Saving Graces: Walking Dead Season Two
Inexplicably finding themselves in conversation with an energy drink manufacturer, Telltale mentioned that they were working on season two of The Walking Dead. We already knew that but what we didn't know is that the sequel to last year's most efficient jerker of tears will most likely carry over saves from the ending of the original episodes. That surprises me, considering that the season ended with the zombie virus cured by a broth containing Basset Hound saliva and pixie tears. Wouldn't it be more sensible to go back to the dark days of the decaying dead and follow a separate group of survivors rather than continuing with the Little House on the Prairie set-up suggested by that ending? Actual spoilers below.
The next paragraph really does contain spoilers so stop reading now if you haven't finished the first season yet. STOP! If you must continue, how about this: 8.5 million individual chapters of the game were sold last year. That's a lot of copies, although I did buy episode one on PC and PS3 because I'm an idiot, so consider the entire figure to be unfairly inflated. About six people probably played the whole thing from start to finish. Six million.
I did expect the second season to feature a completely new cast, although that's mainly because almost everybody dies in the original. Clementine's the obvious choice for a sequel and I'd love to see the second season jump forward a few years, showing us her teenage or young adult years. That way, the save file could be used to call back to the choices each player's Lee made in the original, with Clem echoing his choice of words and actions.
That said, the state of the world five or ten years into a zombie takeover strikes me as much less interesting than the more immediate aftermath. Clementine is all that survives of Lee though and that sort of generational passing of the torch could be a fantastic storytelling tool. It's hard to imagine playing as Clementine when she's still so young though. Maybe a new protector? Maybe even the surviving couple and Clem, together?
In the same interview, Telltale CEO Dan Connors also sets the studio's sights high for their next project: “Coming from LucasArts we always felt we could do a great Star Wars story game...We also love the idea of building out a deeper story to a great game franchise, something like Half Life Stories or Halo Stories.”
That's right, Mr Connors, another episodic Half Life series is precisely what we need.