REVIEW – I learned to not expect much of Telltale’s fourth episodes, as the developers usually end up finishing these with a cliffhanger before the big finale. The same situation happened here as well: the first half of the episode was average, then bam, a big decision, a bit of calm before the storm, then the last ten minutes kick in hard…

 

Where did we finish the third episode? (What a decent way to start this review, which I’m writing at 11 PM, no less – at least it’s a challenge for me, lol.) So, David lost his calm and did something. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see this event, and then we ended up in a familiar place. The team breaks up for a bit, and oh my god, finally, some exploring gameplay that wasn’t in the third episode. We get out, meet a few people, get guns, get injured, and before I forget, the whole episode starts with a past event again.

„Each year, approximately one million people die from suicide.”

(Because everybody knows Suicide Commando!) Aside from the obscure lyrics, Clementine’s memory scene also happens, but this one wasn’t as long as previous ones. At least, the conversation before it was a bit realistic, because hm… let’s just say period. Period. Yeah, that’s going to work. She’s growing up, aww. Oh hello, a big decision that could change an event towards the end of the episode, and it’s coming out of nowhere. Euthanasia, are you kidding me, Telltale?! And you do this with a drugged person, no less. Okay…

Then we get to do another meetup, followed by some ignited arguments, another exploration scene happens (yay?), and we get to do some basic car hacking, as well as a very minimal romance scene which is still way above Mass Effect: Andromeda in my opinion, although pulling that off is easy. A call comes on the walkie-talkie, we change our location, BAM ANOTHER DECISION RIGHT IN YOUR FACE. Here, I thought „oh you sick mother___kers” – then I saw my chosen person die instead of surviving. Great. Arguments, shooting, explosion, cliffhanger ending with your typical hopeless outcome, but in my opinion, this place is now f_cked for real, although a previous scene mentioned a new location, which could be the place for the finale.

„Shadows walking in the crowd, we are lost and found…”

And now I’m quoting a Benny Benassi song for a reason… (If I’m random, let’s max it out, it may get me fired, though!) So, this reference is about how shadows appeared and disappeared in an unreal format at least twice during this episode. I swear I have never seen such a thing in previous The Walking Dead: A New Frontier episodes, although this could have happened because the fourth episode came just a month (!) after the third one. Even though the length didn’t show the probably rushed development (it was 80 minutes long without the recap), which is nice.

At least the frame rate was okay, although I did see the animations „jump in” at a few points. The music is existing in this episode, and that was good while it lasted. However, hearing a weird sound effect each time I didn’t pick the proper thing during the second investigation portion was annoying, they could have left that out of Thicker Than Water. The voice acting, as always, is top notch.

„Calling me all the time, Me and my soul, Geared to attack.”

(I quoted Gorillaz… lol.) The episode seemed geared to attack, but half of it was slowly paced, and average. There was a good amount of 10-12 minutes of exciting gameplay, and as always, you get no teaser for the finale, which is understandable. I’m interested to see how the plot rolls out in the end. I’m not saying that I can’t wait to play the fifth episode, but Thicker Than Water‘s last part was outstanding.

If Telltale can put together the fifth chapter properly – and they could even do it with the Michonne mini-series, too -, then the final result for A New Frontier could be a well-rounded number. This episode is somewhere between 7 and 8. It’s good, but you’ve got to stay in there to reach the exciting part.

-V-

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Publisher: Telltale Games

Developer: Telltale Games

Genre: Episodic, adventure, QTE simulator

Release date: April 28, 2017