Though the pros “Give No Shelter” provides over its predecessor outweigh the cons, hopefully the final episode can pull it all together and go out on a high note.
The second episode of Telltale’s three-episode mini-series The Walking Dead: Michonne gives depth to the main character while bringing plenty of the suspense the developer is known for.
The second episode of the series, titled “Give No Shelter,” launched Tuesday, March 29. It clocks in at a little over an hour, roughly on par with the previous episode. The newest entry follows Michonne, Pete and Samantha as they try to escape Norma and her boat-town community of Monroe. They escape and head toward Samantha’s house in the hopes that her dad can be of assistance in getting Michonne and Pete back to the rest of their crew.
The episode, as with the one before it, is unusually restrictive. There are only a couple short segments in the episode in which the player is allowed to move freely. The rest of the experience is on rails and leads the player through with few opportunities to be independent.
The added structure may take away from gameplay, but it helps build a stronger story than in the previous episode. The player, through dialogue and flashbacks, learns more about Michonne's past and how it has made her the person she is in the present. By the end of the episode, the player will feel as though he or she understands the character a bit better than beforehand, fixing the lack of character development that hindered the first episode.
Great scripting and voice acting help bring the episode to life. Emotions run high, as usual, and all the voice actors help those virtual characters seem authentic. Though specific examples would spoil parts of the story, it is suffice to say that the voice actors convey the emotions of certain scenes quite well.
The story also delivers a couple of continually shocking moments. Although it would seem that the developer shouldn’t have anything left up its sleeves, it is still able to deliver unexpected twists throughout its games. “Give No Shelter” is no exception and has a couple twists of its own.
When the game isn’t in a dialogue segment, it usually relies on quick time events to provide some gaming mechanics into a mostly passive experience. The quick time events, as in the first episode, focus much more on fighting than fleeing when compared to other The Walking Dead games, which is always welcome considering how deadly Michonne can be.
Unfortunately, some of the levels of immersion are shattered due to frequent crashes, at least on the Android version of the episode. Though that may not be the same for other consoles, it is a quite aggravating issue that plagues “Give No Shelter” in stark contrast to the crash-free first episode on the same phone.
Although the episode doesn’t leave on a crazy cliffhanger, it does leave the player ready and excited to see how the mini-series will wrap up. Though it’s two episodes shorter than Telltale’s standard five-episode series, it feels perfectly paced and hopefully will end on a similarly well-paced note.
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But where The Walking Dead: Michonne fixed one major issue in character development, it created another in frequent crashes. Though the pros “Give No Shelter” provides over its predecessor outweigh the cons, hopefully the final episode can pull it all together and go out on a high note.
Score: 4/5
@GS_Matt
ms153614@ohio.edu
