The Walking Dead: A New Frontier – From The Gallows Review

The Walking Dead: A New Frontier – From The Gallows, Telltale Games

<p>A few people could describe my approach to Telltale via the reviews of episodes as harsh to the point of taking them to the gallows for their crimes&period; It isn&&num;8217&semi;t as though I didn&&num;8217&semi;t have crimes to read off as the rope was put over the neck of the offender&period; Corner cutting narratively&comma; aesthetically and mechanically as the prime offender among a list of grievances&period; Although these issues were particularly raised with the knowledge Telltale could do so much better than they had been&period; That said&comma; we hit the end of <em>The Walking Dead&colon; A New Frontier – From The Gallows<&sol;em> which shows a glimmer of soul&period; While noticeably flawed&comma; there&&num;8217&semi;s enough strong material to take Telltale off the gallows for now with a murmured apology&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western"><strong>&lbrack;There will not be any spoilers for <em>The Walking Dead&colon; A New Frontier – From The Gallows<&sol;em>&comma; but I may end up discussing<em> The Walking Dead&colon; A New Frontier – Ties That Bind Parts 1 and<&sol;em> 2&comma; <em>Above the Law<&sol;em> and <em>Thicker Than Water<&sol;em>&comma; as well as the review of the episodes &lpar;which you can find <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;walking-dead-new-frontier-ties-bind-parts-1-2-review&sol;">here<&sol;a>&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;123973-2&sol;">here<&sol;a> and <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;the-walking-dead-a-new-frontier-thicker-than-water-review&sol;">here<&sol;a>&rpar;&period; However&comma; the rating at the bottom will be spoiler-free if you wish to skip there&period;&rsqb;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">We ended last time with David upsetting the locals with violence and Kate deciding the best way to quell a riot is via breaching the walls between Richmond and a herd of zombies&period; With Gabe running off with a homicidal David into the crowd of zombies&comma; Kate likely dead at the wheel and the betrayers Tripp&sol;Eleanor nowhere to be seen&comma; Javier is alone in the carnage&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">I confess my expectations started out incredibly low&period; After episode 4 left me alienating the cast &lpar;especially Gabe who had been channelling the spirit of Nick from season 2&rpar;&comma; episode 5 starts off with some heavy-handed moral guidance of why abandoning the crew is a bad plan&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;126095" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-126095" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-126095" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;06&sol;03210126&sol;20170602033840&lowbar;1-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-126095" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The Walking Dead&colon; A New Frontier – From The Gallows&comma; Telltale Games<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">That said&comma; without getting into spoilers&comma; I have to say that <em>The Walking Dead&colon; A New Frontier – From The Gallows <&sol;em>does challenge <em>Ties That Bind<&sol;em> &lpar;parts 1 &amp&semi; 2&rpar; for strongest written episode in this season&period; Albeit&comma; only part of it is due to actual humanisation&period; There are some downer moments that might spur some drama from within&comma; but they seem to more work due to being part of a finale than being actual development&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">One of the way it does set itself apart from prior episodes is the extent things do come back to haunt you&period; Clementine can act radically differently depending on actions in her sections&comma; characters make a lot of callback to previous actions by Javier and there are a good few dependant characters popping up or not&period; There really are enough call-backs to create the illusion of choice&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">However&comma; the main way <em>The Walking Dead&colon; A New Frontier – From The Gallows<&sol;em> distinguishes itself is its amount of endings&period; Even the main two-way branching path has six possibilities &lpar;excluding attitude changes&rpar; depending on actions through-out the game&comma; which can determine who lives and who dies&period; I&&num;8217&semi;d say it might be excessive or on the other hand perhaps even fatalistic &lpar;as they still end the main over-arching plot in a very similar way&rpar;&comma; but fortunately the episode walks the balance between the two by having major differences in the same solid ground&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;126096" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-126096" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-126096" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;06&sol;03210204&sol;20170602044828&lowbar;1-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-126096" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The Walking Dead&colon; A New Frontier – From The Gallows&comma; Telltale Games<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">I also confess some love for the character profiling system going on&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll get a final one-word &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;grade” for your approach towards Kate&comma; David&comma; Gabe and Clementine&comma; as well as some summaries of your actions towards the rest of the minor-cast&period; It is nice to see the game remembered even as far back as the intro to episode 1&period; As while I may not be able to shift the major tide&comma; I do get a kick out of seeing I can still have something resembling an effect&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">That said&comma; for all my love for the choices made&comma; I honestly get the sensation the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;correct choice” was self-evident&period; That the heavy-handed &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;legacy” and &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;familial” talk was trying to dissuade people from the more likely choice&period; On the other-hand&comma; I could be way off as at the time of writing 61&period;5&percnt; made the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;correct choice”&period; Just it seemed like the type of choice not so much ineffectual due to the episode&comma; but more due to being built upon episodes whose character development left individuals somewhat unlikeable&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Despite the severe amount of effort for the 1 hour 20 minute episode &lpar;which is a little brief&rpar;&comma; that isn&&num;8217&semi;t to say there isn&&num;8217&semi;t any corner cutting within <em>The Walking Dead&colon; A New Frontier – From The Gallows<&sol;em>&period; Some conversation options are just different ways to say the exact same thing&comma; some graphics look layered in a tacky manner and the strange graphical glitches from before are back with a vengeance&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m also surprised at how tinny Tripp&&num;8217&semi;s voice acting has gotten&comma; at least it feels tinnier than before&period; It seems as though Telltale looked upon the mammoth task that are the amount of endings and had to juryrig&sol;rush some parts to achieve it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;126093" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-126093" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-126093" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;06&sol;03205906&sol;20170602041628&lowbar;1-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-126093" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The Walking Dead&colon; A New Frontier – From The Gallows&comma; Telltale Games<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Oh&comma; and before we launch into the conclusion&colon; A teaser for season 4 already&quest; Really&quest; Did you want to let the body go cold before hinting about it&quest; That isn&&num;8217&semi;t to say I&&num;8217&semi;m surprised there is a season 4&comma; but don&&num;8217&semi;t you guys have other properties to visit&quest; I know you hinted at a sequel in the endings of<em> Game of Thrones<&sol;em> and <em>Tales from the Borderlands<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">The final score for <em>The Walking Dead&colon; A New Frontier – From The Gallows<&sol;em> is an 7&period;5 out of 10&period; Even as flawed as it is &lpar;and it is deeply flawed&rpar;&comma; I can&&num;8217&semi;t say I had a bad time with the final episode&period; Is it excellent enough to be a season pass seller despite the dullness of <em>Above the Law<&sol;em> and <em>Thicker Than Water<&sol;em>&quest; No&period; The pay-off sadly doesn&&num;8217&semi;t hit that hard&comma; but there is still a solid conclusion at the end&period; It is a final conclusion with drama&comma; action and some loss&period; A conclusion that&comma; while should have been persistent through-out the series&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;m pleased to welcome none-the-less&period; While the season 4 teaser has left me wondering if anyone at Telltale are in it for anything but the money at this point&comma; I can&&num;8217&semi;t deny this episode as a sign they might know what they&&num;8217&semi;re doing&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;126094" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-126094" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-126094" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;06&sol;03205929&sol;20170602045022&lowbar;1-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-126094" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The Walking Dead&colon; A New Frontier – From The Gallows&comma; Telltale Games<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>A PC Review Copy of The Walking Dead&colon; A New Frontier &&num;8211&semi; From the Gallows was provided by Telltale for the purpose of this Review&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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