MashBlur

That's the hard reality portrayed in the first chapter of the second season of Telltale's The Walking Dead video game. "All That Remains" will be out on Steam, Xbox Live of Xbox 360, PlayStation Network for PS3 and iOS this week.

Season two puts us in the shoes of young Clementine, the season one fan-favorite character who influenced much of the player's decisions.

Playing as Clementine leads to a new set of challenges. If you're used to playing as a powerful hero, you'll have to adjust your tactics, as playing a child in this game means you'll have to focus on human interactions. You'll have to rely on your wits and interact with people to help yourself along. That could mean playing guilefully — being manipulative — or just being brutally honest. Some of Clementine's biggest challenges come from other characters who don't sympathize with her age. They'd would rather see her dead.

Clementine has toughened up significantly thanks to surviving months and months in a zombie-infested world. I found my dialogue options for her were wildly varied, giving me a huge freedom on how to play Clementine. I could twist someone's arm with bits of overheard conversation if being a sweet little girl didn't work out. Telltale gives you plenty of room to play The Walking Deadlike a deep role-playing experience.

Of course, this game isn't all talk. Clementine manages to get herself in some very harrowing situations in this nasty world. You'll have to be very quick reflexed to avoid harm, as every single bad situation comes out of nowhere. These gameplay moments aren't like quicktime events entirely, as they now rely on aiming your curser at enemies to launch a perfectly-timed attack, but there are still times you'll have to swipe or tap a button to execute an option.

While failing these events only sets you back a few seconds, there were definitely times I wished for tighter controls. Aiming a curser with an analog stick on a Xbox 360 controller didn't give as much precision as other action games, so I'd usually have to repeat a scenario at least once.

There was also one incident where you needed to control Clementine's very precise actions. Spoiling what it was would be a crime, but it was a scene that will haunt me for a while. Including it will certainly gross out players, while also making them feel very connected to our young protagonist.

All of these violent events added a huge amount of showmanship to the game. When going back and comparing this episode to earlier episodes in The Walking Dead's history, it's clear Telltale has steered this game away from the "adventure" genre — with puzzles and fetch quests — and more toward something entirely different. It's more like a high-stakes drama than ever before, and there was no moment that took me away from the fear of something — human or zombie — coming around a corner.

Telltale has stated this isn't a standalone season; you'll need to have completed season one (and possibly the "400 Days" downloadable content). Your save files and previous decisions will transfer to season two, provided you are playing on the same platform.

"All That Remains" will be out for PC and Mac via Steam and PlayStation 3 on Dec. 17, Xbox 360 via Xbox Live on Dec. 18, and Dec. 19 for iOS. The episode, the first of five, costs $4.99.