The Walking Dead: A New Frontier (Season Three)

The third season of Telltale's longest-running series stays the course set by its predecessors. The Walking Dead: A New Frontier doesn't alter the franchise's distinctive aesthetic or introduce any new types of interactions. It's still a game concerned first and foremost with storytelling, empowering players to feel a sense of control over the narrative's direction so we think before acting. It's not hard -- most players probably won't fail any quick-time events during the first couple of episodes -- but it can be difficult to live with the choices you make, especially if you suspect that a different decision would have had a markedly different or better outcome for the protagonists. But short of restarting an episode, there's no undo button. You need to accept the consequences of your actions. And that's always been one of the strangely appealing things about this -- and pretty much every -- Telltale game.

That said, after two full seasons (and a few between-season special event episodes) players might find that it's becoming harder to care about newly introduced characters. The Garcias and the friends they make are pleasant, but do you really want to grow attached to people who, as the series has proven time and again, have little hope of surviving more than a handful of episodes? Allowing yourself to truly befriend them is a fool's errand -- except when it comes to Clem. She's the only one who's been around from the start. And she's not only had a terrific character arc; she represents all that's still good in the Walking Dead world. She's the future of humanity. So long as she's around, players will have a reason to keep coming back and getting emotionally involved. If Telltale's sadistic writers ever decide to kill her, they might well face a mutiny of fans. For now, though, this well-written and finely acted series is still well worth following.