The Walking Dead: Season Two Episode 5 - No Going Back Reviews
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.
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).
This finale gets you reflecting about who Clementine really is and how you've shaped her. The narrative is intense and heartbreaking
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Present day's king of adventure games.
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.
The Walking Dead Season 2 finale is an impressive and intelligent episode, and among @telltalegames' finest stories.
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.
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.
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.
Episode 5: No Going Back may not have had the emotional impact as last season's finale, but it certainly provided moments of heart-racing action and split-second decision making.