The Walking Dead: The Game – Episode 2: Starved for Help Review

Zombies are the least of your worries in The Walking Dead and Telltale Games have brought that to the forefront of the second episode of five for their smash hit game.

Starved for Help picks up three months after the events of episode one. The group have fortified the motel and coping with life after the zombie apocalypse. We are back playing as Lee Everett, protecting Clementine and for the first time in the series, we are dealing with the consequences of our decisions from episode 1.

The Walking Dead: The Game is all about the relationships you forge as the story unfolds, rather than being an all out action game. You don’t get second chances. Once you have said something to another character, your reaction and opinion are always noted and will impact conversations and decisions later on. (For a full run down of how the game is controlled, check out our review of Episode 1: A New Day)

Starved for Help not only opens with the games goriest moment by far (if you chose to play it that way) but it starts to test your moral muscles. The group is quickly running out of food and its up to you to decide who gets to eat today. Do you feed the people who can help group or do you feed the kids and play things on the fence.

Are you going to be a cold hearted survivor or an upstanding person? I found myself asking that throughout the whole episode. Deciding who’s side I was on meant I had to turn my back on friendships I had forged during the chaos of Episode 1 and to still be questioning that a few days later is the sign of a fantastic game.

After introducing you to a few new survivors you have picked up in the three months we don’t see, two brothers from St. John’s Dairy Farm offer you a trade of gas for food. As you develop a relationship, the brothers ask you probing questions about your group but are they being protective or is there a more sinister reason for these questions?

I wont reveal every major decision but this installment of the series slowly builds the tension and before you have time to think things will drastically change. As the final choices come at me I found myself making decisions against my principles. I wasnt trying to impress Clementine but think of survival. Its times like these that you realize how attached to each character to you form a friendship with and how attached to Lee you become.

Episode 2: Starved for Help is everything i hoped it would be. Rather than focusing on the obvious constant walker threat, it deals with the possibility that other survivors may not be as helpful to you as they seem. Its a completely different experience to the Episode 1 and that only enhances the game as a whole. It made me focus on who Lee would become in this world ruled by the dead, whilst making me realize you will have to abandon some of your moral compass in order to survive. I cannot wait for Episode 3: Long Road Ahead.