I know no one cares about Telltale games anymore, especially Walking Dead, and if you gave up on this series after season 2 or 3 (understandable), you probably won't believe me but episode 1 completely blew me away. The production value here is so much higher than any other Telltale game. The characters look great, the backgrounds have this great abstract comic book style, the new over the shoulder camera gives the game the look of an honest to god AAA video game and there's actually is something resembling real combat here.

The writing is much improved over season 3 and all the new characters are instantly more memorable and interesting than just about anyone in the last two seasons. The relationship between Clementine and AJ is a very clear parallel to Clem and Lee in season 1 but it works extremely well without feeling like a retread of stuff we've already seen. The way that AJ observes every action you take and subtly changes how he acts throughout the episode is a great extension on the themes of season 1 with Lee and Clem. Obviously, there are big Telltale style decisions that will influence AJ's behavior but little stuff like choosing to curse in front of him also changes how he acts. It's almost certainly not as deep of a mechanic as the game wants you to believe but it's a very effective trick nonetheless.

I admit I play pretty much everything Telltale puts out. They're kind like comfort food to me. Just little choose your adventure stories that I can lose myself in for a couple hours at a time. But even so, I can't rave about this episode enough. Season 3 got off to a very strong start too but the wheels inevitably fell off the middle episodes. Maybe that will happen again, who knows, but I can say that this feels different, like a true return to form. I know you've probably been hurt before but if you felt like you were done with Telltale forever, give this a shot. It may just remind what was so great about these games in the first place.

Anyone else out there actually play this? Wasn't that ending great? Let's talk about it.

I haven't played it yet, but this might have convinced me to, eventually, once I've watched Two Best Friends Play season 3 (Hell if I'm gonna play it).

Personally, it was never that I ever "gave up" on Walking Dead, but S2 was so utterly "just fine" that it was depressing. So, when the first thing I hear about S3 is "UGH! Terrible", even after applying a hyperbole tax (mandatory for random takes on the internet), it still evened out in my head to "probably no better than 2".

Glad to hear this is starting strong and thanks for the heads up; here's me endeavoring to get back in.

Thanks for reminding me about Wolf season 2.

(Checks release date)

Man, didn’t know Wolf 2 got delayed to next year...

I like how you described Telltale as comfort food. That describes how I consume these things now. I don't get all the games any more. Didn't play the second Batman Season until a little while ago, and haven't played Guardians of the Galaxy, but I do still enjoy them, as little stories to get lost in for a while. And I'm with Clementine to the end. Which I guess they're setting up with this FINAL season.

And, yeah. Holy crap, that ending. I think they made a really good choice making most of the characters kids. Made me care about them in ways I struggled to in New Frontier. And it made the ending all the more impactful. I'm on this train to the very last stop.

@milkman: Yeah, actually I've been waiting to see if anyone would post anything on it (see if there was anyone else that actually cared about it). I'll definitely be playing it, but I'm going to wait until they're all out. Also, I'm not sure if Telltale has done it in the past, but they released the dates (subject to change mind you) for when each episode will come out. I'm actually surprised there are only four episodes. Hasn't there been five in the past?

I'm like you, in that I play pretty much everything Telltale does, so I'm sure I'll get to it at some point (I tend to wait until the whole season is out). Still, having seen that you mentioned it looks so good, I'm curious: how does it run? I am kind of irrationally frustrated by their broken ass engine at this point.

@sethmode: Playing on PS4, I had no issues. Apparently, this is the last game to use their old engine but if you told me that this was an entirely new engine, I would believe you.

That engine is better than people give it credit for. Yes, on some level it's the same one that Telltale Texas Hold 'Em was built in in 2005, but pieces of it get upgraded with every project, so it's kind of a ship of Theseus situation by now. A lot of the jank that people tend to attribute to the engine is more a product of the extremely short development schedules and just not having enough time for polish and bug fixing.

The ending of episode 1 is especially great.

Sounds good. I’ll probably check it out once all the episodes are out as I have found that I quite enjoy binge-playing these games. I think my main thing for not jumping at th chance to play The Walking Dead games from Telltale is more that I fell out of love with The Walking Dead overall a few years ago. I suddenly felt like I didn’t need more pessimism over human nature in my life as real life gave me enough of that. Also; I got tired of the ”who are they killing off next?”-thing. But, that being said, I do enjoy the Telltale formula regardless so it’s good to hear this one is good.

I finished Episode 1 earlier this week, and it is really impressive. The engine has been really improved. I would say this is just a great looking game. The big selling points for me are the character animation and the art style. The outlines in particular create some really striking images.

The only Telltale season I played was the first Walking Dead, and I played the first episode of Season 2 (which I liked, I just never went back to it). I have a feeling I'm going to miss some things, but I also like envisioning this game takes place after a hard cut and the story just picks up 8 or so years later.

I probably would have liked some of their other stuff, but I've also heard tale of how some episodes here and there with other games were clunkers or only lasted like 90 minutes, or how some games were delayed. And the two things I have played previously I have enjoyed. As a result, I don't want to give off the impression I'm saying "Yeah, Telltale is good again!!" What I will say is the first episode exceeded my expectations and just feels like a better thing than the first Walking Dead season. I really hope they keep this momentum going and mix things up with the later episodes. While the core of the first season was obviously Clementine and Lee, that series also had really good standalone episodes. I've been thinking of the farm episode a lot lately, in particular, as a standout moment in that series.

Anywho, y'all should play this.

sending my regards to everyone in this thread...How do you guys feel now that you wont be able to see the conclusions from this season? :/

Wow wonder if people are gonna demand refunds now that it’s a one episode season pass

Oh they absolutely will, not that it will do much good.