The Walking Dead: Episode 2 - Starved for Help
Score: 90% Publisher: Telltale Games Developer: Telltale Games Media: Download/1 Players: 1 Genre: Adventure
Previously on The Walking Dead: The Walking Dead: Episode 2 - Starved for Help takes place three months after the events of the first episode. In that adventure, we not only met Lee, but we also met a young girl named Clementine. When Clementine helps Lee get away from a walker, he quickly takes the child under his wing and becomes her protector. The duo meet up with a small group of survivors that include Hershel (from both the comics and the TV series) and a family of three made up of Kenny, his wife Katjaa and their son, Duck. It isn’t long before Lee, Clementine and Kenny’s family leave Hershel’s farm and meet up with another group that is holding out in Lee’s parents’ drug store. This group not only contains Glenn (another familiar face from the main continuity), but also several other survivors. Before that episode ended, Lee (and you) had to make a hard choice and save one of his new friends. While the people left from that group made it safely to an old motel, it doesn’t look like that will be a good place to attempt to wait out the zombie apocalypse, especially when food becomes scarce. Episode 2 starts off with the gang realizing just how low on rations they are and hunger runs rampant.
People and Places: The Walking Dead: Episode 2- Starved for Help starts off in the barricaded motel where Kenny and one of the other survivors, Lilly, fight for dominance. Kenny believes that they should go, while Lily feels that staying put is the best answer. You can attempt to stay neutral in these arguments at first, but trust me, before this episode is over, you will have to side with one or the other, and even indecision is a choice, though you might not like the outcome. To make matters worse, you start the game off by bringing in a new mouth to feed as Lee and the hunting party stumble upon a pair of high school students and their teacher. While bringing them into the motel might seem like a good idea at first, it isn’t long before the lack of food causes everyone to get a little hot under the collar. These arguments are only stopped when a pair of strangers, the St. John brothers, show up at the motel. It seems like these dairy farmers have a safe homestead not too far away and the gas-powered electric fence is all the defense they claim to need. It isn’t long before the whole group shows up at the dairy farm, but Kenny feels like things are too good to be true. Most of this episode has you exploring the farm and sleuthing around to find out if there is more to the St. John story than the boys and their mama let on. While Lee starts to get suspicious himself, the thought of a freshly made homecooked meal keeps all of the survivors from wanting to see anything beyond the farm’s surface appearances.
Hard Decisions: Like the first episode, The Walking Dead: Episode 2- Starved for Help throws in quite a few tough choices, and they all have some consequences, though some might not be seen until future episodes. Starved For Help starts off with one of these hard decisions, when Lee and the hunting party find the high school students. The problem is, their band teacher has his leg caught in a modified bear trap. When walkers start to be attracted by the man’s screams, your first decision is obvious. Do you try and free the trapped man? Do you leave him for the zombies? If you try and free him, how do you do it? From there, you are asked to dole out the rations, the only problem is, there is only enough food for four people, so six of your number will have to go hungry. These are only minor choices though since the ones you make as the episode comes to a climax are far more intense and literally mean life or death. I don’t really want to talk about those since even hinting at them will reveal the episode’s big twist, but you can expect a lot of fallout from those decisions, and always remember that Clementine is watching you.
Next Time on The Walking Dead: The Walking Dead: Episode 2- Starved for Help ends with a doozy of a finish and while your choices will affect how people look at you in the next episode, Long Road Ahead, it looks like the overall plot will be the same. You and your group aren’t the only people in the area, as was evident by the St. Johns, and even though they might not have messed with your group before now, that doesn’t mean they don’t have cause to come after you based on the events of Starved for Help. The Walking Dead, be it the comics, TV series or games, is all about the people. Sure, there are zombies walking around eating the living, but these stories are all about how the living handle the world they have been forced to survive in. This episode is a prime example of the changes people feel they need to make in order to stay alive, and I have a feeling Episode 3 will follow suit nicely.
-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications AKA Chris Meyer
Related Links: The Walking Dead on Steam The Walking Dead Game Home Page Game Vortex's The Walking Dead Coverage Skybound Home Page
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