Many fans of Telltale Games have only just recovered from saving Gotham City in Batman: The Telltale Series and just a week after that series concluded comes the next chapter in the successful The Walking Dead series with ‘The Walking Dead: A New Frontier’ .Though this is the third season of the TWD main series, it is the fourth TWD game now from Telltale following TWD Michonne, a mini series released this year and a game that for me showed how tired this universe has become now with Telltale Games. There is a limit to how much the same formula can be considered entertaining by fans, so I was both curious and a little bit apprehensive to see what this next chapter would have in store.
So it has only been two weeks since I hung up my cowl and parked the Batmobile in the Bat Cave and now I am picking up whatever weapon is nearby in order to once again fight to survive against the threat of the Walkers. But this time Telltale are launching the series a little differently to previous releases in that they have released the first two episodes right away with the next instalment to release sometime in February 2017. The Ties that Bind Us Parts 1 & 2 aim to introduce us to a new group of characters trying to survive in the world so familiar to fans by now.
We meet Javier, a disgraced Baseball player who returns home to a rather less than warm welcome from his family after the passing of a relative. It is a really fast paced introduction to Javier and we really do not learn all that much about him as a person before he is quickly placed in the main character role of the story. The opening to part 1 does serve as a handy introduction to the TWD world for those playing this series for the first time and as a refresher for those returning to the series once more. Once the opening has fast tracked us into the main story we are left with Javier who is now travelling with his sister in law Kate and her two teenage step children, looking for food and supplies and a place to rest safely.
But where is Clementine, the main character in the first two seasons of TWD. Well for fans hoping to continue her story directly you may be disappointed to learn that Clementine has now become a side character in the story, and her appearance feels a little shoe horned into proceedings a little too hard for my liking. Her story is told via flashbacks where players can learn what became of her following the end to season 2 and what lead to her situation when she encounters Javier’s group. If you have played the previous games then you can import a save file from any device logged in with your Telltale account and this will bring your previous choices for her character into this game so the Clementine in A New Frontier is a result of playing those games. If you are new to TWD then the game will allow you to make certain conversation decisions that fill in the blanks of her history for this story. But having Clementine does feel familiar but for me it just felt as tired to see her forced into the story when its clear the focus is on Javier and his group.
Whilst attempting to refresh the TWD world, this two part premier still relies on the same elements in order to offer an all too familiar gaming experience. Player choice during conversations will shape relationships between Javier and the other characters and during the story itself, key decisions will take the story down one path instead of another. Sometimes these choices will rely on the player basing the decision on events that has just happened or in the hope of protecting the interests and safety of the group. The issue for me is that this no longer feels new or different enough. It still features one good group of survivors trying to avoid conflict with a larger and more dangerous group of survivors and ultimately the story will use this to drive events in a rather obvious way. Having two episodes immediately makes the story move at such a quick pace that I felt that I was making crucial choices without really knowing the people around Javier who himself is still a mystery really. The only person I did know enough to make decisions for or about was Clementine, but as she is just a side character at the moment, trying to make choices concerning Javier and his group felt clumsy.
Another issue with having two episodes to play right off the bat is that the first part’s attempt to create a impactful cliff-hanger ending completely fell flat for me because instead of spending a month to rethink my choices and take in the story whilst waiting for the next episode, I simply waited to compare my choices compared to other players before hitting A and starting part 2. The ending felt incredibly obvious with hints giving to what was going to happen no matter what choices I made to feel like I influenced the outcome. Part 2 as they so often do in a Telltale series delivered on a better story experience now that I knew the characters a little better and seeing some of my choices from Part 1, starting to really take effect. The Flashbacks with Clementine start to give a better idea of what happened to her before meeting Javier but still not giving any real sense of time frame to know when those events took place or how much time has passed between the ending of Season 2 and A New Frontier.
Even the introduction of another key character from the comic books and the TWD TV show did little to really get me invested in this story at this point of completing the first two episodes. I am happy with my choices made in that I felt no compulsion to go back and see how making a different choice would change the story. It all just feels a little too samey for me right now. With no new episode till February 2017, I just do not see what was gained by rushing into a new series of TWD so quickly after finishing their last release in Batman: The Telltale series. It would have been better to have launched this series in January, with two episodes ready to go, it would have made more sense to give the launch more impact then to rush it out for a festive release.
I still do not know what to make of Javier as a main character just yet. He is simply another survivor with young people he is responsible for, trying to keep them and him safe. The side characters fall into their natural place and the real intrigue comes from the flashbacks with Clementine and seeing her story told underneath the main story unfolding. The pace is very quick with Achievement pop ups for completing chapters feeling as though they progress without actually doing very much. The story so far is pretty much what you would expect from a TWD game and I cannot help but feel Telltale made a mistake in releasing a two part premier. Both episodes felt short, with Part 1 no longer then 90 minutes to finish. Normally at this point I would be saying that the second episode needs to kick up the action and story but we have had two episodes already and now a possible two month wait for the third episode.
Overall The Walking Dead: A Telltale Series ‘A New Frontier’, yeah a title that is longer than a few of the chapters in these episodes, is just average in almost every way. The story is rather standard; the new characters just a different take on the same TWD generic survivor and facing the same threats and dangers as previous games. This could have been one single episode for me and it should have been. Telltale Games of late have felt rushed to get out and to finish, Batman: The Telltale Series was completed in just four months and now we have a new TWD series that launched just a week after Batman ended and with two episodes that felt as though one was simply split in two for the sake of it.
A New Frontier is the fourth TWD game series and third for Clementine who seems to have become more of a plot thread vehicle though her story told by flashbacks maybe the only saving grace of this premier launch. Javier has failed to stand out for me so far as a main hero and events so far do not feel anything special or different enough to make A New Frontier stand out from previous game series.
Fans may be happy with more of the same, but it certainly needs to do something different in Episode 3 if this story is to become anymore more than “something to do until Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy releases”!
