Parents' Guide to

The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series Collection

By Chad Sapieha, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 18+

Dark, intensely violent, morally ambiguous zombie series.

Game Xbox One , PlayStation 4 2017
The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series Collection Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this game.

  • The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series Collection game screenshot #1
  • The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series Collection game screenshot #2
  • The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series Collection game screenshot #3

Community Reviews

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age 15+

Based on 7 parent reviews

Troy D.
Troy D. Adult
February 12, 2018
age 15+

Amazing Life Story

I could talk about this game for hours, so I shall try to keep it short. This is a story based game, with the gameplay being split between making choices in dialogue that can effect how the story goes, quick time events (pressing x at the right time to kill zombies or catch a ladder and stop yourself from falling) and exploring the environment. The story, the main feature of the game, is spread out over the 3 seasons, with 300 days being a side story between seasons 1 and 2, and Michonne being a stand alone story. The 3 seasons follow the life of a young girl, Clementine, as she lives through the zombie apocalypse. The first season has you play as her father figure, Lee Everet, a man who finds her alone and afraid, hiding in her treehouse, and spends his time protecting her, caring for her and teaching her. The game does an excellent job of building a father-daughter bond between the little girl and the main character and really makes you care about keeping the girl safe. The 2nd season follows the girl, slightly older than before, having to survive the zombie apocalypse alone. She meets other people in her time, sometimes people who want to protect her too, but by this point it is made clear that she no longer needs protecting. Each episode starts with the voice actor who voiced Lee saying "previously, on the walking dead" treating each episode like a tv episode, which gives the player a kind of nostalgic feel for when they were together. The 3rd season follows a new character, and this season is mainly about him, however he quickly meets a much older Clementine, having matured and survived for years now in the post-apocalypse world. They journey together, but the player has no true control over Clementine now. She is her own woman and will do her own thing, which personally for me, gave the feeling of a proud parent, seeing his little girl now all grown up. The game is an excellent story, with twists and turns and tragedies that I personally feel are even better than AMC's The Walking Dead tv show. If you want an engaging story, this is the best choice. When the games originally came out, each episode would be released monthly for £5, with the seasons being separated by quite a few months, so getting them all together is an excellent deal. The only downside I could say, is there is some dark moments (it is a zombie story after all) showing both zombie violence and the darker side of humanity. It may be too serious for some people. It deals with people struggiling to survive, having to make tough choices in a grey moral area, sometimes even having there be no true right answer, but I feel that is a great message to teach. Sometimes there is no right answer, sometimes we will fail, but we can only do the best we can. As a parent, it is up to you to decide if your child is mature enough to enjoy the game.

This title has:

Great role models
Easy to play/use
1 person found this helpful.
vipo
vipo Parent of 9, 12 and 18+-year-old
October 14, 2022
age 18+
the walking dead is the best game I have ever played but it is 18+ if a parent says the difference. I say different ages but if you never played parents so 18+.

This title has:

Easy to play/use
Too much violence
Too much swearing
See all 7 parent reviews

What’s It About?

THE WALKING DEAD: A TELLTALE SERIES COLLECTION anthologizes the first three seasons (plus bonus content and mini-series) of the adventure game series based on the popular zombie comic book written by Robert Kirkman, allowing players to experience every episode back-to-back from within a streamlined hub. It also features visual enhancements designed to bring earlier seasons into alignment with later episodes by tweaking character and object models, textures, and lighting effects. But the narrative -- and the choices players can make within it -- remains unchanged. Players take control of several different characters throughout the three seasons and mini-series, from Clementine -- a charming kid forced to grow up in a hurry to survive in a zombie wasteland -- to Michonne, one of the most popular characters from both the books and companion TV show. There's a good deal of gruesome zombie action that requires players to tap buttons on command to attack and defend themselves, but the bulk of the experience involves listening to non-player characters talk and then deciding how your character ought to respond or act. These choices can drastically change events within the game, affecting not just whether others like or trust your character, but even whether they live or die. As in the books, the drama and intensity stem more from interactions with other humans than from the constant threat of the raised dead.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (7 ):
Kids say (13 ):

This collection of action games features play that appeals from chapter to chapter to the mature players who loves this franchise's brutal and morally ambiguous content. And since The Walking Dead: A Telltale Series Collection simply puts all existing seasons together while spiffing up the earlier episodes' graphics to take advantage of modern hardware, little has changed. These are still good games -- especially the emotionally charged first-season, which is likely to leave players both new and returning players struggling to hold back sobs. They've helped establish games as a medium in which storytelling and characters matter, and have convinced many that interactive entertainment can go beyond winning and losing to become true art that digs into the human experience. Later seasons don't quite manage to match the intensity of the first series of five episodes, but they still provide reason for players to care about and remain invested in several characters, particularly young Clementine, who's had to grow up in a world of living dead.

So, folks who've never played these games before are in for a treat. But should existing fans pay again to play the same games? While side-by-side video comparisons nicely illustrate the visual upgrades given to the first couple of seasons, it's unlikely most people will really notice them while playing. And while it's handy to have all episodes contained and easily accessible within a single hub menu, that's not really a reason to spend a second time. Maybe the best reason to play again is simply to see how the series has evolved over the years, becoming more streamlined and intuitive in its world interactions, with less focus on finding items and figuring out little contextual puzzles, and more on characters and world-building. But you can experience this by simply playing the seasons you already own. So, while The Walking Dead: A Telltale Series Collection earns an enthusiastic thumb up for anyone yet to play, those who've already experienced this terrific adventure game series can save their money for the soon-to-be-released fourth and final season.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about violence in the media. The Walking Dead's intense violence is often meant to stir an emotional reaction, but could the game achieve a similar audience response without resorting to blood and gore?

  • Talk about morality. How do you go about resolving a moral dilemma without an easy or obviously "right" course of action?

Game Details

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