THE WALKING DEAD – A NEW FRONTIER: DARKER, GRITTIER, BETTER

Developer: TellTale Games

Publisher: TellTale Games

Platforms: PC, PS4, XB1, Android, iOS

Initial Release Date: December 20, 2016

The second season of Telltale's critically acclaimed The Walking Dead had three alternate endings. So, I was very curious as to how they were going to continue the story. After almost two years of waiting, we have the third season, dubbed as "The Walking Dead – A New Frontier"

The Walking Dead – A New Frontier shifts the focus from Clementine to the new protagonist, Javier Garcia. He is one of the survivors of the viral outbreak and he must do whatever it takes to protect his family from the dead and the living. Eventually, Javi meets Clementine and a few other survivors.

Since it has been around two years since I played the first two seasons, I did not have them installed on my computer. Thus, I was unable to import my choices from the previous seasons. However, the developers did include a neat Backstory Generator in the game where you answer a few questions and the game assumes your choices in the previous seasons. There is also the option to start the game without any backstory whatsoever for people who are new to the franchise.

The first major change I noticed was the visual quality. I always complained about how the first two seasons and Michonne were not visually appealing. In this season, however, the graphics have been vastly improved, especially the textures. Unlike Telltale's another recent release, the Batman series, A New Frontier is very well-optimised as I managed to play it smoothly even on my low-range PC. 

The story and the characters in A New Frontier are absolutely spot-on compared to those in Season 2 which I felt were rather forced. Clementine is a whole new person now and though there is much debate surrounding whether Telltale went in the right direction with her character, I personally liked the change and felt it was quite a necessary one. The new protagonist Javi and his family are very interesting as well.

The Walking Dead series is known mostly for its emotional appeal and while the formula worked in the first season, it felt rather dull in the second. Starting from Michonne, TellTale ditched the emotional appeal and started putting more emphasis on plot twists and intense situations. I am very glad to see that A New Frontier is also walking along that same path as it makes the game feel a lot more immersive. Voice acting, one of the strongest suits of the franchise, continues to shine on in this game.  

The developers also did a brilliant job of implementing the choices from the previous seasons into this one. There are flashback sequences from time to time that fill up the gap between Season 2 and A New Frontier. Another positive change is that staying silent during dialogue choices now have consequences unlike the previous seasons. The only downside I have noticed so far is that the choices still do not affect the storyline significantly. 

A New Frontier brings some very welcome changes to the franchise and shows a lot of promise. If the rest of the episodes are strong as the first two, this season is set to be an absolute rollercoaster.

Nony Khondaker is an introvert with immense passion for tech and music. Feel free to send your constructive feedback at nonykhondaker@live.com or follow him on twitter.com/NonyKhondaker