[REVIEW] The Walking Dead: The Final Season

[#DEXTER]

The Walking Dead: The Final Season is an episodic adventure game developed by Telltale Games and later Skybound Games, and the fourth and final main game in The Walking Dead video game series, based on Robert Kirkman's comic book series of the same name. Taking place some years after The Walking Dead: A New Frontier, the game focuses on Clementine's efforts to raise young Alvin Jr., AJ, in the post-apocalyptic world, coming to join with a group of troubled teenagers surviving out of their former boarding school. Their path leads them to encounter a hostile group of raiders led by a figure from Clementine's past.

The game represents the first major release by Telltale after a major restructuring; it was aimed to return to themes and elements from the first season, and is expected to be the concluding story for Clementine. The game was anticipated to be released over four episodes, with the first episode released on August 14, 2018 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. However, due to the sudden near-closure of Telltale Games on September 21, 2018, the last two episodes were overseen by Skybound Entertainment, Kirkman's production company, as Kirkman had felt it necessary to properly complete Clementine's story.

farewell to Clementine by debating the thought-provoking idea of knowing when to break a cycle. For years, Clementine has been compelled to protect her young companion A.J. at any cost, exactly as Lee did for her in the first season. The cycle of survival, of carrying on the lessons imparted to her, is wired into every fiber of her being. It’s what has kept them alive. In the final four episodes of the series started by the now-shuttered Telltale Games and finished by part of the same team (now at Skybound Games) we’re asked what happens when Clem and A.J. might no longer need to run and begin to have some semblance of a normal life, and after a bit too much exposition and padding it leaves them in a satisfying place.

Gameplay

As with other games in The Walking Dead series, The Final Season is a graphic adventure game, where the player controls the protagonist Clementine as she struggles to survive in the wake of a zombie apocalypse. The player can move Clementine around the environment to examine items, initiate conversation trees with non-player characters, and progress in the game. Decisions made by the player can affect future episodes, and The Final Season can use previous saved games from The Walking Dead to bring a player's choices from these games into The Final Season. Players that have not played previous seasons, or who may want to adjust choices made affecting Clementine's character, will be able to use a web-based Story Builder tool to create a cloud-based save game that can be used to feed into the game. This also addresses issues with various save game limitations due to platform transitions over the course of the series (for example, previous saves from the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 from the first two seasons are not compatible with The Final Season).

In portions of the game, the player will be required to react to quick time events in action-driven scenes, such as escaping from a "walker" (the name for zombies in the series). Failure to complete the events typically results in the death of Clementine or another key character, requiring the player to retry the event. The Final Season introduces more open-ended action sequences that give the player more control during the sequence.

The Final Season is the most focused arc in the series since its debut, with the adopted mother/son dynamic between Clem and A.J. creating some of the most harrowing choices I’ve made in a Telltale game. On a global level, it also offers new perspectives about the walkers, attempting and occasionally succeeding in showing us that there’s more to them than primal noises and a lust for human flesh. They were human once before the outbreak, so does Clem and A.J.’s reflexive response of killing every walker they see need to be changed, too? The Final Season points at the possibility of old habits breaking as new ways to live in this world arise and hope trickles in.

About The Game

The Final Season takes place roughly 7 years after the events of the first one. It is set in the same continuity of the comic book series, and it is located in West Virginia, in a world where society has collapsed after a zombie outbreak, these zombies being commonly referred to as "walkers" by the characters. It once again stars Clementine (Melissa Hutchison), who is now an older teenager, after she has reunited with Alvin Jr., "AJ" (Tayla Parx), the son of Rebecca and Alvin/William Carver, and her efforts to raise and protect him in the post-apocalyptic world, similarly to how her past guardian and caretaker Lee Everett (Dave Fennoy) once did with her.

Clementine and AJ join a group of teenage survivors inhabiting their former boarding school. They are led by Marlon (Ray Chase), and are made up by easygoing, carefree Louis (Sterling Sulieman), cynical yet caring Violet (Gideon Adlon), timid Tennessee, "Tenn" (Zaire Hampton), Willy (Justin Cowden), Omar (Keith Silverstein), Ruby (Ali Hillis), Aasim (Ritesh Rajan), Brody (Hedy Burress), and Mitch (Robbie Daymond).

