[GAME] My Walking Dead Experience Episode 2 – Starved For Help

It’s The Walking Dead Wednesday, hooray! That’s what I’ve decided to call my weekly recaps of The Walking Dead game. Original, aren’t I? If you haven’t read the first installment and would like to, it can be found here: My Walking Dead Experience Episode 1 – A New Day.

Also, quoted for posterity:

This is a play-by-play, walk-through of my own game. I wrote about my choices, the process behind making them, along with how I felt at various stages and a glimpse into my inner monologue throughout. It is a recap of my personal Walking Dead journey. If you ever plan on playing this game yourself please do not read it, as I would hate to be held responsible for ruining what could be a memorable zombie caper for you. So, SPOILERS AHEAD. 

I’ve just finished the second installment of Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead and you’d swear I was right there with the group, running from walkers and evil cannibals because I was exhausted after it. This won’t be quite as detailed as my first walk-through (thank the Maker says anyone who actually wants to read my drivel) because so much happened and I won’t be able to fit it all in. Or remember it all. Anyway, here goes.

If you go down to the woods today…

We start out after a time jump of three months. We’re in the woods with a new guy, who is apparently called Mark, and we’re hunting. We gather food is short, that Lee saved Mark some time back and that the food the new guy brought to the camp has seriously diminished. I like Mark.

We also learn that there is friction in the camp between Kenny and Lilly. Kenny seems to resent Lilly’s authority and Lilly I think just resents anyone who doesn’t see things as she does.  Mark and Lee discuss these issues while they’re walking through the woods, and for me the scene seems to foreshadow an imminent fracture in the gang. We’re thrown pretty quickly into action once again when we hear some shouts off in the distance, and the duo run toward it, thinking the source could be Kenny, who is also out on a hunting expedition. It’s not though, it turns out to be some other dude with a leg caught in a bear trap. A couple of kids are freaking out over it. Lee is forced into action when walkers appear and we decide to help the troupe. I make Lee chop off your man’s leg so he can escape. He pleads to “please try the chain again”, but I hadn’t even bothered to try the chain at all because time was of the essence and I’m sorry guy, if you want to live I’ll have to chop off your leg. As we’re running off back toward the motel one of the kids gets lynched by the walker mob.

You don’t need two anyway, that’s just greedy.

Food For Thought

Back at the bleak Hotel Motel Holiday Inn another row breaks out and everyone is shouting at each other again, but mostly at Lee. Katjaa the vet sets to trying to fix the one-legged wonder and Lee wanders off as he does to have chats with people. Lilly is annoyed about the whole thing because nobody seems to want to listen to reason, or at least, her reasoning, and then in a bit of a hissy fit she gives Lee the remaining four rations of food to be shared among ten people. That’s fine. So I give some food to the kids; Clementine and Duck, who are drawing pictures. Well Clementine was drawing, I don’t know what Duck was doing. We ask Carley what she thinks we should do with the food and she recommends giving something to Larry to perhaps garner favour with Lilly. I think that’s a good idea so I give him some jerky.

I don’t really want to kill Larry anymore. Sure, he’s an asshat, but I can kind of understand his motivation for what he did to us in the first episode. I mean, Lee has been convicted of murdering both his missus and the senator she was supposedly boinking behind his back. Would you want a man capable of supposedly killing his own wife around your daughter? No, not really. So I fed him, and Mark, who has mentioned his hunger on a couple of occasions now.

Then, all of a sudden, the dead body of the Scout Master (or whatever he was) reanimates and grabs Katjaa. We run to save her. But oh noes, the ax! We gave it to Mark, who appears to be pretty useless with the weapon. In the end it is Hawk-eyed Carley who saves Lee. This scene prompts Ben (the kid who had survived earlier) to inform the group that once you die, by any means, you become one of them. Gross!

Give us a kiss.

The Creepy Creeps of Creeptown, USA

Enter stage left, the Creepy Bros. I do not like them from the absolute get-go. I don’t like their faces and they’re way friendlier than any normal, adjusted zombie apocalypse survivors should be. In return for some gas they want to take us all to the magical mystery land of their Dairy Farm. I don’t want to go, but everyone else does. A small group tags along to check things out.

On the way we encounter some “bandits”. One of whom summarily executes the other.

Look familiar? I wonder if Hershell is home.

