The Walking Dead: A New Frontier - A New Beginning.

You'd think someone believed that at the beginning of the third season series The Walking Dead, subtitled A New Frontier, Telltale Games will abandon the successful formula. But the authors made every effort not to disappoint their fans. The first two episodes delight with new acquaintances, a meeting with the matured Clementine and the excellent implementation of moral dilemmas.

The protagonist of the first two episodes (Ties That Bind Part 1 and 2) with a total duration of three and a half hours is a young guy Javier Garcia, or simply Javi. Before the zombie apocalypse he had big family. The hero did not get along with his older brother because he was rarely at home and did not communicate with his parents. After the Javi tragedy, during four years traveled across the expanses of the United States with his brother’s wife and two teenage children. Of course, this journey was not destined to end well.

Over the past time, the world has changed. Survivors perceive the living dead as an integral part of Everyday life and build a semblance of settlements on the ruins of civilization. In this reality, you are calm about the emergence of totalitarian communities ready to expand their sphere of influence by any means. Such organizations are much worse than crowds of living dead.

The ambience and threat cannot be called original, but the developers do not strive to be pioneers. In the narrative it is easy to find thoughts about the importance of caring for relatives, the conflict of ideologies and the need to sacrifice something to achieve a goal. However, the design, which is completely secondary at first glance, does not fall apart, and later you forget about the shortcomings.

The authors do not spend much time introducing the characters, and each of them is not without unique traits. Note that the scriptwriters distinguish between key and minor characters, paying each of them exactly as much attention as needed. There are plenty of dramatic moments, deaths, worries and raised voices with people armed to the teeth. Before you have time to take a break from one difficult situation or battle with zombies, Javi finds himself in yet another scrape, from which there is no one knows how to get out.

Fate brings Javier together with the matured Clementine. She has become an expert at surviving the zombie apocalypse, but she no longer trusts anyone. Circumstances force the protagonist to work with the girl. She is able to stand up for herself, show excessive integrity and get into an unpleasant situation.

Moreover, a number moral choices are structured in such a way that Javi either listens to Clementine or does things his own way. Sometimes he has to choose between good advice from his companion and a chance to help his family. On the one hand, Clementine gives the impression of a smart and strong heroine who knows what to do, on the other hand, her past is shrouded in fog, and her motives and goals risk being not so good. Here anyone is ready to stab a knife in the back of their neighbor and go on their way. But you can’t cope with difficulties without travel companions.

Many of the dilemmas in Ties That Bind leave you wondering. They influence the relationships of the characters, the lives of individuals, as well as certain scenes and dialogues. The main plot remains unchanged, but Javier is regularly allowed to influence certain elements of the narrative, including the composition of the group of survivors and local incidents. At least in the first two episodes there are not too many obvious fork in the road.

It’s a bit of a shame for the way the past seasons and Clementine’s biography were treated. We control it only during short periods dedicated to memories. The game has a "Continue Story" option where you are asked a series of questions about previous seasons. Allowed to import saves. In these two cases, familiar characters appear in the girl's memories. The “Start a new story” option replaces communication with friends with sketches about survival in a cruel world. This is, in general, an expected and logical compromise.

But what’s hard to find fault with is the production and related aspects like lighting, acting, camera work and excellent facial animation for the most part. The authors skillfully hide the shortcomings of the graphics behind bright, rich colors, meticulous location design and competent use of all effects. Due to this, what is happening does not resemble an inexpensive animated comic book.

And now the main “surprise”: the mechanics remain the same, with inspection of small locations and the use of several objects. Mini-games available. This is a project from Telltale Games. Accept it or move on.

Diagnosis

After completing two episodes, there is no doubt that the god of coincidence lives in the reality of this game. But this peculiar decision of the scriptwriters does not spoil big picture. Away from the typical mechanics of Telltale Games, the start of the third season of The Walking Dead was, without a doubt, a success. You worry about the new heroes led by Javier and are wary of the next moral dilemma, since its outcome may be unpredictable. At the same time, you keep a close eye on Clementine and try to find out more about her.