The Delta is a faction of raiders who antagonize Clementine and the other children. Their members include Abel (Alex Fernandez), Minerva, "Minnie" (Cherami Leigh), one of Tenn's older sisters and Violet's ex-girlfriend, and Lilly (Nicki Rapp), a former member of Clementine's old survivor group from Macon, Georgia from the first season. Other characters in the game include James (Johnny Yong Bosch), a pacifistic ex-Whisperer, the children's pet dog Rosie, and Eddie (Brandon Bales), a character from the 400 Days DLC add-on for the first season, who briefly appears in a flashback.

Game Story

About 3 years after the events of A New Frontier, Clementine has continued to raise AJ, recalling Lee's own lessons he taught her. They drive along and stop at a train station to scavenge for food. Inside, they find a cellar with a well-stocked supply of food, but the door is rigged with a grenade, and the noise from the blast draws a walker horde. Whilst driving to escape, Clementine crashes the car, and as she blacks out, she sees someone grabbing AJ. Clementine awakens within the ruins of Ericson's Boarding School for Troubled Youth. She meets Marlon, the leader of a group of teenagers from the school, and finds they have also been taking care of AJ while she recovered. Clementine and AJ meet the other kids, learning that they have been alone for some time after being abandoned by the school staff but have found ways to survive. As she gets to know the others and helps AJ learn appropriate social skills, Clementine learns about the loss of a set of twin sisters, Minerva and Sophie, about a year prior that still troubles the children, particularly Tenn, the younger brother of the siblings.

Marlon warns Clementine they are running low on food and has her help the next day with hunting and fishing. Neither effort secures enough food, and Clementine suggests returning to the train station to see what food supplies survived the grenade blast, despite the station being outside of the designated safe zone around the school. Clementine and AJ secure the food but are confronted by a man named Abel, who demands a ration of the food at gunpoint. After either complying with or subduing Abel, Clementine and her group make it back to the school, reporting on their encounter. That evening, Clementine hears two voices arguing through the pipe system, and finds Marlon and Brody, another resident, having a heated discussion in the cellar. Brody reveals to Clementine that Abel is part of a raider group that Marlon had traded Minerva and Sophie to in exchange for safety, and that he also intends to trade her and AJ should the raiders return. Marlon accidentally kills Brody for revealing this and locks Clementine in the cellar. After dispatching the re-animated Brody and escaping the cellar, Clementine finds Marlon being held at gunpoint by AJ, drawing the attention of the rest of the children. Marlon takes the gun from AJ and tries to frame Clementine for Brody's death in an attempt to get the group to turn on her. Clementine is able to convince the others of Marlon's wrongdoings, and eventually, Marlon surrenders. As the others discuss what to do with Marlon, he is killed by AJ.

Although Clementine and AJ attempt to make amends, the other children vote to have the pair evicted from the school. Outside, they run into Abel and another member of the raiders, who Clementine is shocked to find is Lilly, a woman who Lee and Kenny had banished from their group years prior. Despite her attempts to negotiate with Clementine to convince the other kids to give themselves over to her group, she refuses and they start to hunt her and AJ down, during which AJ is shot. The pair are saved by James, a former member of the Whisperers, who reveals to them the raiders are forcibly recruiting people to fight in their war against a rival community. James tends to AJ's wounds and accompanies them back to the school the next morning, before departing on his own. Clementine is allowed back in the school so that AJ can have his wounds treated, and she warns the children about Lilly and the raiders, making plans to prepare the school grounds for an attack.

Two weeks later, the raiders arrive at the school, looking to capture more children. In the midst of the battle, Lilly inadvertently kills one of the kids, Mitch. After Clementine saves either Violet or Louis from being kidnapped, Lilly and the raiders escape, taking Omar, Aasim, and whichever person Clementine did not save. The children vow to get their friends back, while Clementine interrogates a captured Abel. Abel's injuries from the battle prove fatal, but Clementine is able to learn from him before he dies that his group has a riverboat nearby where they have established camp.

Clementine leads a small group to scout the riverboat, and she realizes they should get help from James to mask their approach with walkers. On the way back, they encounter one of the raiders who turns out to be Minerva. They find she has become loyal to the raiders and advises the group to give into their demands should they cross paths again. As the other children return to the school, Clementine and AJ find James and convince him to lead the walkers to help the following night.

