Review: The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series – A New Frontier (PS4) – Episode 5.
It was a very uneven season The Walking Dead. Strong two premiere episodes, then a much weaker episode three and an embarrassingly weak fourth made the wait for the season finale to be replaced only by a shrug. Let’s check if the ending will change the already established opinion a little.
Traditionally, the finale of the third season The Walking Dead we start with a few minutes of retrospection. Still arguing, Javi and David learn about their father’s illness, which leads to an argument. Once again, we get a few choices that shape Javi’s relationship with his brother and impact the season’s ending. Yes, it turns out that all family disagreements and memories are reflected in the finale of the brotherly competition. This can end in a few fairly predictable ways, although one of the events carries a very strong load of emotions comparable to the last minutes of the first season.
But let’s get back to the main storyline New Frontier. The end of the last episode quite surprisingly ended the plot of the main antagonists. Regardless of who we killed, and even less whom we saved, the starting point is the same – Richmond is taken over by a mighty horde of walkers. Javi, Clementine, Kate, David and Gabe find a way to get rid of the zombies so they can finally have peace.
From the Gallows has it all – senseless and heroic deaths, action and a bit of family drama. The problem is that until the very end it is difficult to feel that we are dealing with the finale and this is the end of the story of this season. A lot is happening, but it is impossible to avoid the impression that the creators, having a very modest script at their disposal, added further action sequences to bring it to the 80 minutes needed to complete the episode.
There is some progress in the elections. As I mentioned at the beginning of Javi’s relationship with David, the game takes our reactions from all five episodes into account. The choices have become more subtle, because instead of “press the square to kill X or the circle to kill Y” we got a lot of fragments where we make smaller decisions, in the overall amount of the most important events. Nevertheless, the patterns are visible and if someone is to die, they will simply die, regardless of our efforts to save the character’s life.
It’s better – this is how you can summarize the finale of the third season of The Walking Dead. Unfortunately, better does not mean well, as the previous two episodes have clearly shown that the formula has already run out. From Telltale, I do not expect extensive and varied gameplay, but a strong, engaging story that will delight, entertain and shock without being limited by TV rules. And that’s what was missing. The last scene suggests where the fourth series will go. The only question is whether we need it …
