The second of five downloadable episodes, Starved for Help picks up three months after the zombie apocalypse broke out in
Episode 1 of The Walking Dead, still playing as protagonist Lee Everett, protecting Clementine, and dealing with a group of survivors assembled at a makeshift fortress that used to be a motel.
The Walking Dead: The Game is all about choice and consequence, and in Episode 2, we get to see just how our choices have panned out. In a "Previously, on the Walking Dead", we see all the choices we made from Episode 1 carried over to the next instalment. This is a game where you don't get a second chance to say/do something (without starting a new game). You have a limited time to to make a choice that will influence your friends and make new enemies.
Starved for Help opens with a truly horrific moment (if you choose to play it that way) and after the gut wrenching blood bath is over, you then have to make a moral decision: The group's nearly out of food, and when it's up to you to choose which few survivors get rations for the day, you have to figure out if you're playing favorites or focusing on the greater good of the group. If you're smart, you can figure out a way to make the majority of people happy (or even take some food yourself).
Episode 2 gives us, for the first time, the real chance to decide if Lee's going to be an upstanding person or a survivor willing to do anything to live another day. It's the first time a game has had me debating whose side I was on and turning my back on established relationships, genuinely moving me in some cases. I can't think of another game that had me establish a character I thought I knew and had a connection with, then have me re-thinking big decisions a few scenes later, even though I knew I couldn't change it.
When a new group of survivors from the St. John's Dairy Farm show up and invite your group to come over and trade gas for food, you're left with the decisions of obviously taking their offer, or the unknown of whether or not you can trust these random strangers. The group needs food, you're pretty much out, and with the world gone to hell, you're going to need all the supplies you can get to keep your group alive, but are these guys legit?
Whatever choice you make, Episode 2 will shock you to your very core.
The most shocking entry so far, Starved For Help is a brilliant new episode of the Walking Dead game, and also the most brutal.
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