The Walking Dead: Season Two Episode 4 - Amid the Ruins

 Xbox 360
Metascore
71

Mixed or average reviews - based on 10 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 10
  3. Negative: 0 out of 10
  1. Machinima
    Jul 22, 2014
    90
    Amid the Ruins ends abruptly, but the cliffhanger serves to amp up the suspense for the finale.
  2. XGN
    Jul 31, 2014
    80
    Season 2 of The Walking Dead shows its first cracks. Relationships are just not that important anymore. Amid the Ruins is still a good episode though. We hope Telltale Games glues everything back together in an amazing series finale.
  3. GameCritics
    Jul 30, 2014
    80
    My gut feeling is that a player could easily skip the past events and get just as much value out of Amid The Ruins— maybe more.
  5. Gameblog.fr
    Jul 24, 2014
    80
    One of the best episodes of the series. As we keep on wondering what is best for Clem and have to take more difficult decisions, our heroin becomes the true boss of this group which is not really in good shape. More tension, people coming, other leaving, shocking deaths : the last episode is going to be exhausting.
  6. Meristation
    Jul 24, 2014
    80
    Amid the Ruins has great moments but isn't the best episode in terms of climax. However, it's a good step before the final stop in Clem's journey.
  7. Digitally Downloaded
    Aug 4, 2014
    70
    Amid the Ruins did do a nice job in setting up a finale.
  8. Official Xbox Magazine UK
    Oct 5, 2014
    60
    It's packed with strong moments, but the finale feels disjointed. [Nov 2014, p.85]
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  9. The Digital Fix
    Sep 9, 2014
    60
    It’s just a shame that a promising start has once again been squandered at the penultimate point, leaving a great deal of damage control to be done in the finale.
  10. EGM
    Jul 25, 2014
    60
    Too many random problems arise and detract from the main issues of the story, leaving Amid the Ruins feeling like a weird valley right before the hopeful peak of the season finale.
  11. IGN
    Jul 22, 2014
    60
    Episode 4: Amid the Ruins is the weakest episode of The Walking Dead: Season 2. Despite its major changes -- both regarding Clementine as a character and the roles of those around her -- there are too many out-of-left-field events to build tension convincingly.

Awards & Rankings

24
#24 Best Xbox 360 Game of 2014
37
#37 Most Discussed Xbox 360 Game of 2014

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
7.2

Mixed or average reviews- based on 41 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 26 out of 41
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 41
  3. Negative: 7 out of 41
  1. Phantos
    Oct 12, 2014
    0
    This is the game that made me stop caring. This is the game that made me stop caring about any of the characters in this game, or charactersThis is the game that made me stop caring. This is the game that made me stop caring about any of the characters in this game, or characters in other video games, or games in general. This episode made me think that the pursuit of storytelling is completely pointless, and that I was stupid to ever care about anything. Which I think was Telltale Games' goal.

    This is the game that made me just get a Metacritic account and **** in the comments, because why bother writing an actual review, with some standard of writing? Why be proud of everything? Everything and everyone sucks and we all die and no one ever lived and life is completely devoid of value. That is the lesson is the venom that seeps from it's fangs.

    The downright lazy way characters are ejected from the story's universe is appalling. It reeks of a writer who only just recently saw Game of Thrones, and thinks killing off a bazillion characters will make him a bazillion times a better writer. Forgetting of course to provide any depth or meaning to those events.

    It's especially insulting when you can spend the previous three episodes sticking up for a character, and then literally nothing you do has any effect in the end. At least in the first season there were characters whose lives you could prolong, and share some meaningful time with. It's one thing to deny us meaningful choice. It's another thing when the game's non-choices are insulting to any player who has invested enough to get this far. Especially regarding the few characters who the game never lets you kill or just walk away from. And why bother building up the rest if they're just going to be unceremoniously removed from existence and then never acknowledged again? I really have to wonder what the point of any of this game was aside from telling the world that life is meaningless.

    This is the game that made me think Mass Effect 3's ending wasn't as big a crap-shoot.    … Full Review »
  2. houyi111
    Aug 6, 2014
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click full review link to view. I think this episode is a solid one, for me it is definitely better than episode 3. The story is quite predictable, however, the intro and the ending are well-done. And this episode has both dark and funny moments. I am so glad that I can get rid of Sarah.… Full Review »
  3. Raftastic
    Aug 5, 2014
    8
    The Walking Dead: Season Two Episode 4 - Amid the Ruins is one of the the weakest episodes so far, but that does not mean it isn't a greatThe Walking Dead: Season Two Episode 4 - Amid the Ruins is one of the the weakest episodes so far, but that does not mean it isn't a great piece of storytelling. Episode 4 starts off in the climactic ending of it's predecessor, giving us an action packed stressful intro but it seams like your previous decisions didn't affect your relationships with the other characters. Amid the Ruins has some great dark choices but they don't really affect what will happen, characters are killed off because the writers couldn't find space for them in the finale and the crappy villains don't help, yet the episode has a lot of high points, you develop relationships with different characters and you see a lot of their breaking points. Amid the Ruins does a great job of setting up the finale and end's with a brilliant cliffhanger that will make want to build a TARDIS so you don't have to wait another 2 months.… Full Review »
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