The Walking Dead: The Final Season - Episode 1 Reviews

The Walking Dead: The Final Season - Episode 1 is ranked in the 75th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
IGN
Top Critic
6.5 / 10.0
Aug 13, 2018

Clementine's arc is setting up for a spectacular finish in this final season of Telltale's The Walking Dead. Even as we've watched her grow and evolve over the course of three seasons, her interactions with other characters and continued development in this nightmare world consistently allows us to learn new things about her in every new installment. Her relationship with AJ works on multiple levels, both as a callback to her relationship to her original father figure and a mirror image of her own struggle to adapt to her violent world. While some of the exposition-heavy conversations drone on longer than they should, it ends on a powerful note foreshadowing some difficult lessons Clementine has yet to learn about what it means to grow up and lead in a post-society world.

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Metro GameCentral
GameCentral
Top Critic
6 / 10
Aug 14, 2018

An uninspiring beginning to Clementine's final story but there's enough potential in the plot, and the more cinematic visuals, to leave hope that it'll end better than it started.

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7 / 10.0
Aug 13, 2018

With predictable moments and repetitive storylines, the season premiere isn't all that exciting. Hopefully, future episodes have more surprises and intriguing developments in store

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8 / 10
Aug 14, 2018

Telltale begins the final verse of Clementine's ballad on a high note.

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USgamer
Top Critic
Aug 13, 2018

If this is a return to form for Telltale's The Walking Dead, it's ironically come at the beginning of the end. Combat is still a drag in this game, even with the improved freedom of movement. We've got precious little time left with both Clementine and A.J., but this opening episode of the final season of The Walking Dead neatly gives our characters hope, motivation, and some true friends, all in merely a few hours.

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Aug 13, 2018

The Walking Dead: The Final Season Episode One's endearing characters and lovely cliffhanger ending have me eagerly anticipating what's coming next, like any good Telltale game of old. But its better camera, updated presentation, and deeper gameplay mechanics have me interested in whatever new things the studio is cooking up after it puts Clementine's story to rest.

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6 / 10.0
Aug 13, 2018

Now a young woman, wise and self-sufficient beyond her years, Clementine has reached the end of her story where, alongside AJ - a young boy she rescued during previous seasons - she will finally face her fate.

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8 / 10
Aug 22, 2018

The Walking Dead: The Final Season is off to a terrific start. With the best graphics of a Telltale game to date, excellent characters who are all superbly performed and a central mechanic that sees the challenges of being a responsible parent come to the fore, this is the most excited and engaged I've been about The Walking Dead in years. Thanks to a clever character setup that sees Clementine and AJ's relationship echo that of Lee and Clementine from the original series, a palpable sense of foreboding has already been established. Will Clementine meet the same fate as her father figure before her?

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8.2 / 10.0
Aug 30, 2018

The fourth and final season of The Walking Dead starts off on the right foot, with a long-lived and well-written episode that does not renounce to small but important technical-structural innovations.

Review in Italian | Read full review

6.9 / 10.0
Aug 14, 2018

A slow start, but firm for this last season. The dynamic between AJ and Clem and the new additions are the highlights in an episode that is too narrative and with little gameplay.

Review in Spanish | Read full review

VG247
Top Critic
Unscored
Aug 13, 2018

The first episode of The Walking Dead's final season is an excellent start, but that's usually the case.

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Aug 13, 2018

The Walking Dead: The Final Season - Episode 1 is a near-perfect opener for this latest series. It lives up to the lofty expectations set by its predecessors, while also evolving the formula that had grown stale as of late.

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Unscored
Aug 15, 2018

The Walking Dead: The Final Season is off to a cracking start, thanks to the dynamic relationship between Clem and AJ and some of the strongest dialogue in the series to date.

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Aug 24, 2018

Episode 1 of The Walking Dead: The Final Season puts players back in control of Clementine but it builds off past seasons in a way that might not be satisfying to some.

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85 / 100
Aug 16, 2018

The Walking Dead: The Final Season's opener is a remarkably solid beginning of the end. Done Running's return to the first season's narrative structure is masterfully combined with a fine cast of characters and potential friendships. This is one series that I'll miss, but has the potential to go out with a bang.

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GameMAG
xtr
Top Critic
8 / 10
Sep 22, 2018

The first episode of The Walking Dead: The Final Season sets the atmosphere and marks the future points of story development, which, judging by everything, will be rudely torn by the second, final, epidode.

Review in Russian | Read full review

7.5 / 10.0
Aug 21, 2018

Although the length is even more limited than usual, the first episode of the final season of Telltale's The Walking Dead sets the right elements for the conclusion of Clementine's journey, looking at the zombie apocalypse from a younger and fresh perspective.

Review in Italian | Read full review

Aug 16, 2018

A strong start to the series' coda, The Final Season's first episode is among some of the best storytelling we've seen from Telltale.

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Aug 18, 2018

The Walking Dead: The Final Season kicks off with an up and down premiere.

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8.5 / 10.0
Aug 14, 2018

Almost completely rediscovering the lightning in a bottle that made the first season so compelling, The Walking Dead: The Final Season is starting out as strongly as we could have hoped.

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