The Walking Dead: The Final Season - Episode 1 Reviews
In "Done Running," Telltale gives us the Walking Dead game we fell in love with back in Season One, but with noticeable upgrades in gameplay and visuals.
The debut episode of The Walking Dead: The Final Season is one of Telltale Games' best efforts in quite some time. It builds its cast of likeable new characters with uncommon skill, lets you feel a glimmer of hope, and then tears it all down in devastating fashion. I'm afraid of what might come next for Clementine and AJ, but I can't look away…The Final Season has already sunk its teeth into me.
It's practically impossible to make any firm conclusions about The Walking Dead: The Final Season in its first episode, but the engine improvements have really helped step up the storytelling, while the new cast of characters seem interesting at this early stage. While we could take or leave the gameplay tweaks, particularly in the combat department, it's already clear that the stakes are going to be much higher in this concluding season than the series' previous disappointing outing – and for now, that's enough for us.
All in all, though, "Done Running" is a good starting point for the title.
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.
Done Running isn't perfect, but nothing TWD-related ever is. This game remains the best incarnation of the IP, and long-time fans won't be disappointed.
As it turns out, episode one of The Walking Dead: The Final Season is very much a slow burn. While it fails to maintain the pacing of previous seasons, and seemingly ignores much of what took place in A New Frontier, the game is indeed heading towards something special for the finale.
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.
While only one episode in, I feel fully invested in where The Walking Dead goes from here.
That's what we can call a pretty good start for the last season with a lot of promises based on what a grown Clementine is now for Alvin Junior. A few things have changed and we hope what 's coming next will be good enough so that we can leave one of the best video games characters without any regrets.
Review in French | Read full review
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.
A worthy flagbearer.
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.
Telltale is really good at creating a twisted plot and deeply understand how to shock their fans. Playing the role of Clementine is both touching and satisfying for old fans while the little girl has grown up and started to protect and guide another child just like the way Lee did. There is no doubt that episode 1 is a good start.
Review in Chinese | Read full review
The Walking Dead: The Final Season's first episode, Done Running, shows that Telltale can still tell fantastic stories while adding in new gameplay elements.
The Final Season managed to surprise me multiple times already, and if anyone deserves a satisfying finale it's Clementine. Six years of build-up desperately need some sort of catharsis, even if it's a tearjerker.
The fist episode of this season of The Walking Dead delivers some good moments, some tweaks on the gameplay and pleasant graphics. Still, there are no traces of the characters of the third season, and some reactions of the new characters left us a bit blown away.
Review in Italian | Read full review
While it remains similar to its predecessors in plot and structure, The Final Season: Episode One starts the finale off strong
There is very little wrong with this episode but for someone who critically analyzes the storyline and how the events unfold, I would have preferred a little insight into how AJ's personality was shaped from past events. This scenario could probably become an episode itself. That being said, this episode is a fitting but perhaps a little bland start to the final season of The Walking Dead.
The key takeaway from Episode 1: Done Running is that the murderous zombies themselves are just merely a decoy that is meant to explain the state of the world. However, they are far from being the main threats in the story, as the human survivors themselves prove to be the ultimate threat to each other's survival.