The Walking Dead: Michonne – Episode 2 Review

Wake, find that humans are worse than walkers, rinse, repeat. Sometimes, when a formula works, you continue to use it. If it ain’t broke, why fix it, right?

That seems to be the case with Episode 2 of Michonne’s solo outing from Telltalle Games. While the titular character’s instability and unpredictable nature does lead her to be the most interesting aspect of the game, the continuation of a bland story we’ve seen a thousand times before brings us down a few notches.

Michonne IS an incredible character, though, so that helps a lot. The action is centered around her, and we do feel the weight of the decisions she makes…even when they affect one-dimensional characters we have just met. But that seems to be part of the problem here; we barely get to know some of the folks populating this episode, so when something bad happens to them, we don’t really feel much other than guilt. Even Pete, Michonne’s companion for much of these first two episodes, isn’t nearly as fleshed out as he should be, and a decision regarding his fate left me not feeling much of anything.

Michonne is a strong, intriguing person, but those surrounding her are not much more than set pieces for her to react to. While some scenes clearly affect her deeply, it leaves us feeling disconnected by not having the same connection to everyone else as she does.

The standouts in this episode were most definitely the fights yet again, as Telltale really nails it with Michonne’s signature moves (and a certain strategy she has employed before). However, there was a section that sort of turned the ‘good vs. evil’ trope on its end here, and sets up the finale of this series in a direction I hope they take, to make everything more interesting.

For now, though, Michonne is strong enough of a character to carry the weight of the story on her own, but we still hold out hope that everything else will click into place.

To read our review of Episode 1, click here.