Back at the school, Willy makes a bomb that he plans to use to destroy the boat after they've rescued their friends. The children return to the boat and meet with James, who confides in Clementine his belief that as AJ has already killed one living human, Marlon, he may be permanently changed should he kill again, relating to his own past. Using the walkers, Clementine, AJ, and either Violet or Louis sneak onto the boat, plant the bomb in the boat's boiler, and then work their way past Minerva to rescue their friends. However, they are betrayed by Minerva and captured. Lilly confronts Clementine, telling her that Minerva killed Sophie when she tried to escape their group. Lilly notices that AJ is potentially influenceable and takes him away, leaving Minerva to guard the others. However, Clementine engineers their escape and incapacitates Minerva. She tells the others to leave the boat before it explodes while she goes to rescue AJ.

On deck, Clementine sneaks up on Lilly as she is trying to convince AJ to join her, and prepares to kill the captured James and Tenn. Clementine attacks Lilly, and a struggle breaks out, with the children gaining the upper hand against Lilly. AJ holds Lilly at gunpoint, and Clementine can tell him to kill or spare her; if spared, Lilly murders James. During the chaos, the bomb goes off and the ship explodes. Clementine and AJ retreat to the shoreline as the boat quickly tilts into the waters. If Lilly was spared, she flees on a raft while the rest of her raiders, including Minerva, are overwhelmed by the walkers drawn by the explosion. Clementine, AJ and Tenn cover the children as they escape, then make their own escape through a cave system, pursued by walkers. If James survived, they reunite with him in the caves, but he berates and fights Clementine for allowing AJ to kill Lilly, then either goes his own way or buys the others some time to escape. Clementine has a talk with AJ, optionally putting the confidence in him that he can make the hard decisions at the right times.

Leaving the cave tunnels, the trio meet with Violet or Louis who helps guide them back to Ericson. When they get to a covered bridge, where one end is partially collapsed, they are suddenly attacked by a bitten, dying Minerva, who has led a horde of walkers towards them. Clementine fights off Minerva, who slashes Clementine's ankle with her ax, and she and AJ cross the bridge. Violet or Louis try to make Tenn cross as well, but he is too stunned to move, and AJ decides to shoot Tenn to save Violet or Louis, or take no action resulting in Tenn crossing safely but Violet or Louis getting devoured by walkers.

With the walkers still approaching, Violet, Louis or Tenn get separated from Clementine and AJ. Clementine helps AJ up a rock outcropping and then follows, but a walker is able to bite her wounded leg. They continue onto the school, but as Clementine gets weaker they are forced to take shelter in a barn. Clementine and AJ work together to secure the building, but it is quickly surrounded by walkers, and Clementine urges AJ to escape the building on his own through the roof. Amid their emotions, Clementine asks AJ to kill her or leave her to turn before escaping.

In a flashback, Clementine is shown rescuing AJ from Fort McCaroll (after the events of the third season) after it had been attacked, and it is revealed she killed AJ's caretaker when she drew a gun on her. In the present, AJ has reunited with the surviving children in Ericson to help rebuild the school, where it is revealed that Clementine is still alive, having been rescued in time by the other kids after AJ amputated her bitten leg. AJ shows that he had found Clementine's hat that she lost when the boat exploded and sank, and Clementine decides that he should keep it now as the two settle in their new, permanent home.

As a whole, the farewell to both the acclaimed series and the studio that started it hits its mark tonally, producing a satisfying, if slightly mani[CENSORED]tive, conclusion that finds a proper balance between hope and looming despair. On an episode-by-episode level, The Final Season has a mix of truly riveting moments and dull, superfluous exposition. All but Take Us Back, the final episode, feature scenes that either plod along at a slow pace or feel like padding altogether.

Still, the destination is worth the occasional speed bump. Each episode has at least two or three pivotal moments that made me feel like reloading my save and making the other choice, only to realize that either way would leave me with mixed emotions. Breaking the cycle is hard for Clem and A.J., but it also turned out to be hard for me to bring myself to make those cycle-altering choices. Clem and A.J. have the chance to change their ways, but after knowing these characters for so long it’s difficult to want to see them act differently.

