One thing that The Walking Dead comic has suffered from, especially after the end of the whole prison saga, has been its overabundance of characters. At this point in the comic’s run so many characters, locales and political dynamics have been introduced that in some issues it has been hard to keep track of who is who, what the relationships are, and how upset you should be when someone dies.

Eight episodes and two years in, the game’s characters and choices are all starting to blend together a bit as well. A House Divided quite directly calls back to choices made well down the line – as early as episode 3 of season one – and features enough familiar faces to feel a little contrived at times. It’s not easy to keep track of everything and everyone – and some of the last episode’s coolest moments get negated a little bit here – but by the end of this episode the season has started to take on a clearer shape.



In this episode we meet Carver, obviously intended as a stand-in for the comic’s Governor or Negan. The first season never really needed a ‘big bad’, casting humanity itself as its own worst enemy while examining how much survival is worth once law and order are tossed out, but with much of that ground covered already introducing a proper villain is a fine, albeit somewhat unoriginal, way to up the stakes.

Carver hangs over the whole episode, his history and presence alluded to when he isn’t on screen being suitably creepy. This shapes the paths of the other characters, none of whom have quite emerged yet in the same way the original cast did. Clementine’s interactions with Nick and Luke, the two young men with wildly different approaches to the situations they face, are probably the most compelling, while other characters seem a little neutered now.

It feels as though Telltale is bursting to tell a specific story at the cost of some degree of interaction. The colour palette of the game seems a bit darker, more obviously cinematic than before, and when you’re given direct control of Clementine you’re not given much space to move in, or much to do beyond walking between points and clicking on the things you’ve obviously meant to click on. Action scenes feel toned down as well. There are two major quick-time event action sequences, which aren’t as tense or exciting as the usual ‘move the mouse over the zombie’s skull’ panic-driven action set-pieces the game is known for – hopefully that’s not a sign of things to come.



There are still choices to make, but ‘so-and-so will remember that’ moments are rare, and the big choices – the ones you’re given stats for at the end of the episode – almost all occur within the last twenty minutes of this two hour episode. As has become somewhat customary, those twenty minutes are absolutely firing on all cylinders – things really hit the fan, and the action and stakes really ramp up. By the time the ‘next episode’ preview rolls you have a good sense of the direction this season will move in, of the themes and choices you’ll likely be asked to make going forward, and who the big players are. It’s a pity that this cohesiveness doesn’t carry through over the whole episode, but it’s nice to end the episode and immediately want the third one.

A House Divided is a weaker entry than we’re used to, but that maybe shouldn’t be cause for alarm. The table setting seems to be all in place now for the feast still to come, and even at its most meandering The Walking Dead is still capable of telling an intriguing, frightening story about humanity’s worst impulses.