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.
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.

Read full review

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.

Read full review

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

Read full review

8 / 10
Aug 14, 2018

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

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.

Read full review

4 / 5.0
Aug 20, 2018

Done Running is proof that Telltale still has plenty of ideas to innovate and reinvigorate the adventure genre, where even small changes including new camera perspectives and an improved presentation can go a long way, even if the story hasn't quite found its footing yet.

Read full review

8 / 10
Aug 20, 2018

The Walking Dead: The Final Season - Episode One's pacing might be all over the place - leaping from intense walker showdowns to sombre moments of reflection, and back again - but it's still the best the series has been in years. Clementine's character continues to evolve and grow with nuance, and the changes to character controls make navigation and combat far more palatable. While it'll be a bittersweet goodbye to Clem and AJ when we reach the final episode later this year, it looks like Telltale could be giving one of gaming's most nuanced and well-developed heroines the farewell she deserves.

Read full review

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.

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

9 / 10.0
Aug 13, 2018

Combined with genuinely shocking moments that I would have the heart to spoil here, The Walking Dead: The Final Season is already off to an incredibly promising start, even when I know that its ending will surely be hard to swallow. The Clementine that I know and loved from The Walking Dead's first season is very different now, and I can't wait to see how her story ends.

Read full review

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

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?

Read full review

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.

Read full review

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.

Read full review

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.

Read full review

9 / 10.0
Aug 13, 2018

I'll be the first to admit, the last couple of seasons of The Walking Dead weren't nearly as strong as the first. Finally, it seems, Telltale Games has figured out how to send the series off with a bang. It's still in the early days, but this first episode will have fans chomping at the bit to see how their choices affect others, and of course if Clementine and AJ will make it out alive. The Walking Dead: The Final Season is a great start, and is hopefully a sign that fans will receive the finale the series deserves.

Read full review

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.

Read full review

Aug 18, 2018

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

Read full review

Aug 13, 2018

All in all, though, "Done Running" is a good starting point for the title.

Read full review

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