child’s slay

Bringing the undead Back to life…

THE WALKING DEAD: THE FINAL SEASON – DONE RUNNING GAME OUT NOW | PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One

Six years ago, the first season of Telltale’s interactive spin-off introduced us to Clementine, an eight-year-old girl we guided through the zombie apocalypse as surrogate dad Lee. Her story now seems to have come full circle: in her mid-teens, Clem’s become a stand-in parent to the orphaned AJ. But their dynamic is very different.

Born into a world of violence, AJ is meaner and more impetuous, a kid primed for survival at any cost. Clem

makes for a more plausible lead than in the second season, in which adults inexplicably looked to her for guidance.

It helps that the survivors she falls in with are roughly her age. This gang have found a safe haven inside an abandoned school, and after an early brush with death, this opening episode slows down to introduce them all. There’s a stronger focus on building relationships, with the choices you make determining how the others feel at the end of the episode – and it’s clear the disruptive AJ is going to make it difficult to build trust.

Any notions that Telltale might go easy on its young cast are swiftly dispelled in the final act. A moment of sickening brutality prompts a tense showdown and a startling cliffhanger. If the TV show has been spinning its wheels, this is a lesson in how to reinvigorate a series. Chris Schilling