Fans " Walking Dead“They are unlikely to be dissatisfied with the cheerful and brutal start of the third season. It's also a brilliantly produced interactive series that's fun to take part in. Pay attention to it, even if you're not thrilled about the lack of challenging challenges.

Fascinating story
Great selection memorable characters
No tedious or unnecessarily long scenes
Well-choreographed zombie battles and tense moments
Enough with difficult moral dilemmas

Contra:

Telltale-style mechanics
A number of controversial points in the story

The Walking dead season 3 release date is December 20, 2016, therefore, the project will soon be available to all gamers. pleased fans with the continuation of the “Walking Dead” franchise, promising to release new part adventure video game.

Characters

The creators decided to diversify the story by introducing new acting heroes into the emerging world. So in the third part, gamers will see other faces and hear amazing stories from past.

New heroes:

Javier Garcia is a handsome young man, 20-25 years old. According to preliminary data, he will appear as a main character, along with Clementine. According to the developers, Javier will become the main protagonist of the series. Little is known about his life, but young man there is a family: father, mother and brother Hector. Parents on this moment dead.
Hector is a dark-haired man of forty years old, Javier's brother. It is known that after the apocalypse, the elder Garcia was bitten by his zombified father, but was saved from a sad fate younger brother. It is unknown about life before the general zombification of humanity.
Rafael Garcia is an elderly gray-haired man, 50-60 years old. After the outbreak of the epidemic, Rafa was the first to bring the infection to the family and managed to transmit it to his beloved wife by biting her on the cheek. Killed youngest son after infection, which caused a crushing blow to the head with a torn leg from the bed.
Kate is a teenager, 14-15 years old, with dark hair and dark skin. Kate is a local student primary school, will either appear in the series as Clementine's friend or become one of the victims. About how I managed to survive initial stage epidemic is unknown.
Anonymous – a young man, about 20-25 years old. Dark hair, bright skin. Will appear in the continuation of the franchise, most likely will be related to the main acting persons. Occurs when Javier discovers a guy near a corpse, highlighting the stranger's figure with a flashlight. The young man is not infected, he is trying to hide or search the dead man.

Plot

Like most projects, the game The Walking Dead Season 3 will be a logical continuation storyline predecessors. Despite the thread that stretches from previous seasons, the project promises to be unique.

The story still revolves around the girl Clementine, who has grown up noticeably since the first episode. The girl is already thirteen years old and she no longer looks like an unfortunate defenseless child; now the fair sex is able to independently fight zombies on equal terms. To help the brave warrior, the younger Garcia, who has similar life goals. Most likely, young people will become allies, fighting shoulder to shoulder with their enemies. It will be possible to accurately describe the relationship between the main protagonists after the release; perhaps they will also be connected by romantic feelings.

Peculiarities

Gamers will be able to play for both characters. The game will start from the perspective of a boy, but he will very soon find the heroine of the first parts and continue his journey with a brave girl. The gamer will be able to independently choose the main character. A special feature of the continuation of the franchise will be the presence of a new piece of history in the third season.
If the user has not completed previous games, it is necessary to fill this gap. The game develops logically from the very beginning, so previous results are extremely important for the current playthrough.
The presence of flashbacks that create Easter eggs and references to past stories is another pleasant bonus that will give game The Walking Dead Season 3.
The formation of Clementine's personality was still in the second episode, but during this time the girl grew and developed. Therefore, the chosen ending directly affects the girl. In the new part, the user may not recognize the girl he left at the end of the previous one.

Conclusion

Reviews will not be able to convey the full atmosphere of the project, its originality and unique flavor. It’s worth checking it out for yourself when The Walking Dead Season 3 comes out on Steam. The only thing that can be said with certainty is that the adventure will be exciting, with dynamic battles, pools of blood, severed body parts and a bunch of dead zombies with injured heads.

Minimum System Requirements

Operating system - Windows 7 (64-bit)
Processor – Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz
Video card - Nvidia GTS 450+ with 1024MB+ VRAM (excluding GT) - LATEST DRIVERS REQUIRED. DirectX: Versions 11.