On the dairy farm we learn that the property is protected by electrical fences and as such, is the safest, most secure place we’ve come across as yet. Lee and I float around, fix a swing, chat to the lady of the manor (who has sent Carley and Ben off to the rest of the group with some home-made breads that look like scones or something), and then are dispatched by Andy (one of the Creepy Brothers) to check out the electrified fence that has taken some damage on one part of the property. But when Mark and Lee identify the problem and attempt to fix it, somehow the fence gets switched back on, trapping them outside and just in time to have a bit of a run-in with the aforementioned bandits. The bandits, who believe that Lee and Mark are members of the Stepford Farm yell things at them as they shoot arrows. Something about having made a deal and now they were going to get them, blah blah blah. During this exchange Mark takes an arrow to the shoulder.

We hightail it back to the farm where Mama Creep promises to look after him, talks about the feast she’s going to prepare for us all and other such inconsequential, “aren’t I homely and innocent” stuff. The other Creepy Bro, Danny, wants to take Lee to the woods to look for the bandit camp for payback. So off we go, but we don’t find any bandits, only a small camp with a tent. In this camp we find a video recorder. Danny says a few suspicious things and if my spidey senses hadn’t already been tingling, they’d be downright burning at this point. In the tent we find Clementine’s cap, which she had proclaimed mislaid earlier on in the episode.

A wild Jolene appears!

Then some mad wench called Jolene appears with a crossbow and spouts what appears to be deranged nonsense. But I’m angry about finding Clementine’s hat among her belongings so I talk to her. Danny though has other notions, and shoots her before she can divulge what I assume to be information that will undo him.

Back at the one cow Dairy Farm the rest of the gang roll up. The kids swing on the swing, Katjaa takes a gander at the sick cow (she is actually pregnant, how can people who keep cows fail to realise that their cow is with calf?) and I’m not allowed in to check on Mark. Kenny and Lilly were fighting again but at this stage I don’t really care. We go into the barn and return Clem’s hat to her, then we speak to Kenny, who is standing at a locked door. I realise we’ll have to see what’s inside, but I’m getting really tired of Kenny’s comments. Anywho, I create a diversion and then have a peek inside the locked room of the barn to find it is some sort of slaughter chamber. I’m not all that surprised, I mean, it’s supposed to be a farm.

A Surprise Dinner Guest

Abe Simpson: I noticed Molloy wore sneakers… For sneaking.

Back inside dinner is about to be served. But Lee has other things on his mind and goes snooping. Up the stairs, in a hidden, blocked off room, we find Mark.

OMG.

WHAT IS IT WITH YOU AND LEGLESSNESS, TELLTALE GAMES!?

Mark is upstairs and he is missing both of his legs. Holy crap. Wtf is this. “Nononononono,” I mutter at the screen, doing my best Shia LaBoeuf impression as we leg it (teehee!) down the stairs, burst into the dining room and yell at Clementine to NOT EAT THE PEOPLE FOOD. Everyone is looking at Lee like he’s nuts. We’re trying to tell them that there’s a legless Mark upstairs and that the Creep St. Johns are cannibals who are going to eat everyone but it’s not really working out as I would have expected.

What, no gravy?

Clementine didn’t eat Mark, but Ducky is sitting there shoveling Markmeat into his gob, happy and oblivious. I know it was wholly inappropriate but a sort of gigglesnort escaped me at this point. My amusement didn’t last long though because one of the Creepers knocked me out and we wake up in what I think was a meat locker.

It all comes to a head…

Larry is there and in his haste to blame everything on Lee he gives himself a heart attack. Lilly is panicking, giving him CPR. Kenny is saying that Larry is dead and we have to kill him properly. He says Lee has to kill him. I’m like, wtf, why does Lee have to do EVERYTHING!? Anyway I make the choice to help Lilly with Larry because who knows, maybe he can survive the heart attack and if we don’t at least try, Lilly will be lost to us. Kenny calls me useless and mushes Larry’s head with what I think was a salt-lick.

Kenny and Larry both lost their heads.

WTF KENNY.

He says some mean things to Lee but we decide to ignore him and get down to the business of coming up with a way out of the locked room. Having to send Clementine through the vent wasn’t a plan I was all that comfortable with but she came through in the end and broke us out of there. On the way out I picked up a sickle, and then I followed the reactionary Kenny back out into the barn.