Looking back on the first few minutes of the first episode, Done Running, I’m struck at how well it foretells the major themes of the season. We see A.J. in the backseat of a car, spinning the cylinder of his revolver like it’s a toy. They haven’t eaten in a while and he’s hungry. When Clem holds up a silly toy called Disco Broccoli and talks in a funny voice, A.J. isn’t amused. Nor is he happy when Clem calls him “goofball.” He’s six and, unlike Clem, hasn’t had a day of a normal life as a little kid. So rather than laughing and being a goofball with Clem he sits there with a revolver, obviously comforted by the fact that it helps keep him safe. It’s a sad opening, but it paints a vivid picture of Clem and A.J.’s current dynamic and alludes to the struggles they’ve overcome on the road that have made A.J. perpetually on edge.

When they stop to enter a home in search of food, they find a married couple who tied themselves to chairs in front of the window before they turned, with a note asking for anyone who finds them to leave them be.  I wondered why they wanted to be left in that state, and why I looked at them differently than the walkers I had just killed on their property. For the first time in the series, I saw them as something more, and I almost felt bad for raiding their house, even though they no longer had any need for their goods.

Game Development

Announced during the July 2017 San Diego Comic Con, The Walking Dead: The Final Season, is scheduled to launch as a four-episode series on August 14, 2018 for Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, with a Nintendo Switch version to launch later that year. Clementine will return as the lead character, voiced by Melissa Hutchinson, as Telltale found that fans of the series were not pleased with how little interactivity there was with Clementine in A New Frontier. Telltale wanted to have the final season call back to what fans had praised about the first season, and knew they needed to make Clementine the focus. With this direction, Telltale decided to make this the final season for The Walking Dead series so that they can create a satisfactory conclusion to Clementine's story arc. For this purpose, Telltale brought back Gary Whitta, the writer for the first season and "400 Days" content, to help close out Clementine's story.

The story will follow from A New Frontier with Clementine having rescued AJ from the McCarroll Ranch, with a timeskip a few years ahead, where AJ is now a young boy. With diminishing resources amid the apocalypse, Clementine and AJ find the importance of staying with communities of vital importance, meeting other characters who have little memory of the time before the downfall of society. Clementine starts to teach AJ the essentials of survival as Lee had taught her during The Walking Dead: The First Season, as a way of paying Lee's lessons forward. Telltale had initially considered writing a version of Clementine that had become more jaded, but found this was far too different from the established version of the character, and reworked her to be more sympathetic.

The final season will use the updated version of the Telltale Tool first introduced in Batman: The Telltale Series, along with improvements in the visual style to approach the style used in The Walking Dead comic. This included improved dynamic lightning, and a new rendering style Telltale called "Graphic Black" to enforce the comic book rendering style. Some scenes will feature "unscripted" zombies who may attack Clementine if the player is not careful, creating new freeform combat sequences, while other parts of the game will continue to use quick-time events as from previous games.

Due to course-corrections made at Telltale in 2017, The Walking Dead: The Final Season was primarily the only game the company released that year, cutting down from twenty episodes across multiple games in 2017 to only this season's four in 2018. The game's executive producer Brodie Andersen said that "We know we ran a little hot in previous years and weren't able to fully deliver the experiences we may have wanted to, so that was important to focus in on a polished quality experience players love." Because of the reduced product schedule, Telltale was able to establish firm release dates for all four episodes in the season, a first for any of Telltale's episodic series. Andersen said that they were able to achieve this by starting from where they wanted The Final Season to end, and then building the narrative backwards from that, establishing four clear episodes for the series to work towards.

A free demo of the game, offering approximately the first twenty minutes of the first episode, meant to show off the new gameplay features added in this season, was released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on July 31, 2018.

Despite the title The Final Season, Telltale originally did not rule out a possible future for The Walking Dead games; Creative Director Kent Mudle said that The Final Season title represented the end of Clementine's journey from Telltale's view, but could revisit the franchise through other characters.

