For three long years, we have watched Clementine try to survive in the Walking Dead Universe. The choices she, and us, have made have brought her to this time and place. In Walking Dead: The Final Season, TellTale Games brings us her final chapter.
Clementine in now in her late teens/early twenties, the game is vague about how much time has passed. She now travels with AJ, the baby first introduced in the second season. An attack of walkers leads them to join a group of kids at an old boarding school. There are no adults around, just children of this new world trying to survive. As Clementine will discover, sometimes children imitate their elders in both good and bad behaviors.
TWD Final Season in no different then other choice based games. Walk around and choose what action to take when the prompt appears. At the end, you can find out how others players reacted. The difference in this game is our main character. We have spent so much time with Clementine that we pause when faced with a choice. We don’t want her to be attacked or killed. With the promise that this season will be the last chapter in her story, every choice takes on a a lot of weight.
AJ was a baby the last time we saw him. Now he is a child, probably no more then 9, but a child who can be trusted to have to have a gun and use it. Clem could make decisions in other games, but there were adults around to make the final decision. Now, she is the one supposed to have all the answers. One of the first things that pop up on the screen is “You will determine what he becomes”. This statement puts the player in charge of a child and what type of man he will become. Be too easy on him, and he will become a victim. Too hard, and he might become a psychopath.
The game looks amazing, the school feeling welcoming and foreboding at the same time. The voice acting is still top notch, the actors knowing who the characters are. The first episode is out and it ends on one hell of a cliffhanger. TWD Final Season might be the end of one story, but how it will end is still a mystery.
10/10
Availble on PS4, Xbox, PC and Switch