Trailer

Gameplay

A country: USA

Genre: adventure, interactive cinema

Developer:"Telltale Games"

Publisher: Telltale Games, Valve

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

Similar games:

Batman: The Telltale Series (2016)
(2016)
(2015)
(2013)

During its existence, Telltale Games studio managed to create its own recognizable style games. Her projects, where the gamer not so much plays as watches the development of history, pushing it into in a certain direction, liked many. A compelling story and choices in dialogue and action that directly impact key scenes, endings and the lives of characters is what Telltale Games is famous for. The scheme is debugged and works flawlessly even though almost nothing changes in the gameplay. It’s just that the player is offered a new story every time. This happened with the first season of The Walking Dead, with The Wolf Among Us, with the second season of The Walking Dead, with Tales from the Borderlands" and "Game of Thrones", as well as the spin-off "The Walking Dead: Michonne". However, there seems to have been a slight glitch in the pipeline on Batman: The Telltale Series and The Walking Dead: A New Frontier. Before us are still the same “Walking Dead”, but something is wrong with them.

The third season takes place chronologically after the first two, so the player can carry over previous choices before the start, which will be reflected in the “New Frontier”. This time, the studio's scriptwriters decided to tell the story of a Mexican family living in the States at the beginning of the zombie apocalypse. Main character- Javier Garcia appears to us as a loser, irresponsible and selfish. Whether he will continue to be so, or will finally grow up, depends on the player. In the meantime, he has a difficult relationship with his older brother David and feelings for his wife Kate. It so happened that at the time of the outbreak of the epidemic, the family was divided, and Javier left with Kate and his brother’s two children. Like it or not, in such a situation you have to take your head in hand.

The developers omitted a fairly large period of time without showing how these four survived, but after several years we see that everything is fine with them, and the children have grown noticeably. Either the family was too careful and was able to hold out for so long without losses, because in the world of the Walking People a person can die at any moment, or they were simply very lucky. Considering the subsequent development of events, you are more inclined to the second option. The plot picks up momentum as soon as the family encounters the first armed opponents. Although don't expect a lot of action and sudden, shocking deaths from The New Frontier, which often happened in the previous two seasons. This Walking Dead story will be best remembered for its numerous, sometimes tiresome conversations. Somehow the creators tried to save the situation by resorting to the characters’ memories, but they are no different.

As for relationships, the so-called “ love triangle", the dilemma of choice was between the elder brother (family) and his wife (love). During the course of the story, the player had to decide what was more important to him. This aspect brought into the third season a share of piquancy and moral, with an emphasis on family, torment of choice. However, otherwise, watching the twists and turns of the plot is not as exciting as it was before. Every now and then the thought creeps into my head that the scriptwriters are exhausted. There is not enough intensity of passions, unexpected turns, you can’t even feel the atmosphere of a zombie apocalypse. However, everything would have been much sadder if not for a couple of successful characters who enlivened the story.

We are talking about Clementine, whom we had the opportunity to meet in the first season and play for her in the second, as well as about Jesus, a character from the comic book by Robert Kirkman. We can only say one thing about the second one - he's cool. But not like the hero of some action movie, no, Jesus, first of all, is smart and dexterous, thanks to which he is able to survive alone, leaving his native village. He is also friendly and always ready to help. Clementine has become noticeably more mature, and not so much in appearance. The zombie apocalypse and the trials and losses that befell her strengthened the girl’s character. She doesn't trust anyone she meets, is good with weapons and is able to fight off zombies. To bring some novelty to her image, the developers decided to change the rules - before, someone always took care of Clementine, there was an adult nearby, but now she herself is forced to protect the baby. This noticeably affects her behavior.

From gameplay there is no need to wait for any revelations. Everything is as usual - we choose the answer options in the dialogues, as well as how to proceed key scenes. Well in rare moments, for example, in shootouts, we are allowed to press buttons and control the character a little so that we do not forget that this is a game after all. Although, of course, before purchasing you should understand that you are taking a project from Telltale Games, that is, essentially, an interactive movie stylized as a comic book, where the gaming aspect fades into the background.

