The Walking Dead: A New Frontier - Episode 4 - Thicker Than Water Reviews
This fourth episode succeeds by taking its time to tell us more about characters we didn't know much about and by litterally exploding at its end, letting us in great need for what's next.
Review in French | Read full review
A lot of this outing of The Walking Dead: A New Frontier feels like treading water, as Telltale takes their time building to episode 5. Ending on a cliffhanger, the instalment does its job of upping the stakes for next time. Whether or not the developer can deliver a satisfying finale, however, is still up in the air.
“Thicker Than Water” has its moments of enjoyment and incredulity, but the slow build-up and the meandering nature of the episode as a whole turns it into a frustrating chunk of a mostly consistent season. Players who stick through it will be well-rewarded with an intriguing finale setup that will hopefully pay off, but individually, the episode feels more like an obstacle than a continuation.
The fourth chapter looks like a regular episode from the AMC series: a few zombies, a lot of dialogues, characters who act stupidly. Still, the ending is well-structured, and delivers some good moments and decisions. Not as good as the second episode, way better than the third.
Review in Italian | Read full review
This series has been disappointing so far. This episode is probably the best yet but the glitches and just general lack of improvement in the writing mean that it is still substandard. The last episode would have to be incredible to draw everything together into a meaningful arc which lives up to its predecessors.
Although Episode 4: Thicker Than Water once again deprives players of all agency, it's actually handled relatively well in-universe, making for a second-to-last episode that actively marches towards the finale. Characters are finally reaching a point where they feel fully developed, the story has found a suitable emotional centre, and the stakes have been raised high enough where Javi and Clem will naturally find themselves challenged in Episode 5. It isn't as strong as it could have been - in large part due to A New Frontier's overall structure - but Thicker Than Water stands out as the strongest chapter in season three thus far.
The conclusion of Thicker Than Water is exactly what you'd expect from the series, and that's not a bad thing. For action fans, the setup means that the final episode is sure to be full of gore. For everyone else, though, having to spend so much time with some unlikeable and underdeveloped characters makes the episode feel like a drag, so the end is met with relief rather than longing to see the conclusion. It shouldn't be long before the final episode hits, but here's hoping things end on an upswing.
Telltale's third season of The Walking Dead had a great start, but it's getting worse every new episode. Thicker than Water is the weakest point in the story, bringing an unbalanced and inconsistent narrative. Its climax rests upon Javi's flashback, which reveals more about the relationship with his brother David. Remaining only one more episode to save this season, it's time to question if the series can hold another one, or if Telltale's formula is already saturated.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
The fourth episode of Telltale's The Walking Dead: A New Frontier is pretty uneventful and borderline monotonous until its climax, which somehow channels the pure evil of a villain like Negan, and finishes the episode off with a bang. Literally.
If last episode was one step forward, this one was unfortunately one or two steps back. The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series - A New Frontier Episode 4: Thicker Than Water is a solid enough offering, with its usual assortment of quality voice actors and gut wrenching moments. That being said, some of the characters wore thin on me really quickly in this particular chapter, and once again it is Clementine to the rescue.
"Thicker Than Water," other than its satisfying ending, is the season's weakest episode yet. Little that precedes the action-packed conclusion feels like it has much, if any, weight to the ongoing story I'm invested in — namely Javi's life and his relationships with Kate, Clem, and David. I'm absolutely on the hook for the season finale after that strong start and thrilling ending — I just wish everything before it hadn't felt so thin.
Short, contrived, and occasionally frustrating; Episode 4 of New Frontier is so far the weakest of the bunch, and it's up to the game's finale to bring this entry back to the top of its game.
An episode that feels way too flat and uninteresting.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
The Walking Dead: A New Frontier - Episode 4 is a bit of a mistep for this promising series. It's not a bad episode, but it does feel like just a small stepping stone to the finale. It also has some story and technical problems that make the whole thing feel a bit rushed compared to the previous episodes. The finale could be great, but this episode does little to enhance the excitement.
The weakest episode in The Walking Dead: A New Frontier thus far, Thicker Than Water is paced awkwardly and doesn't spend enough time exploring the relationships that really matter. A good conclusion sets up the finale well, and there are some standout scenes over the course of the instalment. But an underdeveloped villain and some hard to believe exchanges make this a forgettable episode overall.
Much like the preceding episode of Season Three, ‘Thicker Than Water' is roughly an hour and a half. Although I would always prefer if each episode was slightly longer, it felt as though there was too much filler in this one. The opening episodes of Season Three felt like Telltale had set a great pace to the story, however now it feels as though the developers are slipping back into their old ways. With only one episode left, there's still plenty to cover in this story. I'm looking forward to seeing how the story concludes, but I can't help but feel somewhat disappointed by the predictability of the season so far. Hopefully, we won't have to wait too long for the final episode.
I find myself waiting for the finale with mixed feelings. Episode four's finale has me eager to jump into the finale and face what comes Javi and the group's way, but I really hope Telltale nails down the pacing for episode five.
As strong as this season has been, the latest episode, "Thicker Than Water," did little to change the stakes or present new angles to its cast. Were it not for the final minutes, this episode may as well have been called "Treading Water."
It took four episodes, but things finally happened and are at least mildly interesting.
Thicker Than Water is the weakest episode so far. It has a major focus on relationships between characters but it lacks logic.
Review in Persian | Read full review