the walking dead a telltale games series review ign

And even when the episode's scenes fell into recognizable territory, the quicktime event action scenes were often executed with tense, well-paced scenarios. But I was kept engaged by the continued strong character work, even if Part II lacks some of the cinematic flourishes that felt so special in Part I. Any Walking Dead fan will certainly find something repetitive in that idea, and the fun appearance of a familiar franchise character didn’t make the overused plot ideas any less disappointing. After a tense standoff early in the episode, the remaining survivors head off to a supposed safe haven for medical attention, only to predictably find trouble along the way. Outside of those choices, however, Part II offers some sadly familiar events. How they will continue to impact the season remains to be seen - I’m not prepared to say just how much the overarching story will actually change this season because of those choices, because based on Telltale’s history it’s unlikely that a season’s plot would branch in a significant way this early on - but this far into the series it's reassuring to see my influence actually carrying some narrative weight.

They have an impact on Clementine’s backstory, but it seems that we have some welcome input on that very impact, which imbues some of the moments in the present-day story with some nice additional emotional heft.Īnd reaching even further back into Clementine’s history, choices made with her and even Lee in previous seasons will shift the tone of some side interactions with her. The episode thankfully gives us some more details about the title of the season’s meaning (other than its obvious metaphorical idea), and the New Frontier’s role in things is surprisingly malleable. The same can be said of Clementine, whose flashback in Part II feels much more important than in the premiere. Even if it's just in passing conversations, it's reassuring to see my influence actually carrying some narrative weight. Without spoiling anything, however, I was excited to begin to notice how choices I made during Javi’s flashbacks are helping to define relationships in the present. Picking up an item in the environment leads to a kind gesture later in the episode, and the long-term work Javi puts in with Kate and the kids over these two episodes feels important, even if it isn’t drastically altering the plot just yet. I fought to keep Javi’s hope and determination alive, even as the world around him actively worked to shake him of that resilience.Īnd some of those choices paid off within the episode itself as it deepened our understanding of Javi’s relationships. It’s easy to see how many dialogue choices and actions only matter in the moment, but I continued to care deeply about how Javi reacted to every blow to his family and his world. Picking up from Part I’s dramatic final moments, “Ties That Bind’s” second half forces Javi to learn the true cost of surviving in this world for the first time since his introductory flashback in the season premiere. Yet by building on the foundation of the last episode and the two seasons before it, the conclusion of this two-part opener sets up an intriguing rest of the season - one that makes me feel like my choices actually matter (even if that’s likely an illusion). The episode feels more tied to both the familiar trappings of Walking Dead and Telltale Games' plot structures. An immediate follow-up to episode 1, The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series - A New Frontier Episode 2: 'Ties That Bind Part II” takes Part I’s solid start and runs with it much faster than a walker ever could.

The walking dead a telltale games series review ign