Telltale Games has done it again with The Walking Dead Season 3: A New Frontier, taking our emotions and destroying them all with a push of the button.
[Warning: This review contains spoilers. There’s no way around it. We must discuss what happened in Episodes 1 & 2]
Seriously, why you do you always kill off the good people, Telltale? You break our hearts every single time.
Let’s get straight to the point: The Walking Dead: A New Frontier is a gut punch in a good way. Depending on your decisions, you’ll experience a very different past with Clementine. In the storyline we chose, Clementine’ story ended with Kenny and AJ heading off to survive on their own.
However, Clementine isn’t the main character in this story. We meet Javi in Episode 1, a recovering gambling addict who has issues with his family, especially his older brother David. Javi survives by David’s wife Kate and his brother’s two children, Gabe and Mariana. We don’t know what happened to David, but it appears he died with the rest of Javi’s family.
Fast forward to the present day and Javi, Kate, Gabe and Mariana are four years older than we last see them. Gabe is probably about 14 years old, Marianna might be a year younger than her brother. The group is scouting a junkyard for supplies, but mostly they’re on the hunt for gas. There’s a bit of tension between Kate and Gabe, mostly due to Gabe’s teenage hormones. The group travels in a van and there’s really not much room for privacy.
Anyway, Gabe and Javi find a trailer with supplies. Gabe is so excited to find pudding, a luxury he and his sister haven’t experience in years. Gabe really wants to stay the night in the trailer, but Kate reminds them there’s a herd of Walkers- or Muertos as they call them- heading their way. We chose to stay in the trailer. When Gabe goes back out to get gas, he encounters a hostile group. From there all chaos break loose.
Javi is split from the from the group and encounter Clementine. The story unfolds from there. We’ll tread lightly with spoilers here as what they did with Clementine’s story is truly heartbreaking. It’s shocking to see how she’s survived for so long. Poor girl has seen some horrible things.
We won’t ruin the story for you, but damn does Telltale know how to write a The Walking Dead story. The developers did an excellent job weaving in Javi’s past to the present and how it’s shaped his relationship now. It appears Javi and Kate have always had an attraction for each other, something his brother David was always aware of and didn’t like very much. So when you learn what happened to David, you’re truly shocked at the way Telltale connects the dots. Javi feels guilty for not being with his family when they really needed him when his father was ill. Javi promised David he’d stick around and he has for Kate, Gabe and Marianna.
As far as the controls are concerned, The Walking Dead Season 3: A New Frontier stays true to past games, with fewer annoying quick-time actions. You can easily aim at walkers to take them down and you won’t “die” as easily like in past games. We played on PlayStation 4 and it ran smoothly. The animations are a bit awkward when you’re walking around, but it’s great game.
The Walking Dead Season 3: A New Frontier episode 1 and 2 are a must play for The Walking Dead and Telltale fans. Pick up the game, now. You won’t regret it.
