“The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series contains all 4 Seasons, 400 Days, and The Walking Dead: Michonne, which includes over 50 hours of gameplay across 23 unique episodes.” – Steam Synopsis
The Walking Dead was a mega franchise in the 2010s. It was pretty much inescapable during that decade. This franchise was a force in the media. In a similar-ish way, Telltale was a force of its own during the time. They dominated this almost graphic novel-esque story type of games with various franchises. The Walking Dead season one was the game that put them on the map, and for good reason, it is one of the greatest games ever, and was worthy of getting multiple seasons. Unfortunately, those other seasons never live up to the first season and really, really disappoint to the point of being bad. But it will never take away how great season one is.
Season One
Season one is the best season by far. This game is still highly regarded, and it still deserves that acclaim. It’s not without its faults, but the characters and storytelling are just miles ahead of what comes later in this series. It really feels like Lee and Clementine birthed the modern genre of parent-child-centric stories that we would start to see a lot of in the years following this season.
What makes their dynamic so great is that Lee is a convicted killer, but in reality, he is a good man, and Clem is a young lost child that he takes in as his own. He vows to protect her in this world that has turned completely upside down. This game is so effective at making you feel what Lee does. You want to care for Clem and do what’s best for her, even if it may not be best for you and/or the group as a whole. Then there’s also the balance between treating her as a child, but also recognizing that in this world, she has to grow up quickly if she wants to survive. That creates just a breath of amazing, heartbreaking, and heartwarming moments that have stood the test of time. Lee and Clem are two of the best characters in any media that I’ve consumed.
But it’s not just them. I will say the rest of the seasons never really have an issue with the main characters. Sure, this season is the peak, but the others are still good. What the other seasons severely lack are quality side characters. No matter who you side with, choose to antagonize, hate, or love. The surrounding cast in this game is so good. And this game makes great use of each of them from episode to episode. Everyone feels like a real person. I never really agreed with Lilly and her Dad, but I easily saw where she was coming from. Kenny is one of the most complex characters I’ve seen. He is brilliantly written, and I hate him, but I understand him. I never felt like it was a chore to walk around and talk to everyone. The writing is top-notch.
I will say this game has solid gameplay. It isn’t quite a fully glammed-up visual novel. There is a solid choice, and fine enough puzzles. The gameplay was enough to satisfy, and the quick time events aren’t annoying or anything. These games all really lack fun moment-to-moment gameplay, so the highest praise I can give season one is that I wasn’t bothered by it.
So yeah, The Walking Dead season one is one of the greatest games I’ve ever played. Lifted by its use of the world that the source material provides, but it injects its own characters, plot lines, and elements into it. I loved this game; the remaster looks great. Lee and Clem are some of the best characters and character dynamics in media.
Season One – 10/10
Before I talk about the other seasons, I want to speak on something. Choice. Games are a unique medium where the story can put the choice into the hands of the player. These games in particular are completely about choice: what do you make these characters do, say, whose side do you pick? Often games are criticized (TellTale especially) for choices not really mattering. That is a fine criticism half of the time. Sometimes, though, my choices don’t need to matter. In the sense that they need to lead to this ending. Or have this massive payoff that was directly because of that choice. While I still value choices on that level, the biggest thing to me is my choices having personal impact and making sense within the game and for the character I’m making the choice for. Season one of The Walking Dead ticks all of those boxes for me. There aren’t crazy multiple endings, but what you do throughout the story does have an impact not only within that episode but at the end of the game. No matter what choice I made or had the choice to make, it always felt in character for Lee. And most importantly, I felt the weight of every choice after I made it. And honestly, that’s why this game’s story holds so well, and that’s why, sadly, following seasons (especially 2 and 3) fall so far from the mark that season set.
400 Days
Before we get to season two, we have this little mini DLC that sits between the two, and honestly? I really dug this for the most part. 5 different stories and characters chronicled at different points of the outbreak. All of their stories culminate in one big decision at the end. I think all of these stories are at least okay. Two of them were kind of boring, but the other three were actually pretty interesting, introduced some solid characters, and the suspense and tension were great.
By the time I got to the final decision, my choices started to really affect what would happen, and it seemed like these characters would have more going for them in the next season. I was all on board. Spoiler alert, they don’t. This DLC is almost entirely pointless because of that, which is a shame because it does introduce some really interesting characters and they picked the worst of the bunch to be a part of the main group in season two.
400 Days – 7/10
Season Two
This season starts off very promising. It’s been a while since the end of season one. We get confirmation that, during the very end of that season, when Clem is on her own and sees two people out on the horizon, those two people were Christa and Omid. So now, at the start of this game, she’s traveling with them. After some unfortunate things happen in the intro, it is now just Clem and Christa. Which immediately turns into just Clem when bandits turn up, and Christa is resigned to a fate that’s unknown to this day.
The intro to this season has some logical flaws, but overall, I think it’s impactful, and it works. Clem goes from being with two characters that we all know and trust to an extent to being on her own. The next short-lived moments when she is on her own are just amazing. It’s brutal, impactful, you don’t want to see her like this, but she has to survive. It’s good stuff that doesn’t last long enough because the cast of characters that we are unfortunately introduced to in episode one are the worst group of characters in a video game that I’ve ever played. And it only gets worse as the season progresses. Clem is always the smartest person in the room in a game filled with adults of varying ages. She is always the most mature and the most calm. And it’s not because they made her unbelievably so in any of these aspects, it’s because every other character is just written so poorly
I will say, though, the visual and gameplay improvements are very welcome. This is the best-looking season to me. The extra gameplay is nice, but after a while, it gets very samey. I think there’s a severe overuse of animations that really adds to that feeling of repetitiveness. If the option were having these gameplay bits with the same animations or not having them at all, I’d prefer not having them at all.
