Ok so I'm doing three games in one today so let's see how this goes. I'm reviewing Telltale's The Walking Dead series (not counting Michonne) so Season 1, Season 2, and A New Frontier. Let's not waist time here and get started.
Summary: Quick Note, these summaries will be very brief, because most of the story is based on player choices.
Season One: Lee Everett, a college professor accused of murdering the man his wife was cheating on him with, is on his way to jail when he hits a zombie in the road. He awakens to see the cop that was driving him as a zombie and shoots him unwillingly. He moves forward and stumbles on a house. He enters the house and is saved from a zombie attack by a little girl. Her name was Clementine. Her parents are nowhere to be found, so Lee says he will take care of her until they find them. The pair of them meet new people, some of which are friends, some of which become enemies. The story ultimately shapes who people believe Lee Everett is; the hero they all need or the murderer on the news. All of this leads to Lee being bitten by a zombie, but instead of living his last days peacefully, he uses them to save Clementine. When it comes down to the end, Lee will have to say goodbye to Clementine, who remembers him forever...
ENDINGS: Either Clementine shoots Lee to stop him from turning into a walker or leaves him behind, no confirmed major impact on future seasons, may impact one certain decision in A New Frontier that I will talk about later
Season Two: A few years down the road, Clem is with a couple survivors. But when tragedy strikes them, Clem is left alone in the wilderness. Clem is attacked by a hungry dog, and she is weakly making her way through the forest, when she is saved by two survivors. Their group thinks Clem is bitten, so they lock her in a shed. Clem manages to sneak into their house and steal stitching supplies to fix herself. She is accepted into their group. An evil figure from the group's past returns into their lives, causing them to leave the comfort of their home. When they find a new place, Clem reunites with Kenny, a survivor from the group she was in with Lee. The man eventually finds their group and captures them. While at the man's camp, Clem meets Jane, who is a more quiet survivor who looks out for herself over others. After escaping, a woman in their group has a baby boy named Alvin Jr. after her late husband. In the end, the only members of the group left are Clem, Kenny, Jane, and AJ. Jane appears to have lost AJ, and Kenny flips out and tries to kill her. Clem has to make an important choice here which will determine who she becomes...
ENDINGS: During the Kenny/Jane fight, Clem has to choose whether to shoot Kenny, saving Jane, or let Kenny kill her. If you shoot Kenny, he will have a very emotional moment with Clem telling her she made the right choice. It is then revealed that Jane had hidden AJ to provoke Kenny to show Clem that he's dangerous. Clem can choose to forgive Jane or leave her with AJ. If Clem forgives Jane, they go back to the man's now abandoned camp. Alternatively, if Clem doesn't shoot Kenny, he defends his actions before finding AJ. Like with Jane, Clem can either go with Kenny or call him dangerous. If Clem goes with Kenny, they go to Wellington, a safe community in the northern United States. They say they can only take Clem and AJ, not Kenny. Kenny begs Clem to go for AJ's safety. If Clem chooses to go to Wellington, Kenny gives her his hat and wishes he well, then Kenny leaves Wellington alone. If Clem rejects the offer, Kenny calls her stubborn and Clem responds by saying "I wonder where I got that from?" Clem, Kenny and AJ leave together. If Clem rejects Jane or Kenny (or shoots Kenny after he kills Jane) Clem finds AJ and they go off by themselves. These endings are VERY important because they determine the flashback sequences in A New Frontier as well as Clem's actions.
