exactly we’re up against this time around. The New Frontier. The group that attacked Javier and co. and apparently is not the nicest bunch.

So we take a trip back to Prescott with Clementine who is in talks of heading off. Like most things is this series, nothing good ever lasts. After a confrontation, more surprises and brutal quick time events we find ourselves hitting the road again. Which is where we’ll be spending most of our time today as the group try to get to Richmond for shelter and help.

Along the way we come to a stop as there’s vehicles almost intentionally blocking the tunnel. In the process of getting through, the horde of zombies approaches and things very quickly go south. So with some more quick time event stabbings, dodging and shooting we find ourselves stranded on a roof with a rather favourable encounter.

This episode focuses a lot around making trust decisions. It feels like it’s setting up the rest of the season for who you’re going to be accompanied by for the rest of this journey. It does so in a very entertaining and jaw dropping fashion.

The ending

The end of this episode, and the first, had my jaw firmly breaking through the ground and nearing the earths core. I don’t know how TellTale keep nailing this but they do.  It’s incredible how even with completely new people they manage to surprise me and get me fully invested. This episode made me really rather upset that the whole thing is episodic and not a full game. What I would give to play the next episode is, beyond normal. I have no idea how the next episode is going to go but I think somebody is going the die the most gruesome death.

This seems to be another great season of The Walking Dead. If this is just the beginning than I’m very excited to see what else they have in store.