Telltale’s “Walking Dead: A New Frontier” – my thoughts on the finale (Warning: Spoilers!)

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how the most recent series of the Walking Dead Telltale Series just wasn’t getting the love I had hoped it would get.

However, I was willing to play through and give the finale a try – I’m not one to stop half way through a series after getting to know the characters a little bit, as it’s interesting to see how things actually pan out in the end.

My verdict

The episode starts off with a flashback of Javi and David. To be honest, I felt it was a little pointless – I was dying to find out what happened right after episode four finished. But you soon get thrown back into that. The fight doesn’t last as long as expected, and suddenly everything is a little calmer and you go and try to find something that will stop the Walkers.

The biggest choice comes right after a fight between Javi and David – go and follow David and Gabe, or help Kate help Richmond. There are different ways your Clementine can react as well – some Clementines will join you, regardless of what you pick. Some will purposely do the thing you don’t choose. Some will always go with Kate, and some will always go help Gabe. My Clementine was the latter, and I decided to join her. So (spoilers) my result was that Gabe and David lived, and Kate died. I then chose to tell David to beat it and keep walking, so no idea what happened to him in the end. Though, to be honest, I didn’t really care for him, anyway.

On returning to Richmond, I had the most emotional scene – Javi seeing Kate walking round as a Walker. I chose to shoot her, after which Javi screamed in tears. Kind of emotional, but again – I just hadn’t had an emotional connection with Kate, either, so I didn’t feel that sad. And suddenly, you have a jump forward to three days later to when Clementine leaves you to go and save AJ.

Which brings me to – how did we not find out about AJ in this episode?! That was really the one thing I have continued playing for, because I have known Clementine for three seasons now and she is the most important to me, yet nothing happens in her storyline – just a “Clementine’s story will continue…” note at the end. Oh well, I guess we will just have to wait for series four…

But, all in all, I was a little disappointed with the finale. Everything seemed to go so fast, and I was genuinely not expecting the episode to finish right there and then. The storyline throughout the series was a little bit interesting, admittedly, but because of Clementine always being there, there was, for some reason, something pulling me towards her and therefore making me ignore the main characters of the series.

Your very own tailor-made Clementine

Ok, one thing that was kind of cool was how you get your very own tailor-made Clementine at the end, depending on things you chose to do with her in past series and in this series. I got the Clementine “a Sympathetic Sharpshooter”, with comments on choices that I made at the end of series two affecting this outcome. So it is quite nice to see what your unique Clementine has become, with reports of over 25 possibilities.

So, to summarise – the game shouldn’t exactly be avoided like the plague. It is a good game. Just don’t expect something as good as the first two series, and be prepared to not have an emotional link to the characters like you get in series one and two.

You may also be interested in:

Telltale’s “The Walking Dead: A New Frontier” Fails To Get Much Love

The Walking Dead: Season Two Episode 5 – No Going Back

The 10 Best Telltale Games That You Should Be Playing Right Now

How Telltale Games is Changing the Gaming Industry