The Walking Dead: Season 2, Episode 4 - Amid the Ruins Review (PS3)

The next to last episode of the second season of Telltale Games’ episodic The Walking Dead adaptation is an unsurprisingly gripping experience. Following in the footsteps of arguably the best instalment that Telltale Games has released to date, the fourth entry, Amid the Ruins, has an awful lot to live up to. And live up to those lofty expectations it most certainly does.

While the overall quality of the episode doesn’t quite reach the same level as the one before it, it comes very close. As always, you’ll butt your head against a slew of scenarios and impossible decisions regarding the ever-growing Clementine, and these appear to have much more immediate consequences than in more recent outings.

This augments the episode with an even prompter pace than its predecessors, which is particularly impressive when you consider the things that the curly haired protagonist and her crew have had to deal with up until this point. It really is quite a relentless slice of content, and we found ourselves holding our collective breaths on multiple occasions in fear of something bad happening.

While we’ll resist delving into specifics for the purpose of spoilers, know that the story telling remains as top notch as ever, building upon the developer’s incomparable character development. You’ll get to see new sides to some comrades that you’ve known for a while, and the opportunity to learn about personalities that have played a more tertiary role up until this point.

There’s even a sequence here which harkens back to a memorable moment in Season One, particularly the part where Lee teaches Clem all manner of useful survival skills. This is a nice throwback, and the fact that the lesson is put to use almost straight away accentuates the immediate gratification that this instalment is so eager to offer.

Aside from the usual roster of technical woes – such as the remarkably inconsistent frame rate, among other flaws which we’ve pretty much discussed to death – the episode only really has one other issue: it doesn’t have the feel of a story building to a momentous conclusion. It’s compelling, and we are eagerly awaiting the finale, but we were hoping for a bigger crescendo here.

Still, this is a relatively meaty outing, with so much happening during its first hour or so that it actually seems longer. This is likely due to the fact that the game revels in utterly battering your emotions, and will leave you feeling mentally exhausted at times. The apocalypse certainly isn’t safe, and this game series continues to prove that it’s the best at explaining why.