Considering that the plot of The Walking Dead: A New Frontier has caught up with the timeline original comic, in the future, developers will have more opportunities to please fans with some key events universe, showing them from the other side. Well, for now, despite love twists and turns And family drama, the third season looks weaker than the previous ones. It’s clear that the writers didn’t have enough passion, they couldn’t surprise or even shock, and the ending leaves mixed feelings. Intended to diversify the plot and better reveal the characters, the heroes' memories turned out to be, for the most part, rather faded. And most importantly, the deaths of characters no longer evoke the same emotions as they once did. Perhaps it’s time for Telltale Games to slow down the pipeline and think about what to do next.

When Jeffrey Dean Morgan first appeared as Danny on Grey's Anatomy and dated Louise Parker, many thought he was the spitting image of Javier Bardem. In certain lighting this is visible.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Javier Bardem

However, there are those who think Jeffrey Dean Morgan is more reminiscent of Brad Garrett, the mean older brother from Everybody Loves Raymond.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Brad Garrett

But without a beard in the preview, which will be shown on Sunday:

Negan without a beard

Doesn't look very good.

Why will Negan have no beard in the episode? next week? In the comics, Negan never had a beard. In fact, showrunners Scott Gimple and Robert Kirkman wanted Jeffrey Dean Morgan without a beard early on in filming. The actor explained the fact that it was not possible to be beardless at that time: “When I was invited to appear in “,” I was already filming in the series “ Good wife" was literally in the middle of the episode. So I couldn't shave."

So why did Negan get shaved in the midseason finale? We see at the end Negan sitting on the porch and holding Judith in his arms. Maybe he decided to torment Olivia too, pretending that he was part of the family? Let's imagine that he behaves at home - asks Olivia to cook him dinner, takes a shower, and wants to be like Rick, who shaves his beard in season 5.

By the way, before we forget. There are not many resources on the Internet now that provide meaningful analytics on films and TV series. Among them is the telegram channel @SciFiNews, whose authors write the most useful analytical materials - analyzes and theories of fans, interpretations of post-credit scenes, as well as the secrets of bomb franchises, like films MARVEL And " Game of Thrones" Subscribe so you don't have to search later -

This statement is partly true, but only partly. Season 3 of The Walking Challenge challenged the studio's writing skills by having to keep in mind the story outcomes of each season 2 finale. Unfortunately, the writers took the easy route. now this new story one Cuban family against the backdrop of a slow-moving apocalypse. Everything is pretty standard: we play as a young guy, Javier, a former baseball player who was at odds with own family even before the epidemic, and now he is trying to do everything to save his family. What bothers him the most is not the walking rotten flesh-eating corpses or other crazy survivors, but his family members themselves. Kate constantly gets into our hero's pants with such a methodicality that even Harvey Weinstein would envy, which aggravates the already difficult situation to the point of delusional irrelevance. Javier's nephew Gabriel, like any teenager, is a bright, multifaceted, but slightly inconsistent personality. And when on foreground Our main character's brother David comes out, then everything that happens turns into a testosterone tent show. Niece Maryana is the only member of the family who does not cause practically any irritation.

Too many names like in the Brazilian series? The script here is made in exactly the same spirit. The clinical idiocy of the main characters is the little that arouses at least some interest in the plot and makes you yawn less. Minor characters so faded that you are just waiting for the opportunity to kill them. The dialogue is so terrible that the story would have worked better if the characters had simply remained silent. The plot consists of self-repetitions and does not stand up to any criticism in comparison with the very personal and dramatic first season and the paranoidly cruel second. Even in comparison with the trivial “400 days” the new milestone falls short in terms of interestingness. Our now dear Clementine deserves special mention. Her character, his further fate– this is what we all came together for, right? Clementine doesn’t seem to need these events. She is an optional element in these dull family squabbles, personal story which acts as a fanservice placeholder for fans of the first two seasons and is only necessary to hint at the fourth season. All. This is true in general for the entire “New Frontier”: I want to perceive it as an optional spin-off, and not as a full-fledged third season.

