By Chase Burgess

As I sat at my laptop playing through The Walking Dead Season 2: Episode Five- No Going Back, I couldn’t help but think that all the questions that I had from previous episodes would be answered. I was looking forward to figuring out what happened to my companions from episode one, I was excited to see what places I would go to next, and I wanted to see Clementine continue to grow as a person and leader. Nope. None of those questions/hopes came through. None of those things happened. Episode five was disappointing to say the least.

In the game’s defense, I made this episode sound much worse than it actually is. The episode is only bad in comparison to the other episodes. Episode five is merely a victim of its own success. However, on the other hand this is a season finale, and it didn’t live up to its hype.

For those of you that played episode four, you probably recall the way it ended, bloody and full of the sound of gunshots. Episode five starts exactly where four left off. Right from the get go you are forced into decision making mode as you can scramble for safety, or risk your life to protect a baby. Easy decision you say? Agreed! I answer. However, the decisions get tougher and tougher as the episode progresses. Your choices will determine who lives and who dies, who’s left out in the cold and who has a place to hide from the zombie hordes.

As per the usual Walking Dead script, people will die and new people will join, or at least attempt to join the crew. As for the people dying, people will die in a very dramatic way, but that’s what makes us love these games. You get attached to a character and you become invested in their lives. You actually miss them when they’re gone. It seems weird, but it’s true, and we have the amazing writing of TellTale to thank for it.

The episode’s saving grace was a moment near the end of the episode that almost made me cry due to sheer nostalgia. I won’t ruin anything for you, but those few minutes were a straight up blast from the past. Getting back to how this episode is extremely disappointing, it’s really hard to explain it without giving anything away, so I won’t. You’ll just have to play it for yourself to understand it.

One aspect that I particularly enjoyed was Clementine’s relationship with fellow survivor Jane. Although there is an obvious age difference between the two, it’s nice to see Clementine finally having a female companion that is down to earth that she can interact with. I got the feeling that Jane was around for good, or at least a while. However, that was just my play through. That’s the beauty of this series, your play through is probably different than mine. So your view of Jane might be different than mine; which is exactly the way the game was meant to be played.

The ending of episode five gave me a few ideas of how season three will kick off. However, I know as well as anyone that TellTale loves to through its gamers a curveball, and usually in a very dramatic way.

The Walking Dead: Season 2, Episode 5- No Going Back is available for download through PS3, Xbox 360, PS Vita, iOS, OS X, Ouya, and Microsoft Windows for $24.99, which will include all five episodes of the second season. Episode five is rated M for mature, just like the rest of the series. The Walking Dead: Season 2, Episode 5- No Going Back brings the second season to a close, albeit in a disappointing way. Had The Walking Dead: Season 2, Episode 5- No Going Back receives the lowest score of any episode this season with a 3/5.