I typically dislike point-and-click games for their limited interactions and slow pace. However, The Walking Dead the Final Season and its franchise changed my perspective for the better. The final season is a good conclusion to arguably one of the most gripping narratives in a video game, of all time. It’s impactful storytelling and refined gameplay, captures a lot of what made the franchise so beloved while delivering an unforgettable send off. You play as Clementine, now a young adult and guardian for AJ. Experience the mix of despair, resilience, and hope while feeling the impact of your decisions. New characters and environments add freshness without affecting emotional ties to the main characters. This game improves the mechanics with more free roaming, better camera controls, and deeper combat. It includes quick time events but adds action-focused combat with bows or guns. It's a pleasant surprise and smoother than previous instalments. Telltale improved their cel-shaded art style with more detail that captures the beauty and grit of a decaying world. Animations are fluid, expressive, and feel more authentic and realistic. The final season is a fitting farewell that does the franchise justice. It provides a satisfying conclusion to Clementine’s story. There’s a good balance of nostalgia and some innovation that helps create that fresh and familiar experience. While it serves as the end of Clementine’s story, it’s a testament to Telltale’s remarkable storytelling and will remain an unforgettable legacy in the gaming industry. Although I generally dislike point-and-click games, this game is highly recommended for enthusiasts of the series. It has all the elements expected in a farewell: compelling narrative, unforgettable characters, refined gameplay, and emotional depth. It’s more than a game when you think about it, it’s a send off to one of gaming’s most beloved characters and their unforgettable journey through a zombie apocalypse.
The start of this game is slow enough as it is but there's a side quest/DLC "A Woman's Lot" once you start it, you're pretty much stuffed and stuck until you finish it. This would be okay if the DLC was enjoyable but it's far from it. It should really be made known or you should be given the option to exit the DLC freely, instead you're stuck for around 4 hours doing it.
I liked the visuals a lot; pixelated but not lacking detail & vibrance. The OST is really good, I played it a lot on Spotify to a point that I added a lot of songs to a mix playlist. Easily the best part of the game. Narrative is ok, corny but I liked that it didn’t overstay it’s welcome too much. However, some characters felt like they were over the top & kind of made you cringe. It’s heavily reliant on twitch gameplay & the checkpoints restart you at the beginning of an area which is why I’m thankful the levels are split into multiple areas that are bite sized. They shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to finish each area. Being able to pick up items & toss them was a nice touch, it somewhat added a bit of an extra flair & made you feel more badass. Lots of trial & error with frustration but everything was achievable without that overwhelming sense of impossibility. The controls & mechanics are simple & easy to get the hang of. I could stop playing for a month or more & struggled for no longer than 2 mins before I was able to pick it all up again. There are times where it feels like the controls are working against you though, as it can feel a bit sluggish & gets frustrating when you know you reacted in time but the game didn’t. The slow time ability helps but inevitably runs out. I don’t normally review games I haven’t finished unless I intend to stop playing. But I’m giving my review of the game now, while my mindset isn’t stained by frustration that I know will ensue. I can only stomach the game in bursts & I intend to play it that way until I finish it or give up. Otherwise cause of the repetitive gameplay & frustration, I’d probably give it 1 star, but it’s not fair because the game does have its pros that can outweigh the cons, even if it’s by the skin of its teeth. It’s a good game. Not great, fantastic, epic or anything like that. But it’s a good game for the asking price & what’s advertised, that’s generally what I’d consider enough.
I enjoyed the narrative a lot for this. Partly because I enjoy Michonne’s character on the TV series but also because Michonne is just outright badass regardless. This game does a pretty good job of conveying that. Choices are still pretty bad for the sheer reason that it’s there as an illusion. There are definitely consequences to some of your choices but where the choices feel like they should matter, are the choices which ultimately lead to the same outcome regardless of what you picked. Gameplay is lacking, as is always expected with Point & Click. There’re moments where you’re somewhat free to walk around & explore but for whatever reason, the direction your moving the analogue stick is the opposite direction Michonne goes. Worse yet, Telltale haven’t improved on their formula still. The whole thing feels like an interactive movie. The lack of control you have over everything is abysmal & jarring. It actually makes you wish this was just an animation because the gameplay ends up being more of a distraction than anything of substance. Visually the game looks great, but the lack of mo-cap animations/voice acting starts to break a some of the immersion. It looks like the characters are moving their mouths & different words are coming out. However, graphics are nice & sharp, given the art style. Otherwise, despite its flaws, it’s a definitely worth a playthrough if you can get the thing on sale. Took me 4 hours to finish & I found myself wanting more out Michonne’s story.