Before New Frontier, it was easy to ignore the weakly motivated hatred towards Telltale Games and genuinely enjoy playing through their interactive series. The stunningly witty three seasons of “Sam & Max,” the dramatically sparkling two seasons of “The Walking Dead,” the fresh and stylish “The Wolf Among Us,” and the brilliantly sparkling “Tales from the Borderlands.” These are great Interesting games, the shortcomings of which were pleasant to ignore. It seemed that the studio could handle any license and eventually issue good game. But then something went wrong. Is this due to the dismissal of a number of key employees responsible for the script and direction, or to creative process Is there too much pressure from the commercial factor? There may be both of these reasons or not one of them. But I am sure of one thing - new projects about talking cubes, Game of Thrones and Batman are being made by another Telltale Games, which is not close to me personally.

5/10 *Clementine will remember this*

A huge wave of the walking dead follows on the heels of the young Cuban Javier and the surviving members of his family. Javier, his brother's wife Kate, nephew Gabriel and niece Mariana are crowded into a van, which rushes forward, away from danger. Javier is driving, the children are sleeping peacefully in the back seat, Kate takes out a tasty joint, lights a cigarette and a high-society conversation about jerking off and bloody fucking begins - the black screen kindly reminds: “The game will adapt to your actions. The story will develop as you decide.” This statement is partly true, but only partly. Season 3 of The Walking Challenge challenged the studio's writing skills by having to keep in mind the story outcomes of each season 2 finale. Unfortunately, the writers took the easy route. Now this is a new story of one Cuban family against the backdrop of a slow-moving apocalypse. Everything is pretty standard: we play as a young guy, Javier, a former baseball player who was at odds with his own family even before the epidemic, and now is trying to do everything to save his family. What bothers him the most is not the walking rotten flesh-eating corpses or other crazy survivors, but his family members themselves. Kate constantly gets into our hero's pants with such a methodicality that even Harvey Weinstein would envy, thereby aggravating an already difficult situation to the point of delusional inappropriateness. Javier's nephew Gabriel, like any teenager, is a bright, multifaceted, but slightly inconsistent personality. And when our main character’s brother David comes to the fore, everything that happens turns into a testosterone tent show. Niece Maryana is the only member of the family who does not cause practically any irritation. Too many names like in the Brazilian series? The script here is made in exactly the same spirit. The clinical idiocy of the main characters is the little that arouses at least some interest in the plot and makes you yawn less. The secondary characters are so bland that you are just waiting for the opportunity to kill them. The dialogue is so terrible that the story would have worked better if the characters had simply remained silent. The plot consists of self-repetitions and does not stand up to any criticism in comparison with the very personal and dramatic first season and the paranoidly cruel second. Even in comparison with the trivial “400 days” the new milestone falls short in terms of interestingness. Our now dear Clementine deserves special mention. Her character, his future fate - this is what we all gathered for, right? Clementine doesn’t seem to need these events. She's an optional element in these dreary family feuds, whose personal story acts as fanservice filler for fans of the first two seasons and is only necessary to hint at the fourth season. All. This is true in general for the entire “New Frontier”: I want to perceive it as an optional spin-off, and not as a full-fledged third season. Before New Frontier, it was easy to ignore the weakly motivated hatred towards Telltale Games and genuinely enjoy playing through their interactive series. The stunningly witty three seasons of “Sam & Max,” the dramatically sparkling two seasons of “The Walking Dead,” the fresh and stylish “The Wolf Among Us,” and the brilliantly sparkling “Tales from the Borderlands.” These are excellent, interesting games, the shortcomings of which were pleasant to ignore. It seemed that the studio could handle any license and ultimately produce a good game. But then something went wrong. Is this due to the dismissal of a number of key employees responsible for the script and direction, or is there too much commercial pressure on the creative process? There may be both of these reasons or not one of them. But I am sure of one thing - new projects about talking cubes, Game of Thrones and Batman are being made by another Telltale Games, which is not close to me personally. 5/10 *Clementine will remember this*