This season is split into four episodes, each of which lasts two hours or moreterms of controls, they make for some
of the most thrilling scenes in the
entire series.
The zombee’s knees
In any case, gameplay isn’t really
where The Final Season’s focus lies.
And from a story perspective, you get
the feeling that considerable time was
allotted to making this entry special.
The episodes are far longer than in
Season 2 or A New Frontier. The writing
is more fully formed and well crafted.
There’s no need for cheap deaths and
hurried plot points this time around.
Instead, it adopts a much slower
pace that steadily builds to each
emotional climax.
It’s in these moments that The
Final Season mirrors its first season
particularly well. The big cast plays
a significant role in the plot, and
characters are given far more time to
develop their personalities than we’ve
seen in recent years. It’s sometimes
been hard to get emotionally attached
to anyone in Telltale Games’ The
Walking Dead outside of the main few
characters, but this entry does a great
job of fleshing out the group.
Just occasionally, though, the
story falls a bit flat. And it’s mainly
due to inept logic, such as characters
needlessly putting themselves in
danger in bizarre circumstances. You
could attribute it to kids being kids –
these are fairly immature youths, after
all – but on other occasions it feels
like the group’s poor decisions are the
result of creative oversights.
No such issues plague the
game’s ending, however. And that’s
really what we’re all here for - the
conclusion to Clementine’s seven-year
journey. The final episode itself is an
unrelenting barrage of action-packed
sequences and emotional torment,
and despite the massive expectation
that comes with it, Take Us Back does
a very worthy job of concluding theseries. No teasers here, it’s worth
experiencing the finale for yourself.
Telltale’s most cherished creation
has been through as many testing
times as Clementine herself, and
somehow, it’s survived. This is the
perfect way for it to go out, proving
the most engaging entry since its
debut and delivering a finale that does
justice to the series’ legacy. QA FLESH
START
It seemed as though
Clem’s story would
never be finished
following the surprise
announcement that
Telltale Games was
undergoing a “major
studio closure” in
September 2018.
Nearly all of the
company’s projects
were cancelled in the
process, and The
Walking Dead: The
Final Season’s future
was left in limbo.
Fortunately, Robert
Kirkman’s Skybound
Entertainment
acquired the rights to
complete the season,
reuniting the original
dev team where
possible. The final two
episodes were
released a few
months later than
originally planned.“The final
episode itself is
a barrage of
action-packed
sequences”
FAR LEFT You get
a chance to
shape AJ’s
education
heavily, and the
consequences can
be significant.
RIGHT You’ll
need to come to
AJ’s aid on
occasion.OXM VERDICT
An emotional and
fitting send-off for
one of the decade’s
greatest
characters.8
LEFT Ericson’s
Boarding School
is a place for
kids who were
left to fend for
themselves.More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 081REVIEW