When family is all you have left... how far will you go to protect it? Years after society was ripped apart by undead hands, pockets of civilization emerge from the chaos. But at what cost? Can the living be trusted on this new frontier? As Javier, a young man determined to protect his family, you meet a young girl who has experienced her own unimaginable loss. Her name is Clementine, and your fates are bound together in a story where every choice you make could be your last...

The Walking Dead: A New Frontier is the third installment in the series from Telltale Games. The action is set two years after the events which unfolded in Season 2 (of the game series). A New Frontier, as the title would suggest, sees the developers departing slightly from the first two seasons.

This game acts as both a new beginning for players fresh to the series and unfamiliar with Clementine, as well as a continuation for players who have experienced Seasons 1 and 2. Those that are coming to the series fresh, are able to start a story that is tailored to this new beginning. Players continuing onward from prior seasons have multiple options for quickly configuring their tailored back story, or importing past save files.

For this game, fans follow a new group of survivors through the zombie apocalypse. The game employs the same narrative structure as Seasons 1 and 2, where player choices have a permanent impact on future story elements.

The new group consists of Javier, Kate (Javier's sister-in-law), Gabe (Javier's nephew) and Mariana (Javier's niece). Making a reappearance, having appeared in the previous games, is Clementine with baby Alvin Jr. We get to meet a character (no spoilers here) from the main The Walking Dead story (from the comics and TV series). Javier's brother, David, also features.

The first thing you notice is how much of an improvement the graphics are on the previous games. Everything looks clearer and more realistic, which greatly heightens the game play.

It's a little hard to review this game fairly, and fully, given that this is a season pass release that will allow you to download the future episodes as they are released. All that's available at launch date is the two-part premiere episode, with the remaining three episodes being unlocked as and when they're released - however, you'll still have to download these.

It's a bit of a strange way to release an episodic game. In the past, games like Life is Strange, Resident Evil: Revelations 2 and Hitman (2016) allowed you to buy each episode digitally online as it was released; as an online season pass; or as a hard copy on disc once all the episodes had been released. But I don't think I've seen a release where the first episode is available on disc with the other being downloadable at a later date.

Fans of The Walking Dead hopefully won't be disappointed with this game.

8

Becky Morgan