When a group of survivors takes Clem and A.J. in, Done Running does a significant amount of the heavy lifting for setting up the biggest problem that Clem will need to confront: Teaching A.J. how to live in a “safe” world amongst others. Because of his upbringing he’s always on guard, which leads him to bite and hit other kids when they startle him. He’s never been close to anyone but Clem, and watching him navigate this new, more civilized existence is the most intriguing aspect of the episode, especially since your input as Clem often guides how he acts. He always listens to Clem, which adds significant weight to each of your conversations. Even simple things, like sleeping in a bed, are hard for him to understand, and you can decide whether to indulge his survival instincts or compel him into a small degree of normalcy.

More About The Game

On September 21, 2018, Telltale announced they were undergoing a "majority studio closure", laying off nearly all staff and leaving only 25 to complete the studio's remaining obligations. The state of The Final Season was unknown, though other planned studio projects were cancelled. The second episode was still released on September 25, 2018. Telltale stated on September 24, 2018, that the studio has been approached by "multiple potential partners" that want to help bring these two episodes to completion in some manner. Until they are able to figure out how the last two episodes will be played out, Telltale asked retailers and digital storefronts to pull sales of the game and the season pass. The game and its season pass returned to digital stores in December 2018.

During the 2018 New York Comic Con, Robert Kirkman announced that his production company, Skybound Entertainment, would be helping to bring the last two episodes to release. According to Skybound, they have acquired the rights of the game from Telltale, and will be working with former Telltale Games employees who worked on the series to finish off the episodes. Ian Howe, the CEO of Skybound Games, noted that there were logistical difficulties in this. Some of the Telltale team had already moved on to other jobs prior to the Skybound deal, and for those still looking for work, they are not expecting them to relocate from San Francisco (where Telltale was located) to Los Angeles (where Skybound is located), but do need to find them space that makes the completion of development possible. They further needed to account for the time that those seeking jobs would need. By November 20, 2018, Skybound announced that development of the series had started up again with many former Telltale Games developers as part of a "Still Not Bitten" team. Howe had anticipated that the third episode would be released before the end of 2018. Spanish and Portuguese voice dubbing for the remaining episodes was dropped for budgetary reasons.

Skybound also affirmed that they have gained the rights to sell the former The Walking Dead games, and will not require anyone that had already purchased a season pass for The Final Season to buy one again once the last two episodes are released. Users that had purchased the title before Telltale's closure on Steam or on GOG will receive the final episodes on those platforms, but otherwise the season was moved to the Epic Games Store for all new purchasers. According to Skybound, Epic Games had helped with the season's completion following Telltale's closure, and thus Skybound felt it was necessary to offer the game through their platform. Skybound produced a physical release of The Final Season for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch on March 26, 2019; the season pass disc contains the first three episodes and granted access to download the remaining episode as it became available.

EPISODES

Episode 1 - Done Running

Released: 08.14.2018

We've reached the beginning of the end for Telltale's critically and commercially successful adventure series, based on Robert Kirkman's classic comic book and the award-winning television show: The Walking Dead.

Ever since Telltale's video game adaptation launched back in 2012, fans have been kept gripped by the story of Clementine, a young girl who is forced to do a hell of a lot of growing up when she is thrust into a nightmarish world of carnivorous walkers, selfish humans, friends, enemies and everyone in-between. Now a young woman, wise and self-sufficient beyond her years, Clementine has reached the end of her story where, alongside AJ - a young boy she rescued during previous seasons - she will finally face her fate.

It's worth noting, first and foremost, that Done Running went longer than any episode of a Telltale Game I've played to date, about 30 minutes longer, so it seems that although there are less episodes this season, the overall story should run at the regularly-expected length. The Final Season showcases a new engine with pride, and while there is a definite improvement in graphical fidelity, character models and particularly lighting, movement still bears somewhat awkward animation.

There are also some smoke and mirrors going on here. Although The Final Season boasts a new behind-the-shoulder camera and an overhauled combat system, the gameplay remains as linear as previous Telltale's storytelling titles. The new combat is little more than "Approach Walker. Activate QTE" and the new camera still only allows basic control within the small confines of a scene. Done Running does look better than its predecessors, but it really is just a new coat of paint over the same old Telltale gameplay.

