As a franchise, The Walking Dead has taught me plenty: Don't use a gun when you can use a crossbow, you can't trust anyone (especially your friends), and everyone you love will die, probably violently and with little dignity. Telltale's The Walking Dead: Episode 2 - Starved for Help has added to that wisdom with one more important, life-altering lesson: Don't reformat your computer without backing up the save files of a game that is heavy on story and individual choices.

When I finished Episode 1 on May 1, I was proud of myself for choosing all of the minority actions, ready to set off on a unique storyline for the four following installments. When I reformatted my computer on May 12, it failed to cross my mind that maybe I should check my Steam files first.

This is a lesson I won't soon forget.

Luckily, unlike many of the characters in The Walking Dead, I get to live and learn, and to begin a fresh story with random choices in the second episode. I have a pretty terrible memory, so I figured I'd be able to assimilate any arbitrarily generated choices with reality fairly easily - any of them except one. The climax of the first episode presents players with a high-tension, life-and-death (literally) decision, and I knew that I had ended the game with Doug, the robot enthusiast, by my side. If Starved for Help didn't start me with my little robot-loving, nerd buddy, I'd flip. Fortunately for my blood pressure, I got Doug on the first boot-up, and all was well.

As well as surviving the zombie apocalypse can be, anyway.