A New Frontier: Javier "Javi" Garcia is a former professional baseball player in a situation he would have never expected. After the zombie outbreak, he and his brother, David's wife, Kate, and kids, Gabe and Mariana. They find a junkyard and try to stay there for the night, but they are interrupted by a group of thugs accusing them of stealing and capturing Javi. The truck Javi and a thug are in in flipped over by a girl that is revealed to be Clementine. Javi and Clem make their way to a town called Prescott where they are allowed to stay for the night. They return to the junkyard in the morning or the previous evening, depending on player choices, and they manage to save the group. They are all happy until Mariana is shot in the back of the head and killed. Clementine identifies the killer as The New Frontier, a group of survivors with some twisted methods. Javi makes his way to New Richmond, a city that he sent a wounded Kate to, not knowing that it was taken over by The New Frontier. Upon arriving, he finds that one of the leaders of The New Frontier is his own brother, David. With David, Javi uncovers corruption in The New Frontier's leadership. They take it down, but an accident causes New Richmond to be flooded with walkers. Relationships between the members of the Garcia family are strained, and in the end Javi will have to decide what family truly means to him.
ENDINGS: Now this just came out at the time of writing this, so I don't know every detail yet. In the end, three characters can die. They are your brother's ex-wife/your girlfriend (determinate) Kate, your nephew, Gabe, and your brother, David. The ending all depends on a choice Clementine makes. In the end, David takes Gabe and tries to escape Richmond, and Kate wants to fix her mistakes by saving Richmond by stopping the walkers. Javi can choose whether to go with Kate to save Richmond or try and rescue Gabe and David. Clementine also chooses where to go. She will either choose to go with Javi, go to whichever one Javi doesn't, or she will choose by herself which one she will go to. These are the endings:
If both Javi and Clem go save Richmond with Kate: Kate lives, David dies, Gabe dies
If Javi goes with Kate and Clem goes with Gabe: Kate lives, David dies, Gabe lives
If Javi goes with Gabe and Clem goes with Kate: Kate is missing, David dies, Gabe lives
If both Javi and Clem go to save Gabe and David: Kate dies, David lives, Gabe lives
In an after credits scene, Clem says she will find AJ, who was taken by the New Frontier, and then the screen says "Clementine's story will continue..." which I think means Season 4.
Review Of Season One: This game is definitely the most critically acclaimed game in the series. The story of Lee and Clementine is nothing short of a masterpiece. I will not be reviewing the gameplay of any of these games because that isn't what they're supposed to be. Some of the choices in this game are extremely hard to make, which laid the groundwork for what is to come. However, replayibility is a huge part of Telltale's games for me (like going back and playing the game again to see the other choices) and I didn't want to do that with this one. I have replayed Season Two and A New Frontier multiple times already, but I never have the desire to play this one.
Overall game score: 8.5/10
Review of Season Two: This game felt more polished than season 1 for me. The choices felt like they mattered more. Clem's character development is definitely visible, but it's different depending on which of the two possible ending characters, Kenny and Jane, that Clem is more like. I also was surprisingly more affected by the ending in this one. I chose to let Kenny kill Jane, and when we got to Wellington and I heard Kenny had to leave I literally paused my game and cried. I chose to stay with Kenny because I had an emotional attachment to Kenny, which is something that Lee didn't have towards anyone but Clementine. This game did have pacing issues, but that's my only negative.
Overall game score: 9/10
Review of A New Frontier: OK, this is gonna be the weird one. While most people were angry about the direction A New Frontier went, but it is actually my favorite game in the series. Personally, I loved playing as Javier. I liked it more than Lee because he was more relatable, and I liked it more than Clem because he is a capable, strong adult and not a child. I thought this was The Walking Dead's necessary change of theme, changing it from being about who you can trust and making if about family and legacy. In the end, I got an ending that I didn't like at first which is Gabe and David being alive and Kate being dead. After a while, I accepted my ending because I thought that if these characters were to return, I could make David into a better person. The only criticism I have is that I think Telltale is treating this as a standalone story because of the mixed response from fans. I PRAY that they don't do this. I want to see Javi, Gabe and David return to assist Clem in finding AJ.
Overall game score: 10/10
Message for Telltale: Season 4 will make or break this series. Depending on how it is handled, this could be the end. I promise, if you continue Javier's story as well as Clem's, true fans will be happy.