Done Running is mostly a matter of getting to know the new cast of characters we are about to spend several hours with, getting clued up on their thoughts, attitudes, talents and backstories. Most of the action is pretty poor, but things ramp up hard for a great, genuinely shocking finale. It is apparent that The Walking Dead: The Final Season will be more of the same, but that's hardly likely to disappoint anyone who has gotten four whole seasons into this adventure.

I'm intrigued to see where the story goes from here, as well as what final fate lies in store for Clementine and AJ. But now the season's setup has been established, it's time to get down to the business of stressful character drama, humourous conversational retorts, and that all-too-nagging feeling that, ultimately, you have minimal control over events anyway.

Episode 2 - Suffer The Children

Released: 09.25.2018

We are merely one episode down in the final season of Telltale's adventure series The Walking Dead and already, deep in the forest, the shit has hit the fan. Having not been a part of their new community for more than 48 hours, already Clementine and Al have been thrust into high drama among their associates, holed up in an abandoned schoolhouse.

With the threat of Walkers - and equally dangerous humans - lurking at the gates, bloodshed has already taken place within the school's walls, with survival and betrayal being the only lessons taught today. Is Clem responsible for bringing this drama to the seemingly comfortable community of youngsters? Regardless, will her shaky alliance of new friends see things the same way?

In the aftermath of the horrendous bloodshed that took place at the climax of Done Running, Clem and A.J. now find themselves looked upon with fear and distrust from their new friends. Whilst Clementine tries to explain to a confused A.J the ramifications of his actions, Louis, Violet, Ruby and the rest of the kids are left to ruminate some tough decisions in the wake of the tragedy.

Suffer The Children is a dialogue and moral-heavy episode of The Final Season. Clementine is forced to take a stand on A.J's actions, whilst continuing to keep him safe from the mounting anger of the pack. Pushed outside the compound, things go from bad to worse, as a shocking face from the past returns, bringing a violent new card into play. 

Away from all the skull-stabbing, some romance options also blossom into the narrative, allowing Clem the opportunity to perhaps find her own small happiness. There is some inclusivity involved here, which should definitely be applauded. But, given that we have known these prospective partners scant hours, it's hard to establish a connection of true love, although the scene I saw worked very well to attempt it, in that clumsy but heartwarming "teenage crush" fashion.

Episode 2 also brings two strong new characters into the cast, a mysterious new friend and a dangerous antagonist, with the narrative immediately stamping the importance of both roles into the story. With the ticking clock counting down to an attack by a pack of raiders, Clem and crew are forced to batten down the hatches, leading to a brutal siege at the schoolhouse, filled with eye-popping, joint-snapping mayhem. This ultimately culminates in a typical cliffhanging conclusion.

As the credits roll, however, all that's left is cruel sadness, with the apparent notion that it is now a cliffhanger that will never see resolution. The Walking Dead: The Final Season hasn't displayed anything particularly new or groundbreaking from a technical standpoint, but has, in just two episodes, assembled a warm cast of characters, anchored by a lead who is, absolutely, one of the best female characters in the pantheon of video games protagonists. That after multiple seasons she is unlikely to reach her own destiny - whatever that may have been - is a tragedy.

I'm sure there are some very unhappy TWD fans reading articles such as this in the hope it can provide them with some sort of validation or solace. I personally don't have anything to offer to make things better. I wish I did. But, for whatever its worth, if this does prove the end of the road for Clementine and her story, you can at least take comfort in what a wonderful journey it's been, the many emotions you may have felt watching a frightened child become a confident, strong, badass young woman, whilst giving you lots of thrills, chills and some pulse-pounding moral dilemmas en route.

The Walking Dead: A Telltale Series, in spite of its sad end, leaves an indelible mark in the history of video games. The artists, writers, programmers, actors and other talented folk who bust a gut to deliver this epic adventure now deserve to move on to better, brighter and happier scenarios. As for Clementine, who knows what awaits her in the future? (although I've never bought for a second that Telltale planned to kill her off). Regardless, one place that she's guaranteed to be found, forever, is in the annals of video game history and in the hearts of thousands of her fans worldwide. We'll miss you. 

Episode Trailer

Episode 3 - Broken Toys

Released: 01.15.2019

Like Lazarus, The Walking Dead: The Final Season has risen from the grave to continue shuffling toward its seemingly dour conclusion. After the unfortunate closure of Telltale Games last year, it seemed that all was lost for the story of Clementine, with the series abandoned just two episodes from its finale.