I really tried to give this game a go. I tried playing the OG when I was little, I couldn’t handle the difficulty & puzzles then. I thought maybe I can handle it after learning more. But it’s just not fun. I was enjoying it & even through a lot of frustrating moments; I still kept going. Some frustration is expected & understandable, but eventually the challenges were being blatantly synthetic. There’s 1 area where you need to jump passed some swaying boulders. The floaty controls & butter feet that Abe has doesn’t help at all here but I thought ok fine, I’ll work with that, it’s almost ok when you learn that he has 2 different jumps, for whatever reason they decided making it the exact same button was a pass in QA. They have bats that fly around the platforms & damage Abe. Ok, fine I’ll work with that too. Get to a point where you need to return through the same area, but problem is, you’re left with 1 bird/life bar if you didn’t do so well the 1st time through. This would be fine, if not for the bats that attack you on the way back, because I only had 1 bird left, I would die almost instantly. It literally leaves you with the options of constant trial & error (because apparently that’s considered fun by QA standards), get lucky because timing with the way the controls are is not gonna happen for me or reset the ENTIRE chapter which means doing EVERY other level in that chapter… Again. No thanks. My only option at this point is to uninstall. It’s a real damn shame, I put just under 4 hours into this game because I really wanted to give it a go, the narrative seems kind of interesting. I’m actually not sure I want to bother with the rest of the games in the franchise after this. This is the 2nd time I’m uninstalling this game & it’ll be the last. If the next game is anything like this then I might just watch a Let’s Play. Which is sad cause I had no other issues with the game, no bugs, no performance issues. Everything wrong with it is by design.
I’m not good at RTS. I can find them hard & this was no exception for me. I got up to the part where I needed to out-trade some raven & kept losing. I gave up on story mode by then. But I tried Conquest & Domination, despite losing the former, I enjoyed those. Surprisingly the narrative was decent. It was a cliché plotline about some guy’s dad being killed when invaders raid their village & then he seeks revenge. But still kind of amusing. I’m a sucker for anything that lets you hold territories because it feels more satisfying than randomly building. It actually feels like you’re expanding a kingdom. I liked that it had simple structures & units, it didn’t overwhelm you with stats like archer v calvary or anything. Having a mix of military units was enough to create a decent warband. What I didn’t like was that you couldn’t split the warband. This made moving units around fairly tedious if you wanted to manage multiple groups. Most of the challenge came from resource management. If you started off poorly or didn’t manage it right, it’d have dire consequences on your clan. Fail to stockpile food & they’ll get sick, eventually die. If they’re unhappy, you can’t produce more villagers. I liked that its balanced things like food, wood & coin were infinite but stone & iron was finite & specifically needed for upgrades, so you had to be sensible with your upgrades at times. AI can be a bit iffy too. At 1 point I was doing a conquest that was victory by fame (you have different victory conditions that can be selected at random in non-story mode). At the start of the match, before I had even had the chance to build the dock that can earn fame, AI already hit about 5%, this was on easy. I’m talking < 5 mins. In <5 mins you’re usually only able to build a house, wood cutter & scout. I don’t know how they got there that fast. I don’t intend to play it any further than the 9 hrs I’ve clocked because I feel like I’ve had my fill.
I’ll try to keep it brief cause this is 4 yrs old, I didn’t get around to playing it until 2020, + there’s been A LOT of reviews & praise for this game already. An expansion up against full games, won best RPG of 2016. It’s easy to understand why. It doesn’t just expand a bit either, it’s virtually a sequel. It could have been called The Witcher 4 & I wouldn’t bat an eyelid. It adds to the skill system to allow you to customise your mutations, even adding additional slots & hybrid mutations. It adds housing, 1 house, but you can do some minor decorating with the weapon & armour stands, you can upgrade it, giving you a weapon & armour bench to enhance your gear, there’s a bed that gives you some buffs when you sleep in it. It adds grandmaster Witcher gear, although I’m not too fussed about stats it did have some aesthetic changes that I liked. Naturally it adds a new place for you to explore & it’s pretty big. It mixes things up a bit by introducing new enemies, some of them are just enhanced versions of vanilla creatures, some are unique & require a new approach, so they weren’t just reskinned which was nice. The narrative was really damn good. Like with the base game your decisions do have an impact primarily towards the end but it’s a pretty big impact with at least 3 different outcomes. Where I actually think it stands out the most though is the visuals. The graphics didn’t improve per se but the environment of Toussaint is just exquisite. It’s so damn gorgeous I just found myself stopping and taking in the sights a lot. It was so lush & vibrant, beautiful vineyards, farms & forests complimented by beautiful beaches, creeks, lakes & rivers. The cities were also divine, even the villages were mostly nice. Do yourself a favour & get The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project mod before playing. I really didn’t want this to end at all & feel kind of empty now that after 5 years of having The Witcher 3 installed, across 2 different builds, I kind of have to let it go.
