The Walking Dead: Season Two Episode 5 - No Going Back Reviews
The Walking Dead: Season Two Episode 5 - No Going Back tugs at the heartstrings more than ever and brings another superb season of The Walking Dead to a close.
Telltale completes this season on an incredibly strong note which demonstrates just how impressive they are as storytellers; Clementine is allowed to have a brief moment of peace and a shred of hope that maybe things can get better. One final decision made right at the end lets all the doubt and worry creep back in just as the season fades out.
You can end up in a lot of different places at the end of The Walking Dead: Season 2 Episode 5. I'm not entirely sure how this could possibly transition into a season 3 because of it. However, that's exactly why you should play this game. Play it and make different decisions. Play the whole season over and examine how you got here. Play season 1 again and look at how your Lee raised Clementine. Just play the game, don't stop playing, because it makes you look at humanity in a different way with each play through, not just the harsh and unforgiving humanity that exists in the zombie apocalypse, but the harsh and unforgiving humanity that exists around us in the world we live in now.
The Walking Dead Season 2 finale is an impressive and intelligent episode, and among @telltalegames' finest stories.
The road has been long, a lot has happened since season one. Clementine has changed and many friends have come and gone. Every moment has led to this episode and its going to be an emotional one.
Present day's king of adventure games.
It remains a shame that Clementine never quite became the truly different kind of lead that the first episode promised, but in the final analysis, what The Walking Dead offers still more than makes up for its occasional stumbles. It's definitely a road trip worth taking - as long as you don't mind its highs being its most devastating lows, its good endings being little but the trap where optimism goes to die.
It started nervously, almost scared of what it was, but at the end of season two, you'll go to whomever you hold dear, and you'll squeeze them just that little bit harder than usual. They'll ask you why, and you won't answer. There's a little girl to be saved.
Episode five, thankfully, gives you the room to decide where Clementine ends up and suggests that your decisions are going to have a permanent effect on her future.
If you've played the previous episodes in this season, yes, you really should buy this final episode. If you're still holding out for season two, do yourself a favor and pick it up. It's a tragic, surprising and entertaining ride.
No Going Back provides not one, but three fitting ends to The Walking Dead's second season, each one satisfactory - and saddening - in its own right.
The Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 5: No Going Back brings some serious choices right at its end, and depending on what players want, wildly different fates for Clementine. However, it still has some annoying situations that can't be avoided and players are still unable to do certain things during the actual story.
This finale gets you reflecting about who Clementine really is and how you've shaped her. The narrative is intense and heartbreaking
Sadly there's a kind of crushing inevitability about this second season's climax and we'd be surprised if no one predicts the dramatic finale. We personally thought the pay-off was solidly presented, delivering a tense and emotional sledgehammer to the gut, but we're intrigued to see how the third season pans out given those difficult choices, which lead to one of four different endings (five technically, but two are basically the same).
But therein lies the rub: Season Two is good, and great at times, but it never reaches the lofty heights of its predecessor. To be fair, the first season was a masterpiece that would be difficult even for its own creators to emulate, and while the second season doesn't quite hit that benchmark, it's still a tale worth telling.
The story-telling is getting better; the narrative slicker, the choices harsher.
Clem's coming-of-age story remains compelling, but it's final act isn't as emotional or narratively satisfying as Lee's unforgettable tale of redemption
As Clem, we survived from one day to the next, fighting against the futility of it all, trying to find our own way absent a clear objective. Where Season One was the story of a man becoming an adoptive father, learning that he would do anything to keep his ward safe, Season Two is more personal. It's about growing up, deciding who Clem is. But no matter who that turns out to be, one thing is consistent: she's still a survivor.
As players have been at Clementine's side since the first season, this episode is proof that things for Clementine and the group may be dire, but there's always the chance of a new beginning.
If you've been waiting for the finale to dive in, well go ahead and do so with the full confidence that it'll be worth it. Now… can we have Sam & Max Season Four now Telltale? Please?.