The Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 4 Amid the Ruins Review

       So this review is much the same as all the others, but a little worse. This episode ran worse than any other with the exception of some sections back in season 1. The amount of frame-rate drop and animation chugging and skipping that goes on is downright embarrassing. I've played a lot of games with much more complex animation than this that were made by only a handful of people that ran smooth as butter. As I watched the credits roll and saw the several dozen names of the people who made this game scroll by, all I could think was how can this many people let something with this many technical problems out the door. Didn't any of them think to themselves, “Wow, this game runs TERRIBLY.”

     It's to the point now that it is really starting to break the immersion, and immersion is this game's main thing. The story is still great (although this chapter is not quite on par with the first two of the season, but it's slightly better than episode 3. Not that episode 3 is terrible, it was merely great when I am expecting perfection), but didn't quite totally suck me in as many episodes have. The technical problems played a big role in that. It's very distracting. I can only hope that someone at Tell Tale reads this and is shamed into making future episodes better. Seriously, I don't care if you delay an episode by months, don't ship it like this.

     My missing stats from episode 3 appeared when I downloaded episode 3, so that's good. But then there was no "next time" preview at the end of episode 4. Another glitch? Or maybe they just didn't make one? Either way I missed it as I love the previews.

     All that whining aside, this episode continues one of gaming's great stories and succeeds pretty well at continuing it. There are a few rough patches in the story, but in general it's pretty great. I felt some emotions I don't usually feel while playing a game (and not the normal tug at the heartstrings either, see my spoiler post for details). I am of course, really pleased with it in general and glad I played. It just doesn't even come close to flirting with perfection like the best Walking Dead episodes do. It's a great game, Tier 3. Onto the finale!!