Skybound’s “The Walking Dead: The Final Season,” Episode 3 released on Jan. 15, 2019, for PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. Originally, the main developer was Telltale, but unfortunately, after the release of episode two, they filed for bankruptcy. This lead to one of the side developers (Skybound) to step up and finish the last season of “The Walking Dead” games.
In this game, you take on the role of a teenage girl named Clementine who has been in the series since the beginning. The main overall goal of this season is to protect a group of survivors against a group of raiders. Clementine’s number-one priority is protecting a child named Alvin Junior, and to teach him life lessons to help him survive in the post-apocalyptic world.
This is “The Walking Dead: The Final Season’s” kick-off point as the previous episodes were weak. With Episode 3, everything is improved to keep this season still fresh. The graphics, story, to even the gameplay are all exceptionally well done. Luckily, there are only a few tiny things that keep Episode 3 from being perfect.
Storyline: 4/5
Episode 3 of “The Walking Dead: The Final Season” felt like the starting point of the story, as the first two episodes felt like build-up episodes. The episode starts off the morning after the events of the previous episode. Throughout the story, you plan on saving your friends that were stolen from raiders at the end of the last episode.
The goal in this episode created so much tension, and I loved it! This episode was actually exciting, which was really pleasing because the past two were really boring. That being said, it felt as if the story could have been longer—it was too short for my liking.
Gameplay: 5/5
Episode 3 definitely runs a lot smoother than the previous episodes of the series. I was very pleased that there were no long awkward loading times when entering a building or transitioning to a cutscene like the other games in the series. It was always really annoying waiting for the game to take forever to load. It was nice to play this episode and not be furious at how slow it moved!
Two new features were added this season, those being collectables and the ability to run. The running feature helps with the bigger areas that took a long time to walk around in the other games. This keeps the action moving at a faster pace, keeping the player entertained. The collectibles are a great addition because it encourages players to look around and not rush through the game. Players can now take the time to explore and appreciate the environment the game provides. All in all, these additions add so much more to an already solid franchise.
Graphics: 5/5
The Walking Dead graphics are not focused on realism, but rather a comic-book style instead. It’s a really cool design that is great for this game series because it’s a callback to the original “The Walking Dead” comic books. It’s unique and has really only been used for the Telltale/Skybound games. I wish more games used this style because it is very pleasing to look at throughout the game.
Characters: 4/5
The characters in the game have been given a more in-depth backstory about their life before the apocalypse during this episode. It was a very much-needed feature because none of the new characters felt unique besides one or two of them. Most of the characters at this point gave me no reasons to like or hate them, they were simply just there.
It was very unusual because almost all of the characters in previous seasons had personality and something to make them interesting from one another. Skybound has redeemed these characters in episode 3 through some amazing character building and backstory. The only thing I would like to see improved is more interactivity with the characters. I wanted more time to get to know them better. Aside from that, pretty solid characters.
Episode 3 of “The Walking Dead: The Final Season” has really turned things around and has actually made this season enjoyable to play. I’m really happy that Skybound made an interesting episode and has given life to the characters and environment. My only wish is that the character interactivity and story will be fleshed out even more in later episodes, just to make the game a little more amazing. However, I’m excited to see how Skybound plans to end this amazing series in the next upcoming episodes.