It’s okay Clementine, vents are perfectly safe. They’re for badasses like John McClane and Sam Neill when he’s escaping velociraptors.

Philosophical Differences

Here’s where I nearly died again. After overhearing a Creepy Bros’ conversation I sneak a look out and come face to face with a gun-wielding Danny. We grapple while Ken just watches my impending demise from relative safety. Lilly emerges from the slaughter room with a scythe of her own and saves my ass. Danny is injured and falls backward, trapping himself in the claws of another bear trap. Hooray! Then I have to decide whether or not I want to kill him. You see, I can kind of understand their predicament. Having to resort to cannibalism to stay alive isn’t a new idea; it is one that has been bandied about from time to time in dystopian or survivalist scenarios before. But entrapping and slaughtering living, unaware people so you can eat them is just wrong. Danny says now we get to eat him, that’s the way it works, but I’m with Lee on this one, he’s tainted. I spared his life though. I’m not sure why, I assumed we’d get back to him later.

At some stage during this, having heard Katjaa scream, Kenny ran off. Lee leaves Clementine in Lilly’s care and goes after him. We encounter Carley and Ben who had returned from the motel. I’m happy to see Carley, because I know she’s trustworthy. Lee sends her off and approaches the house, where we find Katjaa in the hands of Mama Creep, who has a gun pointed to her head.

Suuure, you were only planning on eating me.

That was a great scene. I slowly push her back up the stairs and towards the waiting clutches of a walker I had peered through the banister. I manage to deliver her to its waiting claws and Katjaa is free. Outside though, Andy has little Duck in his clutches, he too wielding yet another gun. My relief at seeing Carley earlier is doubled as once again she saves Lee when he grapples with Andy to free Ducky. Andy charges up the generator and drags Lee to the fence in attempt to fry his lovely face. And Lilly appears just in the nick of time to save us. She wings Andy, but it is enough for us to gain the upper-hand. Lee straddles Andy and goes to town on his face. He doesn’t stop until Carley interrupts to tell us that Andy has had enough of our fists of fury and justice. We leave Andy there in the knowledge that his family aren’t coming and he’s done for. If I could have made Lee spit on the ground after he said this I would have. The movable feast gets underway again and we see the farm being overrun by walkers, with Mama Creep leading the chase straight for her broken-faced son. I feel vindicated.

Amoral Aftermath

In the woods we’re walking and talking (as you do after such a traumatic experience) and I realise a few things.

1. Ken and I are no longer homies. Despite the fact that I saved his wife twice in this episode, and his son twice in as many episodes, this idiot is still giving me grief. I’m beginning to see that keeping Kenny onside isn’t worth the hassle, and he and his family are just too much trouble.

2. Carley has my back, always.

3. Lilly is sometimes worth listening to.

4. I’m really sorry about what happened to Mark, I liked him.

and 5. Clementine is Lee’s moral compass.

When we stumble across the empty car full of supplies, I opted not to take them. Not because I would be morally against stealing in this situation, but rather I would fear further reprisal from the bandits. We’re in their territory and they’d have no problem tracking the footprints of eight people. Not to mention that if I was among the people who had left that car, and I was still alive and returned to find my munchies gone, I would hunt them down too. It didn’t really matter anyway because nobody listened to Lee and robbed them despite his voiced opinion on the matter. It isn’t the end of the world though.

We close the episode with Lee and Carley watching the contents of the video recorder he had found earlier in the camp. It shows crazy Jolene had been stalking Clementine, and had probably planned on abducting her, much like the way the bandits had supposedly abducted her own daughter. I get the feeling we’re going to have a bandit infestation in the next episode.

Episode 2 Stats

Onward!

 

Related articles

• [GAME] My Walking Dead Experience Episode 1 – A New Day (verbalspew.wordpress.com)
• [GAME] My Walking Dead Experience Episode 3 – Long Road Ahead (verbalspew.wordpress.com)
• [GAME] My Walking Dead Experience Episode 4 – Around Every Corner (verbalspew.wordpress.com)
• [GAME] My Walking Dead Experience Episode 5 – No Time Left (verbalspew.wordpress.com)

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Categories: Gaming, Review

Tags: Clementine, Game, Gaming, Lee Everett, Narrative, Recap, Review, Starved for Help, Telltale Games, The Walking Dead, The Walking Dead Episode 2, The Walking Dead Game

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