That wasn't to be, however, as Skybound Games picked up The Walking Dead license - along with a bevy of Telltale's former employees - and are pushing on to complete the four-season story of survival, loss, and friendship, set against the background of a po[CENSORED]ce tearing itself apart, figuratively and literally.

When we last left Clementine and A.J. the pair had violently fended off a brutal siege at their schoolhouse compound, leaving some friends abducted and others six feet under. With a diminished party and their friends' very lives at stake, can Clementine hold it together to mount a rescue mission? What hope do these kids have against a heavily-armed band of scavengers, anyway?

The aftermath of the school siege begins an incredibly somber and dialogue-heavy episode, as Clementine, A.J., and the scant survivors attempt to come to terms with their losses and put together a rescue plan. After the interrogation of Abel, the one raider who was left behind by his posse, our resourceful heroes perform recon duties on the enemy base, before forming an attack plan that's all kinds of suicidal.

Clem will also require help from her new friend James, a "walker-sympathiser" as it were, whom she met last episode. James is not feeling too groovy about leading his undead pals into battle, but attempts to educate our girl with a particularly scary trust exercise. Once the team of youngsters have their plan of attack in place, it's time to lead the charge on a small army of adults armed with fully-automatic weapons. Blood is shed, of course.

Unfortunately, episode three stumbles. The first chapter in this season that feels "too long," despite being the same length as its brethren, Broken Toys is a slow-moving piece that includes both awkward scenes and conversation that feel out-of-place given the urgency of the situation. Knowing that the raiders could return at any moment, and are currently brainwashing their kidnapped buddies, a subplot to "Hold a Party" seems wildly misjudged, despite an excellent monologue during that sequence featuring Violet (should she still be in your crew). Kudos to voice actor Gideon Adlon.

When the assault on the enemy comes, it's weirdly stop-start and messily executed. The frantic attack feels oddly muted - complete with awkward pauses for exposition time - and is not quite as heart-pounding as Suffer the Children's riveting school siege. Fortunately, Broken Toys does pull it back with a wonderfully moving, genuinely affecting dream sequence and a first-person section that is creepily immersive, even if the theory behind it is kind of ludicrous.

The shift to Skybound Games has not helped the ever-struggling Telltale engine. Broken Toys crashed on two separate occasions, requiring a hard reboot of the PC. Also, during an ambitious action sequence featuring dynamic light and shadow, the framerate jerked recklessly, requiring me to lower settings until I completed it, then raise them again afterward (something I've never had to do in the series so far).

I remain invested in The Walking Dead as it nears its conclusion, now just two months away. Though the move to Skybound hasn't improved the technical reliability of the Telltale Games experience, the artists, writers, and voice actors continue to present a story that remains suspenseful, delivering some great individual moments, even if it sometimes pads the run-time to reach them. Beyond that, it's just nice to see you again, Clem.

Episode Trailer

Episode 4 - Take Us Back

Released: 03.26.2019

And so, this is it. After four intense seasons, the series formerly known as Telltale's The Walking Dead has reached its sombre climax. We have watched lead protagonist Clementine grow from a frightened child - having endured horrors no-one should ever have to experience - into a strong, confident young woman. Now the guardian of A.J., an angry and confused kid, Clementine's life and lessons have led to this final stand in a dangerous and frightening world.

When Telltale's The Walking Dead first launched back in 2012, its modern blending of "Choose Your Own Adventure" books, point-and-click games, and dramatic, TV-style storytelling earned critical praise, big bucks sales, and numerous Game of the Year awards. As we know, this then led to a huge catalogue of titles from the Californian developer, hit-and-miss affairs which would ultimately lead to the studio's unfortunate demise in 2018, right in the middle of The Walking Dead's fourth and final season.

Still, hope springs eternal, and the series, along with much of its team, were picked up by Skybound Games, who now present this final chapter of a tale seven years in the making. A tale that has seen Clementine meet, befriend, love, and even kill friend and foe alike. Clem has traveled a weary road, making difficult moral choices for herself and those around her, all whilst fighting for survival within a literal hell on Earth. You've come a long way, baby...