So yeah, Season two starts off strong and then very quickly nose dives and honestly never fully recovers. This is the worst-written game, character-wise, I may have ever played. Never have I hated and cared less for a cast of characters. I was elated when this season ended, knowing that I probably wouldn’t have to interact with any of them in the future. I will say, the ending and its choices are very solid and do hold weight. But that’s about it.
Season Two – 4/10
A New Frontier
A New Frontier almost takes a bold swing for the series. A brand new main character and group to follow. A very weird family dynamic that unfolds throughout the season. This season could’ve been really solid to good. I don’t think it’s bad by any means, but its biggest mistake is including Clementine at all.
Clem, being in this game as she is, as a companion, completely derails any choice that involves her. It is such a baffling decision to bring back a character that we spent all of season one bonding with and protecting, and all of season two surviving as, and now as Javi, we have to make decisions that could go against what she wants and/or her safety. There was not a single moment in this game where I felt it was within character or made sense to go against Clem’s wishes when prompted, even if she wasn’t necessarily in the right every time.
What makes this worse is that once again, the cast outside of Clem and Javi is just bad. They aren’t infuriating like in season two, but they are so forgettable. It’s like Telltale forgot how to write characters that aren’t Clem after season one. Add to this that a lot of this season feels like a rehash (albeit a bit more fleshed out) of the events that happen in season two with Carver. The town leaders are honestly way more forgettable than Carver, too. There is this family dynamic that’s very complex and a fair amount of choice that lasts, but I just couldn’t bring myself to care about anyone outside of clem by the end of this game.
So yeah, this game is just a step above season two. I do love the new art style, but that doesn’t save it from what I see as catastrophic mistakes that ultimately derail what could’ve been at least a solid game. I don’t hate this season, I just see what it could’ve been and what it actually ended up being, and it sucks.
A New Frontier – 5/10
The Final Season
The final season is a return to form for this franchise. This season isn’t without its faults. I still think overall it suffers from the same issues as the previous two seasons, such as a weaker supporting cast. Though this cast isn’t nearly as weak as the previous two, there are some really strong moments with them. There is a good story here, very strong themes, and really emotional moments, all of which were missing from the previous two seasons.
Like I said, it’s not without its faults. More than any other season, there are clear spots where the choices you make result in blank slates after, instead of new dialogue choices or gameplay moments. Some characters are still a bit rough writing-wise. But there is more to like about this season than the previous two. Putting Clem in a Lee type role is such a brilliant move. As much as Clem has had to grow up, and we’ve seen that, she’s very much still a child. Having her/us basically raise AJ and teach this smaller child, who only knows the apocalypse and the violence it brings, to be kind or violent, to be forgiving or vengeful. It works so well. I’m glad that there’s also nuance and moments in between. This makes him such an amazing character; his malleability really emphasizes the choices that you make all throughout the game.
The rest of the characters are pretty good too. I have my gripes here and there, but I cared enough, and bringing a certain character back to act as the main villain was a good move. They were way more memorable than anything the previous three seasons offered. Having that familiarity with Clem and the player (if you played previous seasons) makes everything really impactful.
So yeah, this season was a major step in the right direction at the perfect time. It’s not perfect by any means and still doesn’t reach the high bar set by season one, but it does some really good and interesting things with Clem and AJ. It successfully makes its point on nature vs nurture. And it has some of the best-looking/directed scenes in the series. That first episode was amazing. I’m the send-off for this messy series was on a good note.
The Final Season – 8/10
Michonne
I saved this game for last because it really isn’t connected to the mainline series in any way. It’s just taking characters from the show/comic and adapting them into its own story, which still seems to be within this Telltale universe. All that out of the way, I almost didn’t finish playing this. It simultaneously felt like it didn’t have enough time to develop its story and characters, but also felt entirely too long. With only 3 episodes by the end of the second, I wanted it to end. This is by far the weakest cast of characters in this whole series, paired with an uninteresting story.
The best thing I can say about this season is that the intro music was pretty good. Other than that, when the visuals weren’t bugging, they were fine, I guess. The gameplay was meh when it wasn’t glitching. I think that’s my main gripe, for a season that is already disconnected, that is not really that good to begin with, it is also the most buggy product in this collection by a mile. Like I encountered a few bugs here and there in the other seasons, only one that made me have to reset (and it was actually pretty funny), but this season alone had so many that it was actually frustrating, and nothing in this season makes up for it. Nothing was worth fighting through the bugs to complete. Its a shame
So yeah, Michonne sucks. It’s not worth the few hours of playtime. I was even warned before playing it, and I understand why. This is the worst this collection has to offer, and thankfully, it is completely independent of anything in these games, so it can be skipped entirely.
Michonne – 3/10
All in all, Telltale’s The Walking Dead series is heavily propped up by just how great season one is. From its release over a decade ago to now, its quality of writing, characters, and story has stood the test of time. It is one of the most memorable pieces of media ever to those who have played or experienced it. And my recommendation to anyone is to really enjoy that season and disregard anything after if you want. For as great as season one was, season two was just about as bad (and Michonne was as bad). 400 days is pointless. New Frontier makes such a silly narrative error for the sake of maintaining players that it undermines what could have been a good season, and even if the final season is good, I don’t think it’s worth wading through everything else to get there. This series is a mess, and it’s a shame because I think, as a whole, the entirety of this series could have been great, but in the end, it’s just season one.
