The Walking Dead Franchise Overview

Developed by Telltale Games and Skybound Games

First release: The Walking Dead (24th April 2012)

Last release: The Walking Dead: The Final Season (14th August 2018)

Telltale's The Walking Dead has been a huge and monumental media form for storytelling, episodic and choice-based games. Ever since the heartwrenching Season 1 of the series, to the sincere goodbye and closure to the franchise, the games will, no doubt, be remembered as a hidden gem of the 2010s and as a result, I'll be looking over all the franchise's main titles. The Walking Dead: Michonne won't be included in this overview as that game is more a spin-off to the franchise than a main title.

The Walking Dead(2012)

In the year 2012, a year full of amazing releases, ranging from Far Cry 3, Borderlands 2, Black Ops 2, Dishonoured and more, the year didn't seem like it could get better until Telltale Games stepped up out of the shadows and released this phenomenal game. It managed to steal multiple game-of-the-years and introduced a new form of storytelling that many YouTubers cried to. This game is the pinnacle of the series in terms of storytelling and characters and I'm not sure how Telltale would be able to top this game even if they released a new entry into the series. The game also came along with the 6th episode as DLC, in which, I gave it a “MEDIOCRE” due to how much the story and characters were downgraded as a result of poor pacing and inadequate episode length. Combined with the praiseful “NEAR PERFECT” I gave the base game in my review of The Walking Dead, the collection of the two gives the full version of this game an “GREAT”. However, I would rather not think about that as that would mean the embracing tale of Lee and Clementine would be further away from a “G.O.A.T”.

The Walking Dead: Season 2 (2013)

The sequel to the amazing spotlight game of storytelling had a lot to live up to. The game received high praise all around from nearly every critic out there. Clementine is back and this time has to suffer through another group of consequences. While she is an amazing protagonist and the atmosphere is still as I left it in my review of The Walking Dead: Season 2, I feel like I praised the story way too much. Back in my review, I mentioned how it was a little worse or on par with the original, however, I disagree with that now as the sub-par deaths and inadequate writing at some points become more clear to me. This isn't drastic enough to the point I feel like I should change the scores I gave, however, it should be noticed before entering the game.

The Walking Dead: A New Frontier(2016)

With an announcement alongside the spin-off Michonne game, The Walking Dead seemed to have been going on a great path considering the success of the original two games, however, Telltale's streak ended with this garbage game. This game is a huge slap across the face for those who waited to continue Clementine's story and reflect on the choices they made. While Javier Garcia was a great character, he was overshadowed by Clem. They should've released this game as a spin-off and saved the official continuation of Clementine's journey for the final season. In my review of The Walking Dead: A New Frontier, I mentioned how the gameplay downgrades severely alongside its storytelling and atmosphere that removes the comic book art style to a dodgy look. This game isn't inherently bad, it's just disappointing and annoying that it exists in the first place.

The Walking Dead: The Final Season(2018)

The Walking Dead: Final Season may be the biggest finale and closure any gamer has seen yet. Like I said in my review of this game, it is on a whole new level with improved gameplay ranging in and out of the dialogue simulator and combat minigames, a beautiful artistic splash on to the screen and a relationship that reminds us hardcore fans of the sweet yet melancholic bond Lee and Clementine shared. The game doesn't even peak anywhere near what the original two seasons offered in tales or characters but it was still a great attempt that succeeded despite having a lot of anticipation and hope for it.

The Walking Dead: Season 5(?)

Considering Telltale has announced that the Final Season would be in fact, the final season, fans still somewhat wish for a sequel and continuation of the story despite the fact they know what's best for the series. However, wishing and speculating for a sequel isn't illegal so here's what I would like to see in Season 5 of The Walking Dead.

Story

For the story, I would like to see the attention averted to Alvin Junior, or AJ as he goes by. We all love Clementine but we have seen her go through pain and sorrow for 4 entire seasons, 3 of which specifically all centred on her. I would like to see AJ grow up as well and see how your choices from the Final Season affected him. The story could be focused on either the end of the Walker Age as Tenn mentioned in the previous game, however, that would mean a higher human threat level and as we saw with A New Frontier, that doesn't work so well so unless a newer threat arises that aren't walkers or humans, this idea might not work. The game could also focus back on Javier and how he's managing Richmond. This doesn't mean that the game would be primarily around him like in the third season but instead have it as a plot, setting and/or potentially bring Javier as an antagonist which would be quite interesting to see. As long as the tears roll efficiently, and the scenes are hard-hitting, I'm happy.

Gameplay

The gameplay was near perfect in Final Season with a couple of audio issues, so I would love to see the combat format brought back again, but focusing more on AJ's accurate shots while still featuring quite a bit of the stabbing to not make the game a full-on shooter. The action-packed QTEs should make a return and shouldn't be so simple as pressing X, but instead do something The Final Season did, by adding combinations to press. The dialogue shouldn't change and probably won't as it hasn't for 6 years, and the choices need a bigger impact. Final Season was heading the right way with this by mixing some choices to be on a grand scale while some were ineffective like in traditional Telltale fashion. However, we need the big-impact choices to hit hard, potentially changing future choices instead of just the attitude the characters have towards you. This can be done through the regular two choices presented but also through failed QTEs and point'n'clicks that you failed or accomplished in finding, similar to how Hidden Agenda managed clue finding. The point'n'click would be handled well so as long as the game focuses on that instead of ditching it like in A New Frontier. The collectable basis should come back to make the world more immersive and, as mentioned before, have some point'n'clicks be consequential to really diverse the narratives told.

Characters

The characters should all have separate journeys told and stories that really unravel and humanise them as they did in Season 1. Some of the characters I would also love to see back are AJ, donning the persona you taught him in Final Season, Clementine being similar to a loving mother but also a reliable badass (like BJ Blazkowisc in Young Blood, but maybe not to the same extent), Javier being possibly distraught and hopeless after losing everyone he loved over the years while maintaining a community, Violet/Louis being the second parent to AJ, etc. I think we've also seen enough community wars and would like to delve into more personal issues like cults forming after losing plenty of hope, embodying the PTSD everyone has, or criminals that take advantage of the current apocalypse to further their mentally ill needs like murder, etc. This dark turn would be great to explore as long as the characters portraying them aren't generalised, stereotypical and not humanised.

Atmosphere

The atmosphere should be brought back in its beautiful comic-book ecstasy fashion. The music should also relapse into its early years of Season 1 and Season 2 as they both mastered the guilt-ridden and melodic depression they attempted to achieve. The sound effects should hopefully all deliver every crunch, slash and shot without being cut off or silent and the cutscenes shouldn't freeze halfway or have very long loading screens replacing them.

GREAT

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