Picking up immediately from where we last left off, Clem, A.J., and pals are aboard a literal sinking ship, having botched a rescue mission on sociopath Lily and her gang of raiders. After this initial action sequence, the episode gives way to several tense verbal conflicts and some tough, but frustratingly obscure, choices.

Not long into the episode there begins a conversation with A.J. which, in theory, is the culmination of all you have taught the boy to date. Unfortunately, it's structurally a mess, filled with random tidbits based on your past exploits and - much like the "How have you defined Joker?" hook of Batman: The Enemy Within - I was left feeling that all I had done previously to shape A.J. got thrown out for one question. A question so morally obscure that it's difficult to take a line on it without situational context.

I don't feel I failed A.J. as a guiding light in difficult circumstances, but I am left feeling that my meticulous guidance boiled down to one, maybe two choices, leaving me to deal with their heavily-weighted outcomes. Once again, the smoke and mirrors of the Telltale Games mechanic have left me feeling like I haven't really had much control over events.

As Take Us Back progresses, things get inevitably emotional. A few tough decisions over the past two episodes will direct the fates of several major players, although some outcomes appear pretty much set in stone. As a climax to The Walking Dead: The Final Season, Take Us Back is fine, with some genuinely affecting scenes, but as a climax to an entire saga, it's surprisingly low-key, and even draws out its epilogue a little too long, with multiple false finishes. Fans will be pleased to hear that they slip in a particularly dark flashback, allowing us to discover how Clementine and A.J were reunited after the events of A New Frontier.

How you personally feel about the narrative conclusion of The Final Season will be somewhat subjective. It shouldn't be forgotten that, at one point, we weren't getting any ending whatsoever. Skybound and Telltale should be applauded for not sending the fans away with that crushing frustration. While this concluding episode doesn't quite knock it out of the park, nor does it leave me feeling like I truly had control over events (which is a staple criticism of most of Telltale's wares), it does give Clementine - the real star of the show - her finale. It would have been an absolute crime not to.

Whatever anyone thinks of the Telltale's interactive storytelling, the launch of The Walking Dead was a genre-defining moment in gaming, deserving of all the success, awards, and praise that it received. At its emotional core is the character of Clementine, who has rightfully earned a place in gaming's hall of fame as a magnetic, likable, barrier-breaking lead. For all of the series' hit-and-miss factors, they got Clementine right. Kudos to actor Melissa Hutchinson and writer Gary Whitta for their realisation of a great protagonist.

Strictly speaking, you don't need a review to tell you whether to play the final episode in the fourth season of a franchise. This far down the line, you're already on board, or you aren't. I think Take Us Back's writing will find some division in the community, regardless of your own personal outcome. Some may cry, others may smile, some may even frown and exclaim "...whaaat?" But we can at least rest easy knowing that Clem, A.J., and all of us were not left wandering the wilderness, guessing at what might have been.

From the first moment that patrol car spilled convict Lee Everett into a ditch, to the final curtain fall on this climactic episode, players have enjoyed telling their tale of survival, friendship, bravery, and tragedy in a post-Walker world. It's been a very bumpy ride, both technically and narratively, but Telltale's The Walking Dead worked hard to push past these shortcomings, creating a new form of interactive fiction. One which procured genuine emotional investment from its fanbase and a deserved place in video game history.

We Will Remember That.

Episode Trailer

The Verdict

The Walking Dead: The Final Season hones in on the dynamic and relationship between Clementine and A.J. to produce some startling situations, choices, and ripple effects that thread throughout all four episodes. At times, the story is bogged down and stalled by the new free-roaming gameplay and myriad side characters that are never fully developed, but each episode has a satisfying conclusion that effectively sets up the stakes for a thrilling finale. It’s a moving but bittersweet ending, especially considering this was the last game Telltale worked on before shutting down.
 

Quote

 

Requirements

Minimum:

Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 7 64Bit Service Pack 1
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.8GHz
Memory: 3 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTS 450 2GB
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 15 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX 11 sound device
Additional Notes: Not Recommended for Intel integrated graphics

Recommended:

Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 7 64Bit Service Pack 1
Processor: Intel Core i5-2500K
Memory: 3 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 960
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 15 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX 11 sound device

 

 

REVIEW FROM MULTI RESOURCE