The Walking Dead: Season Two Episode 4 - Amid the Ruins Reviews
Gameplay-wise, I was happy with this episode as a function of my relief. The controller brought me back into the world a number of times, and I found myself thinking for Clementine in the quieter moments, instead of only allowing the game to think for her in the louder ones. On the story side of things, if it's Telltale's intention to replicate within me the frustrations of a zombie apocalypse, then they've recently hired a genius. An evil genius. I was driven to murder at any possible moment I could over the course of 'Amid the Ruins,' but I'm pretty sure it's not a good thing to turn sociopathic during what is supposed to be an emotional journey.
It's easy to forget that, as with Clementine, there is still more to come. Episode 5 is on the horizon. We just had to sit through something else to get there.
Despite the usual high production qualities, Amid the Ruins does nothing to curb the meandering nature of the fourth chapter which afflicts their franchises, once again leaving us with the weakest episode of the series to date.
Season Two's early promise has consolidated into sporadic flashes of greatness, but the consistent excellence of Clementine's character alone isn't enough to carry the series. It needs the lift of an outstanding final episode.
Episode 4 is a step back for the season and the series
Telltale once again hits its typical fourth-episode slump, but we're still hopeful for a strong season 2 finale.
Among the Ruins is The Walking Dead doing what The Walking Dead does well, but it's spinning its wheels when it should be racing towards the finale. As far as Clem's story goes, it's hard to fight the feeling that what began as an exciting opportunity for the writers has now become something of a millstone when it comes to plotting. Can the final episode recapture the power and drive of her brutal first episode, as well as plot its way to a send-off as beautifully appropriate as Lee's at the end of the first season? We'll find out in a couple of months, when The Walking Dead: Season Two concludes in "No Going Back".
Aside from some slight tonal inconsistencies and story deviations, "Amid the Ruins" does still maintain the great quality of The Walking Dead with a number of tense scenes and overall building toward the final outcomes of the season. With some action setpieces that put the group into peril in the face of looming threats like the imminent snow, and leading up to a conclusion with an enormous and devastating cliffhanger, it still manages to put many pieces into play, despite some noticeable shortcomings in terms of its character development.
Ultimately, it feels as if they've stuck a whole bunch of subplots into one episode and nothing really gets us too invested.
In the first season of The Walking Dead, you really had to worry about each and every choice, whereas here there seems to be a tragic inevitability about everything. It's hard to say whether that is actually an issue, or a reflection of the harsh world Clementine finds herself in. Maybe by making it seem like everything will go wrong, despite your best efforts, Telltale are trying to show just how hopeless the situation has become. This might be a stretch of the imagination, but if it is intended to make us feel numb to the horrors of the world, then they have played a master stroke. Time will tell on that front.
TellTale are generally great at sticking the landing and nailing the finale, although it's not entirely clear, at this point, where they're going to take us for the last episode.
Of course, fans of the series still need to pick this episode up, and from looking back at the entire season, this is still a decent addiction to an already great series. Just keep in mind, you can't save everybody, and even if you try, don't be surprised if someone dies anyway. This is The Walking Dead after all.
Once again, I can't stop playing the game now and I wouldn't recommend you do so either. However, Episode 5 will really have to work hard to turn things around and blow me away with a stunning conclusion, or else it might feel that everything I have done so far is for naught. Then again… maybe that is the point.
[T]his is another nail-biting instalment that kept us hooked for its 90-minute play time (we completed it in one go, as with the other episodes in Walking Dead Season Two). We found our allegiances changing throughout, which kept us constantly on our toes, and the cliffhanger ending promises a bloody climax come part five.
So much of The Walking Dead has been about the strong males pushing the narrative in one direction or another, for better of for worse. It's refreshing to see an episode from a female-led perspective.
Amid the Ruins may be the most hard-hitting episode of The Walking Dead: Season Two yet, but it ends up all the better as a result.
The most memorable episode since the season premier, Amid The Ruins fleshes out the supporting cast, provides some nasty scenarios, and takes Kenny's personal arc to some very haunting places.
[Q]uite a lot of 'Amid the Ruins' feels like a breather from the series' relentless onslaught of unhappiness.
Starting off with one of the best openings in the series thus far, The Walking Dead: Season 2 Episode 4 - Amid The Ruins features high paced action while also pushing the main story forward well.
This season has been extremely consistent, and did a great job of hooking you in from the get-go. Clem has taken everything she's learned from Lee and applied it tenfold, to the point where these new connections she's made this year trump anything she's experienced personally with her former father-figure. Although Amid the Ruins doesn't really go for many jump scares and is clearly a table-setting episode for the explosive finale, it's very much worth playing through multiple times over.