The Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 5: No Going Back Review (PC)

The Walking Dead adventure game series from Telltale Games has certainly set the benchmark for adaptations of existing properties, in this example the comic book series written by Robert Kirkman, but also for delivering a story in an episodic format that actually works and can sustain a steady output of releases.

The game's first season impressed through a new adventure set within the universe created by the graphic novels and the second series took things even further, changing protagonists and delivering even tougher situations for players to survive.

Now, The Walking Dead Season 2 has just seen the release of its fifth and final episode, called No Going Back.

After some pretty intense challenges for protagonist Clementine and for the players who controlled her, the final chapter brings home quite a lot consequences to choices made throughout the last four episodes.

Does No Going Back manage to bring a satisfying conclusion to the second season of The Walking Dead, or should Clementine's adventures continue for a little while longer? Let's find out.

Try to survive as a group

So far, Clementine has been subjected to quite a lot of hardships. From the tragic adventures with Lee and the original Season 1 survivors, to the twisted plans Carver had for her and her new allies in Season 2. Now, after meeting a group of menacing Russian-speaking survivors, Clementine is put into one of the most intense situations so far.

In previous episodes, quite a lot of characters have talked about the fact that there are two kinds of survivors in the zombie apocalypse: those who act as lone wolves and survive on their own, and those who seek out groups and try to brave the hard times as a team.

Clementine has so far been on quite a few teams, but it's become clearer and clearer that, at some point, relationships erode, characters break down, and things get tough.

Here, it's more of the same, but there are quite a few moments when things are less serious, and a bit of hope in humanity is reignited in the hearts and minds of Clementine and the player. However, this doesn't mean that there won't be any tough choices that need to be made in the heat of some truly life and death situations.

While towards the end the choices have a true impact on what comes next, once again some of the early ones have very little consequence, and no matter how hard you try, you can't avoid some sequences, much like how it happened with Arvo in the last episode.

Again, the game forbids players of taking a certain course of action that makes the most logic and there are quite a few situations where you can't really express the reasoning behind what you want Clementine to do or how she needs to react.

Towards the end, like I've said above, things get much better, and depending on the choices made by players, some drastically different conclusions await them.

There aren't that many true gameplay situations and even those that are present are few and rather shallow in terms of player input. Most of the times you're merely selecting what Clementine wants to say, which isn't a bad thing, as there are plenty of serious conversations that take place in the new episode.

Some characters become much more lifelike in this final chapter while others lose practically any semblance of a personality as they're used by the plot for some controversial reasons. Depending on your preferences, you might certainly get annoyed at how Telltale's writers decide they should and should not do.

In terms of visuals, The Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 5 doesn't bring that many new elements. The same classic Telltale style is present, for better or for worse. While it does give the game a great comic book-like theme, the design has its limits in terms of animations, sudden facial expressions, and other such things.

One pretty good addition is the representation of snow and cold, as it reinforces the notion that things are getting much chillier in the game's universe. Seeing a character's breath is much more subtle that just seeing them trying to keep warm.

The soundtrack is still quite good and the voice acting is impressive for almost all characters, starting with Clementine, who's brought to life by Melissa Hutchison, and continuing with Kenny and other important people. There's also a special throwback to the first season of the game, complete with the trademark music, so fans will certainly enjoy that.

Go through tricky situations

The Good

The Bad

Conclusion

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.

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