The Walking Dead: A New Frontier - Episode 5 - From the Gallows Reviews
An engaging yet flawed chapter satisfyingly closes off the season and sets the stage for Clementine's next adventure.
From the Gallows isn't the best finale Telltale has ever cooked up, but it presents enough tough choices to keep you engaged. Plus, it definitely alludes to more series to come from Telltale, which is never a bad thing.
The last episode in almost every Telltale Game winds up being the best in the series, but The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series - A New Frontier Episode 5: From The Gallows continues the trends we saw throughout the entire New Frontier series. For better or worse, this was a very consistent five episode arc that had very few highs or lows, and simply delivered a good but not great tale in the Walking Dead universe.
A New Frontier rebounds in its final episode, but it can't stop the fact that the series has delivered its weakest season to date.
This new season has had a bumpy ride, launching off from a promising start, but stuttering along the way. Despite all its issues, though, a great story has been told. It's just not within a great game. The technical issues have too huge an impact to ignore. There is even less actual playable game time than normal for a Telltale title, and even this finale ends up feeling a little disappointing. From the beginning, this felt like it would be Javi's complete story, and anything that came after would be around Clem again, but instead of wrapping up loose threads and delivering a complete start-to-end story, it feels like it's setting up a second season for Javi. There's far too much of this in today's media; writing with the sequel in mind instead of just telling a complete story.
After all that’s said and done, Telltale delivered a game that has a nice story but not compelling enough to be part of the mainstream season. Sure it was a game that had lots of surprises and twists but at the end of the day it was not the game I was really hoping for. I still have high hopes for next season and hopefully we get a season that we finally deserve.
I wish this final episode packed a heavier punch, but it doesn’t make the season any better or worse. In fact, it’s every bit as fun as the last one was.
A narrative already known and seen only Clementine saves at times while Javi has not finished showing the leadership qualities that were presupposed. We will see for the paths in which Telltale gets into the saga. The developer should let her golden eggs's hen rest because the hen starts to smell dead.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
If you've been following the series this far, it might be worth checking out just to have a save file ready for when season four comes out. Just be aware that the finale is pretty disappointing on the whole.
Some odd dramatic choices and a less-than-satisfying conclusion wrap up the New Frontier season of The Walking Dead.
If A New Frontier is a sort of mission statement for this franchise going forward, does it succeed in making me want another season of The Walking Dead? I know I don't want the Season Four they're selling (which is set up in a manner that makes me think Telltale is threatening me personally) but if we're looking at this season by itself, as a whole the character work in A New Frontier does a lot to make up for the finale's shortcomings. I got the ending I wanted, but I wouldn't have wanted a specific ending if I didn't care about these people and where they ended up. A disappointing finale doesn't completely undo the goodwill earned by the rest of the season, but a sour aftertaste is still pretty hard to wash out.
With the strong ending of the fourth episode we were waiting for exciting and emotional finale, but in the end we got one hour of psychological mess and bombastic drama about the relationship between two brothers, where even beloved Clementine looks like a crowd girl from a cardboard hip hop clip. If you haven't started the third season, with a clear conscience you should miss this strange and tasteless thing, more like a big filler
Review in Russian | Read full review
Not a great way to end this season, unfortunately. From the Gallows is not bad but feels like a rushed way to conclude the Javi's story.
Review in French | Read full review
The episode, and the game in general, is not bad.
I was worried that this final episode was going to let down the whole season (based on gameplay from previous episodes). Instead it was able to redeem itself and provide us with what was lacking before – engagement. It also also paved the way for the next season where hopefully we will see more of Clementine's story (which will make a lot of Clementine fans happy).
If you are craving something fresh, A New Frontier is not for you. By no means awful, if you can still drum up excitement for Telltale or The Walking Dead, it can still work.
There are indeed some meaningful moments and emotional reunions, but the inconsistency of some major characters proves to be a disappointing blemish in an otherwise strong finale.
Clementine is The Walking Dead, and by showing her transition into womanhood A New Frontier is just about a must for fans. But while it lays the foundations for new regulars in Javi and Kate, the fact is that all of the season's other story threads come to an abrupt and unsatisfying end in Episode 5: From the Gallows. There have been many good moments over the course of the season, but the finale does little with them, and the journey feels like a waste of time as a consequence.
For the opening few episodes, A New Frontier was as captivating as Telltale's The Walking Dead had ever been. Down the home stretch however, A New Frontier faltered, with the impact and resonance of the finale, From the Gallows, suffering most of all.
"From the Gallows" would be great as mid-season episode of The Walking Dead, but as a grand finale, it leaves one disappointed.
Review in Polish | Read full review