The Walking Dead is based on Robert Kirkman's award-winning zombie apocalypse comic series (which also has a TV show). Developer Telltale Games specialise in episodic adventure games. This is the fourth and final season in the Clementine story.
Due to the emphasis on story, those looking for a challenging game should avoid it because they won't find it here. Although, this time they have increased the challenge in the combat sections. You need to view the software as an interactive story, rather than a game to fully enjoy it. The good news is that the emphasis on story really pays off, because it's really well done. Obviously, it becomes hard to review since you can't delve into the story too much, since that would be spoiling the experience.
The game is using an updated engine, featuring better graphics and often uses a style that matches the look of the comic books. I was really impressed by the art direction in the game. The downside is, it’s a much larger install size and requires longer loading times.
The game’s introduction gives you a recap of some story but appears a bit random to what it tells you. Really, it’s just explaining upcoming references, so that particular character from season 1 actually makes an appearance.
The game opens with Clementine driving in a car with AJ. How she reclaimed AJ is left to a flashback at the end of the game, but you don’t get much context of what is actually happening. Clementine is now around 16 years old, and has taught AJ well, who seems mature for his age. AJ wasn’t able to speak in the previous season, but now he is very fluent. He can use a gun effectively and is a dependable side-kick.
They have run out of food, and Clementine has the idea of searching a nearby train station. Things don’t quite go to plan, and they meet one of the game’s antagonists, and soon come into contact with a group of children and teenagers that reside in a nearby boarding school. Although they have survived for years, their food sources are dwindling and they are pressured into venturing beyond the “safe zone”. I was a bit unsure if it makes sense with some of their ages. The young kids don’t look any older than 12, and I believe 8 years have passed since the start of the outbreak. So unless they went to boarding school at 4, maybe it doesn’t make sense.
The youths have a great dynamic between them and the events that follow means their opinion on Clementine and AJ is divided. Clementine seemed to enjoy being a bit of a “lone wolf” in the previous season, but it makes sense for her to find a consistent home for AJ, especially when she has the chance of living with people in their age group.
The choices you have are often just an illusion of choice. If the choices did make a massive impact on the game, the entire story would be different which isn't really feasible for developers to achieve. It's mainly “you're damned if you do, damned if you don't” sort of choices. For example, you may be presented with a scenario where two characters are in danger. It's your choice who to attempt to save, but someone has to be harmed. At the games’ completion, you are shown your choices and are shown simple images representing the other choices. It makes you aware of how the story can branch without giving too many spoilers.
You are told that your decisions have an impact on what AJ learns. Most of these come from your direct interactions with AJ. There’s a few scenarios where you see evidence of your decisions, but I wasn’t convinced it makes much of an effect overall.
Regardless of if it has an effect, or if it is just an illusion; this is where the narrative really shines. The game is constantly trying to guilt trip you for your actions and really hammers home the consequences, really tugging on your heartstrings. It's all testament to how well written the game is; that it can really play with your emotions. The series overall has got me thinking about the characters when I’ve stopped playing, and not many games have had a lasting impression on me.
The conversations usually have limited time to respond, which partially helps the conversation to have a more realistic flow, but also forces you to make a quick decision under pressure. Saying nothing at all can also be an option.
Along the course of the game, there are places where you must find an item or learn something about your surroundings in order for the game to progress. Although your movement is still a little slow, you have control over the camera. There are some collectibles to find in the game which you can decorate your bedroom with.
You can control Clementine using the WASD keys, and mouse click to make your selection. You can also use the F key now (or mouse click) to interact with objects.
Quick-time action sequences are used to deal with attacks which can be quite violent. Here you will hammer the Q key, and sometimes press E to finalise the scene. Often the game will throw in a Shift+E which always caught me off guard. I may be wrong, but I think there were some of these events you could miss which I think was a feature in the first Season. If you die, you are brought back to the last check-point which are saved at regular, logical intervals.
There’s more interactive moments, and these are a bit more complex which is something that I wanted the developer to address. So some zombie fights involve you walking around and making a decision whether to stun them, or kill them. Stunning knocks them to the ground for a few seconds, and you can then finish them off if you wish. It’s more for crowd control because if there are multiple zombies and another one is in grabbing range, then they will kill you. I think sometimes you can end up in impossible situations if you stun a zombie, and the other zombie walks into the back of them; because now they are bunched up and you won’t be able to stun them without the other one killing you.
The game is split over 4 episodes which sounds shorter, but the episodes are longer so it’s about the same length as the previous season. After each one, your choices are summarised and you are shown your relationship with each character.
There’s a few weird dream sequences, I thought they were going to go down a weird story route with these but they seemed inconsequential.
One thing that was disappointing is how you are told Richmond is under attack but there’s no reference to Javi. It seems weird that Javi and the family was the main focus of the previous game but they got ignored completely for this. It does make you wonder if they made up the story as they went along like we saw with the recent Star Wars film trilogy. As it goes, this worked out fine because the overall story is just about survival so there is no real overall narrative to conclude. I did wonder if it would end with curing the outbreak to have a proper conclusion, but it doesn’t. They could easily make more seasons if they really wanted to.
If you are looking for a great story/experience, Telltale's The Walking Dead is highly recommended as long as you can tolerate the themes within. It's not for those that want a traditional game, since the action is more visual, rather than involving; but it's a shame if you overlook it and miss out on the experience. My opinion on the previous season was a bit mixed, and I feared the troubled development caused by Telltale’s closure would negatively impact the game, but Skybound have done a brilliant job of finalising the project.