Reviewed for: Playstation 4
[Hello, dear readers, and welcome to the first entry in the "Broken Leg Review Saga." That's right! I broke my leg recently, and, confined to chairs, beds, and an old man walker, I don't get to get out much. With that in mind, I've been trying to use this time to get caught up on my reviews, and I'm also on several types of pain meds. What could possibly go wrong?!]
In 2018, The first episode of The Walking Dead: The Final Season came out with little-to-no fanfare. The episode was generally well-reviewed, but there was this tangible cloud of apathy surrounding it. Then, Telltale infamously closed out of nowhere, leaving all its employees newly out-of-a-job without so much as severance pay. With the future of this final season up in the air, that tangible cloud of apathy only grew, and I, at least, began to view any possible future episodes as an obligation rather than something to be excited about. Up until the final episode, which was exciting by virtue of its status as the finale, I had that mindset. I was consistently pleasantly surprised by this season, but every time a new episode came out, the thought was, “oh, it’s time to play another episode,” not “oh boy, I get to play another episode!” In the end, the mindset I had throughout this season doesn’t really have any effect on anything, but I thought it was important for context.
As I stated sentences ago, I was pleasantly surprised by every episode. This was, all around, a stellar season to end this long-running story on. Because this is an episodic game, I’m going to be handling this the way I always handle episodic games: I’ll be starting off with some general thoughts, reviewing each episode individually, then breaking into tech points. That being said, I will be avoiding spoilers as best I can. If you haven’t yet played The Walking Dead: The Final Season, you can feel free to read on without fear of specific events being spoiled. One could argue that my reactions to certain unnamed story beats can be considered a spoiler, however, so if you’re really, really averse to having anything at all even remotely spoiled, then you may want to play all the way through before proceeding. So if you’re still on board, let’s get started!
Episode 1: Done Running
As a starting episode, "Done Running" does everything it needs to do. It establishes the central premise of this narrative: Clem and AJ stumble across a school that serves as the home base to a group of troubled youths, and they begin to feel like they have a home. It establishes the central focus of the season: AJ looks up to Clem, so any choice you have her make is going to make him crueler or more compassionate. It does the difficult task of setting up quite a large cast of characters, only thoroughly developing the characters that need development in the moment, but at least introducing characters to be further developed in future episodes. It firmly establishes the threat the group will face in future episodes: a group of raiders in the woods that have specifically targeted them in the past. Finally, the episode is a self-contained story. For episodic games, it's ok for the second or third episodes to more or less flow into each other without either being a complete story, but it's crucial that the opening episode have a solid beginning, middle, and end that just so happens to leave room to grow. This episode also features some of that stellar directing I mentioned earlier. For instance, there's a scene where Clem is trapped in a cellar with a newly-created walker. The tension in this scene is tangible simply because of where shots are placed, how much lighting is put where, and the gradual changes in sound design. Once again, gotta give props to the directors.
Episode 2: Suffer the Children
Much like the "pilot" episode, "Suffer the Children" accomplishes everything it needs to as an episode. Following the cliffhanger at the end of episode 1, circumstances in Clem and AJ's new home have changed, lending a new, temporary conflict to the narrative. But in a 4-episode story, the second episode must serve to establish a conflict grander than temporary. As Clem and AJ deal with the fallout from the end of episode 1, "Suffer the Children" does exactly this by revealing the identity of this season's main villain (a revelation handled so well that I couldn't help but gasp when all the gears clicked). So not only does this episode hint at a grand conflict with a truly formidable villain at its center, but it hints at the perfect arc to resolve Clementine's story as she takes on a villain that works as a perfect character foil. Furthermore, this episode manages to flesh out some of the less-established characters from the first episode and introduce new sides of some of the better-established characters without feeling like a completely different cast. Take Clementine, for instance. In this episode, we appear to be able to more-or-less choose her romantic partner (though I haven't gone back and replayed the episode...it could easily be route a is boyfriend, route b is female bestie for life), and this kind of decision inherently gives her more motivation in the events to come.
Episode 2 ends with the first major confrontation between Clementine and her new Nemesis, and it's as satisfying as you'd expect. In this confrontation, we get to see this character fully step into the shoes of a villain, and we get to see just how effective they are in that role. We also get to take a moment to blow off some steam, as there's a dialogue option in which you kill the villain. Clementine gets killed shortly afterward and you have to start over, but it's still cathartic. While it's the pilot episode's job to both firmly establish the world and exist as a self-contained story, it's the job of the very next episode to springboard off of that established world and characters into a grander overarching narrative.
Episode 3: Broken Toys
Normally, the third chapter in any telltale property is the best one. In the case of The Walking Dead: The Final Season, however, it's pretty much the weak link. It isn't a terrible episode, it's just that not much really happens until the final act. The episode starts off in the aftermath of the confrontation from Episode 2. Clementine and company spend this episode preparing for an assault on the villain's lair, soliciting help from side characters met throughout this season, and undergoing small additional bits of character development. So, pretty pedestrian. In spite of this, though, this was the first episode that made me tear up, thanks to a brilliantly-directed special sequence before the final act in which we're given the exact scene we've always wanted to see....you'll understand when you get there. But as I've made a point of saying, the meat of episode 3 is the final act: The assault on the villain's lair. The stealth-based mission is tense and consistently keeps you on your toes, sure, but that's nothing when compared to the eventual confrontation with the villain. In this moment, they step into true villain mode, revealing dark truths about their upbringing and their personality that we might not have guessed, but which make sense when you think about them. The tension boils and boils until the cliffhanger ending. All-in-all, episode 3 is the weak link in this story, but it's not without its truly affecting moments.
Episode 4: Take us Back
And at last, we arrive at the very last episode of Telltale's The Walking Dead ever: "Take us Back." This is also the episode that I'm going to have to be the most vague about. I'll be describing my reactions a lot of the time, but I'll never spoil what exactly caused what reaction, so no worries. I'd still take the time to play through if I were you, but I'm confident you won't have anything spoiled for you if you continue on.
"Take us Back" unfortunately doesn't start on a particularly strong note. Sure, the opening is explosive, but I never felt much actual drama to it, so it kind of falls flat. Also, I haven't touched on gameplay in this review yet because it's mainly been harmless, but the gameplay in the opening is just a little too...particular to let off the hook. As always, it's a series of quicktime events partnered with drag-and-press-button prompts, and the prompts always appear just far enough out of your field of view to make it take a couple of tries to get it right. I died and had to listen to the same bits of dialogue around 10 times for a particular portion of the opening, so unfortunate is the design.
Thankfully, after the opening, things kick up considerably...and that's where I must end plot details.
I'll say this, though: "Take us Back" never made me cry...but it made me tear up (that is to say, 2 or 3 lines of tears down each eye, normal breathing) multiple times in multiple ways. In more ways than one, this episode is deeply affecting, and I'd defy any fan of this series to make it out with dry eyes.
Before I move on to the conclusion, some technical notes. This is the most stable Telltale product to date. I never had any hard or soft crashes, never noticed any texture pop-in or framerate drops, and the same can be said for animation/audio glitches.
Let us review:
Poor opening in final episode - 0.5
The final score for The Walking Dead: The Final Season is...
9.5/10 - Absolutely Outstanding
Excellent work, Skybound (and not Telltale), excellent work
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