Telltale Games released their third season of The Walking Dead: A Telltale Series a couple of days ago. Taking the name “A New Frontier”, it gives returning players just that: new places to explore and characters to meet.
For those familiar with the series, expect to see an entirely new story and cast. Without giving too much of the story away, “A New Frontier” starts with an original lead character named Javier. The two episode premier immediately throws you into the the intense back story of Javi’s struggle to connect with, and protect, his family during the early days of the zombie apocalypse.
Long time fans will be happy to know that Clementine returns as a supporting character, but now older, more mature, and brave. Having played the previous seasons, I was already biased in my decisions and dialogue choices regarding Clementine, but so far it hasn’t been detrimental to Javier’s fate.
Just like with Season Two, you can import your save file and have your previous decisions impact the events of Season Three. It also allows new players to start an unbiased, fresh game, so playing the previous seasons is not necessary. In my opinion, Telltale did a good job of marrying previous experiences while also building a brand new, standalone story. This should satisfy returning players without leaving new players in the dark.
Telltale Games is gifted at creating scenarios that pit you against the clock, requiring you to make dire choices that can have a huge effect the rest of the game. I can already say I am not entirely happy with the choices I have made. Like the previous seasons, they are not scared to kill off important cast members that you may have been working to improve your relationship with. It’s easy to look back on these emotional outcomes and critique those split second decisions. This leads to emotional cliffhangers that leave you fearing for Javi’s safety, and vengeful towards his enemies.
If you’re new to the series and enjoy story driven games, or are a fan of the previous installments, I recommend checking out A New Frontier. The first two episodes are currently available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. A physical version will become available for purchase in February.
Telltale Games was kind enough to gift a Steam copy of The Walking Dead: A New Frontier to readers at VoxelVoice.com. For more information and a chance to win, check out our social media forum here.
